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Which of these future games will be DRM-free? My educated guess is that the "coming changes to the industry" will include even more DRM, streaming-only, no consumer ownership of the game. These anti-consumer practices are all courtesy of people not being able to pass up on individual games when worthy substitutes are available DRM-free and allowing these companies to take a mile for every inch. It is precisely "the Half-Life 2 problem" where people claim to not like the DRM, "...but I really really need that game, so, okay I'll buy it, what the hell!".

I personally don't look at passing up such games as "punishing" myself because to me my desire for a game is intrinsically linked to it being DRM-free. In other words, make it DRM-free and I am interested in purchasing, but otherwise, eh, it can be a pass. I do think it would have been better for GOG to work on compatibility with other systems (including outdated systems as I believe Windows XP support was dropped because it can't handle the "optional" client Galaxy). So of course people instead just beg to have a Galaxy for Linux, lol.

The future of PC gaming doesn't really look all that hot, imo.

Speaking for myself:

- Steam blends games and community. You can switch to the community hub and back, you can browse and edit your reviews, there's a workshop etc. Not sure how much of these features is provided by GoG nowadays, too, but I gave up waiting and checking for them.

- Steam does not rely on curation but algorithms. Don't get be wrong, curated content is fine, but I prefer to discover hundreds of great indie games on Steam which never made it to GoG. GoG is a wasteland here. Imo they should open their platform to all devs/publishers. They can keep their curation concept and keep a pool of curated games, but not exclusively.

- Steam is constantly tinkering on algorithms which help me to discover new games. It's in their interest and in mine, of course. I see that's not as important for GoG atm since they have way less games to be found in the first place, but as already mentioned that's part of the problem.

Serious post, I'ld love to see GoG to rise and shine, but I don't see that happen until they revise their policy. I don't need to "own" a game. It's a nice gimmick I can sympathize with, but it's more important that the game is available in the first place. Most of the times I just want to find it, play it and that's it. In 99% of the time I won't play it again later anyway. So GoG should shift its focus away from exclusive curation and the absence of DRM (which doesn't mean giving up on those) towards a more open ecosystem. I hope they are capable for that, as they were in the past when they realized that you can't compete just by restoring old games.

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I really enjoyed Oblivion. Would like to own and play Skyrim.
Bui I refuse to be forced to use a Steam client to run it. Principle matters to me.

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Well, movies on disc can last for many decades if properly taken care of. I don't know about DVD's, but Blu-Rays and 4K Blu-Rays can supposedly last 100 years if properly preserved before having any problems. Therefore, I do believe that even if you transfer the movies to an external hard drive, it would be prudent to keep them as a very durable medium. Plus, they look very good on the shelf. That may just be me, though!

Personally, what I did was to got on sort of a buying spree on Steam, where I purchased all the games that I would really want to play, however, I haven't spent any money for nearly a year, and I am not planning on doing that. Therefore, Valve may have receive an influx of revenue from me, but that has stopped indefinitely, and now I am only buying from their competitor GOG.
Again, the same case as with the word "brave". Obviously, punishing yourself is intended as a hyperbole. The truth is, in a way, yes, you are "punishing yourself", as GOG doesn't have Red Dead Redemption 2.

people are very afraid of changes , so they usually just use the things they know already

I kind of agree with you. That's why (except for PS3 and PSP) I've never had a console. I believe consoles are anti consumer.

So what I did was stock up on a couple of games that are not making it to GOG any time soon (like RDR2) and that's it. I haven't purchased on Steam in 3/4ths of a year, and I do not intend to again. That's not a bad tactic imho, as the revenue stream for Valve is severed.

1: How is Steam a monopoly? The existence of GOG and the Epic store (as much as I despise the latter) disprove the existence of a Steam monopoly.

2: Does anyone outside of GOG's curation team have any understanding of why some games make the cut and not others? Lots of great games make it but then so does stuff that to me is ok at best, with GOG having plenty of better games of the same type already.

I hear there's a perpetually drunk, sentient lizard with split personalit disorder living somewhere in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri who claims to have once glimpsed the shape of the primordial madness otherwise know as GOG's Curation in a drug induced out-of-body experience, but I don't know if I believe it.

Steam is not monopoly, it's just the most popular. As for GOG...i mean they barely even talk about DRM-Free nor preservation anymore, they don't really promote themselves as anything so I don't see anything changing in people's habits to do with either. That and the two are light-years away from one another

And here i thought they flung darts at a board with different curating options on it, or have a wheel of fortune, or even a "Jump to Conclusions" mat.

The real reason Half Life 3 was never made was because steam turned out to be a massive source of near free money. For doing no more than hosting web forums and having an Epic Games style launcher, Valve was awarded millions of dollars without lifting a finger. Why bother releasing games when you can just keep milking customers?

what happened with your comments?
thats what most people do when get rich in an instant lucky hit