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I will always pick GOG over Steam where I have the option because I do prefer DRM-free and, like many, I’ve had a very poor experience with their customer service. Thankfully they automate things like the 2-hour refund because God forbid you should ever have to deal with them in person.
Calling them the “shop from hell” seems a little dramatic though. I have rarely had issues with all of these games that install easily, update automatically and when I have had a rare issue, hitting “check file integrity” has fixed problems that might otherwise have taken time and frustration for me to track down. We’re blessed with how easy things are these days.
Steam doesn’t really do much in the way of tracking either (I actually wish it was more accurate). All it’s doing is noting the time you enter/exit the game as it’s part of the Steam client. If you open a game and go and do something else it still thinks you’re playing it. Something like RescueTime will tell me exactly how long I’ve spent actively playing a game and while I don’t think Steam should track that by default, the option would be appreciated.
The part i find ridiculous is that now people feel entitled to a refund for not liking a game. What steam does with refunds is extremely generous, and they can afford to do it because they dominate the market. Gog cant do it because they dont track your time spent in the same way. I dont hold that against gog… they would do it if they could.. And i dont get refunds from a movie theater because i didnt enjoy the movie.
The part i find ridiculous is that now people feel entitled to a refund for not liking a game. What steam does with refunds is extremely generous, and they can afford to do it because they dominate the market. Gog cant do it because they dont track your time spent in the same way. I dont hold that against gog… they would do it if they could.. And i dont get refunds from a movie theater because i didnt enjoy the movie.
Not entitled. It wasn’t an option when games were physical. It is now, so why wouldn’t you take it? It allows me to buy a game I’m not sure about, and if I don’t enjoy it and have played less than 2 hours get my money back. That’s good for me and good for developers and good for the game community because it pushes up the drive to create quality games.
For example, I bought a game last month for $20. It was very obscure so there wasn’t much info about it but I took the risk. If it turned out to be good, that’s $20 in the developer’s pocket. As it happened, it was terrible so I refunded it. But I would never have taken a risk if the refund option wasn’t on the table.
Good business policy is good business policy.
The part i find ridiculous is that now people feel entitled to a refund for not liking a game. What steam does with refunds is extremely generous, and they can afford to do it because they dominate the market.
Exactly!
But as a side effect of people using their time limit to test games, fewer and fewer game developers release real demos anymore. So this thing which on a surface level might seem nice and all that, is actually causing all consumers outside Steam having less opportunities to check the merchandise before purchase. 
The possibility to offer refunds is the only positive thing with DRM for the users. Easily available refunds would not work well with DRM-free downloads. I prefer the user freedom of GOG.com but can understand why some prefer the kind of rental service that Steam is.
The part i find ridiculous is that now people feel entitled to a refund for not liking a game. What steam does with refunds is extremely generous, and they can afford to do it because they dominate the market.
Exactly!
But as a side effect of people using their time limit to test games, fewer and fewer game developers release real demos anymore. So this thing which on a surface level might seem nice and all that, is actually causing all consumers outside Steam having less opportunities to check the merchandise before purchase.
Talk about thread drift! 
Whilst all this is true there are trailers which should give a reasonable idea of what a game is like. I do check out trailers and pre-release reviews and buy accordingly. I rarely buy at release but mainly because I have such a backlog of games there’s no point. Sometimes I do (nearing the end of Unavowed as I type this) and, of course, there’s the Crowd Funded ones I support. Some times these ones work and sometimes they don’t. Stasis is a case in point. I was happy to help fund it but it turned into something I didn’t like so have never played it. But I would never think of asking The Brotherhood for a refund just because of that. In fact I was impressed with what they had actually produced (if not for me) that I backed Beautiful Desolation.
Life is all about choices and if I get one wrong when purchasing a game, so be it. I made that decision and no one else
Life is what it is.
Personally, I don’t find DRM to be much of a deterrence from Steam, as I like the Steam launcher and also only use one computer. Other than being DRM free, I don’t actually know what other features GOG may have, but I like the achievements and trading card features of Steam a lot.
From what I can tell from quickly Googling it, it seems that GOG also has achievements but not many games have them, or something. Idk, I think that with all the achievements I have for my Steam account, getting more would be better to do on the same account, so that all the “proof” of accomplishments and whatever all applies to the same account, though that’s not such a major thing.
For the record, I haven’t ever used the refund system of Steam before (I guess it still makes a purchase feel safer though), so my preference isn’t to do with abuse of that.
I am strongly against piracy for games, but I feel like buying a DRM free game lacks much of a distinct difference to pirating it. I find this a bit offputting, which is also why I like the Steam verification system as it makes it abundantly clear that the game was indeed bought and legally owned.
But yeah, I see that there are benefits to both systems, especially the exclusive games.
I feel like buying a DRM free game lacks much of a distinct difference to pirating it.
Am I reading this wrong or are you saying you don’t see much distinction between paying for something and stealing it?
If you care about Cards, Achievements, etc there’s really no comparison. Steam client is much better. Gog’s advantage is the lack of DRM, (that’s why they started the FCK-DRM now…) but does Steam DRM even give problems?
Personally I don’t care which client I start at this point Steam, gog, Uplay, battle.net, Origin. Only one that still gives me problems sometimes is the Microsoft store and even that one has some cool features like the Xbox/PC crossbuy.
I feel like buying a DRM free game lacks much of a distinct difference to pirating it.
Am I reading this wrong or are you saying you don’t see much distinction between paying for something and stealing it?
Yeah, I realise that stealing and buying is just as distinct for GOG morally as it is for Steam, but it feels like buying on Steam really proves that the game is indeed purchased. Again, I wouldn’t pirate a game and would not consider it acceptable, but the end product of purchasing a game DRM free feels like it is not distinctly above what an illegally obtained DRM free game would be.
In that way, at least, I kind of like the Steam DRM for clearly showing that all of the games are properly licensed and owned at all times. The social network type features of Steam are also particularly nice for showing what games are in the collection, though for all I know GOG may have just as good a system like that.
And again, I’d like to restate that I do not think of piracy as being acceptable in any way, just that I prefer buying games on Steam to DRM free games for being completely unable to be replicated through piracy, which I feel preserves the collection’s integrity. Although, of course, buying games of any form is not able to be replaced by stealing them at all in terms of morality.
I guess I should have avoided comparing piracy to buying games at all, and I really hope I haven’t broken the forum rule (it doesn’t look to me like I have), I really do not condone piracy, and I do not intend on making it sound like I do.
but the end product of purchasing a game DRM free feels like it is not distinctly above what an illegally obtained DRM free game would be.
Wut?
“DRM free” just means that the developers didn’t add anything to the game to make sure that you’re playing a proper “legit” version. “DRM free” means that you can install the game and play it where you like, without needing to log on to some remote server and doing whatnot just to verify that yes, you bought the game you’re trying to play.
DRM has never worked. There isn’t a DRM system in the world that hasn’t been bypassed by pirates, so I don’t see how it has ever protected the games from pirates at all. And at worst, DRM issues have caused many legit buyers not to be able to play a game they bought properly (where ironically, a pirated version would have worked with less hassle).
I consider DRM to be an inconvenience to legit buyers who just want to play what they paid for in peace.
In Steam’s defense, their DRM doesn’t cause any issues, and their only inconvenience is having to start their client to play your games.
But I’ll take DRM-free over a third-party client any day of the week.
I guess I should have avoided comparing piracy to buying games at all, and I really hope I haven’t broken the forum rule (it doesn’t look to me like I have), I really do not condone piracy, and I do not intend on making it sound like I do.
You’re definitely not breaking any rules.
The comparison between GOG and piracy was just baffling, that’s all.
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
I feel like buying a DRM free game lacks much of a distinct difference to pirating it.
Am I reading this wrong or are you saying you don’t see much distinction between paying for something and stealing it?
Yeah, I realise that stealing and buying is just as distinct for GOG morally as it is for Steam, but it feels like buying on Steam really proves that the game is indeed purchased. Again, I wouldn’t pirate a game and would not consider it acceptable, but the end product of purchasing a game DRM free feels like it is not distinctly above what an illegally obtained DRM free game would be.
In that way, at least, I kind of like the Steam DRM for clearly showing that all of the games are properly licensed and owned at all times. The social network type features of Steam are also particularly nice for showing what games are in the collection, though for all I know GOG may have just as good a system like that.And again, I’d like to restate that I do not think of piracy as being acceptable in any way, just that I prefer buying games on Steam to DRM free games for being completely unable to be replicated through piracy, which I feel preserves the collection’s integrity. Although, of course, buying games of any form is not able to be replaced by stealing them at all in terms of morality.
I guess I should have avoided comparing piracy to buying games at all, and I really hope I haven’t broken the forum rule (it doesn’t look to me like I have), I really do not condone piracy, and I do not intend on making it sound like I do.
I really don’t think that you’re looking at this with any degree of reality whatsoever. Nobody is thinking that you’re condoning piracy. What is being said is that if, in your view, there’s no DRM then it’s akin to piracy - or that’s how it feels to you. That, not to put too fine a point on it, is bonkers.
What you’re saying, using a different medium, is that you wouldn’t buy a magazine or comic because it’s possible to scan and copy it and give those copies away. Seriously, that’s exactly what you’re saying.
If you purchase a game via GoG then it’s down to you what you do with it. Morally you keep it for yourself and, if anyone asks you for a copy, politely point them to where they can purchase a copy. That’s what I do and so does just about everyone here I would guess. We all want games to be created and by giving away games to friends, or worse selling them cut-price, we take vital funds away from the developers. Some will do this of course but hopefully very few.
And something else to consider.
What’s to stop you from letting someone else play a game that you have on Steam on your computer. They don’t get to pay for it but do get to enjoy to it but with no money going to the developers. There’s no difference really. Someone still gets to enjoy the game without paying for it.
When I die ( 
) the games that I have paid for, like everything else in my estate, I can bequeath quite legally to the person who inherits. If it were on Steam that becomes problematical. Not insurmountable but not as straightforward.
Life is what it is.
When I die (
Why would it be problematical on Steam?
When I die (
Why would it be problematical on Steam?
You’d need the account details to log in with for the deceased person. If you don’t know them then no access. I can’t see Valve supplying access if you told them that the original purchaser had died and bequeathed them to you even if you sent them a copy of the will.
Life is what it is.
When I die (
Why would it be problematical on Steam?
You’d need the account details to log in with for the deceased person. If you don’t know them then no access. I can’t see Valve supplying access if you told them that the original purchaser had died and bequeathed them to you even if you sent them a copy of the will.
The same could be said about gog, you need account details to download games. Or does everybody keep storage of all games and doenst redownload everytime you want to replay?
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