Comment on GOG reportedly suffering from staff turnover and poor management: “Current business model is likely running out of steam”

• lepinkainen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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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  • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    What they mean is that technically you still are being granted a license to use it. The same was true for things like DVD movies. They’re technically correct, but missing the point.

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  • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    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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    • MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

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

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    • GhiLA@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      and?

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    • Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It’s less clear than you say.

      In principle the First-sale doctrine should apply but it has not caught up with reality yet.

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  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    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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    • lepinkainen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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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      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        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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• Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In case of Steam.

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

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  • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    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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    • Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      For most people that is a distinction without a difference.

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      • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        For most people that is a distinction without a difference.

        So what’s the difference to making a backup of my Steam folder? The games I play have no DRM either.

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      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yes, but the same is also true for Steam, so it’s a moot point.

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    • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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. You’re technically correct, but your pedantry is making you miss the forest for the trees, basically.

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      • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        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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      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        But the same is also true for Steam, so it’s a moot point.

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  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    No you don’t. You get the same license as you do on Steam, here’s the license btw …gog.com/…/16034990432541-GOG-User-Agreement-effe… :

    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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    • dbat@mastodon.gamedev.place ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      @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 alao sucks.

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      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        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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• Mubelotix@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

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

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  • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Just pirate

    What’s the point of GOG then?

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    • Mubelotix@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Morals

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      • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Morals

        Nothing moral about a store that affirms Microsoft’s Windows monopoly.

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    • GhiLA@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Same reason we have Barnes and Nobles in the states. I like to browse before I hit zlibrary.

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    • MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      We have itch.io

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    • winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Not everything is on GoG

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