So I tried GOG when I bought Ashes of the Singularity, thought I try out a Steam competitor.

Yet I see no advantageous, and with long delays for patches and split in-game communities I feel I made a mistake. I really wish I had bought it on Steam, they been playing the new update for weeks.

Is the DRM free really that useful that many are okay with delay patches (and no show of concern by GOG)?

I rarely have any DRM problems in my many Steam\EA games. I buy, install and click game to run.
With GOG its the exact same. DRM free just doesn't come into play (for me).
The only difference is patches on GOG, and it seems for all GOG games, seem delayed for a very long period.

I am assuming GOG is for people who, for whatever reason, push the DRM limits and our willing to forgive the other problems GOG brings to the table. Or maybe they are just Steam haters?

But I am excited by this new update (2.4) and it irritating to not have it when I am suppose to own it. To be stuck watching videos... for weeks...

Do other games have there patches delayed by weeks too, I have seen similiar comments in a few forums. Is this the exception or rule? Whats the longest wait you been subjected too?

Because I want to actually own what I pay for. Because I want all my games always and fully playable offline. Because I refuse to have a client forced on me. Because I despise Steam's near-monopoly. Because it's Tuesday.

Yes, DRM-free is *that* important and useful -- no need to discuss this for the millionth time here again. Under no circumstances will DRM be ever superior to DRM-free.

But at the same time, I am not going to champion the way GOG delays updates, gradually pushes its own client, releases games with missing DLC, and occasionally makes baffling curation decisions. And so I would never fault anyone who chooses Steam for a hassle-free experience in those regards. I wish the situation was different, but it's the tradeoff we need to live with these days. If GOG made you enjoy your game less, by all means, take your business elsewhere next time.

It's unfortunate you had a negative experience with the update and hopefully if maybe you complain to the developer they'll address the time delay in future updates. I own a lot of Devolver games on GoG that I don't remember having any update issues with, but most of those are single player games.

There are a lot of reasons to support GoG. The most obvious I think is that in most important respects it is a better company. GoG offered refunds long before Steam did and is far more generous to the consumer in the qualifications for a refund. Steam it should be noted only started offering refunds after a lawsuit that would have prohibited them from selling in certain countries. GoG customer service in my experience is also vastly better than the 2week minimum slog of Steam automated responses. Also the recent promotions on GoG of buying a new game and recieving another free is a nice benefit over Steam.

The GoG client that allows for multiplayer is fairly new still so maybe cut them some slack on that for the moment. For most single player games I don't see the benefit of going to Steam over GoG. I'd rather help a competitor like GoG than give Steam more monopoly power. I'd also rather encourage indie devs to publish here and embrace better practices than those of AAA publishers on Steam.

The last thing I would add is that GoG showed there was a market for older games and is therefore responsible for not only preserving the ability to play them but encouraging developers to release modern 'enhanced' versions. In the future I hope your experience is better and you find some of these reasons worthwhile for staying with GoG over other platforms (at least when it comes to single player titles).

Simple, DRM free and all under one roof.

Updates, sure i remember seeing a blue say they are working on the speed of release....
I think, maybe i imagined that, or wishful thinking.

I have over 1000 games here, but I start buying DRM-free games on Humble Bundle recently.
Because I could not trust GOG anymore.

Recent GOG promo are ALL buggy, and GOG Support are slow and bad.
While DRM-free is very importand for me, there are still other online stores sell DRM-free games.

I feel your pain.

The huge delay for patchs when it comes to many newer games is infuriating Mainly it's the developers' fault but GOG should tackle this issue one way or another. This is one of the main reasons why people decide to use Steam instead of GOG and will also stay away from out store in the future. . t's especially frustrating when games which crossplay multiplayer are split for weeks because of the opatch delay on GOG.

Here's a GOG mix pointing out such games on GOG:
https://www.gog.com/mix/games_that_treat_gog_customers_as_second_class_citizens

First I didn't intend to troll for a DRM pro/con discussion.
More power to those who dream of a DRM free world.

I was just trying GOG and see that I am not the customer GOG is intended for.
No real advantage (for me) over DRM systems, and 2 real disadvantages that are important to me.

I would support GOG if they gave reasonable updates, or at least communicate with paid customers in what to expect.
The silence is as bad as the lack of game support.

The publishers have stated
"GOG QA validates each build that goes live on GOG so there is inherent delay unique to GOG."
The wait is on GOG.

But I seem to be right in that its the DRM free aspect that makes GOG a viable business. Not knocking it, I was just wondering.
For me playing the game I bought (and own) is most important. Not having a (significant) patch is not owning the game,
but owning an out of date game.

Issue of "owning" is a interesting point. GOG does not allow trading, selling or giving away your "owned" game.

But what are the delays you folks have seen, I am in the dark, its been over 2 weeks. Is this average? Are other games quicker? Do I probably have a longer wait? Is it possible they won't update?

I really hope you passionate DRM-Free people get all you want, keep up the fight.
To GOG: "I tried, you failed".

Who did you quote here? It was like this for years but developers should be able to push updates via Galaxy with little to no delay these days. Patch/full installers are still often provided with huge delays due to verfication. Anything from a day up to never. There are devs basicly that have basicly abandoned their games on GOG. Again, I recommend to take a look at the GOG mix in my last post.

"DRM-Free people"

Interesting concept. XD

Welcome to GOG, where continued support is spotty at best. There's dozens, maybe even at least a hundred, games that get patches late, if at all.

Developers have been able to push updates directly to Galaxy for close to a year now (give or take), if the update isn't on Galaxy it's likley their fault.

Everyone has different needs and preferences so it varies. As for Ashes of the Singularity, thanks for mentioning that it is outdated here as I have the game on my wishlist both here and on Steam. If the developers aren't updating it here, I don't want an outdated poorly maintained game (who does really?), so sadly I need to remove it from my wishlist here.

Fortunately it is not like this with all games, just ones that come from irresponsible developers that treat GOG as second class citizens. GOG owns some responsibility in this too though as they allow these games to be sold without getting updates in a timely manner and that does bother me.

Some people will only buy games here, while others like me strongly prefer to get them here but only if the game is on equal ground on selling points that matter to me. Games getting timely updates is very important to me, so when they don't, I either wishlist them only on Steam, or remove them from my wishlist completely depending on various factors. I'd rather always give GOG my money, but not knowingly for an inferior product.

To be fair though too, there are many games here on GOG which are the superior product, coming with more bonus goodies, or having more bug fixes or workarounds out of the box, etc. Also GOG actually provides direct customer support for every game in the store unlike other stores that tell you to go talk to the publisher/developer who never responds to individual queries.

There are a lot of benefits to GOG games, both to all games such as customer support, and on a game by game basis where one game may have a better experience here and another does not. It pays to do a bit of research in the forums/reviews and google on particular games to find out which is which. Also to read up on GOG's game return policies as well, as one can get a refund under certain circumstance if things do not pan out on a given game.

Hope this helps.

For what it's worth, I don't see it as trolling. Legitimate questions you presented.

Keep in mind that gOg started as a store that specialized in bringing back the classics. For so many of those titles, there were no more patches since they were several years old. That, and there were places like FilePlanet and others where you could find multiple patch versions in the event gOg did not have what you needed for your particular setup.

DRM-free was a big bonus to that, one I completely embrace. As a buying gamer since around 1985 / '86, I - and so many other long-time old-school gamers - have pumped an absolute crap load of money into the industry over the years, both on the hardware and software side. For that $25k - $30k, I figure the industry can finally have some trust that I won't be pirating games. gOg understood that, even though they weren't the direct benefactors of my spending before the time the store came into existence.

Last, gOg have managed to coax rights holders' into releasing many, many old games, and they have done their best to massage them to work with new hardware and OSes, within the limitations of not having source code and the like.

And the marketplace advanced. The low hanging fruit of potential classic releases have already been picked so gOg has had to move more and more into new releases. And DRM-free means it's often the small / independent releases. Steam became the 800-pound Gaberilla and that store has set the standards that the customers in the marketplace have come to expect. And they control some, I dunno, 80-90+% (?) of digital sales. Developers - especially small ones - are going to cater to the store that gives them the most volume. That explains at least some of the patch problems: "I'm going to put my effort into the store that gives me the lion's share of my revenue."

Anyway, it's the trust thing for me, mostly. DRM-free means they trust that I'm going to do the right thing. But yeah, don't hold your breath on patches from some developers. Some companies are top-notch about getting the updates out there to all the stores. Others concentrate on Steam, period.

kuz i ownz me gamez sir!!!!!!!!!!