GOG is great! But just great. Once they support Linux with Galaxy 2.0, then it will be AMAZING

Also you can try Baen the biggest scifi/fantasy drm free ebooks publisher: https://www.baen.com/

Also they have a free library where you can try some books for free: https://www.baen.com/allbooks/category/index/id/2012?page=2&pageSize=20&filter=created_at&dir=ASC

My latest experience with DRM was Borderlands 3.

In the end I removed the epic fail launcher completely from my system because it made me so angry that whenever I wanted to play the game it would lag if epic fail was running in the background, once I killed it the game would run a bit better, but still laggy because on top of that they have Denuvo and this talks for itself.

I "bought" it and I was disappointed once again.

FCKDRM

I hope GOG always stay like this even when streaming becomes the only way to play games in future. I will always prefer to play games offline and DRM free.

Grimoire got voted the 22nd best CRPG of all time by RPGCodex, so that's good enough for me!

My greatest worries about DRM concern streaming, like Netflix, Spotify and now newely the Google Stadia project.
I mean in germany the latter will fail, due to the bad infrastructure, but there is always one huge question looming over all this:

What if the service shuts down?

They already asked Google about this and they gave the usual answer, that explains nothing and dances around the issue. They know! Oh god they know!
Streaming is a form of DRM, a form, that has been widely accepted and that's why the companies try to push it into gaming. If streaming catches on here, they'll have full control over every aspect and that is something i do not like.

If they don't want you to play, then you don't play! Simple as that! You bought it? Yeah whatever! We dictate, what you get and what you don't!

I had so many experiences with DRM in the past. SecuRom...the shitty uPlay Launcher, that failed me too many times (i am NEVER EVER buying a Ubisoft game again, except should it be released here!). Launchers in general piss me off. There are too many of them now and who knows, what they do in the background?

Then there is Denuvo...oh god Denuvo...
That shit has been developed by the devil himself. Especially the newest version, that Borderlands 3 uses. Always on and you MUST have a 2 MBit Internet connection, because the Software is constantly sending Data to the Denuvo servers.
What if those servers shut down? Yeah tough luck buddy!
On top of that, the DRM itself is REALLY nasty. Some groups, who cracked Denuvo in the past, have said, that this is the nastiest piece of anty-piracy, they have ever seen and we shouldn't expect a crack anytime soon.
Why care about a crack?
What if your Internet doesn't have 2 MBit upload? I am living in Hamburg germany and that is not as uncommon, as you may want to believe! On top of that, Denuvo apparently impacts overall gaming-performance.

Broken, by design!

There are so many naive people, who are like: They won't shut down! There will be a solution!

Tell that to all those games, who are STILL stuck with Games For Windows Live or Game Spy, which no longer exist.
Not every developer took the time to patch things right. If you're lucky, you had the community, that hacked things, but that shouldn't be the norm.

There are games dying out there, because their master servers get shut down and that is just bad!

I mean i get it.
You put millions and millions of dollars into a game and then it gets leaked for free onto some site. That sucks. I am fully on the developer side here. However those assholes, who won't pay -by the way: Fuck you, if you are among those!-, won't change their mind, because of your fancy DRM!
You only piss off the people, who bought your stuff and are now stuck, because the DRM doesn't work correctly!

Same with BluRays. Ever tried BluRays on a PC? BOY that is some next level bullshit and i have tried EVERYTHING! In the end i have settled with cracking the DRM and ripping the Blu Ray to my HDD, to watch it on my PC, who has a goddamn BluRay drive, that doesn't get recognized by half the movies and/or the software! I mean i am buying the original Disk, so the industry gets their money. Then at least let me enjoy the damn thing. Same goes for all the warnings in front of it.

I BOUGHT THE DAMN THING! All you are doing, is giving me a reason to crack the damn thing, so i can enjoy the freaking movie!

It is all the same: I get the people behind this. They want to protect their work. It is their job. They need to earn money too. However most do it on the back of their loyal customers.

This all is why i love GoG!
No hassle, the game is yours and should your Internet be down again, because your ISP sucks...whatever, continue playing. The only thing i have GoG Galaxy for is multiplayer and NO that is not DRM! I have read a lot of people, who are mad they have to install Galaxy for Multiplayer.
Guys...ever thought about how hard it is to build your own master-server and matchmaking infrastructure?
I did and it is not easy. THAT'S why those games use Galaxy for this part of the game: Comfort´, because the old P2P-model has so many traps, users could fall into, you cannot expect them to use it. Would be nice to have it as an alternative, yes, that is true.
And the question remains: What if the GoG Service shuts down? However GoG is one of those sites, where i honestly believe, that they'll provide a solution!

All in all: I love you guys! Keep on going! GoG honestly is the first plattform i look, when a new game comes out and i even bought some games twice, just to have them DRM-Free!

Devs had no problems pulling it off in the era before mandatory clients. Hobbyists & open source developers still have no trouble pulling it off today. And there's plenty of code you can look up if you get stuck.

And what the heck do you mean by the old P2P model? Client-server model was the norm since mid 90s (see e.g. Quake), long before internet multiplayer got mainstream. Meanwhile quite a few games even today use P2P (see e.g. Torchlight 2, which by the way uses Runic's own master server instead of Galaxy.. P2P or not has nothing to do with it, same for Age of Wonders 3).

And holy shit I don't understand how one can develop the actual netcode for their game (which GOG & Steam libraries don't do for you, because it's 100% game specific) if making a mere master server is such a big challenge.. because the netcode is the actual hard part, along with synchronizing everything, predicting things that need to be predicted, dealing with lost or late updates, avoiding races that would never arise in single player, etc. That's the stuff that makes or ruins a multiplayer experience.

It sounds like excuses. "Guys, ever thought how hard it is to make rebindable keys? That's why our game was designed for controller and while you can use the keyboard, there's no way to rebind anything. All the other developers who did it must be cheating somehow."

Here's the thing: MOST games here today do not require Galaxy for multiplayer. That's right, most developers can pull it off without Galaxy. It's the whiny few who think that it's impossible that get on my nerves. Actually, I don't think it's the devs who think it's impossible. It's that the devs want DRM, and DRM-apologist users try to justify the devs' actions by explaining how hard it is to pull off what most devs managed to pull off just fine.

Agreed with all that. But we are also putting faith on GOG that they would inform us with plenty of time in advance IF and when they have to shut down its store and servers. There are threads here about this, but I for one haven't downloaded all the installers for all the games I own on GOG... still plan to, but for now it would "cost" too much.
At the very least, I sincerely don't think they will ever NOT offer offline-installers, unless GOG itself were to shut down. Sure, they will keep adding amenities (which do attract more customers, including those who could care less about DRM-gree) such as GOG Galaxy (GOG Galaxy 2.0 is awesome btw, even in beta) and Multiplayer-only clients such as GWENT, but "true" DRM options such as offline-installers will never go away. It would break their reputation irreparably.

EDIT: On Linux games, yes, agreed with all that. Even though my machine for games is on Windows; Linux for work. At some point, I hope to narrow this difference so that I can play on Linux-only as well.

People like to own stuff.

Not only games, but cars, houses, tech stuff. Something pretty wicked and pretty new also is going on. Like, you're not supposed to own nothing, just keep on "using" stuff ya know? Weird.

I'm going the opposite way, standing strong, still. Hating e-books with all my heart, got my own car fully paid (I still use the trolley often) and got an old place for a family of four, now 100% revamped. So yeah, even though some say owning stuff is the new devil I know I'm doing it right. My own way, not pissing anyone else.

Call me old fashioned (I guess I am old), but I like to own the games I pay for (though I rarely download the backup version). I use GOG Galaxy (which is way better than Origin or Epic).
I think GOG is great!
I prefer to buy games here and only go elsewhere for games that are not available on GOG (unless they are way cheaper)...

Thank you kindly :)

Games that instal DRM software that makes your computer run more slowly. Why?

Software that requires a live connection to the internet or else you cannot work with it. Why?

Video DVDs that you bought while in another world region that you cannot play anymore. Why?

Digital books that require heroic efforts in order to let you quote them while writing an essay. Why?

All this, against someone who legitimately paid for the media. While those who just pirate the software, the video or the book have none of these problems.

It would be nice if DRM was ........ gone forever....... but thats not gonna happen any time soon.
DRM has been around for too many years now, one benifit for GOG being one of the few that sell games DRM free is they can set a proce, image everyone going DRM free that would probably only benifit the gamers community.

Example of a gaming world that is DRM free : everyone will start selling games , since DRM is gone ........
the competition however will be very tough, everyone will try to sell the games at their lowest price , more competition and more likely some might lose the DRM battle and have to stop selling games, so maybe DRM is nececcary to keep things balanced.


Anyway, my wallet would not be able to afford the games , since DRM would be gone i would no longer buy games at 10 cents ( Steam) to see if the game has DRM.

Intel and AMD will stop selling hardware as we know it, maybe they stay on to provide the hardware to the online (DRM) dudes like EA and Micro$oft ..... only need will be a lighning fast connection you will ( have to)subscribe of course.
Monthly ( reccuring) fees and all you get is a little box, it will be the Netflix of games .............:D.

Imagine the possibilities you can play with anyone, no more hardware restrictions ...
no more problems like in : "Ich will Unreal Tournament spielen [..." ( this video is still funny even after so many years)

Anyway, just Google and watch some dumb videos of big Corps talking about it..... and maybe as extra micro transactions...

The solution is already there, as good as it can get, really. You've gotta download and archive all your GOG games. Then if GOG ever shuts down (heaven forbid!), you've got your games secured.

The problem is of course that now that I've accumulated 600 games on GOG, I have gotten behind in my downloading and archiving. Also, many games get updates, requiring me to go back to those games and download the patches or in some cases the entire game. Still, it is under my control, which is all I ever asked for.

So what I've done is download and burn to DVDs or flash drives as many games as I can. I prioritize my favorites, so I make sure I make several back-ups of those favorites, and I also keep up to date on the patches for my favorites as well.

After I have my favorites, I grab my next-favorites, and on down the line. When I run out of time (or space), only my least-favorite games are 'neglected' by saving them for later. Those are technically at risk, but I don't care as much about those.

tl;dr We all hope and pray that GOG will be around forever, but it's still a good idea to download and store your favorite games at the very least. Archive as many games as you can afford to, starting with your favorites first.