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General discussionBoycotting DRM and Game Censorship on GOG, 2021-2022(5216 posts) (5216 posts) 
(5216 posts) 
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 10, 2021
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kdgog:
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Time4Tea: Thanks for your posts, kdgog. They are quite long, but imo worth reading and I sympathize with many of the points you make. Personally, I think it is inevitable that, when a company goes public, they will end up being controlled by execs who don't understand or care about their original values, and will prioritize short-term profit and appeasing shareholders over ethics and respect for their customers. It seems it is sadly not possible in this day and age for a business to be successful, without falling into that hole and becoming corrupted.

I think all we can do is vote with our wallets and stop buying. It is the only sort of message they will understand or care about, and we need to show that we will not accept this continued slippage of the site into the impersonal corporate sham it is fast turning into.

If you are looking for an alternative DRM-free store that (imo) is worth supporting, I don't know if you have tried Zoom Platform? They have a good selection of DRM-free game with offline installers and their staff are very friendly and frequently chat with users in their Discord channel. There is talk of them releasing some new games in the near future (1-2 weeks?).
I agree totally; and thanks for the suggestion of another store, I'll have a look. Sorry my messages were so long!

One weird thing - everything I post now is "low rated", is someone marking down any post that is even slightly critical of GOG?
Post edited March 10, 2021 by kdgog
Posted March 10, 2021
high rated
Unfortunately, zoom-platform hasn't updated their website in years. They really could use some work. But the games they sell work and are 100% DRM-free. So I'm customer there too.

By the way, this isn't the first time I decided to boycott GOG. When they started to bundle offline installers with Galaxy, I stopped buying here too. Luckily GOG reconsidered and rowed back on that decision. Back then, the outcry was much bigger and many more customers threatened to leave.

Unfortunately their strategy of step by step attrition seems to have worked. By always taking two steps towards DRM and then, after protests, going one step back to appease their customers, they have slowly reached a position where they could introduce DRM on their own product with only a small group stopping to buy here.

@all: if the DRM in Cyberpunk, the atrocious state it was released in or the Devotion withdrawal and the lies going with it bother you, the only language that GOG understands and reacts to is voting with your wallet - and saying so. For many years they have only reacted to major outcries. So if you silently stopped buying here because you are frustrated with GOG, it would be nice if you would say so. So that GOG gets the full feedback caused by their bad decisions.
Posted March 10, 2021
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Time4Tea: Thanks for your posts, kdgog. They are quite long, but imo worth reading and I sympathize with many of the points you make. Personally, I think it is inevitable that, when a company goes public, they will end up being controlled by execs who don't understand or care about their original values, and will prioritize short-term profit and appeasing shareholders over ethics and respect for their customers. It seems it is sadly not possible in this day and age for a business to be successful, without falling into that hole and becoming corrupted.

I think all we can do is vote with our wallets and stop buying. It is the only sort of message they will understand or care about, and we need to show that we will not accept this continued slippage of the site into the impersonal corporate sham it is fast turning into.

If you are looking for an alternative DRM-free store that (imo) is worth supporting, I don't know if you have tried Zoom Platform? They have a good selection of DRM-free game with offline installers and their staff are very friendly and frequently chat with users in their Discord channel. There is talk of them releasing some new games in the near future (1-2 weeks?).
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kdgog: I agree totally; and thanks for the suggestion of another store, I'll have a look. Sorry my messages were so long!

One weird thing - everything I post now is "low rated", is someone marking down any post that is even slightly critical of GOG?
I'm pretty sure that would be the work of the "many gamers". They DID take that time to spam GOG and they'd hate for that work to be for nothing.
Posted March 10, 2021
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Lifthrasil: [...]
By the way, this isn't the first time I decided to boycott GOG. When they started to bundle offline installers with Galaxy, I stopped buying here too. Luckily GOG reconsidered and rowed back on that decision. Back then, the outcry was much bigger and many more customers threatened to leave.

Unfortunately their strategy of step by step attrition seems to have worked. By always taking two steps towards DRM and then, after protests, going one step back to appease their customers, they have slowly reached a position where they could introduce DRM on their own product with only a small group stopping to buy here.
[...]
It could also be that more people agreed with you back then, and they still do on that issue. However, the posibility is also that not so many people agree with you now, that this here is an issue important enough to boycott for. Just beacuse you think it is as important, does not mean everyone else do as well. So it may not be about attrition, but about importance and finding worth bothering yourself with. I agreed back then, and I still do, but I find myself struggling here.
Posted March 10, 2021
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amok: It could also be that more people agreed with you back then, and they still do on that issue. However, the posibility is also that not so many people agree with you now, that this here is an issue important enough to boycott for. Just beacuse you think it is as important, does not mean everyone else do as well. So it may not be about attrition, but about importance and finding worth bothering yourself with. I agreed back then, and I still do, but I find myself struggling here.
That may be. Galaxy as bloatware in all offline installers is something, that affects all users of those offline installers. So the reach was bigger. Now it is 'just' GOG breaking their last two promises. But the number of people directly affected is lower. Many may say 'Meh, it's only a part of only some games that is DRM-ed'. Or 'Meh, I wasn't interested in Cyberpunk or Absolver anyhow'. Or 'Meh, who needs those rewards?'

But for me that is short-sighted. For me the central issue is, that Galaxy isn't 100% optional anymore (which is what GOG clumsily attempted to achieve with their bloatware stunt in 2017) and GOG is now fine with DRM on parts of single-player games. If we don't fight back, those parts that are OK to be DRM-ed will grow. So far, every pessimistic prediction about GOG's road towards more DRM and more Galaxy has proven true. So without a push-back from their customers, GOG will continue down that road.
Posted March 10, 2021
high rated
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Lifthrasil: [...]
By the way, this isn't the first time I decided to boycott GOG. When they started to bundle offline installers with Galaxy, I stopped buying here too. Luckily GOG reconsidered and rowed back on that decision. Back then, the outcry was much bigger and many more customers threatened to leave.

Unfortunately their strategy of step by step attrition seems to have worked. By always taking two steps towards DRM and then, after protests, going one step back to appease their customers, they have slowly reached a position where they could introduce DRM on their own product with only a small group stopping to buy here.
[...]
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amok: It could also be that more people agreed with you back then, and they still do on that issue. However, the posibility is also that not so many people agree with you now, that this here is an issue important enough to boycott for. Just beacuse you think it is as important, does not mean everyone else do as well. So it may not be about attrition, but about importance and finding worth bothering yourself with. I agreed back then, and I still do, but I find myself struggling here.
It's also, of course, possible that you (and others) do not care so much about this current issue because of the attrition, as this is exactly what attrition does, doesn't it?
Posted March 10, 2021
low rated
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amok: It could also be that more people agreed with you back then, and they still do on that issue. However, the posibility is also that not so many people agree with you now, that this here is an issue important enough to boycott for. Just beacuse you think it is as important, does not mean everyone else do as well. So it may not be about attrition, but about importance and finding worth bothering yourself with. I agreed back then, and I still do, but I find myself struggling here.
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mrkgnao: It's also, of course, possible that you (and others) do not care so much about this current issue because of the attrition, as this is exactly what attrition does, doesn't it?
off course, but as I said, I still think that gOg did wrong back then, and if they did it again I would agree with you. I can only speak for myself, off course, but if attrition was the case, would that not have changed as well?

I still think (even though the causes are personal) that there are many things worth fighting for. I can not find much here to care about, sorry.
Posted March 10, 2021
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kdgog: One weird thing - everything I post now is "low rated", is someone marking down any post that is even slightly critical of GOG?
Must be the """gamers""".
Posted March 10, 2021
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wolfsite: True, Boycotts of this type rarely ever work.

When Steam first came out many wanted to boycott it due to the DRM and bandwidth usage at the time, however it became the biggest PC vendor and led to the fall of physical PC games. For a large amount of time it had a stranglehold monopoly and PC sales were more or less forced to use Steam as many people felt "No Steam = No Sale"

Many people have attempted a boycott of Activision/Blizzard but as we can see this has had minimal to no effect, (Hell Activision makes more money on Micro-transactions than actual game sales), they even tried to hold a protest at Blizzcon but very few people showed up and it barely got into the news.

However something to keep in mind is that if GOG did fall because of this, companies would say "See this is why DRM-free doesn't work" and then push DRM as vital for the industry.
Too true, Steam became popular only because it was the only way to get games, stores stopped selling them, Steam gained many exclusives... and if you bought HL2 in a store then all you got was a steam key. Hilariously, steam didn't do anything to stop piracy either, if anything it made it easier with stuff like pacSteam (allowed you to download any game without owning it, directly from steam servers.)

The problem is that there are far more gamers who are willing to cave than there are gamers who are willing to protest. It doesn't matter how bad DRM is for the industry, there are just too many people who cave and buy a game despite it having DRM. Microtransactions are insane, yet the only reason they still exist is because most people are willing to cave and buy games that have them. Even the lack of LAN multiplayer has to do with just how easy it became to leave it off without a serious dent in sales.

How can you fight evil when everyone else turns a blind eye to it?
Posted March 10, 2021
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IAmBored2: How can you fight evil when everyone else turns a blind eye to it?
By doing so. I haven't eaten meat or dairy or eggs or honey in more than 15 years.
Posted March 10, 2021
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kdgog: One weird thing - everything I post now is "low rated", is someone marking down any post that is even slightly critical of GOG?
Don't worry about the popularity contest prizes in green and orange. They have very little to do with common sense or human decency anyway. If anything they behave more like passing weather.
Posted March 10, 2021
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IAmBored2: How can you fight evil when everyone else turns a blind eye to it?
As mrkgnao said: by fighting it yourself with what you can do. You can't control what others do, you can just set an example, encourage others to follow and hope. But you have full control over your own actions. Especially over your spending habits in a non-essential area.
Posted March 10, 2021
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I'm still boycotting as well.. I just don't have much time to post - crazy crunch time at work
Post edited March 10, 2021 by shattenyagger
Posted March 10, 2021
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so how is the boycott going, any success?
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kdgog: One weird thing - everything I post now is "low rated", is someone marking down any post that is even slightly critical of GOG?
yeah , some infantile trolls cant tolerate different opinions
gog should ban em but this forum is just a relic from a brighter past
Post edited March 10, 2021 by Orkhepaj
Posted March 10, 2021
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Orkhepaj: so how is the boycott going, any success?
As others have previously discussed and suggested, several of us are having subjective successes in that we are:
-not supporting a company engaging in actions we disapprove of
-saving money, or spending it otherwise
-receiving satisfaction at sticking to our principles

However, when it comes to GOG's direction, who knows. Seems to be about the same...desired games still not arriving, newest big release (Stronghold Warlords) has multiplayer DRM via Galaxy. I'm not seeing any concrete steps of them trying to "do better" by the customers in general let alone the boycotters, but it hasn't gotten worse yet either.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussionBoycotting DRM and Game Censorship on GOG, 2021-2022(5216 posts) (5216 posts) 
(5216 posts)