This is concerning to say the least.

This is rather an interesting blunder by GOG. Many are regarding this as a threat against DRM-Free, but I think it really hurts GOG's expansion plans. With GOG Galaxy, GOG is trying to grow their market by targeting those users who are indifferent to DRM because their computers are connected to the net 24/7, so why would they care about DRM? But in this scenario, those users are the ones that are being affected by this "bug".

Which makes this all rather ironic: if you truly require DRM-free games (like me on my offline gaming PC), you won't ever notice this issue. But if you generally don't need DRM-free, you will be affected by the DRM.

Of course, this "glitch" may just be a diabolical scheme by GOG to show users the perils of DRM and why DRM is ultimately bad for users!

And it also highlights the importance of being able to download and save installers. Had a user indifferent to DRM-free done so, and then installed the game in the future when the developer's activation server was no longer running, they would also have been blissfully unaware of another advantage of DRM-Free: you don't need the developer/publisher to stay in business for you to be able to keep playing the game.

Lets face it, most people don't give a shit about DRM (even on GOG), privacy, data security etc pp. As long as it's cheap and simple...

Although I wonder how many gamers only buy games just before they want to play them?

I suspect a great many impulse-buy games, and since they're only going to play many of those games much later (assuming they ever find the time) then DRM is inevitably going to rear its ugly head at some point in their future.

Indeed, but if history shows us anything, it's that we aren't very good at thinking about the future.
People will not see the problem with DRM until it finally affects them personally.

I guess I haven't felt the need to post anything yet since my opinion of GOG has already dropped a fair amount, at least to the point where this news to me was more along the lines of "Yet another fuckup from GOG." It's certainly unfortunate it's gotten to that point, but I can't bring myself to be all that disappointed since this honestly doesn't fall much below my current expectations of GOG.

I agree as I've followed this thread from the beginning but my thoughts are along these lines.
If this was a whole publisher or a set of games I might be more worried but a single mistake like this is the usual now.

:(

That is the reason I like to buy DRM-free. It allows me to buy a game now, download and keep until I want to play it in the future. Where as Steam games need to be played fairly soon, even when I feel like playing something else.

What this particular blunder has shown is that DRM-free games are not always in truth quite as DRM-free as we would like to believe.
I have played DEFCON loads and really enjoy it, but because the PC I game on only accesses the internet when I really must do so (downloading games), I was unaware of this, and would have continued to be none the wiser if it were not for this topic.
The thing is, although I want DRM-free games - I see that as being able to install and play the game without the need to access the internet. I am fine with games such as The Walking Dead wanting to call home for game updates, so long as it does not lock up the game and works without that connection too.

The problem that this has brought up is simple. GOG sell games as DRM-free and we all have slightly different variations of what DRM-free is to us.
GOG needs to pick a version (preferably the most stringent that still affords multiplayer for those who want it) so that they can best cover everyone elses version of DRM-free.
If they do not, then I fear more mistakes like this minor oversight will raise their heads, and damage the reputation GOG has fought hard to build. Or GOG will loose the DRM-free and I really do not want to find GOG doing that, I am already concerned enough by Galaxy.

--

What we need are people inside of GOG and outside to varifiy the findings. Who understand what they are looking for in a games data packages being sent to check that there is nothing untoward going on with the games.
I have plenty of games here on GOG and although I do not want to sit there and install everyone of them, I would be willing to help a little if someone would show me what I am looking for in the Wireshark results. I know how computers work in general, but most of the subtleties of their functions pass me by.
I also have a win8 PC that will be updated to test out Win10 soon so its life as win8 is redundant, and a spare hard drive to install games onto.

This game was one of the first I got here and I could not play it from day one due to the CANNOT CONNECT TO SERVER and gave me a damn demo... and my key did not work even the second one I got so I gave up on this game and I want GOG to remove the DRM from this game >:(

Edit thank god a drm free build is coming! <3 WOOT WOOT I can play the game FINALLY !!!

I appreciate that GOG is stepping up and allowing refunds on this due to this issue. I'm going to request one - I have the game in my library but have never installed or played it (maybe have dl'd it, not sure).

Will try the support pages route, unless there is some specific procedure we should follow .. ?

[Edit]: And... done. Didn't see an exact selection for this on the droplist so I chose "preorder cancellation" because it was the only thing that seemed to involve the topic of "refunding". So we'll see how it goes..

Let's just hope DEV doesn't make this mistake with every new patch. Also why GOG did not make this information public as soon as they got aware of it, is a nagging and disturbing question to me.

FWIW, I think the right way to word the request is very open.

I don't need to know every piece along the chain that happened, nor call for hair shirts for everyone. However, I do want to hear an understandable account of the class of problem / error that occurred, and a statement of user-comprehensible intended action on the part of GOG.com to better to avoid this class of problem in the future.

What do you mean? :-S

I purchased this game but I have not played it yet.
From what I am understand, without online activation you are limited to a "demo mode", where you can only play against one CPU opponent. If you activate your key, you get access to the "multiplayer" mode. Can you play multiple CPU opponents then?

The game store page does not mention this limitation. I was wondering if it is an artificial limitation imposed against pirates (only 1 vs 1 games until you purchase the game) or a very poor game AI implementation (it can only handle one opponent). So I ask you: can someone tell me if the fully activated game can have multiple CPU opponents?.

YES.