Adventure Gamers - Forums

The concern for me with GOG is if it folds I’ll lose loads of games because I don’t back up all games. I don’t think Steam ever folds

GateKeeper - 23 August 2018 05:18 AM

Now, think about that for a second. How do they know that you have played two hours or less? It’s because they TRACK what you do! Not only do they impose restrictions on their customers, but they also track what their customers are doing.

With GOG, you can use manual downloads that don’t use Galaxy, and no one is limiting or tracking you in any way.

TBH I’ve never figured out how to use the manual downloads. And Galaxy is now tracking usage in the same way Steam does. I’m not that bothered about being tracked in this way. Far less invasive than Google and Facebook.

GateKeeper - 23 August 2018 05:18 AM

Now, think about that for a second. How do they know that you have played two hours or less? It’s because they TRACK what you do! Not only do they impose restrictions on their customers, but they also track what their customers are doing.

Oh no! What ever will I do when my friends and family find out I have spent 836 hours playing Hentai Tentacle Panty Party!?!

Supplementman - 27 August 2018 05:16 AM

The concern for me with GOG is if it folds I’ll lose loads of games because I don’t back up all games. I don’t think Steam ever folds

Well that’s a bit twisted logic isn’t it?
You don’t worry about backing up with Steam, which doesn’t even let you back up games, but you worry about backing up games with GOG, which allows you to make unlimited number of copies any time you want?

There are no guarantees that Steam will last forever. All it takes is one change in company ownership to make servers shut down.
Think about what happened with Desura? That can happen with any other service too.

Supplementman - 27 August 2018 05:16 AM

TBH I’ve never figured out how to use the manual downloads. And Galaxy is now tracking usage in the same way Steam does. I’m not that bothered about being tracked in this way. Far less invasive than Google and Facebook.

Manual downloads are the easiest thing in the world. If you have ever downloaded a single file from anywhere, you know how to do it.
You go to GOG, check your account, choose the game you want to download, choose which OS/language version you want, click to download, and the rest goes as with any other file.

I believe the old GOG download tool is still working as well, in case you want to use it.
http://www.gog.com/downloader

Also, for the record, you can use Galaxy as a download tool, without ever running any tracking.

And for those who love to tweak with things, there are user-made GOG download scripts that you can customise to do whatever you want to do with your DRM-free files.
http://github.com/eddie3/gogrepo

Back on topic, Traitor’s Gate never made it to digital downloads and many considered it a top adventure. I bought and haven’t played it tbh.

Were the Agatha Christie’s Poirot point and clicks any good? They haven’t made it. There’s actually quite a few games that are only a decade old that haven’t. 

TimovieMan - 27 August 2018 10:40 AM

Supplementman - 27 August 2018 05:16 AM

The concern for me with GOG is if it folds I’ll lose loads of games because I don’t back up all games. I don’t think Steam ever folds

...until it does.

Same thing, I don’t think GOG ever folds, but when it does, I’m pretty sure you’ll get ample warning to back things up. When The Adventure Shop folded, I had made backups in advance. When our own AG shop folded, I got a warning that the files would become unavailable, but had ample time to make backups before they did.
.

Steam is less likely to fold though because it’s so massively profitable with massive revenues and massive profit margins. GOG with it’s lesser sales could maybe fold overnight, who knows?

I choose not to back up all my games. In 20 years I expect I’ll be able to play the majority of my Steam games. I have no issue with Steam (yet) so I lose nothing and don’t have to go out of my way to back up.

Also nothing lasts forever anyway. Eventually your back ups will cease to work. I buy games to play in the forseeable future and if I don’t it’s another unnessary purchase.

All you people worried about not being able to access your precious GOG library if it crashes - you do realize you legally own the games, and there dozens of “backup” sites labelled “pirate” sites by some even though there is nothing illegal about downloading a game you already own? (it is not the downloading that is illegal but the uploading, and breach of copyright). You have absolutely nothing to worry about! The library is going nowhere.

Supplementman - 27 August 2018 12:51 PM

Were the Agatha Christie’s Poirot point and clicks any good? They haven’t made it. There’s actually quite a few games that are only a decade old that haven’t.

I have the “Agatha Christie Collection” game collection, which has And Then There Were None, Evil Under the Sun and Murder on the Orient Express. I haven’t played the other two yet (and haven’t yet read Evil Under the Sun) but I started playing ATTWN and I didn’t really like it all that much, though the atmosphere was good.
I particularly like how the main character says “A radiator. Can’t have enough of them, really” whenever you examine a radiator, very useful insight.

BitingWit - 27 August 2018 01:06 PM

All you people worried about not being able to access your precious GOG library if it crashes - you do realize you legally own the games, and there dozens of “backup” sites labelled “pirate” sites by some even though there is nothing illegal about downloading a game you already own? (it is not the downloading that is illegal but the uploading, and breach of copyright). You have absolutely nothing to worry about! The library is going nowhere.

Downloading a game that is already owned is still illegal, afaik. I have heard more about the law of console games and emulation than PC games, but I think (in US at least) the law allows for legally creating a backup copy of the game by dumping cartridge contents yourself, but accessing it otherwise without making the backup copy yourself is still illegal. Since a PC game already has the files in the same format as when they’d be accessed (no cartridge involved) then it seems slightly different, there could be a difference in law that I’m not aware of, but I’m pretty sure it probably isn’t legal to download a copy of a game you own off of a different (pirate) site than it was bought on.

ElitelyIQed - 27 August 2018 01:54 PM

BitingWit - 27 August 2018 01:06 PM

All you people worried about not being able to access your precious GOG library if it crashes - you do realize you legally own the games, and there dozens of “backup” sites labelled “pirate” sites by some even though there is nothing illegal about downloading a game you already own? (it is not the downloading that is illegal but the uploading, and breach of copyright). You have absolutely nothing to worry about! The library is going nowhere.

Downloading a game that is already owned is still illegal, afaik. I have heard more about the law of console games and emulation than PC games, but I think (in US at least) the law allows for legally creating a backup copy of the game by dumping cartridge contents yourself, but accessing it otherwise without making the backup copy yourself is still illegal. Since a PC game already has the files in the same format as when they’d be accessed (no cartridge involved) then it seems slightly different, there could be a difference in law that I’m not aware of, but I’m pretty sure it probably isn’t legal to download a copy of a game you own off of a different (pirate) site than it was bought on.

I mean, I don’t know what court system is like in US, but I suspect the trial will go something like:
Prosecutor: So, you downloaded this game from pirate site. How do you plead?
Defendant: Not guilty.
Prosecutor: Not guilty? But you stole the game.
Defendant: No I didn’t. I bought it. I own the rights to it. I can’t steal something I own, can I?
Prosecutor: But you clicked the “download” button didn’t you?
Defendant: Yeah, but I own the game. And it’s not like I did any harm to anyone. Electronic copies are infinite, so no one lost anything. To steal you need to lose something. If I steal a car, that person lost a car.
Prosecutor: ...
Judge: Are we done here? I think we’ve wasted enough time. Let this guy go and let’s all go get wasted in the pub.

Yeah you dont really own any games. You own a license to access them. That doesnt mean to access them in any way you choose… for example you’d likely violate that license by cheating in a multiplayer online game.. “but i own it” isnt something most people would take seriously. The thing about making back-up copies of cartridges being totally embraced is an old urban legend at this point. The good news is: this is still stuff that isnt worth anyones time/money enforcing.. they go after the sites and people hosting it, not you the random consumer.
This thread should probably get some kind of award for how quickly and thoroughly its derailed

I also like physical discs but I read somewhere that it’ll become obsolete, the idea they meant.