Posted May 26, 2020
Frankly, I never recall seeing GOG mentioned as being cheaper that Steam. In some rare cases and some areas it occasionally might be, but also considering all the third-party Steam key stores that are selling Steam keys dirt cheap with low margins (with no cut to Valve), Steam games can normally be obtained cheaper than GOG games.
I personally don't care about such small details. I buy a game (from GOG) when I find the price agreeable during some sale, as in "I think this game is worth this price". I don't care much even if I could buy e.g. a 9€ game for 8.50€ from Steam. Do you know what "DRM" is? DRM-free is when a product doesn't have that.
DRM-free mostly means that you can play your games also in the future even if the digital store from where you bought it, or the publisher of the game, is no more. Or even if they were, there is no check on how many PCs you've installed the game and playing at the same time. (Some GOG games do have that kind of check for multiplayer, e.g. Defcon where multiplayer fails if two or more users try to play the game online with the same multiplayer key. So, even in GOG you should consider DRM-free to pertain only to single-player part of games; the multiplayer can be a question mark.)
Naturally if you don't care much if your games can be played in the (far) future when the store/service might be down, and don't care about the restriction on where and when the games can be played, I guess DRM-free might not be that important to you.
A simple example might help. Let's say you buy a book from a book store and bring it home. At home you notice the book has DRM, ie. it tells you to call a certain number before you can read the book. They answer from that number and say "Ok, you are eligible to read the book, so go on.". Next day the same thing, you need to call to get a permission to read the book. They explain to you they want to check that not two people are reading your book, at least not at the same time, and that you don't try to give or sell the book to someone else after you have read it, hence you need to call them each time you want to read the book.
The next day you misplace your phone and can't call that number, so you can't read the book. Luckily you later find your phone and can continue reading the book.
Two years later you get an urge to read that book again, but the number you are supposed to call doesn't answer anymore, you just get those "This number does not exist, please check the number...". So, you can't read your book anymore.
That is what DRM is. DRM-free is a bit like fat-free, where they remove the fat and replace it with sugar so that you'd still eat the product. So you can consider DRM-free GOG games to be sugar-coated games. Mmmmm, yummy! Sugar rush!!!
I personally don't care about such small details. I buy a game (from GOG) when I find the price agreeable during some sale, as in "I think this game is worth this price". I don't care much even if I could buy e.g. a 9€ game for 8.50€ from Steam. Do you know what "DRM" is? DRM-free is when a product doesn't have that.
DRM-free mostly means that you can play your games also in the future even if the digital store from where you bought it, or the publisher of the game, is no more. Or even if they were, there is no check on how many PCs you've installed the game and playing at the same time. (Some GOG games do have that kind of check for multiplayer, e.g. Defcon where multiplayer fails if two or more users try to play the game online with the same multiplayer key. So, even in GOG you should consider DRM-free to pertain only to single-player part of games; the multiplayer can be a question mark.)
Naturally if you don't care much if your games can be played in the (far) future when the store/service might be down, and don't care about the restriction on where and when the games can be played, I guess DRM-free might not be that important to you.
A simple example might help. Let's say you buy a book from a book store and bring it home. At home you notice the book has DRM, ie. it tells you to call a certain number before you can read the book. They answer from that number and say "Ok, you are eligible to read the book, so go on.". Next day the same thing, you need to call to get a permission to read the book. They explain to you they want to check that not two people are reading your book, at least not at the same time, and that you don't try to give or sell the book to someone else after you have read it, hence you need to call them each time you want to read the book.
The next day you misplace your phone and can't call that number, so you can't read the book. Luckily you later find your phone and can continue reading the book.
Two years later you get an urge to read that book again, but the number you are supposed to call doesn't answer anymore, you just get those "This number does not exist, please check the number...". So, you can't read your book anymore.
That is what DRM is. DRM-free is a bit like fat-free, where they remove the fat and replace it with sugar so that you'd still eat the product. So you can consider DRM-free GOG games to be sugar-coated games. Mmmmm, yummy! Sugar rush!!!
Post edited May 26, 2020 by timppu
