It’s conflicting because the commitment to no DRM and the preservation efforts for old games, keeping them running on modern systems, are tremendously valuable in the current consumer-hostile gaming landscape.
you’re right, that’s why i think an organized boycott with a clear demand would be the best, instead of just going around saying “don’t use GOG they use AI”
i want GOG to stop using AI, i don’t want GOG to disappear
Not wanting them to use ai is wanting them to disappear. It’s quickly being obvious no company will be able to avoid using ai in some fashion because every tool is having ai shoved into it.
And companies can’t make all their own tooling. It’s physically impossible.
They aren’t even reliably committed to no DRM. They frequently sell games that require GOG Galaxy accounts to access certain content(online/multiplayer functionality, DLC packs). GOG has explicitly gone on record saying that these forms of DRM are acceptable, despite running a store for years without them.
And preservation of old games(at least how they are doing it) is an inherently unprofitable service. Them preserving games that they don’t even have the licensed right to sell is one of the dumbest decisions they have made so far. Most of their older releases have just been grabbing a bunch of existing fan patches into a more polished installer; these sorts of tasks will always end up in the hands of hobbyists who would do this work without being paid.
I feel like at this point, you have to focus on individual developers/publishers if you want to properly support DRM free releases. Having brand loyalty to GOG will get you nothing.
This AMA is about the new ownership, and they talk about allowing online services as a form of DRM in it. So at least that policy is staying in place.
I’ve got “Good Old Games” that are more than 20 years old with self hostable online multiplayer. No accounts, no CD keys, nothing. Make a random plain text display name, forward some ports or use a community/proxy server, and you can play with whoever you like. GOG can make excuses as much as they want to try to appeal to publishers, but they are by definition hosting games with DRM.
It’s conflicting because the commitment to no DRM and the preservation efforts for old games, keeping them running on modern systems, are tremendously valuable in the current consumer-hostile gaming landscape.
you’re right, that’s why i think an organized boycott with a clear demand would be the best, instead of just going around saying “don’t use GOG they use AI”
i want GOG to stop using AI, i don’t want GOG to disappear
Not wanting them to use ai is wanting them to disappear. It’s quickly being obvious no company will be able to avoid using ai in some fashion because every tool is having ai shoved into it.
And companies can’t make all their own tooling. It’s physically impossible.
They aren’t even reliably committed to no DRM. They frequently sell games that require GOG Galaxy accounts to access certain content(online/multiplayer functionality, DLC packs). GOG has explicitly gone on record saying that these forms of DRM are acceptable, despite running a store for years without them.
And preservation of old games(at least how they are doing it) is an inherently unprofitable service. Them preserving games that they don’t even have the licensed right to sell is one of the dumbest decisions they have made so far. Most of their older releases have just been grabbing a bunch of existing fan patches into a more polished installer; these sorts of tasks will always end up in the hands of hobbyists who would do this work without being paid.
I feel like at this point, you have to focus on individual developers/publishers if you want to properly support DRM free releases. Having brand loyalty to GOG will get you nothing.
Now to be fair that was under the old(?)ownership so we will see how reliable the new(?) is
This AMA is about the new ownership, and they talk about allowing online services as a form of DRM in it. So at least that policy is staying in place.
I’ve got “Good Old Games” that are more than 20 years old with self hostable online multiplayer. No accounts, no CD keys, nothing. Make a random plain text display name, forward some ports or use a community/proxy server, and you can play with whoever you like. GOG can make excuses as much as they want to try to appeal to publishers, but they are by definition hosting games with DRM.