Sorry, I don't know. I didn't do any multiplayer with GOG/Galaxy yet.

I do not care about any single "card" or "EXPERIENCE" BS features on STEAM, but they are pretty successful, so I guess many care about... so I guess, yeah PC gamer says GOG Galaxy is some kind of salvation, but I bet soon or later we will have similar features on GALAXY...

I had the same problem, just log-in, without closing the browser, log-out and then you can log-in normallz. It worked for me!

Eventually it works, but I have to do it about 6 or 8 times before it sticks. This isn't the first time this problem has come up and the problem should have been fixed ages ago.

I can't really log out until I've logged in. But, I could probably try that when I leave rather than just closing the tab and having the cookie cleared.
There are no games like that. New games are available elsewhere and old games were for sale for years before GOG came around.

Anyways, I'm not sure how they could stop that without DRM.

This kind of practice has a name: "DRM".
It’s not something I would like to see GOG implementing. Here at GOG’s DRM is not welcome, in its place they use the good old-fashioned "trust". That’s what makes this store different, and the reason I buy my games here and not elsewhere.

We're talking about GOG Galaxy Multiplayer here. The only games that have those *are* new, it has nothing to do with the rest of the catalog.
And how long do you think developers are going to opt for GOG Galaxy matchmaking over Steamworks when it turns out to be the perfect workaround for pirates to multiplayer the game? Currently a form of multiplayer is pretty much the most optimal DRM you can have since it rarely ever is accessible for pirated versions.

Besides, what I mention wouldn't need any 'DRM' embedded in the game at all, it would simply not allow you access if the account you're playing from does not own the game as well.

And yes, in a way that's DRM. And you know what that's almost exactly like? Like having a single unique Multiplayer key for accessing Multiplayer. And wouldn't you know it, this 'different' store that uses "good old-fashioned "trust"" has been offering games with a multiplayer key for years already.

Right, but either way the games can be bought other places than GOG. And even when they do add support for the older games, there will still be other sources of those games.

Or am I missing something here?

Regardless of any of that, they can't really stop people from doing it other than by taking the game back as that would require DRM. I suppose they could withhold updates and require a current version in order to connect, but I'm not sure the community would accept that.

Adding support for older games would most likely require a redevelopment of their multiplayer which requires dev involvement, it's not likely to happen except in maybe rare cases.

Steam is the only other place where you'd have a GOG Galaxy matchmaking game, and I do wonder whether those can instead be run through GOG Galaxy or have to run through Steam (which then restricts them so that makes those not relevant).

Also as said above, it's quite possible that GOG Galaxy matchmaking would use your profile as a unique identifier to log into multiplayer. You do have to be logged into the client and your account after all. Then it would be a basic check. Does he own the game, then he can connect to Multiplayer. Does he not? Then he can not.

That doesn't require any DRM inside the game whatsoever, but can still be used to disallow multiplayer access.

Ok, ignoring the above for a second , how do you see multiplayer working where every pirate/cheater can simply freely participate? Because that's what multiplayer without restrictions is going to be. Not only will it stress/strain any servers (assuming there's dedicated ones) but it is very likely to seriously lower the quality of online gameplay, and a lot of that from people who never paid for the game.

Developers that don’t want to sell their games without DRM won’t sell them on GOG to begin with.

It is some kind of post-purchase control of the user right to play the game, isn’t it?
Pretty much the definition of "DRM" in my book ;) (looks like you agree from the last part of you post, so it seems there’s no need for a debate here)

I’m totally okay with a way to control the access to the servers maintained by the editor/developers (so something outside Galaxy), but not with a way to restrict any form of multiplayer through Galaxy.
What if I want to play a multiplayer session on LAN through Galaxy? Or to host my own server? Would you be okay if Galaxy checks my "right" to play multiplayer in this case?

I would be. DRM free doesn't mean buy one copy, multiple people play. And GOG does occasionally use restrictions for multiplayer, usually in the form of a serial.

So, just as they do control who can use their ADN to download the game, so they can also control who uses their network to multiplay.

In case of LAN though, Galaxy network shouldn't be used at all.

I wouldn’t, but I guess you already understood that ;)
This kind of check would mean GOG does not trust me to play only with legit versions of the game. And if they can’t trust me anymore, neither can I trust them.

About the restrictions already in place, the check is done on the server side as far as I know, not on GOG side. With this I’m okay.
What I don’t want to see is checks done by GOG, be it at install time, at launch time, or when launching a multiplayer session (be it through Galaxy or not). It is not the role of GOG in my opinion to control the status (legit or not) of my game copy.

(disclaimer: all of my games are legit copies. but I want GOG to *trust* me on this, not to enforce some kind of check on me like all of us were potential thieves.)

Not really, all they really need is to implement the relevant protocols for most of the older games. They shipped with the necessary code to engage in net play and there's already code out there like hamachi that would make it work.

As far as piracy and cheating goes, this is a DRM free site. There's going to be cheating and or piracy no matter what you do. Most of the older games had weak controls over that and that will have to stay.

Newer games are going to have to accept that it's going to happen as you can't prevent it without DRM and DRM itself is not something that works very well if you're not allowed to ban accounts which again is DRM.

In all seriousness, I can't think of any way of handling this that doesn't involve DRM.

No, what I understood is that you want to be able to buy one copy and have multiple people abuse the Galaxy network. Since that doesn't seem to be the case, apologies.

Check is done either by the game (2 peers with the same serial ingame, refuse connection) or by the server (2 clients with the same serial connected, refuse connection). In the first case, said check can be done on LAN games, and the same serial can be used in different LANs. In the second case, LAN may or may not be affected, but if it is, the same serial cannot be used in different LANs.

On the contrary. GOG has every right to check whether a copy is legitimate or not. Whether they choose to do something is a different matter. What they do though is refuse access to GOG services (downloading the game for sure, not sure for Galaxy so far) if your account doesn't have a GOG copy of it, not refuse access to the game.
So, you can play your game, you can (probably) use all of the game's resources, but GOG may or may not allow you to use their resources, of which Galaxy is one.

They already do a check. I will have to go digging for the screenshot, but it basically says "You don't have this game on GOG yet. Buy it to use Galaxy features", next to the "Play" button, which is active. The sentence is not a quote, but paraphrasing it. Let me go digging for it.

Edit: Found it

I think people accept that to a point, but I'm not sure people are going to accept that on new games though. I accept the serials because the games they are selling have that built into the multiplayer servers and there's no good way of dealing with it other than by rewriting the server code, which is probably not going to happen. It's just too expensive for games that are selling for less than $10 and are that old.

But, I'm not so sure that people will accept that for new games. Serials were never a very good solution and it doesn't take long to create a keygenerator that causes it's own set of headaches and problems for legitimate users.
It's inevitable that being DRM free is going to allow more people to do that more easily. It's not whether or not anybody wants that, it's more a reflection of the reality that the main way of avoiding it is DRM. I'm not aware of any other ways of handling it that don't come down to some form of DRM or another.

In other words DRM. Nobody is going to accept that as a solution to the problem. That's pretty much the last principle that GOG hasn't given up in the past few years to get large. Doing that would pretty much mean there's no point in buying games here rather than Steam.

They have the right to checks, but good luck doing so without some form of DRM. At this stage introducing DRM is tantamount to corporate suicide as it's pretty much the only reason to buy games here rather than from Steam. There certainly is a much better set of services for multiplayer over there than there is here. And until they hit critical mass, I"m not sure it's worth taking the risk.
They can put a notification up, but doing anything beyond that is going to require DRM. I'm not sure how else they could manage it. They can warn without DRM, but if they want to enforce it that's going to require DRM of some sort.

EDIT: I'm not sure that screenshot says what you're suggesting. Am I missing something there?

No offense taken ;)

Looks like Galaxy is not for me then. Bah, I wasn’t all that much into multiplayer to begin with, so it’s not a big loss.
Still a bit disappointed that I won’t be able to use it to play with some of my friends that use Steam, but as I didn’t have this possibility prior to Galaxy I don’t feel like anything has be taken from me.