iamthetotFeb 23

"Game preservation only works if people care" As GOG doubles down on its commitment to saving old games, it's asking players "who give a s**t" to support its crusade

https://piefed.ca/c/games/p/545818/game-preservation-only-works-if-people-care-as-gog-doubles-down-on-its-commitment-to-saving

"Game preservation only works if people care" As GOG doubles down on its commitment to saving old games, it's asking players "who give a s**t" to support its crusade

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Show threaddoublahFeb 24
Offer a good service and people will buy from your store, most customers either don’t care about DRM or care somewhat but don’t want to inconvenience themselves with a worse product for it. GOG have to catch up to Steam with stuff like family sharing and controller support for me to consider buying stuff there.
Show threadWispy2891Feb 24

Why do you need family sharing if the games are DRM free? If the kid wants to play a game from your account you just pass him the exe, what’s the issue

Controller support depends from the game, if you mean a controller remapper like steam, then you either use a third party remapper or you simply add the shortcut in steam. With heroic launcher you can add gog games in your steam list with a single click

Show threaddoublahFeb 24

You don’t just pass the exe though, modern games are huge with a lot of files required. With Steam it’s a 2 step process:

  • I look in the tab in my library for games in my brother’s account I have access to with family sharing.
  • I download a game from the list.

    • That’s despite the fact my brother lives in the other side of the country, and it offers me all the Steam features I make use of like cloud saves as if my account had bought the game.

    With GOG it’s

  • Find the right webpage for my brother’s games (you can’t see them from within the GOG client for some reason.
  • Ask my brother to download the installer
  • Get my brother to send me the installer file over discord
  • The installer is too big
  • Say nevermind just give me your login info
  • I try to login to his account with the GOG client
  • Ask my brother for his 2FA authenticator code
  • Finally login, and can download the game
  • Remember to turn off cloud saves so you don’t override your brother’s cloud saves.

    • Based on a true story btw.

    There’s probably things we could’ve done that would’ve made it easier and less steps, but it still wouldn’t have been just as simple as what Steam does, and I’m missing cloud saves and I’d have to do several of those steps again if I wanted the game on say my Steam Deck as well as my PC.

    then you either use a third party remapper or you simply add the shortcut in steam

    If I’m just going to use Steam or extra software to compensate for Steam features, I might as well just use Steam.

    Show threaddukemirageFeb 24
    Every solution that doesn’t need an external proprietary app is a better solution.
    Show threaddoublahFeb 24

    For most people, that’s not the case if the alternative solution is worse or less convenient.

    Every piece of free software that has ever attained some level of mainstream success and popularity has done so by offering a better product, not something worse with the excuse of “well at least we’re not proprietary”.

    Show threaddukemirage
    GOG allows you to download an unprotected installer. I don’t think they will ever go beyond that in the name of fair use and big publishers are reluctant enough to release on GOG. You were about to use a 3rd party app anyway, Discord. Just use WeTransfer or another filehoster/cloud service to send the file.
    Feb 24 at 9:05amWeb
    Show threaddoublahFeb 24

    See that’s kind of my point, when we’re on the 100th “oh just use this other external service/software”, most users (myself included) are just going to stick to the simple solution that just works.

    Being able to just access family and friends games straight from my library without wasting all that time having to ask beforehand, manual downloads and file management/transfers and lack of cloud saves like it’s still the 90s is worth whatever moral cost you associate with using a piece of proprietary software.

    Show threaddukemirageFeb 24
    I kinda miss the 90s