I have been buying games exclusively on Zoom Platform since the start of the year. They are totally DRM-free and have a good selection of games. I have been spending $10-15 per month on there and have discovered some cool games that I wouldn't have, if not for my boycott, such as Curse: the Eye of Isis and Namariel Legends: Iron Lord.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who has recently joined. I will update the first post later on today :-)

The Devotion angle isn't going to be dropped. It is a critical issue for me and many others who have signed on the list. Bear in mind though, that not everyone who has joined the boycott agrees with every single item on the list. Otherwise, I can add you to the 'sympathetic' list?

Regarding indie devs: I think it's a good point and I have given that some thought too. My take is that, yes you are correct that they are not to blame for GOG's missteps; however, imo they have a moral obligation to provide their customers with some choice of where to purchase their game. There are several other DRM-free stores they could also release their game on, so if they choose to only release on GOG, then they are putting their eggs in one DRM-free basket, which is on them.

There are many indie games I like the look of, which I would certainly buy if they came to Zoom Platform. I have even approached some of them, requesting a Zoom release, but the response is often very disappointing. I am actually planning to buy the two pixel.lu games that are on Zoom Platform today (Sigi and Sir Lovealot), as I want to support an indie developer that is willing to release on other DRM-free stores besides GOG.

Each person listed on post #1 is boycotting/sympathising for a different reason or set of reasons. The list of reasons there is just Tea4Time's. It does not bind other people. In fact, I don't think my primary reason for boycotting (having GOG add a flag/filter to identify DRM games) is even listed there.

That one is not there, because I don't see it as a valid solution to the problem. The problem with DRMed games encroaching onto GOG is not simply the inconvenience for users of identifying which games are DRMed and which are not. GOG allowing any DRMed games onto its store at all is inherently damaging to the DRM-free cause. Because if publishers know they can put their games onto GOG, complete with DRM, where is the incentive for them to release DRM-free? Allowing any DRMed games at all onto GOG makes it less likely that we will see future DRM-free releases, which is my beef with it.

I respect your opinion, mrkgnao, but I strongly disagree. Saying that clear identification of DRMed games would solve the problem is like putting a band aid over an earthquake. It is not anywhere near sufficient.

I have no problem at all. I fully respect your view and don't expect you to list my reasons, only yours.

And so GOG went on full damage control; release of Blood Omen and Anniversary sale!
This thread and HITMAN's thread(s) will be buried in tons of praise threads etc.
Not that I didn't expect it, but still, cheap move GOG, very cheap!

Time4Tea, of course I will remain boycotting, as I was since April of 2020. after forced Galaxy 2.0 update; probably 4ever!
And will support you on a new thread, if you decide to make one, but IMHO that will probably dilute it and it would be hard to get another momentum like this one got; so I suggest to just keep on this thread, no matter it's name, date or year!

Why do you even care? I would not buy anything from gog even if they release a drm free version of doom 2016/skyrim...
Right now I think it's better to pirate than buying anything again from them (but I don't even need to pirate, I'll just continue to play my backlog and buy drm free games from other stores).

If a game is all it take to forgot the hitman mess there is no reason to say that you boycot gog.

It's not that I am not interested in listening to other people's reasons for boycotting. I am, and I will be willing to add additional reasons that I feel are compatible with the aims of the boycott. When I set up the boycott in the first place, my intention was for it to focus on two key points:

1. Censorship, which is an attack on freedom of speech/expression
2. The steady encroachment of DRM onto GOG.com, which is a betrayal of their 'DRM-free' promise

I strongly believe that the purpose of a self-proclaimed 'DRM-free' store is to be exactly that: free of DRM. Not to simply label what is DRM and what isn't. A DRM-free store should be championing the DRM-free cause; applying pressure to game developers to release games DRM-free and providing them with an incentive to do so. I.e. "if your game is DRM-free, we will allow it on our store. Otherwise, not."

Labeling of DRMed products is not sufficient for GOG to be considered a DRM-free store and does not address the betrayal of GOG's 'DRM-free' promise. Therefore, it doesn't meet the goals that this boycott was set up to achieve.

I fully understand your point of view, and have nothing but respect for it. I know my views are not popular. If you feel that my expressing my views here dilutes the boycott's message, do let me know and I'll refrain from doing so.

I don't care! I deleted my entire wishlist back in April/May of 2020. and even though some games I wanted to buy were released on GOG (and are not available legally anywhere else) I didn't buy them; e.g. Silent Hill 4, Machiavelli the Prince, Star Trek: Elite Force 1+2.

I only mentioned what GOG has done a week after HITMAN release; so they can't say they didn't know what was in that game and what DRM it contained. They knew and were ready for it with highly wished for game(s) release and Anniversary sale, a week after; possibly they didn't expect gaming sites writing articles about that and quoting HITMAN DRM on GOG and HITMAN review bombing on GOG.

i have an ENORMOUS backlog of games.

i won't be stuck for games to play for a long time, yet.

even if i never buy another game from any store, ever, i'm probably set for life.

so, strictly speaking, i don't have to buy from steam, either.

$66.37 - Skipped from Anniversary Sale

I share many of your concerns and I sympathize with the boycott, however I'm unsure whether this is the correct approach to the problem or not. Of course GOG is to blame for breaking their promise of a completely DRM-free store but we should also blame the developers and publishers who don't want to make the effort to release their games without DRM.

At the moment, it's quite obvious that both GOG and the aforementioned developers and publishers believe that having DRM won't hurt the sale of their games and in my opinion, it is that belief that we have to disprove. So my stance here would rather be let's boycott developers and publishers who are releasing games with DRM and keep purchasing the games of virtuous ones, that way GOG management will clearly see with numbers where their interest is.

So for myself, I will simply do the following:
• Not use Galaxy ever again (they won't admit it but we know they want to phase out offline installers)
• Boycott games with DRM
• Support virtuous developers and publishers by purchasing their game

If you feel my position is compatible with your movement, feel free to add me to the list of sympathizers. Of course besides the DRM issue, there are other valid reasons to boycott GOG, and I respect that.

My reason for deciding to boycott CDP/GOG is it's unwillingness to be honest about where it's going. For me, that's more important than whether or not GOG changes it's business model. I could respect GOG even if it decided to sell DRM'd single-player games, but I cannot respect them when they intentionally blur the distinction between DRM'd and DRM-FREE.

I didn't cast a blanket judgement on people who didn't support the Devotion boycott, but I am doing exactly that to anyone aware of the DRM'd release and still buying anything right now. By buying their shiny new distraction technique, they're actively showing they don't care about, and are ok with, sending the message to GOG that they can get away with breaking their defining principle.

In doing so they ensure that they will continue to break it more and more, pushing it further until they have no place in the market anymore and shut down, killing any serious DRM free movement with it. You think if a site as big as GOG can fail as a 'drm free store', you think anyone else will see this as a viable niche to wade into ever again? No, it will be a complete industry wide demoralization. And the corpos win.

This is a reasonable position to me. I agree with you. After the recent HITMAN situation, Im really worried with GOG's future in the drm-free department.