Thanks for the replies!

This apparent tactic of using pieces of a game---either withheld or "purpose-built"---in order to encourage certain behavior should not itself be encouraged in my opinion. But I am relieved to find that the game does not require a Web-based account as I had rightly assumed.

I just answered Dryspace question, now it's up to him (or her) to decide if it is a deal breaker or not.

Exactly what I said: "Here it should be none" as in here on GOG it should be no DRM.

if the given feature can be reasonably implemented without Internet connection then enforcing it is a form of DRM
if the given feature requires periodical Internet connection to say update friends' highscores then requiring constant connection to play is a form of DRM
we can argue about the lack of LAN server software available as an alternative for the global, company funded, multiplayer server, for me lack of such a thing is fine, but some people may be more strict and require fully unlocked multiplayer too

though if a game is *solely* or mostly online I don't think it belongs here, I'm perfectly fine with their existence, but if no LAN server is available (and for some games realistically the formula makes it impossible to play with few friends locally, though you potentially could host a bigger server and perform matchmaking and so on so...) they are effectively DRM-ed and may stop working any moment for any player without notice so they simply don't belong to DRM-free store

Huh, interesting. Thanks for the information.

Whoa there, didn't know about that...that's definitely crossing the line for me. Thanks for being specific about what is the lost content if running the game without galaxy.

Wow. Every once in a while I come back to GOG to see if anything changed and it's always for the worse, if it did.
Now they removed downvotes on comments? Really? Didn't the backlash on Youtube when they did it teach anyone anything?
Taking away freedom of expression from a community in the name of protecting a small minority of people that can't hold criticism is pretty ridiculous and unhealthy.
Thank you for reminding me again why I don't buy here anymore, GOG.

Actually, I believe the removal of downvotes has been positively received by the community overall. It was getting a bit silly with the bots systematically downvoting some threads (like this one).

And they've made some steps in the right direction (ex: offering greater clarity on whether multiplayer mode is available offline or not on the game pages), though I'll agree they still have work to do.

But for me, the lowest point was around the time of the Hitman fiasco. I think overall, things have improved since then (starting with how they ultimately handled that situation).

This is something a lot of people have been requesting as many have been victims of down vote spam bots. So in this case they listened to those who were being targeted by this and most people seem to be in favour of the removal.

Uh excuse me, this thread is for GOG not doing anything ever good forever. We need more raaaaaaaagggggeeeeee *eats keyboard* /s

(edit: just to be clear I'm poking fun / shitposting about blinding emotion-driven rage, not people who are logically boycotting GOG but can recognize not literally everything they do is bad.)

You are acting a bit silly. It’s obvious where the rage (if you could even call it that) in this thread comes from, and it’s not from the people who boycott. Admittedly, it is a bit quieter after Krogan left, but I think that it’s just healthy for the civil discourse.

alas, despite all my rage I am just an onion in a cage.

That was quick. Must have been holding that line in for a while, hoping for a response.

I can't even work up any raaaaaaaagggggeeeeee at this point TBH. Now it's mostly just regret that I ever spent any money here. The small handful of good things they've done they somehow managed to screw it up:

They release Kane & Lynch series => It's a regionally censored version and they don't even have the decency to warn you about it on the store page
They remove the downboat button => Some of the biggest idiots take that as an invitation to rear their ugly heads again. It would have been a welcome change around 5 years ago when the forum still had a handful of users whose posts were worth reading.

Wake me when they release the Quake Enhanced Edition or Doom 3 (+expansion) vanilla gets added to the BFG Edition or they stop being idiots about their curation. Now THAT would be an improvment!

Actually, in a forum, downvoting is totally unnecessary, and in this case it was abused. I don't really care but some people did. And it's just as easy to respond with a comment "I don't like what you said" and more constructive, too.

@Time4Tea:
please move my name from the "boycott" list to the "sympathetic" list. Thanks in advance.

I still haven't bought anything from GOG yet. And I have bought a couple DRM-free games from other platforms.

However, as I suspect this situation won't improve, I have started considering GOG just another platform, the unthinkable has happened and I have fallen to the tempation: I started buying unDRM'd games from DRM'd platforms and even sailed the high seas for some executables. Remaining on the list would be pointless after that.