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General discussionIntroducing web installers for all GOG games(175 posts)(175 posts)
(175 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 08, 2018
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elcook: Thank you all for the feedback! We're glad to see most of you like this update.

As for false positive virus warnings - we're already on it and hope this will be fix quickly.

Now, regarding some users stating that this is the next step to make GOG GALAXY mandatory. It's not :) GOG is 10 years on the market now, and we've been strict about our DRM-free policy. We stated multiple times that the client will remain optional, and we're not going to strip you from the option to download backup installers.
Yes, we do believe that playing games through GOG GALAXY gives you the full experience, as you can enjoy multiple features like auto-updates, cloud saves, achievements, etc., and we'd like to give users the best experience possible, BUT if you don't care about the above and want to stick to the classic way of downloading the installer and playing your games without the client, you're welcome to do so! :)
Getting rid of galaxy bundled installers and keeping the classic ones is hardly a step into forcing galaxy on us. Sure, "web installer" is reminiscent of gamersgate.com, but i would've imagined if that was the goal you'd kill the classic and have the galaxy bundled in addition to the "web installers" instead. This is not the case, so i think it's safe to say that GOG has responded to the community's wishes.
Posted June 08, 2018
low rated
i wonder if it takes less then a year, till all the classic installers will become outdated. because you "have to focus on the galaxy vesions first" or some similar excuse. and we're left with the horrible choice of classic but abandoned or up to date but galaxy.
Posted June 08, 2018
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elcook: snip
Clear words! Thank you for those. This kind of feedback and transparency from the GOG staff will always be appreciated.
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GHOSTMD: This is my personal limit for games i buy, they have to be complete
unbound from third party tools and have to work standalone and without
internet connection and without starting the according client automatically.
At least that's what elcook said, yes.

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GHOSTMD: But there are minor issues that kind of "worry" me... for example if i choose
to place a Desktop icon, that it doesn t link to the game exe anymore.
(you have to do it manually now)
Afaik this only happens if you use the webinstaller which is supposed to call Galaxy since it should be used if you are planning to launch Galaxy or are planning to use Galaxy specific features. Should not be the case if using the offline backup installers since they are supposed to be started not through Galaxy but using the shortcut instead. If certain games offline installer shortcuts still link to Galaxy to start the game it's probably just a bug that should get reported to GOG.
Post edited June 08, 2018 by MarkoH01
Posted June 08, 2018
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Gekko_Dekko: GaG: all of our games now have installers, bundled with galaxy! We just renamed them to exclude "galaxy" word, lolz
Community: yay!
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here, but if I'm not: that's not the case. There are no more Galaxy-bundled installers. Galaxy is installed via the web link (that big button on the game page in your library). It's no longer embedded in the installers. Basically, all the installers are classic installers and Galaxy just fetches those if you use it to install your games.
Posted June 08, 2018
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elcook: We’re happy to announce we’ve just started rolling out new web installers for all GOG games. What is it, you ask? Web installer is a small file (around 1MB) that makes it easy and fast to download and install your GOG games. After downloading and launching the web installer, it triggers the process of installing or updating (if needed) GOG Galaxy on your computer, and afterwards it automatically launches the installation of the game on your machine. This way we’re minimizing your engagement in the whole installation process, and you can focus on enjoying playing the game!

Introduction of web installers means a few additional changes. First, from now on the main game view in your "Library", you will see two options to install your game - with GOG Galaxy via new web installer, and the „classic installers” without GOG Galaxy, which are now called "offline backup game installers”. So if you don’t want to use our optional client, you don’t have to look for the classic installers through „More” option, just download the installer files from the second section.
Second change means, we’re removing entirely the previous GOG Galaxy game installers. So if you want to take full advantage of all GOG Galaxy features in your games, just use the new web installers.

Hope you like the feature, and it will expand your experience of using GOG.com the way you want.
Sounds really nice indeed.Thank you ;).Cheers
Posted June 08, 2018
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elcook: Thank you all for the feedback! We're glad to see most of you like this update.

As for false positive virus warnings - we're already on it and hope this will be fix quickly.

Now, regarding some users stating that this is the next step to make GOG GALAXY mandatory. It's not :) GOG is 10 years on the market now, and we've been strict about our DRM-free policy. We stated multiple times that the client will remain optional, and we're not going to strip you from the option to download backup installers.
Yes, we do believe that playing games through GOG GALAXY gives you the full experience, as you can enjoy multiple features like auto-updates, cloud saves, achievements, etc., and we'd like to give users the best experience possible, BUT if you don't care about the above and want to stick to the classic way of downloading the installer and playing your games without the client, you're welcome to do so! :)
This is just what I wanted to hear. Thank you!
Posted June 08, 2018
@MarkoH01

this is exactly my point, when the games will not start independent anymore
(no matter which installer i use or even when i use Galaxy directly for installing)
then THIS is my limit and all i said that i ll keep and eye on those changes.

No the Desktop icons linking to Galaxy instead of the game exe are not a bug.
It is intented, by GoG i already asked the staff about that one.

So as long as the games i buy on GoG will be not bound to Galaxy or start
Galaxy when i use the game exe directly, everthing is fine and the changes
are good. I am just a bit worried thats all. Since i still remember how steam started,
as handy tool, where you have all your games in one place... look at it now...
a bloody third party control tool (yes it is, and so is Galaxy *smirk*) no "social"
features can hide that from me hehehhe

The reason why i am so causious about the whole thing is, that i fear publishers already
have ideas to make games "forced" obsolete via licensing procedures and even take
the right to "delete" the game from your library when the license runs out.
Steamclient as tool you MUST use to start the games (legally) is the perfect software
to make such a thing happen. I really fear that day.

But well GoG is the only platform i can rely on, buying games DRM free and still "own"
them.

So long
Posted June 08, 2018
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Ancient-Red-Dragon: [...] Clearly, the assumption that the latest version of a game is the best one isn't always correct. So GOG ought not to force that faulty assumption onto its customers by denying them access to earlier versions.
Gets my vote. Said it before, earlier versions should be made available by direct download.
Posted June 08, 2018
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elcook: Yes, we do believe that playing games through GOG GALAXY gives you the full experience, as you can enjoy multiple features like auto-updates, cloud saves, achievements, etc., and we'd like to give users the best experience possible, BUT if you don't care about the above and want to stick to the classic way of downloading the installer and playing your games without the client, you're welcome to do so! :)
How about we work on giving Linux users the "best experience possible"?
Posted June 08, 2018
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GHOSTMD: @MarkoH01
No the Desktop icons linking to Galaxy instead of the game exe are not a bug.
It is intented, by GoG i already asked the staff about that one.
So even if you use the OFFLINE installer it will create a Galaxy shortcut to the desktop? That would be stupid. I had the same issue with SOME Classic instrallers and GOG fixed it. I guess I will have to check this out myself. Normally the desktop should link to Galaxy when you installed it using an installer that is meant to use Galaxy and link to the game itself in case you used the offline backup installer only because those people OBVIOUSLY prefer to not use Galaxy. I will try this at once.

Edit: Tried the offline installer of Duke Nukem3D - shortcut linked to the game executable as I persumed.
Edit2: Hmmmm same happened when using web installer. Maybe it depends on the game - will try a newer one.
Edit3: "Finding Paradise" worked as expected. Galaxy shortcut when using web installer - direct shortcut when using offline installer. So if you used the offline installer and still got a Galaxy shortcut in your case it is a bug - no matter what support said to you. Which game(s) are you talking about? Maybe I own this myself and can test it with this game to see if it works for me.

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GHOSTMD: The reason why i am so causious about the whole thing is, that i fear publishers already
have ideas to make games "forced" obsolete via licensing procedures and even take
the right to "delete" the game from your library when the license runs out.
Steamclient as tool you MUST use to start the games (legally) is the perfect software
to make such a thing happen. I really fear that day.
Deleting a game from your library would simply be theft and I never heard about such things - even on Steam (i.e. music license has run out for some Mafia II songs but I still have the version that has them included in my Steam library even though they are not included if you buy the game now). I also still have some games in my Steam library which are not sold anymore (meaning license rabn out).
Post edited June 08, 2018 by MarkoH01
Posted June 08, 2018
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MarkoH01: You will get those by installing the games using the offline installers. galaxy will recognize the installed game when you start it (sometimes it might have to download a few MB before first use since Galaxy in this case sometimes shows "unknown version").
Like I said, I'm happy using Galaxy for many things, including the quick install from my library. If only it'd let you optionally fix the shortcuts for when I'm not using Galaxy.
Posted June 08, 2018
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MarkoH01: You will get those by installing the games using the offline installers. galaxy will recognize the installed game when you start it (sometimes it might have to download a few MB before first use since Galaxy in this case sometimes shows "unknown version").
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mqstout: Like I said, I'm happy using Galaxy for many things, including the quick install from my library. If only it'd let you optionally fix the shortcuts for when I'm not using Galaxy.
If you did install the game using Galaxy you will always get a Galaxy shortcut since the installer is the opinion you WANT to use Galaxy including its features. Using offline installers should fix this. Of course you will also always be able to create a shortcut manually.

They did this as a convenience: people who use the web installer want Galaxy to be installed. They also want the Galaxy features. Starting the game without Galaxy (which would happen if the shortcut would link to the game itself and not lead to a Galaxy launch) would mean that Galaxy exclusive features like achievements would not work anymore.
Post edited June 08, 2018 by MarkoH01
Posted June 08, 2018
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MarkoH01: If you did install the game using Galaxy you will always get a Galaxy shortcut since the installer is the opinion you WANT to use Galaxy including its features. Using offline installers should fix this. Of course you will also always be able to create a shortcut manually.

They did this as a convenience: people who use the web installer want Galaxy to be installed. They also want the Galaxy features. Starting the game without Galaxy (which would happen if the shortcut would link to the game itself and not lead to a Galaxy launch) would mean that Galaxy exclusive features like achievements would not work anymore.
You are wrong. I did not even had Galaxy when I installed NWN2. But when Galaxy recognized the game, it immediately altered the link.
Post edited June 08, 2018 by Engerek01
Posted June 08, 2018
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MarkoH01: If you did install the game using Galaxy you will always get a Galaxy shortcut since the installer is the opinion you WANT to use Galaxy including its features. Using offline installers should fix this. Of course you will also always be able to create a shortcut manually.

They did this as a convenience: people who use the web installer want Galaxy to be installed. They also want the Galaxy features. Starting the game without Galaxy (which would happen if the shortcut would link to the game itself and not lead to a Galaxy launch) would mean that Galaxy exclusive features like achievements would not work anymore.
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Engerek01: You are wrong. I did not even had Galaxy when I installed NWN2. But when Galaxy recognized the game, it immediately altered the link.
So you installed the game using the offline Installer and installed Galaxy afterwards which then altered your link in the shortcut without asking you?
Posted June 08, 2018
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MarkoH01: So you installed the game using the offline Installer and installed Galaxy afterwards which then altered your link in the shortcut without asking you?
Exactly.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionIntroducing web installers for all GOG games(175 posts)(175 posts)
(175 posts)