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MarkoH01: I still fail to see how optional achievements would harm the free DRM movement. It does not matter what they "could in theory" the only thing that matters is what they actually do.
What they actually do is reduce the number of people using the DRM-free installers instead of the so-called optional Galaxy, numbers that are then used to chose if GOG focus should be on Galaxy or on DRM-free distribution.

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MarkoH01: It also does not matter if some think that achievements are a waste of time because that does not change the fact that others would like to have them and they don't need to defend themselves imo. Wanting to have achievements in a game is imo as valid as wanting to have some multiplayer in the game.
I am 100% with you on this. I don’t play multiplayer, but you will never see me advocating against the inclusion of multiplayer modes in games… Unless of course said multiplayer mode is tied to the use of third-party software, exactly like client-tied achievements.

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MarkoH01: Don't want it, don't use it. Let others have their fun. Live and let live - just be tolerant.
Being tolerant here would be opening myself to extra DRM restrictions being added at any time. This is not something I am OK with. It is for similar reasons that I am against the publication of a Linux native build of Galaxy.

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I am all in favour of achievements, I even had a lot of fun with them in games like Shadow Tactics. But as soon as they are used to enforce the adoption of third-party software, they lose all of my support.
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MarkoH01: I still fail to see how optional achievements would harm the free DRM movement. It does not matter what they "could in theory" the only thing that matters is what they actually do.
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vv221: What they actually do is reduce the number of people using the DRM-free installers instead of the so-called optional Galaxy, numbers that are then used to chose if GOG focus should be on Galaxy or on DRM-free distribution.
Even before my interest in achievements I was more or less forced to use Galaxy to download my OL installers if I did not want to hassle with browser downloads and scripts after they removed the GOG downloader. Another point worth mentioning is that those true achievement hunters in the end might even use Steam with its DRM instead which would create an even bigger impact on DRM-free gaming, won't you say? I know quite a lot of people that simply don't buy a game here on GOG if it does not come with achievements. Some are even waiting for them to get implemented and buy it the moment achievements are there.

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vv221: I am 100% with you on this. I don’t play multiplayer, but you will never see me advocating against the inclusion of multiplayer modes in games… Unless of course said multiplayer mode is tied to the use of third-party software, exactly like client-tied achievements.
Multiplayer however is also often client based. So you are against the fact that people want to use multiplayer as well if they need to use Galaxy for this.

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MarkoH01: Don't want it, don't use it. Let others have their fun. Live and let live - just be tolerant.
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vv221: Being tolerant here would be opening myself to extra DRM restrictions being added at any time. This is not something I am OK with. It is for similar reasons that I am against the publication of a Linux native build of Galaxy.
So out of fear that something COULD happen you prefer to not be tolerant and don't think about others, correct?

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vv221: I am all in favour of achievements, I even had a lot of fun with them in games like Shadow Tactics. But as soon as they are used to enforce the adoption of third-party software, they lose all of my support.
You are still able to play all of those games without the cleient. Achievements don't change this.
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UnashamedWeeb: link
Thanks to every who has contributed, +1 to all for sharing thoughts.

I'm convinced now that achievements are a detriment to DRM-free after further info gathering as per the 'It seems like GOG is unable to retain even their long supporting developers now' thread. Below is a summary of that post, so skip if you've read it already:

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In general, unless their game runs on Unity, Unreal Engine 4, CryEngine, Visionaire Studio, Defold, Game Maker Studio 2, Godot, and Amazon Lumberyard, the incremental work to implement achievements is non-trivial. Currently, there are too many game engines that are incompatible with Galaxy without extra work on both the GOG DevPortal staff working on the Steam Wrapper (Beta) SDK as it is now and developers' part to add even if it's shown to be possible like The Witcher 2 on REDengine and Slay the Princess on Ren'Py.

GOG will usually lie in between 0-10% of revenue compared to Steam in the foreseeable future and that's being generous. I've calculated before that GOG has a range of 0.12-0.30% market share of the entire PC gaming market based on Newzoo's estimates. I'll leave it to the devs to decide if the incremental revenue is worth putting effort into servicing the segment of customers that need achievements. Though any smart developers will keep in mind that any time not spent on working their upcoming game means less revenue compared to customer service. And those asking for it don't have the leverage of Steam's mass market, so they have to rely on emotional appeal by asking and/or shaming. And as discussed above and in other threads, shaming isn't as productive as asking for it.

Lastly, as previously mentioned, users will have to keep an eye out on the use of achievements as soft DRM. As per the Steamworks DRM page:

We suggest enhancing the value of legitimate copies of your game by using Steamworks features which won't work on non-legitimate copies (e.g. online multiplayer, achievements, leaderboards, trading cards, etc.).
And the case example we're looking at that religiously follows Valve's suggestion is Champions of Breakfast's implementation malicious achievements as substitute DRM:

And if you look at this, we have 160 achievements for it. And all of them are very simple. The way that I did this is quite funny. I tried to find a way so that our game wouldn't get pirated because it would be easy to pirate it. We knew that you could break Steam DRM very quickly.

[Achievements are] your save file. When you first start the game up, it actually checks what achievements you have and it unlocks powers based on your achievements. This is actually the save file for the character so you can't pirate it because you can never use the achievements. It made it unpirateable, which is deeply hilarious to me.
If Steam or GOG servers ever shut down, a game like this would have no savefile - only good for single sittings or speedruns. The very fact that achievements can allow such a malicious exploit that perverts DRM-free means that we must keep a vigilant eye on upcoming games that do this. If there are more games adopting this soft-DRM model, we should do everything we can to stamp it out the mass adoption of this model could result in greater difficulty securing games for GOG due to how finicky achievement exporting from Steam is with its current state, decreased technical quality compared to a cracked game without the bloat, and ultimately defies game preservation.

And if one prioritizes achievements over DRM-free/game preservation after all of this, I have to ask them - why are they here to over-complicate its distribution, pile on the maintenance upkeep of GOG builds, and actively erode pillars of game preservation when Steam is a much better fit for them?

EDIT: Champions of Breakfast, not Heartbound. Both by the same dev. Thank you, 저기.
Post edited January 05, 2024 by UnashamedWeeb

[Achievements are] your save file. When you first start the game up, it actually checks what achievements you have and it unlocks powers based on your achievements. This is actually the save file for the character so you can't pirate it because you can never use the achievements. It made it unpirateable, which is deeply hilarious to me.
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UnashamedWeeb:
Name of this "unpirateable" game is "Champions of Breakfast" BTW
Ahh, thank you for the correction 저기.
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Ancient-Red-Dragon:
You utter bampot. You don't have any right to achievements - though it appears you think them more valid than water as human rights go.

Get a 4chan account. Scream and troll there instead.
Post edited January 05, 2024 by Sachys
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Can we just...kill off achievement support on GOG? I don't think it really makes a lick of difference to the demographics if GOG support the damned glorified event flags or not.