I was very pleasantly surprised upon my purchase of the game from Steam that I can run Witcher 3 whether Steam is running or not...! I'm not in offline mode and I disconnected my broadband physically to test it--game (1.05) fires up and runs great...! I am assuming I have GOG to thank for this...! So, Thank You GOG! (But I'll thank Valve, too, if it's only that Steam has changed some policies...)

Also, having asked the question on the Steam forum twice and receiving no answer...I now put this extremely complicated question to my GOG friends....:

Is there a game manual in .pdf form (or any other downloadable format) that I can download...? I've got everything *but* a game manual, it seems, in my $60 pacakage...;) It's weird--I can't find it through Bing/Google...Steam forum acts like it never heard the term "game manual," and so I put it to the erstwhile brains in the GOG forum base.

Is this a question that can be answered by 21st-century mankind?...;) Thanks..!

At least on gog there is a manual you can download.
Think you get the game on gog even if you bought it on steam so should be able to get to it that way?

To make it even easier on you I uploaded it here, http://www.megafileupload.com/Nyz/Witcher_3_Wild_Hunt,_The_-_Game_Manual_PC_EN.pdf

Thank you, six. Here's what I got:

ARTWORK
ARTBOOK
WALLPAPER
DLC
SOUNDTRACK
WALLPAPERS
MAP

Nothing in the bin or content folders that amounts to a game manual...It's weird, I cannot get an answer on this incredibly difficult query!...;) Thanks for chiming in, though...

I would have bought from GOG except that my bank makes me jump through a few hoops every time I want to purchase something from them, because GOG's current credit-card clearing house comes from Cypress, and that's a red flag to my bank in the states--which means I have to call them and wait an hour or two before I make the charge--which I just didn't feel like doing this time...Steam is local to the states so it just zips right through...and both Steam and Gog let me download at my maximum warp of ~5MB/second...so even 22GB/s goes pretty quick...!

The GOG guys are great, I just wish they would do something about that--I wrote them and they passed on the suggestion--but so far nothing's happened. There have been many things I wanted to buy from GOG but haven't--my Library @ GOG would otherwise be far bigger than the ~40 games or so I have now....

EDIT: THANK YOU SIX...! Just saw that...bless you, my child...:D

EDIT: Six, I think this must be some sort of global conspiracy designed to keep that manual away from me...;) Your link sends me to an upload site where apparently all I can do is upload...!

EDIT 3: Dummy here (that's me) finally got it...;)

I used to pay with Paypal in the past as my cc refused to work on gog for quite some time.
Maybe that would not panic your bank?

And happy to help. ^-^

Thanks again...I got it...;) Brain cells are failing at an alarming rate...! Thanks again!

You're right about PayPal, too..! I keep forgetting about using them. I shall have to look into it...! Thanks again...!

I believe Steam DRM is optional for the developer or publisher. Some indies and small studios turn it off. Most large companies turn it on. I guess since CDP is all about DRM free, they decided that policy should apply to their games on other platforms as well.

I think you are right...a DRM-less W2 is the main reason people who bought the W2 via Steam wanted to avail themselves of the DRM-less GOG version. Removing the Steam DRM from the Steam version will no doubt save GOG a lot of time and expense in that regard...Smart!

FUCK YOU GabeN!!