Time4Tea: You are being extremely obtuse.

GOG is not a walled garden, because they provide offline installers that can be downloaded, installed and played, without having to install their 3rd party client on your system. If GOG ever went to a model where games could only be downloaded/played via Galaxy, that would be a big step toward them becoming a walled garden.

If you could provide a list of which Steam games can be downloaded and played easily through their website (i.e. without having to use awkward hacks), without having the Steam client installed, that would be great.

Time4Tea: Steam is not simply a store selling games, they are a software platform. No game purchased there can be downloaded or played, without using their client. That required use of their client creates a walled garden, which locks in consumers. I think there could be an argument that is anti-competitive?

Time4Tea: That is a strategy Steam chose to use very deliberately, so I don't buy these arguments that Steam is somehow innocent and it's all on the developers. Steam could have chosen to sell games that could be downloaded and installed stand-alone (like the good old days) and created an optional API for developers to tie-in to features on their website, like achievements and multiplayer. The mandatory client is not a necessary part of game distribution - they went down that path because they know it locks consumers in and allows them to control the market.

Time4Tea: Yes, that is where the 'lock-in' factor is - the mandatory use of their client application. Steam have effectively succeeded in changing the standard by which video games are distributed. Steam is not simply a store selling games, they are a software platform. No game purchased there can be downloaded or played, without using their client. That required use of their client creates a walled garden, which locks in consumers. I think there could be an argument that is anti-competitive?

That is a strategy Steam chose to use very deliberately, so I don't buy these arguments that Steam is somehow innocent and it's all on the developers. Steam could have chosen to sell games that could be downloaded and installed stand-alone (like the good old days) and created an optional API for developers to tie-in to features on their website, like achievements and multiplayer. The mandatory client is not a necessary part of game distribution - they went down that path because they know it locks consumers in and allows them to control the market.

Time4Tea: They way to break up Steam's dominance would be for the government to create a regulation that mandates a standard for video game distribution and pass laws that distributors have to ensure compatibility of their systems with that standard. Any legislature can create any laws or regulations that they want to, and that is generally the best way to break up a walled garden - you have to open up the market by standardizing and enforcing compliance.

The situation is quite similar to Facebook. Their walled garden could also be broken up, if the US government were to put in place a standard format for social media posts and force social media outlets to be compliant. Then, there would be no walled garden, because a user using a different SM platform would be able to cross-post to/from Facebook, without having to be a Facebook 'user'. I.e. doing that would give back choice to the consumer, which has been taken away.

But, the chances of the US government doing that is probably quite slim, since in recent years they have become more and more pro-corporate. They fucking hate the consumer and see us all as cattle to be 'farmed'.

Chromanin: You are personally attacking me? That's actually pretty sad man. Try to have a normal discussion with arguments without resorting to mud throwing. As for the topic you're referring to, for me that was a legitimate question as it seemed like GoG Connect was meant for this function. I never demanded anything.

PixelBoy: [...].

Anyway, like said, even if there were clientless downloads, most people wouldn't bother to create many accounts in all possible stores. They would choose one or two, and that's it.

Time4Tea: You can download GOG's offline installers easily from the library page of any game. As for your second point - how is that relevant?

AB2012: Dude, you were low-rated on every single post there for a reason. And calling out double-standards isn't an "attack", it's a simple observation. "Steam's DRM is never Steam's fault because devs can say no". "Epic / console exclusives aren't Epic / Sony / MS's fault because devs can also say no. They don't have to accept the money, they can be like games such as DARQ who didn't". Both arguments are true by your own standards of whether the developer / publisher can say "no". And yes I know what GOG connect was for. I also understand why it rapidly fizzled out and why GOG doesn't want to bring it back...

amok: for some people, it is obviuos the earth is flat

edit - I also like how you agree with me, then puts in a different point as if it contradicts what I said
amok: why? every single store in histroy have some items exlsuive to them, that you can only get in that store. gOg have games that are exculsive to them as well, and they have even had timed exculsives (as with Project Warlock and some other games) so I guess gOg is anti-consumer.

amok: hehe, and now who is being obtuse? and it did not answer my question - are you saying each library page is a different site?.

Time4Tea: Huh? Where did I imply that 'each library page is a different site'? What are you talking about?

You asked: "Where do you have to go to get those installers?"

I answered: "The GOG library page for the game you want."

In what way did I not, very directly, answer your question?

amok: no, my actuall question was, and you removed it here, you only aswerd half of it - " where do you have to go to tget thos installers? How many differnt sites provides them? "

Time4Tea: What is your point? I have no idea what you are talking about, or what point you are trying to make. I have answered your question twice now.

Have you been drinking? (your spelling rather suggests that you have ...)

PixelBoy: That argument would be completely wrong.

Steam client doesn't prevent you from installing Epic client, Origin client, Big Fish client, and GOG Galaxy and whatever else you want.

PixelBoy: The only way that is "anti-competitive" is that most people don't bother to play with so many clients, but that is a customer choice, not something that Steam is unfairly doing.

Chromanin: In other words, if publishers/developers start deciding that a game owned by a user carries over from store to store. Steam's importance would lose grip, because copies of the games would work on competitive stores or even consoles.