See topic title. After the new Hitman release with swaths of content locked behind online connection (i.e., DRM), I am really worried about our existing games. Who is to say that games won't add such "features" in with new updates? Until the time, if ever, we hear reassurance from GOG on this, I think it is prudent to keep hold of our offline PRIMARY (not backup) installers the best we can.

We have seen in past topics where users report NOT necessarily being able to get offline installers of previous game versions from Staff...so, it seems to me that if we have a working offline installer version (i.e., one still without content locked behind online/DRM), we need to keep it and carefully vet any new updates that come through. Does anyone else have any ideas on how to approach this issue?

A) You can't

B) Make backup copies!

This brings me to the next question: There's any way to see what are the changes on the latest <offline installer file> update?

Because I got backups of everything I own, but I'm just trusting gog with the offline installers being completely offline...

You can't, but if you download them currently, you won't have to care! :D If you do that, then if GOG "improves" them, you can say "f off GOG" and leave the store forever and dab on jannies.

who can you trust other than the government?:O

I 100% do not trust gog.com anymore after Wednesday September 22nd, 2021.

I really do not want to go back to purchasing PC versions of video games from Steam since I have not purchased a single PC version of a video game from Steam since 2012, but I might just to negatively review them with how they treat us gog.com PC gamers as well.

We can't trust them for anything anymore. Back up your games and never buy anything here before making sure you know what you are getting into.

GOG has completely eroded consumer trust.

100% agreed.
I'm waiting for my new HDD though, I still have 160+ updated games I have to download. :/

The only way is too backup your offline installers and stop taking updates. You can’t trust any changes now I am afraid, galaxy has been pushed into offline Installers, content removed, and no changelog or previous versions (unless of course, and this will come as a surprise) you install galaxy. It’s all a ploy to infect as many machines as possible.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/provide_a_full_and_complete_changelogged_download_system

I was one of several people who placed a support ticket politely asking for a previous version of an offline installer that didn't have the now 2 year old unfixed bug in the newest installer for Divinity Original Sin. It was denied with a "just use Galaxy" non answer. Luckily I found I had the last pre-Galaxified bug-free offline installer backed up on a secondary backup drive and re-backed that up to the main one, completely ignoring any new version since. Others though (eg, someone who only recently bought the game) literally have no good offline installer version to download at all. The one GOG provides has the bug, the one without the bug GOG refuses to provide (yet clearly still has the files available for Galaxy rollback).

The lesson learned was simple - treat the ability to re-download GOG's offline installers as utterly disposable as if they went out of business tomorrow. Once you have a "good" working version of a game, keep it. If the game gets updated, do not delete that old version, instead simply place it in a "Verified Good" sub-folder until you've comprehensively tested the new version via an actual playthrough. "Does it have DRM?", "Has Galaxy integration screwed something up for offline installers?", "Does GOG refuse to provide a bug-free older backup installer of a game whose newest build has a bug?", etc. It's sad that it's come to having to check this for every game when the underlying reason many people want DRM-Free in the first place is a reduction in bullsh*t, not an increase of it.

I understand the point on testing, I respect it, a high quality careful approach. But let's imagine a person with thousands, will they be able to test all by hand on every update? Not very feasible for big where dozens can be updated daily, if not more. In that sense safer to freeze one's collection and only update where really necessary or a new title, with fully reviewing.

While I understand perfectly legitimate feelings about the state of Hitman GOTY and what happened with No Man Sky etc, do we have any examples of a game having its existing gameplay reduced due to an update.

From what I have ever heard, an update has only ever impacted new additions to a game, but please correct me if I am wrong, and I too will get up in arms with you and show my deep concern.

While I don't agree with adding DRM elements in an update, if your original game download in the form you received it, can still be played fully, then I am not sure we have anything to fear about updates ... other than DRM should be soundly rejected here in any case.

1) Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis became ARMA: Cold War Assault which resulted in some third party things, like mods, becoming unusable with the new version.

2) Some adventure games that were originally released with DOSbox were later released with ScummVM, without the original game exe files, making it impossible for the user to use it in any other third party application than ScummVM.

I know these aren't quite what is being discussed here, but just to point out that some updates have had major impacts on how the customer can play the game vs. how the customer was able to play when the game was originally bought.


As far as the real discussed issue goes, later updates containing DRM, I find the risk of that being very low.
There simply would be no point in that, after the games are already out DRM-free, there's no reason to re-DRM them again, the costs of doing that simply would never be covered by whatever is gained by adding in DRM.

Anyway, there have been cases where, depending on your definition of DRM, it actually has been done. Some offline installers have been updated with some Galaxy elements. Obviously that is for some internal technical reasons which are not meant to limit any usability, but some might consider any traces of Galaxy as DRM.

No one can say games won't be wrecked by new "features" that come in the latest offline installer.

That's already happened plenty of times in the past, like the Chuchel character being censored, and like how the latest two versions of Divinity: Original Sin contain a game-breaking bug in which vital text that should appear in the tool-tip windows that pop-up when you hover the cursor over a skill do not actually appear because of said bug, thus leaving the player without necessary information to manage their skills properly.

The solution to the problem in the OP is the same solution as the problem in the examples I've just described: GOG must make every version of every game they sell available as an offline installer, with the owner of the game free to choose whichever version number that they want to download.

However, GOG probably will never implement this feature, even though the players need it. Many have asked for it before, and their requests always get ignored/neglected/nothing is ever done about them.