GOG did an AMA and here's some highlights - like how they'll continue using generative AI : linux

[-] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 86 points 1 week ago

I'm about as anti-AI as you can get, but that wasn't a confirmation - it was a non-answer.

And considering how many things "AI" is getting crammed into, if they'd given a definitive answer, it wouldn't have been possible to guarantee it - because they're not in control of every business scenario in the industry.

[-] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 68 points 1 week ago

I am genuinely curious why people are so angry and are jumping to conclusions, willing to boycott a company that has done great things for media preservation over an inconvlusive statement about something that will likely have minimal or no effect on them, GOGs employees, or the user experience of their platform.

AI assistance is a tool. Why would they ban their developers and maintainers from using Windsurf, for instance? Or their design folks from using AI tools to help make mockups? It doesn't make any sense. If their workforce wants to make use of AI tools responsibly... why is that a problem?

AI use does not mean they will start churning out slop. And, frankly, GOG is a software distributor/vendor... they don't have creative control over the games they sell. The AI would be in the behind the scenes development of their platform, not in the products. The only way it'd affect users is if they put it in the user interface somehow (but... how and why would they?)

[-] doublah@sopuli.xyz 20 points 1 week ago

AI use does not mean they will start churning out slop

But they already did with that ugly AI sale banner that was taking over half their front page.

[-] mudkip@lemdro.id 18 points 1 week ago

Because it will lead to buggy and insecure service, causing customer headaches. Imagine asking a random number generator to write your payment infrastructure!

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Or your toaster what its prefered income bracket is.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

I am genuinely curious why people are so angry and are jumping to conclusions,

because GoG was just sold, and its a tale as old as time for a beloved company, to get new ownership, and immediately start making stupid decisions and ruin everything.

[-] sockenklaus@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 week ago

GOG was bought by its own co-founder Michał Kiciński not BlackRock or something.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 30 points 1 week ago

that wasn't a confirmation - it was a non-answer.

Same thing, as far as I'm concerned.

And considering how many things "AI" is getting crammed into

What they're using is clearly generative AI, meant to replace artists. It would be very easy to say they were no longer going to be doing that.

[-] gustofwind@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

I mean you said it in the second half but the non answer is the confirmation they will adopt it like everyone else in part because it’s become part of institutional tools

[-] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

"adopting it" and "getting saddled with it" are two different things.

[-] MotoAsh@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

skavau is a clown

[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 57 points 1 week ago

Their no DRM commitment and use of AI slop cancel each other out, in my view.

[-] 20dogs@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago

How so

[-] SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

if not gog, i reckon i don't buy videogames any longer

[-] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 18 points 1 week ago

Yar matey, a true shame.

[-] Hond@piefed.social 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

So much for the bright future under the new ownership. Meh, that didnt took long.

I love GOG and made tons purchases in the past if the games were avaivable there. I'd rather have my games entirely DRM free than having the conviences eg Steam brings to the table as a platform.

But the use of AI slop just isnt a good look. For me it only communicates one thing: We cut corners. Then not owning it up afterwards leaves a really bitter taste in my mouth. "Sorry, wont happen again. We wont use shitty genAI slop anymore on the shopfront." That aint hard(edit: and would still leave the door open for rApId pRoTotYpInG internally). I still would have had a bit of trust issues. But with that corperate nonanswer i'm not really willing to spent money on GOG anymore.

Also i always fucking hated corpo AMAs. I would have thought GOG would be able to host an AMA which would feel atleast somewhat human. Like sure they're still a business and have their obvious constraints what and how they can talk about things. But this? This was just a waste of time. Meh

[-] TheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago

As I've said before, I'm not giving up 100% on GOG, BUT I think it is time we try to find options, zoom is another DRM free platform, that seems to support linux to some degree. The library does not seem as promising as GOG but it's something. Also don't forget a lot of games on steam are actually DRM free. I love gog, I was a patron until the gen ai came to light, but I've seen this cycle of enshitification so much. I don't have my hopes up is all.

[-] Toucanadian@piefed.ca 1 points 1 week ago

So what does it mean to buy a DRM-free game on Steam? Can I download and play it separate from the Steam client?

[-] Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

You can download the game via steam but then run it from the application file directly without using Steam.

There is also a command line tool for downloading Steam games

[-] cloudskater@pawb.social 2 points 1 week ago

Please link this command line tool, I neeeeed it lol

[-] oxideseven@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD

This is used pretty often with the dedicated servers.

[-] Toucanadian@piefed.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Interesting, I'll have to look more into it. Thanks!

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Interesting to hear how they do somewhat allow DRM for online content - CD key to login kind of thing I guess? But offline must be DRM free.

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

DRM-free multiplayer, and the communication of it on the store page, is basically my only gripe with GOG right now. Sure, lots of things can be better, but this is the thing preventing me from shopping with them friction-free. In my mind, any game using the Galaxy API could be pointed to a locally hosted replacement instead so that devs who don't want to, or historically didn't, design with LAN in mind end up getting fully offline multiplayer on GOG with no extra steps for them. At least it's on their roadmap. I hope we see some progress on this front in the next year or two.

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago

I was interested in the Stop Killing Games thing. Why didn't they support it?

[-] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

I think the "0% AI" has almost no life left in it. The Linux kernel has AI code in it, as well as any other software you use. The game of the year had AI assets, as with just about every other contender. Next year, even fewer games will qualify for the title of AI-free. The "no AI" approach fundamentally assumes AI has no value, which is as crazy as the execs who assume AI will solve every problem. The future lies in middle-of-the-road approaches.

[-] SitD@lemy.lol 4 points 1 week ago

how is this even downvoted? every one of you knows that programming has some exciting moments but sometimes just a 50 lines very trivial and predictable text that has to be written by someone. i don't see horses trying to pick up old carts to pull them around meaninglessly 😂

[-] SargonOfACAB@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 week ago

We've had predictive text and automation of boilerplate code for years without needing any generative AI.

Hostility towards what is now colloquially called AI seems very justified to me. The costs to society, especially the environmental ones, can't be justified by the meagre "benefits" it purports to offer.

The biggest boons of generative AI I've see its champions mention (other than making horrifying imagery that makes someone feel like an artist with zero art involved) are cost-reduction and automating the "boring" parts.

The cost-reduction seems unsustainable and mostly exists because these companies are operating at an enormous loss. A lot of the automation already existed and those "boring" tasks where also opportunities for junior coders to learn their trade.

[-] SitD@lemy.lol 1 points 1 week ago

i see, and i definitely agree with the environmental aspect. but automated coding before ai is new to me, do you have a keyword i could look up?

[-] SargonOfACAB@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago

Maybe "automation" wasn't the correct term to use. I mostly meant predictive text suggestions, or your IDE handling boilerplate code and stuff like getters and setters. Maybe even auto-bracketing.

[-] AlbatrossFanboy@programming.dev 1 points 1 week ago

I do not care about AI, I do not care about people who care about AI. I have GOG and I used to use it though I don't use it much because it's not get up and running since unlike Steam I can't just load a gamescope session. I have to load a whole ass DE or WM and I don't like doing that. At least with Steam I can load Big picture mode in Gamescope and get a somewhat simple UI to select my games and play them and then quit back to my terminal when I'm done.

[-] carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 week ago

i wonder if an organized boycott of GOG would be feasible, boycotting them until they stop using the slop

i would participate. however, until there is a boycott i still think DRM-free games are a good value proposition

[-] eleijeep@piefed.social 40 points 1 week ago

It's conflicting because the commitment to no DRM and the preservation efforts for old games, keeping them running on modern systems, are tremendously valuable in the current consumer-hostile gaming landscape.

[-] carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 week ago

you’re right, that’s why i think an organized boycott with a clear demand would be the best, instead of just going around saying "don’t use GOG they use AI"

i want GOG to stop using AI, i don’t want GOG to disappear

[-] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works -4 points 1 week ago

Not wanting them to use ai is wanting them to disappear. It's quickly being obvious no company will be able to avoid using ai in some fashion because every tool is having ai shoved into it.

And companies can't make all their own tooling. It's physically impossible.

[-] greencoil@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They aren't even reliably committed to no DRM. They frequently sell games that require GOG Galaxy accounts to access certain content(online/multiplayer functionality, DLC packs). GOG has explicitly gone on record saying that these forms of DRM are acceptable, despite running a store for years without them.

And preservation of old games(at least how they are doing it) is an inherently unprofitable service. Them preserving games that they don't even have the licensed right to sell is one of the dumbest decisions they have made so far. Most of their older releases have just been grabbing a bunch of existing fan patches into a more polished installer; these sorts of tasks will always end up in the hands of hobbyists who would do this work without being paid.

I feel like at this point, you have to focus on individual developers/publishers if you want to properly support DRM free releases. Having brand loyalty to GOG will get you nothing.

[-] orochi02@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago

Now to be fair that was under the old(?)ownership so we will see how reliable the new(?) is

[-] greencoil@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

This AMA is about the new ownership, and they talk about allowing online services as a form of DRM in it. So at least that policy is staying in place.

I've got "Good Old Games" that are more than 20 years old with self hostable online multiplayer. No accounts, no CD keys, nothing. Make a random plain text display name, forward some ports or use a community/proxy server, and you can play with whoever you like. GOG can make excuses as much as they want to try to appeal to publishers, but they are by definition hosting games with DRM.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

No. It wont.

because while there may be the rare people who are willing to speak with their wallet and make a personal sacrifice..

The vast, overwhelming bulk of gamers are myopic little weasels that'll keep shilling out the cash, even while actively crying about the awful things they are supporting, because they are too afraid of missing the next shiny wave to dare make any kind of stand or sacrifice.

[-] juipeltje@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Don't know why you got downvoted. This is the sad reality, not just for gaming, but boycotts in general. They rarely work because the majority just doesn't give a shit.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Yeah, but its a little different for gaming/tech stuff.

Cant expect the average person to know about nestle's atrocities, because they arent active in nestle communties online, engaging with other nestle consumers, etc etc.

Gaming/Tech people tend to be more online, more engaged, more like to follow news about the subject, etc. More like to be online criticizing the issues, as well.. and you still end up with shit like this, because like I said, gamers are.. on the whole, self centered self gratifying idiots that, no matter how much they cry about the great injustice of it all, still cant do without their shiny.

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 4 points 1 week ago

I’ll fucking do it, if this turns out their new ownership is crapping the bed and selling out I’ll delete my account just like I’m doing with everything else.

[-] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 week ago

Gog is absolutely amazing. They have old games, no DRM and most games work out of the box with Linux.

Go complain about something else.

[-] definitemaybe@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Seriously. Everyone is so quick to cancel anyone or anything.

They made a mistake with AI art, once. They then compounded the mistake by not addressing it quickly. Eventually, they acknowledged both of those mistakes, and promised to do better.

So, what's the big deal? AI is a useful tool when used responsibly: to write simple scripts/code for one-off projects, structure code or a document as a starting point, to edit/refine texts, to identify bugs in human-written code, to transform point-form notes into text, to get a personal "tutor" to explain something, to rough-in art for mock-ups or prototypes, etc.

I've done literally every one of those with AI sometime this month, aside from the AI art one. (Not relevant to my job as a teacher.) It's an incredibly powerful tool in very narrow use cases. It can't create original text of any value. It can't be trusted with any facts or figures. Its ~~art~~ images are consistently full of janky artifacts.

I don't want GOG to throw out a useful tool. But I sure as hell hope this was a wake up call that AI should only be used for the things it's actually good at. Not customer facing text. And it most definitely shouldn't be writing any production code of significance.

Or are people not following this at all and think this is a leveraged private equity takeover trying to squeeze all the profitability out of GOG? This is the founder; this is most likely better for GOG, the industry, and gamers.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

AI is fascism.

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