I impulse bought the game as soon as I saw it on the front page, but I would not have had I known of the DRM issues.

I'd say that's not so far from the truth. Like I wrote somewhere, the forum is a DRM-free echo room.

What I myself find interesting is how many irate one-star reviews begin with "I already own this on steam" or "I already own this on multiple platforms".

Ask for a refund? You certainly deserve one, having been sold a DRMed game on a supposedly DRM-free store.

FWIW, I was joking--that line wasn't in the game.

A history retrospective here: original release of first Assassin's Creed was an always-online game.
Yet later on Ubisoft has removed online-only DRM, and GOG's release of the game was fully DRM-Free. So there is literally zero excuse for having anything in Hitman(2016) DRM'ed. It's a 5 years old game, that's been already sold everywhere and given away for free on EGS. The only proper GOG release for this game is making everything, I say EVERYTHING, offline and DRM-free. Including ability to launch timed events(make in-game offline even generator) and user-generated content.
Don't you guys dare to settle for anything less than that! :D

The moment I saw this game leaked in the upcoming thread, I knew it would be a disaster.

Honestly, I personally can live with a drm-agnostic store (I'm here for the drm-free games, not the store, remember?), provided 3 basic things are done:
- The degree to which the game is drmed is clearly indicated (they currently aren't doing that with multiplayer and they are starting to slip with single-player too)... not hidden somewhere, shown prominently with a lot of clarity as to what is entailed... not my problem if it looks bad for marketing, I don't want to spend money on a drm-infested mess
- If a game is released drm-free, don't sneak in drm that will pollute my backups afterwards
- I can easily find the drm-free games and filter out the rest

If I don't have those 3 things, then yes, my interest in the store will drop very fast.

So no, they can't just do whatever the heck they want with DRMed titles (like they are doing here) and keep my interest.

I'm pretty tolerant about the pragmatic realities of running a business, but this is just bad service for me.

If getting the games I want becomes a hassle (and it has for this title), then I'll go elsewhere or if an alternative is lacking, just enjoy my backlog and wait for one to appear.

You have almost as many games as me. Consider me surprised.

Ask for refund. They owe you like 50 refunds worth, given all you've done to help GOG over the years. :p

Yeah, refund that shit.

Like you said, you would not have bought it if you had known of the DRM issues. They can't expect you to read the fine print underneath the system requirements in order to find out that this thing has DRM up the wazoo.

Online requirement for features of a SP portion of the game (item unlocks). What a complete turn-off.

While online multiplayer parts of a game I can accept will need internet access I cannot and will not support games which force online connections for me to play by my lonesome. It's pretty stupid, and GOG needs to recognise that this is DRM as well.

If I wanted to ignore this I might as well ignore online verification and tying to the client and buy on a cheaper platform. GOG, guys, you're forgetting why many of us buy here.

DRM agnostic store is a fail of everything DRM-free community and GOG stands for. Imagine newspaper article titles: 100% DRM-Free store GOG starts selling games with DRM, DRM-Free business model is a failure, etc. Going DRM-agnostic store would be an open treachery of DRM-Free cause, and destruction of store's own niche. What's GOG without DRM-free stance? A brand with no real values behind it?

My words might sound harsh, but what can I do, if GOG Store's manager is literally sawing branch whole store is sitting on?

Remove the DRM free guarantee, and there is literally no reason to not just use Steam for everything.

GOG is inferior in every way to Steam EXCEPT for the fact that they provide a DRM free guarantee (and offline installers, though installers are only really valuable when combined with DRM-free).

I'll reiterate my past point here, but GOG is a corporation with clear profit-driven responsibilities to investors, not a movement.

Its not like you and me. It doesn't have morals. At this point, its an automaton that makes money for shareholders. I don't hold it liable to higher principles.

I however hold them accountable to an implicit agreement that was made when I handed over my dollars regarding every single game I purchased so far (with regard to sneaking drm in, I purchased these games drm-free and I expect them to stay that way right until the moment the store goes offline).

And regarding future purchases, I expect them to respect my values and not make it a mazelike experience to get the games I want. If they can't manage that, no point in giving them my money right? I don't intend to make every game I purchase a research work into exactly how much drm I'm getting.

And the shareholders should be EXTREMELY upset at GOG management's devaluation of their company by removing its single competitive advantage against its market peers.

By the way, "DRM-agnostic" has been tried and failed numerous times. ShinyLoot is but one example. It's hard to convince both customers and producers when you don't have a clear niche.