"Achievements" are extrinsic reward schemes and game statistics that only work when you can't easily cheat/manipulate the score, when you're online while playing and when the game in question busily communicates with the GOG server all the time.

Only the naziest of nomenclature nazis would claim that this is not technically DRM.

Same goes for cloud saves. It's not technically DRM, but it 'accidentally' serves the very same purpose while employing the very same technology used in online verification.

And all the social media crap like the profiles? That's a customer loyalty scheme. It binds you to this particular platform, softly and unfelt maybe, but a more effective and unbeatable piracy prevention measure has not been invented yet. It's literally the ultimate copy protection.

Personally, I often wonder how people can openly sneer at Valve but then go on to install and use Galaxy "because DRM free". Valve could dispense with the Steamworks DRM tomorrow to the horror of their business clients, but they'd still have all those social media, cloud and workshop schemes going on that there would literally be no difference in the level of piracy protection the platform offers.

Consequently, those that raise a concerned eyebrow at basically everything that brings GOG as a service closer to Steam, those I understand much better.

I hope I haven't offended you with these notions.

It's not DRM, because they still have no way to prevent me from playing the game. DRM means that someone else has power over when and how I can use my stuff.

Never heard that particular definition. :)

But of course, achievements are felt to be part of the games, very much so. And the power over these is pretty damn vested in someone else, on someone else's server. If you want those achievements, participate in the social component, you're undergoing a – certainly "voluntary" – online verification process that works exactly like forms of DRM.

Hmm... I see achievements rather as some kind of (mostly superfluous) bonus. If they don't work offline... I couldn't care less.
Of course some people might see that differently... and of course all features tied to some server that is not under my control are - not under my control. So the "feature" could be called DRM'd... ok.

It's a change on the website which annoys me too. The default for the user menu, which before pointed to the game library, points to the user profile now.

If it would be that easy we would have a lot less problems here. The point is that setting all options to the most private value still leaks private data.

When they really wanted to fix the problem they could have done so within 5 minutes with a small code change to disable the leaking numbers. After that they would have had all the time to fix the privacy issues without any stress.

This is an excellent point which I agree with, but not what I believe the topic is talking about. That's a different discussion altogether. OP didn't even mention the privacy thing. He comes off (to me, anyway) as being against the concept of having profiles at all, which I strongly disagree with. A feature shouldn't be removed from the entire site just because you don't like it/see the point of it. If your issue isn't with the privacy and instead with having a feature available that you think is dumb, then just don't use the feature. It's as simple as that.

>inb4 "but you're forced to use it because your number of games is automatically displayed" - I never saw OP talking about this, only about not wanting social features. If that's your sticking point, sure, I agree there, but not with the idea that "ew, nobody wants profiles, that's for idiot kids over on Steam" or whatever.

I don't read the OP that way. IMO they don't want to use the profile, so it causes them more fuss they way it's implemented. I can't see that they want to have the feature removed for everybody, they just don't want to be bothered by it.
And I can understand that... the additional click to get to your games aside, as soon as you have any friends who are active in any way (playing games with achievements, making forum posts), there's the the violet dot begging for your attention... Would be nice if you disable all of that for people who don't want it.

I like how you change constantly to remark that "YOU" who like the profiles changes are thousands of users and "THEY" who dislike profiles or, at least, the implementation and the new privacy settings set on lowest by default, are always a small minority group.

Very subtle, yes.

Also, about the "success" of the profiles, you seem to base that in your own opinion and those "thousands" of statistics you surely don't have, but you are just guessing basing on what you think. The forums are burning after the forced implementation without any real warning (no "News", no email, nothing that can be considered of good faith and responsible with the users/customers) and the features wishlists claiming for privacy options or totally disable the forced profiles are growing up.

I cannot see that as a success to "thousands" of users against a "small" group that is..just trolling for you or what? You are just being biased and emitting an opinion, not a fact.

There should be an option to turn achievements completely off.

Nothing is more disturbing and immersion breaking as some stupid message "Congratulations! You have entered a new area." when you are trying to play the game, and have achieved nothing at all, simply entered another room to see how that is involved in the story (if at all).

Achievements spoiled Broken Sword 5 experience for me, as there was no way to turn those off.

Disable overlay? I have this always off, I don't want to be distracted while playing.

That's of course not affecting games with in-game achievements... but that has nothing to with GOG and Galaxy then.