Comment on Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?
_Lory98_@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks agoIf you’re on Windows though, you should definitely always prefer GOG over Steam because it’s DRM-free (you buy it, you own it)
I’m not really disagreeing with you, as with GOG you are guaranteed to get a DRM free game (and an installer which is better than Steam’s backup, as it’s guaranteed to work offline), but they still sell you just a revocable license.
Mondez@lemdro.id 2 weeks ago
How is the license revocable without DRM? They have no mechanism to revoke it other than stopping you downloading it from them again.
_Lory98_@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Yea you just lose the ability to download it again. AFAIK that’s what happened with The Witcher 3’s DLCs brought through some gray market sites. You obviously lose access to multiplayer and other features. Playing the game after that is no different than playing a pirated copy (practically and legally, if you care about that).
What I mean is that you don’t own the copy any differently than you do on other platforms.
I don’t really see it much differently than Steam, as if a game is on GOG it’s going to be either DRM-free or at worst use the weak built in DRM (which can be bypassed easily).
That’s not to say I dislike GOG, I think the real value of it is the support and patches for older games. They also have a more generous refund policy (30 days, no time limit).
Mondez@lemdro.id 2 weeks ago
I disagree that is legally no different, if you used a “grey” market seller to obtain access in a way gog deemed illegitimate then you never had license to use it. If you had a legitimate licence then using it after say gog terminated you account, you would still have legitimate license to use the copies you already downloaded despite gog not providing their services to you.
_Lory98_@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I was just using it as an example for what happens, because it’s the only times something like this has happened. Still, according to their user agreement, they sell you a license through them (so the publisher licenses the license to GOG and they then issue a license to you to access the game), which means that on account termination you lose it and any right you had.
To be clear, I don’t think “ownership” matters that much usually, since data is not a finite resource, but there’s a few cases in which it does, for example: you can’t sell or lend the games or you can’t legally host a tournament or other public events unless you get another license that allows you to do so.
Anyways, my point is that the GOG’s DRM free policy is good, but to me feels meaningless and more like a marketing gimmick.