I didn't really want to post here again and I probably shouldn't. Question though what do you honestly expect from GOG? They will eventually run out of older games to sell, if it's not here already then most likely the game is either tied up in legal stuff or GOG can't make a deal with the publisher. That part is not up for debate, it will happen sooner rather that later. So that means to stay in business GOG has to sell newer games out of necessity not because that really want too, even if they do want to sell them. GOG knows and we know it.

What do nearly all newer games have today? Online components to them. It's the age of the internet and developers feel it expands there games, because generally your Steam crowd does want these features. Is GOG suppose to strip this out of newer releases and give us a gimped version taking these features away from those who do want them? I ask how is that any different than just ignoring the "optional" online component which we can all do? Should this decision be made by GOG for all of us?

Then you run into issues like Victor Vran. Up until this point I think we all largely agreed that games with online MP were okay to sell here. Yes some people still felt this is DRM but they were fine with it as long as the MP and SP were separate from each other, because on GOG most people feel the core single player experience was what was important. As long as that remained DRM free most people were happy, because they could playing single player offline on any PC, forever. (I'm sure some will disagree of course, but the fact these games are here says this.)

But Victor Vran is doing what is now becoming a new trend in gaming. There blurring the line between MP and SP by having them interact. Nothing it does has any meaningful impact on SP but it's a feature of the game. Just like with the game Dark Souls, and a handful of others... but now we have problem. The core single player experience is effected by the thing GOGers hate most, being online to get the full single player experience. I generally hate that too, crappy ISP and all.

Back before the rise of the internet, DRM was simple because there was no online or at the very least it was not used much for gaming. If you could install it unlimited times, copy it unlimited times, ect it was DRM free. I tend to still hold to that definition of DRM, but hey I've been gaming for a long time and I remember gaming before the internet. Perhaps that's why the internet features don't bother me as much, for the most part I really don't care about them.

But really what is GOG to do? Not sell games like Victor Vran? Okay that might work for now... but what about 5 years? 10 years? When more than the majority of games are just like Victor Vran? It's easy to say, don't sell this game or that game... it has DRM. It's another to understand that for GOG to stay relevant they can't do that.

In the end it going to come down to understanding that for GOG it's going to be rather simple. If you can install it unlimited times, copy it unlimited times, and play single player offline... it's going to be considered DRM free. Otherwise GOG will have no games to sell in the future because the online interaction is only going to get more invested as we move forward. IF you don't care for that, my advise is to buy your games now that you want, and become a retro gamer, because the writing is on the wall. Well that's probably my plan anyway.

Just my 2 cents, take it or leave it. ;)

Installed and played a bit this morning. The game:

1. Installed offline.
2. Did not require Galaxy to be installed.
3. Has not bugged me or even asked me once to create a Haemimont account.
4. Feels finished and professional.
5. Works great with an Xbox 360 controller.
6. Has surprisingly good writing so far.
7. Is so much fun!!! :)

A +1 for this simple factual statement of what actually occurs on install (well, okay, #s 6 & 7 are opinions).

+1 to you too.

If I were gog I'd now just move the "cheat-code" alias Gog.com exclusive Treasure Key into a free dlc like they have with the witcher 3.
Then the ones that don't mind the haemimont account can still have it and all the others can direct all the bad reviews to the dlc thus leaving the then drm free main game with the 5 star ratings it probably deserves.
Also that might be viewed as if all the outrage accomplished something and all Goglodytes can buy/play the main game without ever touching the tainted dlc and thereby retaining the Purity of Essence. :D

Disclaimer: If you think the whole mechanic of the Treasure Keys is a singleplayer feature as opposed to multiplayer/online part of the game that should work offline, then I guess this wouldn't solve your quarrel with the game.... otherwise I think the idea is neat :)

Thank you, the most coherant post in this thread. +1

Before going on with this discussion: I don't think we can solve this one here. Let's just wait for the Q&A this evening ask the important questions then. I'm really excited doing this because there is also my hope that it could become more clear what the decisions behind the different measures are.

Sorry, can't see your point here, not at all. The truth is that "cheat" is a "feature" sold with the game since the first day, and to have access to it you must call home, period.

I'm sure many features of the actual game were not intended in the begining (number of different minions, end final bosses, how many spiders in the first act, and so on and on and on), but as a finished product they ARE an included "feature" in the game, that's including the so called "cheat". And your argument about POKEMON YELLOW???? SERIOUSLY???? What's the relation??? I remind you the "cheat" is an intentional "feature" of this game (Victor Vran) not a bug from the developers, or an exploit...

Pokemon yellow.... O_o Jesus Christ!!

8. You (or me, or anybody) have not the chance to access to all the game features if you don't call home. So good for you, you don't want or need all the "features" of the game, many other may think otherwise, and may want to access all those features without being validated by the developers. Respect other people with different needs than you. Thanks!!!

PD: I remind you all GOG is *supposedly* a DRM-free platform. So we are buying games here with that in mind. And this game indeed has *partial* DRM.

Isn't it quite uncanny how that "top rated" review has 3x more participating votes than the other reviews and 3x more "helpful" votes than anything else.
I call shennanigans :)
Whats also quite odd is that it would appear that this game is being voted on over DRM issues, rather than the quality of the actual game.

It really does highlight the ability to review a game here even if you haven't bought or actually played the game and a distinct reason not to allow this.

It seems some clarification is needed. Yes in order to use the booster pack you need to make an online account with Haemimont. Fact is when you play the game and wan't to reedem the key the game gives you a notice that you need to go online in order to reedem the key for which you need to create an online account.

Just to note though that you can earn all of that booster stuff in game while playing and more less all of the stuff in the booster pack is low level. There is no account or anything else needed to play the singleplayer which is drm-free. On the other side gogs description under the game tab in library is not accurate since it does not mention the need for a multiplayer account for usage of the booster pack.

Quote from the library under Victor Vran: "To apply your GOG Treasure Key and unlock special in-game items, you must start a single player game first - the code cannot be used beforehand. After you start the game, press ESC and choose REDEEM KEY. The Key can be redeemed once by every GOG user."

Otherwise the game is drm-free while the booster pack is not. And again - no account is needed for playing the game in singleplayer.

Regardless of all that im still enjoying the game and would recommend it to everyone.

It's not shenanigans - it's just that for some people the DRM-free feature is more important than other features, so of course reviews talking about DRM get promoted by those people. No need for conspiracy theories. :)

Different people have different requirements. You don't require DRM-free, other people do.

There was nothing disrespectful about the post you quoted, while your post is actually rather aggressive.

I'm not quite clear what features you say you want but can't access. The feature that requires you to go online and log in is online multiplayer on a dedicated server (the treasure hunts are generated by the server, so the game has to connect to the server). That obviously requires you to be online, and I'd say it also requires a log-in considering how some people behave online. I wouldn't consider that DRM. There are a lot of people who want this type of multiplayer, and I think we should respect those people's needs as well, rather than demanding that a feature you don't like is removed for everyone.
But from your post, I suspect that this (existing) feature is not what you want, but you want a different kind of multiplayer implementation, like LAN, or maybe some other direct peer-to-peer (forgive my lack of technical terminology, I rarely play multiplayer, so I don't know all the different methods of implementing it). But this is a feature that doesn't exist in this game. throgh I think has been arguing in this thread for having this feature, and I agree it would be nice to have even if I personally have little to no interest in it. But this would be an additional feature, it's not something you are locked out from by not going online. Nothing is being taken away from you, the game simply doesn't have a feature you consider important. I can understand if that's a dealbreaker for you, but it isn't for everyone. Different needs, and all that.

Ah, I get it now, thanks for pointing that out, I'll probably get the game later, I was putting it off due to the too-ing and fro-ing in the thread.

Much appreciated and +1 for your help :)