Some context for the DRM Nazis as they drop their pants for a six-month circle jerk:

"Digital rights management (DRM) is the use of technology to control and manage access to copyrighted material. Another DRM meaning is taking control of digital content away from the person who possesses it and handing it to a computer program. DRM aims to protect the copyright holder’s rights and prevents content from unauthorized distribution and modification."

"DRM measures or tools are access control technologies built into software and multimedia content (such as games) in order to suppress piracy. DRM is intended to control the use, modification and distribution of copyrighted works, thereby protecting the rights of authors, artists and distributors."

"Short for digital rights management, a system for protecting the copyrights of data circulated via the Internet or other digital media by enabling secure distribution and/or disabling illegal distribution of the data. Typically, a DRM system protects intellectual property by either encrypting the data so that it can only be accessed by authorized users or marking the content with a digital watermark or similar method so that the content can not be freely distributed."

There is no mention of "has multiplayer" as the core of any definition.

Be sure to call the maid when you're finished.

Indeed, titles on Itchio are mostly DRM free. But I don't think they ever said "we're an 100% DRM free store", unlike GOG, only being supportive of the idea of being DRM free.

Also, I've even seen a case (Unity's) where the company added a way on the engine to implement launcher DRM checks for Itchio games specifically.

So your saying MP is not DRM?

"Has multiplayer" (which could include LAN gaming) isn't what GOG announced in the OP though. It was "online-only multiplayer games" (mentioned 5x times) which isn't so clear-cut when many online-only MP games indeed contain various "Access Control Technologies" for various reasons (purchase verification, ban checks, anti-cheat, micro-transactions, lootboxes, etc). And the extent to which the latter will be implemented remains to be seen in the long run beyond one 'testing the waters' intro game.

Right after you call your optician to help you read what GOG actually said themselves in the OP in this thread : "while some might question “since online-only games require an internet connection, how is this DRM-free?”. It is not". ie, Hate on them for being "pant dropping Nazi circle-jerkers" for saying that if you want, but the bottom line is, GOG literally said in their own words in the first post of this thread "these games are not DRM-Free, we're simply accepting them now because we want to change direction and no longer just be a 100% DRM-Free store and we hope sectioning them off into another category is enough". You hurling childish insults at other people responding with natural concern about how far this 'new direction' will be taken / "moving the goalposts" with tolerance of single-player online content reflects less well on you than you think...

It would be so great if GOG would learn the definition of "advertizing". Posting a link from another store is not advertizing ... no matter if GOG wants it to be that way. Also, everybody is able to use google so why do they waste their time to "moderate" links from "other storefronts"? But sure ... it is GOG's forum ... I jjust think it is ridiculous.

At the same time, people are ignoring the part when GOG said, "Rest assured this will not influence our DRM-free approach. GOG will remain the best platform for single-player DRM-free gaming, with a dedicated approach to classics and game preservation – something that's at the very core of who we are."

But maybe we can't trust what GOG is saying? If GOG want's to flatout kill their store by shoving DRM into SP games, then so be it. I'll just leave if that happens. We still have ZOOM and couple other stores who can use the extra support.

By the way, I don't count small cosmetic DLC needing online as DRM in sp games. But if it's something like sams story from Metro exodus I do count it. IMO
Off topic? What happen?

A wonderful example of the respectful, intelligent dialogue that made me all but abandon this forum.

Also, concerning "Nazis" I recommend reading C.S. Lewis' essay "The Death of Words".

It never ceases to ammuse me that a store with a single digit market share decided to enforce pretending it is the only store in existence.

I don't think people are 'ignoring it'. Their valid concerns come from examples of other stores that suddenly changed direction as a 'completely optional addition' but then failed to maintain momentum in the original direction and gradually but quietly abandoned it. Eg, Humble used to sell a great mix of DRM-Free games and some Steam keys. Now they are just a Steam-key reseller in all but name. So there's certainly "precedence" regarding concerns about 'business model transitions' in that area.

I'm pretty sure we are all concern about it.

Nothing stays the same and everything changes with time. Look how much steam has change over the years.

GOG knows going DRM like steam will kill them. The back lash from hitman was so bad, news sites were talking about it.

But I guess only thing we can do is wait and see what happens.

Respect, on a public internet forum? A surprise, to be sure, when you run across it, but hardly a guarantee.

And don't get me started on intelligent dialogue... :P

I have a feeling that section of the new CoC is mostly reactionary... to a certain "magnification" store thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-l6tHeseDY :P

I was confused by the wording of the post as it seemed to conflate "multiplayer-only" and "online-only". In reality, an online-only game can be singleplayer while still requiring an internet connection to play. And, a multiplayer-only game may not be online-only as it can be played locally, offline, without any internet connection, by the players themselves setting up their own dedicated servers on their home computers and playing via LAN.

So my first point of feedback would be to try to be a bit clearer and more precise with terminology to avoid confusion, perhaps with clearly-defined, separate categories for all the various forms and types of multiplayer, online vs offline connection, LAN vs online, etc, perhaps as a separate page on the FAQ that you can link to and reference in future communications.

For an example: See Attached - There are various shades of "multiplayer-only" and people will disagree about where to draw the line of what is DRM. For me, only third-party-hosted servers are DRM. All forms of locally-hosted servers, run by the players themselves are DRM-free forms of multiplayer in my opinion. As long as that is possible, then the game is playable offline and therefore DRM-free.

The second thing I'd like to say is that I am very pleased to see Enemy Territory come to GOG and hope this means that others like Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and Frontlines: Fuel of War could be preserved on GOG as well. But it seems a pipe dream to ever hope that MMOs like World of Warcraft Classic could ever be made playable offline and brought to GOG. I don't want to pay a monthly subscription for the nostalgia, but I'd be happy to buy a copy to dip into occasionally.

I think this could be a good time to add the new button on game page.

I'm here for the single player games, and even my famously paranoid Log Cabin Test accounts for online games inasmuch as they inherently cannot be 'owned' in the same was as standalone, locally running software. So as long as such games are very clearly labeled (like with a BIG colored icon or in a different category, whatever) I see no problem with this.

As an aside, GOG could probably build a cottage industry out of resurrecting old, dead MMOs.

This is a valid point. The biggest thing that drove me away from Steam wasn't the Steamworks DRM itself, it was their laissez-faire vendor policy requiring me to do a bunch of additional research on all the undocumented ways the developer and/or publisher would try to screw me over (wassup Rockstar). Time spent playing detective is time not spent playing games. Checking that there's no online only tag isn't a big deal, but if this is the top of the slippery slope and they start adding more and more qualifiers it could get very tedious.

[Merged double-post.]

Here is my +1. We already have games here missing Linux versions that have it on that other store.