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from time to time im reading the news and comments on this site, and often see a big sympathy towards the site gog.com, e.g. people saying they'll buy a game they are interested in when it comes out on gog.com, news that only announce games being released on gog.com and similar stuff.
The point is, i dont understand why. From my point of view, which i consider to be based on rational arguments only, i deem other stores much more reasonable to buy at. Especially if someones interested in pushing linux gaming.
Lets start comparing the three big stores i currently buy at and have the biggest influence imho, namely steam, humblebundle and also gog:
steam spends huge amount of resources on linux gaming, they ported all they own games to linux, which gave us many of the most popular pc games arround. i hardly doubt without steam linux gaming would have had any chance of becoming more popular, also encouraging other major developers publishing their games on linux. they do even more with steamos, trying to spread linux amoung other gamers, ultimately pushing linux. also linux client with easy installation, no dependency searching, which imo is a nogo for many gamers. would it be a wrong step to support this by buying steam games?
on gog you have to install all dependencies yourself, which may not be a big deal for most of us here, since we are used to it, but kills linux for the other 99% for sure, and i can understand them. they show no signs of improving it, they dont even have their client, galaxy, available on linux, although its out for some time now. no signs of doing so in near future. games with linux support take some time to get a linux version on gog, so essentially they hold down linux popularity. if i want to play a new game, and have linux and windows, for which platform will i buy if windows is day0 and linux day3? also their own games, the witcher series, is not ported and no signs of doing so. except witcher2 port, which was rubbish at first, and also is not native.
i could talk more about my personal opinion, how i like steam features as metacritic score, recent reviews, community hubs and forum (often good troubleshooting), but want to stay objective right now. so whats the advantage of gog? i see only the fact that they offer their games drm free, which is an important point to me also. many games are a bit cheaper than directly on steam.
humblebundle essentially offers the advantage of drm free, together with all advantages of steam key, and also supports charity. they also have a good support and good prices. so unless you really want to save those 0-3% on retail prices of single direct purchases and give a fuck about future linux gaming, i dont see any reason to buy modern games on gog.
maybe some people here can clarify why gog is so popular here? i really want to understand.
That is plain and simply the main reason people like GOG so much.
On top of that, I believe GOG test each platform release to make sure they work properly. Valve does not do this with Steam.
Of course everyone has their own opinion on it, some games on Steam allow you to completely take the game away from Steam and still run, but a lot of Steam games depend on Steam and won't run without it.
Personally, I will buy from whoever gives me the best deal that I can be sure will count my sale for Linux. That is almost always Steam for me personally.
DRM free is a nice thing and that's probably what makes people think well of them. Personally, I buy from wherever it's cheaper at a given point. In Steam I like that I have all the games in one place, automatically updated. In GOG I like that I can just download something and install it everywhere I want (I have multiple computers) without making and restoring backups (and being online). But their patch versioning system is complete crap, I never know which version I already have and end up downloading the whole thing again once a new version is out.
I bought some games from them but i think i'm not going to buy anymore.
Mainly because i like the features that Steam gives you, like cloud saving and a WAY better Linux support.
Also, some games bought on Steam can be redeemed on GOG but it doesn't happen the opposite way, unless you ask the publisher/developer for a key.
Plus GOG has gog.com/connect which gives you the chance to activate some steam games on GOG
I visit the GOG forum often, naturally there is a lot of hate for steam but it's quite understandable
what my mind can't really understand is the huge amount of HARCORE DRM FREE WARRIORS who will rather die instead of using the EVIL Steam but on the same time are using WINDOZZ 10
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Equally perplexing is the denigration of Windows 10 as 'spyware', 'ransomware', etc., while being completely comfortable with the rest of MS's 'ecosystem', or all manner of proprietary software & services in general. I think it really comes down to what's fashionable -- a *principled* rejection of MS's policies wouldn't simply stop at Windows 10.
More on topic: I'm fully aware of the various disadvantages of GOG & Humble over Steam *for Linux*; nevertheless I give priority to those when I'm looking to buy something. In addition to the reasons already cited (no DRM, sympathy for the underdog, etc.), it's also partly because I'm really put off by the bargain-bin-mayhem character of the Steam website. I'm also happy with managing my saves & various online logins manually.
Then there are forced choices such as auto updates which as far as I know you cannot turn these off. Last but not least I don't care about achievements, hours played, friends list, cloud saving...etc (without trying to sound rude, I consider many of these features to be stupid and totally unnecessary).
That said, even as an exclusive GOG user I still have some boundaries, such as the Galaxy client. I don't and nor will have any interest in using it. So long as GOG offers the offline installers it will remain my only website I will buy from.
I kept such rules before I moved to Linux, you could say that dumping Windows was the last nail in the coffin for the people trying to tell me what I should do with my stuff.
Would be nice if GOG would release galaxy for Linux. I have a few games I'd like to play I have through there without the hassle of going there and downloading them, and some of their dos games still don't have Linux launchers, so you end up having to tweak dosbox yourself.
I DO like the DRM-free library, the availability of some really old games, the fact that I can play games offline if I wish, and the features in Galaxy that are being promised (offline play, possibly playing with people on Steam, a back-up feature, a rollback option). It would be awesome to see Galaxy come to Linux! I suppose my main issue with GOG is how Linux is an afterthought with them.
How cool would it be, though, to see Galaxy on Linux with a Gaming On Linux skin and a whole bunch of community-driven features and content added to it?
I do love Valve for their devotion to Linux games but I can't stand how Steam broadcasts to the world when you're on or off your computer and whether or not your playing a particular game. Sure, there are privacy settings and "appear offline" but then it looks like you're avoiding your friends when you use those. And with a forced client like Steam there is no choice but to deal with it.
If ever I can get a game on GOG I will, Steam comes second as long as they force a closed source client and DRM on me. I even made this nifty flowchart regarding my game purchasing decision logic.
i cannot see ANY point. humblebundle offers all games that support it drm free, has good bundles, actively pushes developers for linux support (the games icluded in the first bundles got ported for linux just because of it, which imho just started the porting hype of indie titles and gave us very excellent games), and also supports charity.
dont forget that you get steam keys also, for playing with friend atleast or other reasons, increasing linux games sold counter :). i assume steam gets its share too, using it to push linux even more.
may someone, especially of the gog only users above, explain to me?
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I also find it much harder to find what it is I am looking for on Humble Store, as it is filled with Steam and/or Windows only titles and a lot of its filters are a joke - you can set it to only show DRM Free Linux titles and still get the wrong results as it will include Linux Steam games that happen to have a DRM Free release on Windows for example, which is why I have a great deal of trouble trusting it. Plus they spend so much time promoting Windows only Steam games that it does tend to grate on my nerves.
I used to use Humble exclusively, but right now I would much rather support GOG.com or itch.io instead.
sure old games are a good reason for using gog, though personally im more interested in newer ones. However its no reason of exclusively demanding a gog version of every new game.
@ Hamisch
Well, of course I accept your opinion, but as manero666 said i completely fail to understand it. a drm free title on a drm platform effectively has drm. its like choosing between being in a jail where you can move freely, or move freely in a world where you can visit certain cells as you like. the point that windows does vanish is propably as likely as that steam does vanish - very unlikely in any relevant time frime. (id take a bet that steam will survive even longer^^)
i get your point about the filter, but to me its minor issue that gog also has plenty of.
If anything I see Steam as a barrier to DRM free even if it doesn't mean to be. There are countless games with Linux versions on Steam where GOG and other DRM free outlets seem to never get the Linux version. Metro Redux, Dying Light, Metro Last Light Redux, System Shock 2, Waking Mars, etc. I don't know why they don't put the Linux version DRM free and am not saying Valve is outright responsible but something fishy is up and I doubt it's that GOG hates Linux.
this old school key activation may explain why a lot of people prefer GOG over Steam and drm in general
the game is Age of Empire III Steam version (wasn't Steam enough??)
Anyway is good to have all these alternatives, maybe one day we will have 1 key that works everywhere :)