Soon, GOG and all other storefronts will state that you’re purchasing a temporary digital license for any game who’s publisher uses an EULA that states you don’t own the game. This is due to the recently signed California law that forces storefronts to be transparent about the publishers EULA.
But also with GOG you can download the installers and play offline. It’s literally one of their big selling points. It’s less convenient than things like steam, but you can do whatever the hell you want when you buy it. So in that regard, it literally is a purchase. Or as close as you can get with digital goods.
Same thing applies to Steam. You don’t need to use the Steam DRM if you don’t want to, it gets added by the developers/publishers. There are plenty of DRM-free games on Steam
At that point, why not buy the game on any platform of your choosing and just pirate it when it stops being accessible on the platform you bought it on? I understand wanting to support GOG, I “own” a lot of games on GOG as well. But it’s not really “owning” even on GOG if at some point, I could lose the ability to download the game.
Any game that isn’t available as a pirated game isn’t going to be on GOG anyway… The problem here is that GOG needs to be better than piracy in any tangible way and right now, that’s not the case. It would be the case for me if GOG Galaxy was available on Linux but it’s not, as one example.
It’s never “owning” in the traditional sense, because data is not physical.
When people say they own something, there’s an implication that it’s theirs until they decide to part with it. That is true for games bought without DRM. DRM free the closest you’ll ever get to ‘owning’ data, you possess that on your own local device and it can’t be taken away.
You can lose the ability to download the game, sure. But that is an additional service, not the game itself. You have that data until you delete it. Same with GoG Galaxy. that’s an extra service.
You’re arguing 2 or 3 different things. Ownership as a legal right, ownership as in possession, and a weird third thing where you seem to be confusing meta services with the ownership of the thing itself.
It just needs to be "owning* in the way physical media without DRM works. That is data too after all. The ability to sell your copy of the data or have your friend borrow.
Yes, DRM-free is the closest thing, never argued otherwise. I’m also not arguing the services offered by GOG are part of “ownership”. The lack of an ability to download a game at any point is just a part of the fact that GOG too is simply licensing in the end. But yes, GOG is still the closest thing to “owning” games. Which is why it sucks that so many titles on GOG have DRM despite the claims btw…
I’m really only arguing one thing: piracy is better than GOG right now in every single way. You don’t have to worry about hidden DRM. You don’t have to worry about account creation bullshit. You don’t have to worry about anything else. You just download, hit play and it works every single time. If I send the copy to a friend, it will still work.
Piracy has always been closer to “owning” than GOG, so GOG should at least have some other tangible benefits over piracy. But right now, they don’t.
On a legal level, it is how GOG works. They still only sell licenses. You just have the loophole that their installers and the games installed by them will work regardless.
Also I forgot to reply to this on the other answer, but:
Err… You often don’t have the files drm free on Steam. Nor in an installable format (without steam).
Often you do, and an installer is nothing more than a fancy zipped folder. Also people usually like to compare Steam with GoG and claim that on GoG you get DRM free games and not on Steam, that is not true, both have either, although GoG has percentually more it’s still not 100% DRM free (nor is Steam 100% DRMd), it’s always up to the game developers.
While that may be partly true, (also likely) depending on the county you’re located, they’re not able to revoke the license though.
The same is true for Steam, laws are laws
So in this specific case you having the files makes a world of difference.
You also have the files if you downloaded them on Steam. What’s important is whether those files can be used on their own or if they’re protected by some form of DRM. If the files can be used on their own it doesn’t matter if you got them from Steam, GoG or a physical disc. If on the other hand the files are DRM protected you having them is useless, whoever controls the DRM controls your files, again regardless of where you got the files from.
Soon, GOG and all other storefronts will state that you’re purchasing a temporary digital license for any game who’s publisher uses an EULA that states you don’t own the game. This is due to the recently signed California law that forces storefronts to be transparent about the publishers EULA.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/26/24254922/california-digital-purchase-disclosure-law-ab-2426
But also with GOG you can download the installers and play offline. It’s literally one of their big selling points. It’s less convenient than things like steam, but you can do whatever the hell you want when you buy it. So in that regard, it literally is a purchase. Or as close as you can get with digital goods.
Depends on the game, they still sell DRM games which are limited in being able to be downloaded freely
DRM is added by the developers/publishers not by GOG, tho.
Same thing applies to Steam. You don’t need to use the Steam DRM if you don’t want to, it gets added by the developers/publishers. There are plenty of DRM-free games on Steam
No thats not true. You need to have steam installed and be logged into an account to play a steam game, always.
No
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam
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Mmm, not quite.
And I point that out because Lemmy is a very FOSS-friendly place where that sentiment is actually true.
But GoG provides it DRM free, so you can always play what you’ve downloaded til the end of time. It’s as good as piracy in that way.
At that point, why not buy the game on any platform of your choosing and just pirate it when it stops being accessible on the platform you bought it on? I understand wanting to support GOG, I “own” a lot of games on GOG as well. But it’s not really “owning” even on GOG if at some point, I could lose the ability to download the game.
Any game that isn’t available as a pirated game isn’t going to be on GOG anyway… The problem here is that GOG needs to be better than piracy in any tangible way and right now, that’s not the case. It would be the case for me if GOG Galaxy was available on Linux but it’s not, as one example.
It’s data.
It’s never “owning” in the traditional sense, because data is not physical.
When people say they own something, there’s an implication that it’s theirs until they decide to part with it. That is true for games bought without DRM. DRM free the closest you’ll ever get to ‘owning’ data, you possess that on your own local device and it can’t be taken away.
You can lose the ability to download the game, sure. But that is an additional service, not the game itself. You have that data until you delete it. Same with GoG Galaxy. that’s an extra service.
You’re arguing 2 or 3 different things. Ownership as a legal right, ownership as in possession, and a weird third thing where you seem to be confusing meta services with the ownership of the thing itself.
It just needs to be "owning* in the way physical media without DRM works. That is data too after all. The ability to sell your copy of the data or have your friend borrow.
Yes, DRM-free is the closest thing, never argued otherwise. I’m also not arguing the services offered by GOG are part of “ownership”. The lack of an ability to download a game at any point is just a part of the fact that GOG too is simply licensing in the end. But yes, GOG is still the closest thing to “owning” games. Which is why it sucks that so many titles on GOG have DRM despite the claims btw…
I’m really only arguing one thing: piracy is better than GOG right now in every single way. You don’t have to worry about hidden DRM. You don’t have to worry about account creation bullshit. You don’t have to worry about anything else. You just download, hit play and it works every single time. If I send the copy to a friend, it will still work.
Piracy has always been closer to “owning” than GOG, so GOG should at least have some other tangible benefits over piracy. But right now, they don’t.
https://x.com/GOGcom/status/1844752098145038435
That’s not GOG works. Get your offline installers.
On a legal level, it is how GOG works. They still only sell licenses. You just have the loophole that their installers and the games installed by them will work regardless.
While that may be partly true, (also likely) depending on the county you’re located, they’re not able to revoke the license though.
So in this specific case you having the files makes a world of difference.
But then the same is also true for Steam
Err… You often don’t have the files drm free on Steam. Nor in an installable format (without steam).
Anyhow. Seeing the down votes I’d love for some to elaborate.
Otherwise it just looks like some rampant steam fanboys.
Also I forgot to reply to this on the other answer, but:
Often you do, and an installer is nothing more than a fancy zipped folder. Also people usually like to compare Steam with GoG and claim that on GoG you get DRM free games and not on Steam, that is not true, both have either, although GoG has percentually more it’s still not 100% DRM free (nor is Steam 100% DRMd), it’s always up to the game developers.
This is what you said:
The same is true for Steam, laws are laws
You also have the files if you downloaded them on Steam. What’s important is whether those files can be used on their own or if they’re protected by some form of DRM. If the files can be used on their own it doesn’t matter if you got them from Steam, GoG or a physical disc. If on the other hand the files are DRM protected you having them is useless, whoever controls the DRM controls your files, again regardless of where you got the files from.
Okay let’s chalk this up to some language barrier or cultural misunderstanding then. 😁
Thanks.