april is over, this joke is kinda late

And they are for the single-player part (too)?

Any idea what could be the reason the developer feels they can release them only on Steam? Are those characters somehow released with Steam Inventory or something, and that is what makes it tricky for them to offer also Steam-free?

I think it is good the developer and GOG at least were clear here that such content will be missing in the GOG version, albeit they did it in an odd way and I understand many might want a refund. It means also for me that I'll then postpone buying this game, probably until they release a DRM-free GOTY version with all relevant single-player content, including such playable characters.

If not, oh well, I guess I will just skip Armello. Fortunately I have lots of other games to choose from.

It's more like purchasing and trading items like cards for spells, books and stuff that can be earned during turns and/or purchased/sold through Steam Marketplace. LoG wants to further monetize it through digital cruft that we'd all be selling for anywhere from $0.03 to $3.00, with VALVe and LoG taking their cuts. Steam trading cards would also be available (shudder). After having my Steam Inventory cluttered with all kinds of digital junk from Team Fortress 2 and CS:GO that Steam won't allow me to simply give away (the lowest that you can sell an item from your inventory is $0.03), I considered myself done with that mess.

Five years ago I was one of "THEM" and was all for developers who expanded thier titles to incorporate as much Steamworks-related things as possible, but not to this extent. Back then I was absorbed by Steam and VALVE with no thought as to others who were on the "outside looking in" regarding alternative means of gaming. Though my account says I joined in 2015 (I had an old 2011 account that I forgot, so I made a new one) I feel bad for the entire GOG community, purchasers of the game or those who simply wish to not be tied down by DRM of any and all forms.

I had never witnessed an instance in which a developer just flat-out says to the effect of "VALVe is allowing us to monetize our game in ways that CDPR can't ever hope to achieve, so here's the 'best that we can do for Galaxy's limitations' version. Don't look for much in the way of further updates because it's not economically feasible to support two versions - one constantly evolving for those who'll deal with the DRM for the sake of a better experience [and who'll pay us more and more money] and one for the rest of you".

And SERIOUSLY, why in the WORLD would any human being in their right minds retitle the game to PUBLICALLY SHOW that the release is in effect an inferior version? It's a slap in the face to some, and a sucker's game to pull in unknowing players who'll spend thier money on what will be a lesser version. If it's too bothersome to support the GOG version due to Galaxy's limitations, then do the classier thing and announce a removal after one final sale, explaining why both versions can't maintain parity.

Don't dangle a fish line with toxic peices of bait simply because the pond you're fishing in is smaller and has lesser scenery than the large lake with a mountain view right behind you. You'll poison the pond killing the fish simply so that you'll begin tainting the lake.

Apparently the existing DLC includes 4 new heroes and 4 new rings (one for each clan in the game). A future DLC will contain a new fifth clan.

Rings seem to be perks. The in-game ones are unlocked during play and one can be selected at the start of each new playthrough to buff your hero.

I can't see any reason why any of these things would be incompatible with the DRM-free version. I assume they must be coded to use the Steam Inventory system. I thought the only purpose of that system was to allow people to sell the items they'd earned in-game to other players, but maybe it has wider applications...

I have and will pay more for a DRM-free version. Every time somebody posts a review complaining that something costs more here than Steam or a DRM infected bargain bin disk, I rate them unhelpful.

As I said, DRM free is a feature. I will pay for that feature. Actually, my entire computer is DRM free, other than Windows itself, which is a battle I don't feel I can win unless I want to move to Linux. So DRM infected software doesn't exist in my perspective, so I make purchasing decisions based on the price and the value given for that price.

That's exactly what I'm doing... The last game I bought on GOG was Serpent in the Staglands. I bought it as a gift (not for myself). This was on the 2nd of February. I stopped gifting because I don't want to gift games to trolls, scammers, racists and other scum that is welcomed on GOG's forums. The last game I bought for myself was Morrowind on 25th of December. I have two games left on my GOG wishlist: The Witcher 3 (I have the other two games here and trust GOG with this one - even though they can't even negotiate a flat world wide price with "themselves") and Krynn series (it's not on Steam). I moved the rest of my wishlist to Steam. Fun fact: My GOG account is older than my Steam account and I only bought games on Steam that I couldn't get here.

GOG is pretty much dead to me. DRM free is cool and everything, but... I'm not willing to risk to end up with lots of incomplete, inferior and "abandoned" games on my shelf. And that's not even a problem with newer games only. Just have a look at Postal 2, Knights of the Old Republic 2 or Fahrenheit. Or Sam & Max Save the World (has an almost game breaking bug, where you have to talk to an character that just isn't there). Or Omerta (developer broke it with a patch and refused to fix it, GOG only offered the patched broken installer for download - took them months to offer a user-made patch).

Sorry, but I don't trust GOG anymore. I know, Steam is evil and Steam is DRM and a Steam monopoly is bad and blahblahblah... But Steam (as a DRM) isn't intrusive or annoying. I can play offline whenever I want. I just have to have their stupid client running in the background (with overlay and notifications turned off). Waiting months for patches or games (looking at you, Van Helsing Final Cut) is more annoying than Steam could ever be :(

Sure, it's an extra Feature, but for what price? You will not receive any DLCs they might release in the future. Then you have no multiplayer, which kills it for me. IMHO a very bad trade for a DRM-Free version.

Are you kidding! This is "Good News" GOG. They're just trying to fit in. ^_^

Oh, I see. That can't be on GOG because it doesn't have enough scamming opportunities.

Trevor Martin and Tom Cassell would be VERY annoyed! :)

If that is what it is all about, then I am happy I don't have the Steam version either.

Yeah I also see those constant "So who wants to trade?" questions while playing TeamFortress 2, and my normal response to it is "Your mama wanted to trade when you were born.". Just today two persons wanted to trade something with me, K for no. Yeah I have some shit which has accumulated to my already full TF2 inventory.

Instead, you traded it for the risk of losing your whole game shelf when the service of your choice becomes defunct. Yes, also Steam, especially now with Windows Store increasingly being the default store front for most people in Windows 10.

Actually that will happen already before the whole service becomes defunct, if and when the client drops support for an older version of Windows that some of your games may require. Then you have no option to run such games in the older Windows version (even in a virtual machine) because the client will not allow it.

At the risk of steering off-topic - what are the problems with KOTOR 2 and Fahrenheit? I haven't noticed any issues with the GOG versions.

Yeah, the characters are all usable in single player. It doesn't really have any kind of special campaign or anything...it's just skirmish mode against computers if you are playing alone. So, there's no real story or anything. You're just playing a board game with Ai, and that's your single-player experience. Fun for a while, but having that human element is pretty important in a game like this, definitely.

Well, the heroes and the rings come as part of a purchasable pack for what shows as $10 Canadian for me on Steam. So, you can get those without any of the hassle of the micro-transactions and such. A bit pricey for what it contains, but then it might just be inflated for me, so someone else would have to confirm the USD price.

Separate from that, the steam version seems to have some sort of chest/key system, which contain different skins for the game's dice, I think? The page explaining what the chest/key micro-transaction system is about is a giant mess.

I can ignore things like missing dice skins, and I certainly don't want micro-transactions in the game, but missing out on the proper, paid DLC involving playable characters is a bit much.

developer treating customers like shit happens on Steam as well. And Valve does care even less.
If you go to Steam and reward the developers for such behavior by giving them your money on Steam, what do you expect to change? Blame the devs, they are responsible for this -> don't give them money. That's the only thing that will make an impact.

I am not sure how much power/influence GOG actually has to strong-arm the developer to fix their shit.