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[–] 21 points 2 years ago (47 children)

GOG is the only big option if you want to own the games you purchase.

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  • [+] -18 points 2 years ago (46 children)

    That's not how copyright laws work anywhere. You don't own anything, it's just a license.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    GoG Vault would disagree with you on that.

    You can download the full installers and keep them, nobody can take them away or disable it remotely

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    How is that different from backing up the game folder on steam? In both cases it's true that:

    • You're not doing anything illegal at the moment you do it
    • You can use it to play the game on a different computer (as long as the game is DRM free which is not granted on either platform)
    • The company (Valve/GOG) can't remotely erase your copy
    • If the company removes the license from you your backup is now technically illegal but it's unlikely to be enforced

    I fail to see how GOGs approach is any different, they still sell you a license and you're backing up the installer in case the license gets removed and/or you're forbidden from redownloading the game.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    So you can just pop that folder on any computer and run it, without installing Steam and without a Steam account?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    On most games yes, like I said before I've copied games from my computer to others to play in lan to convince friends to buy a game.

    Then there are badly implemented games, where you need to either delete the steam library from the game folder or replace it with an open implementation.

    And the rest are the ones that have DRM (which are not available on GOG anyways so they don't matter for this discussion).

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Actually, some games have DRM on steam and have a DRM free version on GOG. I even saw a game that had a DRM free epic and gog edition but the steam version had DRM. Might be a edge case, but still exists

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  • [+] -20 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    GoG Vault would disagree with you on that.

    They are free to disagree on laws but they are still bound by them.

    You can download the full installers and keep them, nobody can take them away or disable it remotely

    That's true but if your license is revoked, you're illegally in possession of the game assets.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    That's not how it works but hey, you do you

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    Who says you have to respect the laws? Just pirate if publishers mess with players

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Just pirate

    What's the point of GOG then?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (24 children)

    In case of Steam.

    With GOG I get an actual license key & terms that state my ownership.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    No you don't. You get the same license as you do on Steam, here's the license btw https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/16034990432541-GOG-User-Agreement-effective-from-17-February-2024?product=gog :

    We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'license') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.

    Which is very similar to Steam. In both cases you can keep the files you've downloaded on your machine, and on most cases you can copy those files to a different machine and keep playing it. GOG has better marketing on this regard, but they're both very similar, neither enforces DRM nor forbids it entirely, although GOG does tend to be a bit stricter (but they still allow it) whereas steam is a bit looser but knowingly implemented a weak DRM and let's you know in the game page if the game has any stronger form of DRM.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    @Nibodhika @Evil_Shrubbery Stop Killing Games opened my eyes to the software "ownership" situation. In USA, apparently, noone ever owns any software. It's always licenced. Even if on physical media. Quite bizarre.

    In rest of world it varies but also sucks.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    Yup, GOG just has good marketing department and lots of people fall for the DRM-free (but not really) games you own (but not really) campaign.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    @Nibodhika @dbat Steam did the exact same thing when it was new when they would say "If Steam ever shuts down, we'll give you perpetual licenses to the games in your game library." Probably around the same time in their existence as GOG hyping DRM-free.

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  • [–] -5 points 2 years ago (17 children)

    With GOG I get an actual license key & terms that state my ownership.

    No, the intellectual property is not transferred to you. You have no clue how copyright works.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    For most people that is a distinction without a difference.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (12 children)

    I totally understand your point, but when people talk about "you own nothing" they don't really mean you "own" the content on physical media, they mean it doesn't have DRM that requires an online service. You're technically correct, but your pedantry is making you miss the forest for the trees, basically.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    but your pedantry is making you miss the forest for the trees, basically.

    No. People here claim, that just because GOG cannot remote wipe your drive, people buying off GOG have a perpetual right to the games they've bought. But they don't because that's not how copyright works. If a game's license is revoked, to keep playing the game is copyright violation.

    Not only do so many people not grasp basic concepts of copyright, they claim Valve could take away all downloaded games. No, Valve cannot remote wipe my drive either. I can back up my Steam folder. Many games on Steam don't have DRM at all. It's opt-in and the actual Steam documentation outright says not to rely on Steam DRM because "it is easily removed by a motivated attacker." If games rely on crap like Denuvo, 3rd party launchers, or invasive anti-cheat, the publishers are required to clearly state so on the store page in one of those orange boxes. Users can make an informed decision on a per-game basis even with Steam. And those games that ship crap like Denuvo aren't on GOG in the first place.

    So in the end GOG is a store that stretches the truth about game ownership in their marketing and despite all their Witcher and Cyberpunk money, they don't care about users of platforms competing against Windows at all.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    People here claim, that just because GOG cannot remote wipe your drive, people buying off GOG have a perpetual right to the games they've bought.

    I think it's pretty clear from context that they mean they have the ability to perpetually play the games because of the lack of DRM, not the right.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Again, the same is true for Steam as well, so it's a moot point.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (5 children)
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    This is a thread where someone claimed that you don't own the games on Steam but you do on GOG, this is the comment the person was replying to:

    In case of Steam.

    With GOG I get an actual license key & terms that state my ownership.

    So yes, that's exactly what the person is saying. So the fact that GOG can't remotely wipe your drive is a strawman fallacy, because neither can Steam, and the differences between GOG and Steam is what's being discussed, so anything that is the same has no bearing on the discussion.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    GOG is the only big option if you want to own the games you purchase.

    I think it's pretty clear from context that they mean they have the ability to perpetually play the games because of the lack of DRM, not the right.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Again, the same is true for Steam, so that's a moot point when comparing GOG to Steam which is what this thread is about.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    No it's not. If Steam goes down you cannot keep playing your games without using a crack to get around the DRM.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    If you backed up your game folder yes you can. Most games on Steam have no DRM, so just copying the folder is enough to play it on another computer. Then there are badly implemented games which you would need to replace the steam library with an open implementation (which doesn't involve cracking the game). And finally there are games with DRM which are not available on GOG so they're irrelevant to the discussion.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago

    I think it’s pretty clear from context that they mean they have the ability to perpetually play the games because of the lack of DRM, not the right.

    Plenty claim it's their right and with much ferocity while as vehemently ignoring that there are plenty of games on GOG that offer reduced content when playing offline (an extensive list was posted by someone). Also, because games on Steam must disclose their use of DRM (and anti-cheat), people can just buy DRM-free games which can be backed up just as well. Goldberg is a drop-in library for games that use Steam APIs. So everything is fine there as well for people who actually make informed buying decisions.

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