Galaxy is not Steam because there's no DRM component and you can download the same ol' installer files. Just use it as a downloader and close it when not downloading. It's a non-issue.

Aww, see now you have gone and fallen into your own arguments there. Being a client does not mean drm. Gog galaxy is exactly the same as steam client, it is there to provide achievements, cloud saves etc. And can be used as a downloader. Steam also has another component CEG which is the drm module. You can download games from steam which are drm free and play them offline without the client as you can with galaxy.
Now in terms of control, as has been seen on other threads, a client can be used for control. Users complaining their game has been revoked, and they only have galaxy installers. See that’s one main reason why gog wants to hide those offline installers, far better to have everyone tied into their systems. Drm is quite clear in its role, and how it can damage a users interaction with a product. Clients are more subtle, and thus far worse.

I agree 100% on all this.

Also agreed on the game removals being handled badly.

A slight correction: they don't add galaxy to offline game installers(the client)....just galaxy DLLs.

Agreed on this as well

If GOG ever add DRM to Galaxy you'll have a great "I told you so!" moment, but since they've been providing DRM free installers for 12+ years and literally run a site called "f**k DRM" I'm willing to bet this is paranoia.

I have started using gogrepo at some point and never looked back :)

Not drm as such, but I have seen a few threads now where people’s game, admittedly brought through g2a or something like that, has been revoked and they cannot play. Now that is of course merely an access to updates if, and that’s a big if ass lost don’t even know anymore about offline installers, they have those installers. Otherwise they just have a client which won’t do anything. Not saying it’s wrong to block those, just saying it has happened.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/keep_the_gog_downloader_and_keep_it_up_to_date


Don't forget to vote:)

It's not just "not drm as such" it's something that have absolutely nothing to do with drm; It's called preventing peoples who don't own the game, or where the game has been removed from their account, from downloading the game or it's updates. It has nothing to do with using Galaxy or not, even if you are only using offline installer, if a game is removed from your account you will lose access to it and won't be able to any updates.

Digital rights management. They are managing your rights on the product. As I said, it’s loose, but fits.
Also, who says he did not have the right? Apparently in this one instance he got his money back, suggesting that he honestly paid for it and assumed he had brought it.
It’s sad to see people who only think external control happens when denuvo or securing is mentioned. Drm is only part of the problem.

By this definition logging on Gog website to purchase and download your games is also digital rights management, meaning that nothing apart from freely available games freeware were ever really DRM-free.

It also means that Gog never was DRM-free as removing you the ability to download a game was something they were able to do since their inception.

Zing!!! But yes there are more reasons to not want a client even if in some cases it is not technically serving as DRM. That said, I also would dispute the "there's no DRM component" re: Galaxy (emphasis mine). While I suppose there isn't the CEG like Scheme has, there are several games sold on this store which require Galaxy in order to access multiplayer modes. I would call that a DRM component, considering that if you had less lazy programmers, DRM-free multiplayer would totally be a possibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI3QVsW30j0 O.o

Yes, having to log in to an account to access the game is also control over the digital product. However a method to perform the transaction is necessary. As is a method to acquire the files. Both can be performed using any of the many browsers out there, rather than one specific client. Also note, that the incident which i was referring to (which is recent so I can remember it) is with a product being activated, then revoked later on leaving the client (the only thing the user knew about) greyed our, hence he was not able to play. Of course if he knew about the offline part of it could have run from from the install, however with the drastic push towards getting everyone on clients, the offline installers are largely forgotten and hidden away as they don’t want to promote that. So it will likely be more of an issue in future as more people get the grey button of doom and do not know what else to do.

Just seen this example:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_do_you_run_games_outside_of_galaxy