^^^This!! I shopped at GOG for these very 2 reasons! These principles have eroded away to make way for indie gaming. I support GOG branching out as much as they are able, but please hold on to the core values that make shopping at GOG a unique experience. They have not been able to compete well with other online distributors when it comes to timely releases. GOG, for whatever reason, is slow. Games come to GOG and it's "Oh that's nice but I already have it." So if they just have to be like every other online distributor they had better step up and release games at the same time as them.

Well, we've received no response suggesting how this type of problem will be avoided in the future.

Therefore, I have to assume this type of problem *will* return in the future.

I'm not sure where this leaves me as someone who wants to buy DRM-free games.
Perhaps I will try my luck with humble bundle's DRM-Free labelled games for now.

I'm afraid they have questionable ideas about what DRM-free means as well...

When I see discussion on GOG forums about so-called "DRM-free" Steam games, I’d say a lot of people have questionable ideas about what DRM-free means…

Maybe, but at least Steam makes no claim about them being DRM-free. In fact, the DRM-free games people are closer to being DRM-free than some of the ones Humble claims are DRM-free...

Aren't those games that are only checked at download time? So, you can download, backup on your hard drive, and play at will forever from that copy? No more need for the Steam service or Steam client?

As far as I know, you need the client to install them. That you are able to take the installed data out of Steam’s claws to make a backup is nothing more than a hack, not a feature.
To compare with GOG stand-alone offline installers.

You mean that, when you click "Install" on the Steam client, it does not just run the "install.exe" of the game?

If the installed game makes no effort to validate anything ever, it's, IMO, not DRM.

Though I agree it's pretty inconvenient that there's no clear way to "install" it again without the phonehome client.

Steam does have a feature to "backup" or export the game on one machine and import it again on another, but my bet is this process phones home.

Basically at that point I think we're in crappy implementation territory. Like does the game not work if you move it around, and if so, what files would you have to edit to change the paths? I'd bet big bucks you could just drop the fallout install on another computer in another dir and have it just work, and at the worst case it would work if you just use the same path.

However, some game that installs bits of itself in bizarre locations (like weird services or whatever) would not be reasonably portable, even if not trying to apply DRM.

No, there's no install.exe, Steam downloads and places the files itself and then run the scripts to place the registry entries and so on.

Here we’re speaking of a game (DEFCON) that’s phoning home on first launch. Everybody agree it’s DRM, and that the game couldn’t stay in this state in GOG catalogue.
But a client that phones home at each time you want to install *any* game is not DRM?

If there’s a logic behind this, I don’t get it.

Still nothing from support by the way, despite sending another message. Am I purposefully being ignored? Because I've been waiting for a reply for nearly a month now...

http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/publishingservices.php
https://archive.is/mIRTJ

Notice how they try to differentiate between DRM and Steamworks. They are just trying to use a different name, like creationists changing to intelligent design.

Haha, I remember that now. Yeah, they seem to use the term DRM as if it specifically means the limited activations SecuROM that used to be so prevalent. They don't exactly claim to be DRM-free though, they just use the term DRM to refer to 'that other stuff' disingenuously implying that CEG isn't DRM.

The discussion point here is not "does steam implement DRM in some capacity", but rather "Does the copy of Fallout you get from Steam laden with DRM?"

My view is that steam delivers packages of software and auto-fires the installer. Based on what I read in this thread, I doubt the installer nor the installed software, in this case, makes steamworks checks to verify anything. Steam makes checks to verify you should have access to that game before downloading and installing it, and so does Galaxy.

Of course I am extremely doubtful of Bathesda's commitment to drm-freedom, and combined with the giant misfeature of steam of "upgrading" games whether you like it or not, I still wouldn't choose this option. But I'm not hearing a DRM component in this specific scenario.