GOG vs Steam

[fishburger67]

I just recently bought FO3 on GOG.  For those of you who have never heard of it, GOG sells games without DRM.  I played FO3 a LONG time ago and it was a mess, crashing all the time and the like.  I recently read an article about it and it turns out that many of the issues I was having was due to the Steam DRM issues.

 

The GOG version has NEVER crashed on me yet after a hundred or so hours playing it. 

 

Now when I buy a game, I check GOG first to see if they have it.

 

[belegost]

I used to use them a lot for the classics that were at the time not available anywhere else in a state playable on modern systems. Once I filled my desire to relive the early 90's again,  my interest waned though I do have all 3 witcher games exclusively on this storefront. But that is mostly because I have physical copies and had registered them with GOG for free.

 

However once Steam finally introduced support for my local currency, I don't buy anything from GOG anymore. Mostly because the pricing was brought up to par with the exclusion of sometimes very finnicky exchange rate, Steam having better and more frequent sales and, though this may be hard to believe, better return policy than GOG.

 

Also, I don't really like Galaxy and I can't be arsed to run two different storefront apps (I don't use Origin, UPiss or Epic and will never use them even if it means I'm going to miss out).

Edited September 2, 2022 by belegost

[Slorm]

4 hours ago, belegost said:

Also, I don't really like Galaxy and I can't be arsed to run two different storefront apps (I don't use Origin, UPiss or Epic and will never use them even if it means I'm going to miss out).

 

You don't need Galaxy (I've never used it), you can just directly download the game files

[belegost]

4 hours ago, Slorm said:

 

You don't need Galaxy (I've never used it), you can just directly download the game files

 

If there's one thing I don't like more than Galaxy it's faffing about with manually downloading and installing 10 or more 4GB+ files.

Edited September 2, 2022 by belegost

[Lyman the Lunatic]

I simply hate Steam, so GOG is a no brainer for me.
I always hated Steam, too redundant, too bossy, never needed it, needing internet connection for single player game is just retarded. Steam also has the worst refund policy as well. People hate origin because it's EA, at least those greedy bastards give me half a month.
My experience with Uplay is the thing freezing & crashing, so I guess Uplay is the worst because it can't keep itself working properly?

I just miss the non DRM days. I bought the game, it's mine to play around with as I please. Why should I allow that fat bacon eater hold ransom to all of my games?

[Pamatronic]

2 hours ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

I always hated Steam, too redundant, too bossy, never needed it, needing internet connection for single player game is just retarded.

The Fuck are you talking about? You don't need an internet connection to play steam games. Only if that specific game requires it. But thats on the Developer not Steam.
 

2 hours ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

I just miss the non DRM days. I bought the game, it's mine to play around with as I please. Why should I allow that fat bacon eater hold ransom to all of my games?

Ahh yes, of course... you mean those glorious days when you had to insert the games disk to play it? and being left standing there holding your dick if scratched or lost it?

[Kabal460]

18 minutes ago, Pamatronic said:

Ahh yes, of course... you mean those glorious days when you had to insert the games disk to play it? and being left standing there holding your dick if scratched or lost it?

Ahh, yes, of course... you mean those glorious days when you could download a game from a service until that service goes defunct? and being left standing there holding your dick if you loose your entire game library because the servers no longer have it? 

[sila]

I am of the opinion that any bastion of DRM-free games should be supported. I buy games on GoG if they have decent sales, although most of my library is still on Steam.

 

The idea that Steam could one day close its servers, or increase the drm etc I find rather concerning. If steam ever goes out of business, unlikely as that is, thousands of dollars and hundreds of games that I own are just gone. If gog ever goes out of business, I can just download the games I have there onto a big hard drive and keep them forever anyway.

 

Yes it is unlikely that Steam will go out of business, but what about games that get removed? Games that have their servers shut down that you can no longer play, even in single player? It has happened before. It will happen again. Sony constantly wants to drop support for ps3 downloads, but every time they have tried the outcry was so harsh that they backtracked. 

 

GoG and drm free games (and piracy....) are the last bastions of game preservation. I think they should be supported (even piracy, as a last resort if it is the only way to play certain games)

[Pamatronic]

57 minutes ago, Kabal460 said:

Ahh, yes, of course... you mean those glorious days when you could download a game from a service until that service goes defunct? and being left standing there holding your dick if you loose your entire game library because the servers no longer have it? 

Your point being? As established earlier, you don't need a network connection or functioning servers to play games you already have on your computer.
If service goes defunct, you can no longer aquire new copies of a game. But this is true for physical copies, Steam AND GoG.

(And I´m pretty sure that steams lifespan is far longer than that of a dvd-rom/your computer/GoG)

[Lyman the Lunatic]

2 hours ago, Pamatronic said:

The Fuck are you talking about? You don't need an internet connection to play steam games. Only if that specific game requires it. But thats on the Developer not Steam.
 

Ahh yes, of course... you mean those glorious days when you had to insert the games disk to play it? and being left standing there holding your dick if scratched or lost it?

I am not in love with my penis as much as you, perhaps that's why your discs got scratched or lost so easily?

Typical Steam fanboy response, pretending you don't need internet because steam never just feel wanting to update itself or force patches on your games.

 

I didn't even get to how useless the reviews & tagging features are, yet you already flew off the handle lol. I don't know why you'd do so, I don't believe steam & your penis to be 1 & the same.

[Vader666]

12 minutes ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

pretending you don't need internet because steam never just feel wanting to update itself or force patches on your games.

 

Save your account information on your PC and set steam to offline mode.

The only game i own which doesn't like that is Elden Ring, which is kind of Multiplayer.

[Varithina]

5 hours ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

I just miss the non DRM days. I bought the game, it's mine to play around with as I please. Why should I allow that fat bacon eater hold ransom to all of my games?

 

That is the problem though, you do not own the game you rent it, take a look at pretty much any license agreement you find in any game, and you will see that, most of them also have the right to tell you to stop using that software if they tell you to, they will not of course, but legally they have the right to.

[Pamatronic]

36 minutes ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

I am not in love with my penis as much as you, perhaps that's why your discs got scratched or lost so easily?

Interesting...? could you elaborate what that's supposed to mean?

 

36 minutes ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

Typical Steam fanboy response

I have no strong feelings towards steam. They certainly don't need me to defend their honor on a random internet forum.
I do however have strong negative feelings to individuals who write nonsense like this:

5 hours ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

I simply hate <thing1>, so <thing2> is a no brainer for me.

i.e simpletons with no brain who make objectively wrong statements.

[t.ara]

6 hours ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

I simply hate Steam, so GOG is a no brainer for me.
I always hated Steam, too redundant, too bossy, never needed it, needing internet connection for single player game is just retarded. Steam also has the worst refund policy as well. People hate origin because it's EA, at least those greedy bastards give me half a month.
My experience with Uplay is the thing freezing & crashing, so I guess Uplay is the worst because it can't keep itself working properly?

I just miss the non DRM days. I bought the game, it's mine to play around with as I please. Why should I allow that fat bacon eater hold ransom to all of my games?

 

 

Because YOU agreed to their lisence-politicy (AGB)...whatever there is...if not, give your product back to the shop-but only if in original package !!!

 

Some people like steam, others do not because of  different points of view. Same may also one day come up with gog -in future....it always has to do with business, dollars, money and power. Steam grew up like a monopol like some different other enterprises of money-machines (not at least nexus) of the internet. Indeed, if you switch off the internet, your access to games, which are with their manufacturs in lisences with the companies like steam are then not any longer for you available.

As one bought a game on a CD/DVD in the past, you bought a license to play the game for all time-today the manufactors begin to reduce licenses per month or per year-a really scary development of software shopping. Specially in those cases, if you want some stuff for non-professional-use. If there is a little chance to grab some dollars, someone is trying that, not anymore important if it is really necessary, or not. I also have lot of CD/DVD stuff which is working independently from any sort of LAUNCHER or game-ing-platform, which is truly an easy handling, specially if you have a bad-speed-internet. A support of a game with a volume over one gigabyte can be a painful knockout, if you have a download speed of some old-school-connections. So in the past you had to think about if that shopping-DVD of a skyrim version can be used really on the computer: the first thing after the DVD-install is an update-always-means that you have to wait...days and weeks I waited...so-lot of electric energy for NOTHING-blown.

 

EA-launchers (origin) do not work on my system-they have a bug, not my system has....-or they lost compatibility to win 7-not my problem. If a launcher is not running, I am not willed to install it-in that case "good-bye"-my beloved game (sims4). Older versions of DVD´s still work without a launcher-sometimes. If it ´s not part of the deal with the shopping-CD/DVD.

 

Rockstar service (launcher) is "moderate" and they do not have lot to offer-from my point of vew the best solution, compared with origin or steam, so that the manufactor itself is using a launcher, (EA of course with origin same way) acceptable for a better and comfortable handling of the game.

 

Steam: Has been a big desaster and a truly difficult descision for me to install this to get specially skyrim because they collect user-data of the way you are playing and how long you play-that ´s exactly on the edge of an acceptable AGB, imo. Furthermore is STEAM more than a launcher, it is an robot which is handling all the games you have downloaded by that service and you need a fast connection for that. I bought some games by using steam-I got SKYRIM SE for free-that has been NICE...anyway do I ONLY now play and use SKYRIM and SKYRIM SE. To keep such a "launcher" for just one or two games is really anoying as this thing is always active in background and collecting your statictics for the industry. So, if skyrim, you have to consume steam....if you want to play a computer game, you need windows....if you want to play with direct-x12, you need windows 10 or higher, ....if you..........if you... and if you....a wonder, that steam is still treated to support windows 7.....LOL...in conclusion do I not have a problem with spending $$$ for a game, my problem is here the handling of steam as a robot-machine on my computer-I simply don´t want add´s of other games, to become fished to buy different other stuff-but I did: FO4, witcher, mafia, tomb-raider....no wish to install those anymore-no space-no time-no joy.

 

The intentions for such a game-platform of the industry has been to stop illegal copies of the games-but that´s of course not possible. By a launcher or such a support by steam, an argument has been to support updates for the game and check the game´s data (verifying) for a full function. For modding very dangerous but nobody cared about that.

Updates for a GAME?????-From my point of view has a game after it´s release to be ready-oldschool-thinking, I know. Today the release day countdown is more important then the game´s function-check-this we always have seen was happening with bethesda´s games. RDR2 has technical so many errors and missing textures, that even after some years, they do not see that-profis do not see such stuff.-Yes, they are in different teams working-and they all lost the forest to watch because of too many trees. -So feed the game with updates. Perfect. Isn ´t it?...patch-patch-dlc-dlc-patch.......you did not notice the last update?....ooouuuh.....but now you need windows 10....holy.....

 

The overall crux is, that todays games are very much more complexer than the games which have been made 10 or more years ago. The basics of a game engine seem to be in  principle in all different games nealy the same with some "upgrades"-anyway is the principle always the same way going. And the depth of content seems to be at an edge of the physical possibilities nowadays at least-for online much more, rather than for single-player games. That at least should be a small defence for the update-mania.

 

Okay, we learned: Nothing is for free...is it?

 

[Gameplayer]

5 hours ago, Pamatronic said:

The Fuck are you talking about? You don't need an internet connection to play steam games. Only if that specific game requires it. But thats on the Developer not Steam.
 

Ahh yes, of course... you mean those glorious days when you had to insert the games disk to play it? and being left standing there holding your dick if scratched or lost it?

 

Well people dont likely know about this piece of now probably useless trivia but after playing frisbe with your games in the living room with siblings or pets you can always put a toothbrush and paste to good use scrubbing those CD's clean from not just plaque and tooth decay but also scratches from when your dog retrieved said disk and brought it back to you.

[sila]

2 minutes ago, Gameplayer said:

 

Well people dont likely know about this piece of now probably useless trivia but after playing frisbe with your games in the living room with siblings or pets you can always put a toothbrush and paste to good use scrubbing those CD's clean from not just plaque and tooth decay but also scratches from when your dog retrieved said disk and brought it back to you.

I never really managed to get that trick to work. Probably didn't have the right kind of toothpaste for it.

 

I had a disc repair kit that did wonders though.

[belegost]

8 hours ago, Lyman the Lunatic said:

Steam also has the worst refund policy as well

 

Actually it doesn't, depending on your point of view. On Steam, you can download a game, play it a bit and then return if it turns out you don't like it, it doesn't run on your system or the starting screen is the wrong shade of polka dot red and you're allergic to polka dots. No questions asked. The limitation is either 14 days or 2 hour play time, which may seem like a bad deal, until you actually read through GOG's refund policy in its entirety. Sure, you can return it any time, but only up until the point you actually download it. Since there is no DRM, once you download the game, you can't return it. At all, no matter the reason. You don't like it? It doesn't run? It's a piece of garbage? Though luck, you now own it, no refunds past this point.

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by belegost

[belegost]

20 minutes ago, Gameplayer said:

you can always put a toothbrush and paste to good use scrubbing those CD's clean

 

Heh, guilty as charged. I actually did that with a music disk sometime in the early-mid 1990's being completely ignorant on the matter at the time. It was a completely new technology that just came from the West and nobody really knew anything about. Funnily enough it seemed to make no difference to the CD player I used at the time and it played it without a single hiccup. Forward about a decade or so, and most players post 2005 suddenly wasn't able to read the disc at all.

Edited September 4, 2022 by belegost

[tecckblade]

this is the double edge of forums on the internet, every jack ass thinks their opinion needs to be said, no matter how stupid that opinion might be, and then they get mad because people don't agree with whatever nonsense they say. I mean if you don't want to deal with people disagreeing with you Don't post things online. Quite a few people will not agree with what I am saying now, but I'm ok with that.   

[Pamatronic]

47 minutes ago, tecckblade said:

Quite a few people will not agree with what I am saying now, but I'm ok with that. 

[Darkening Demise]

If only GOG had Oldrim since it don't have the Bethesda DRM of SE. I also hate how you can't use gift cards since its the only way I can buy things online due to lacking full time employment. Gift cards from family are the only time I can buy games anymore. At least the few storefronts that take them anymore.

[yukitokuroya]

I'm more than used to installing various files, GOG for me is one of the best systems out there. Never had one single problem with the games there. Steam's support is pretty bad, only worthy feature in it is Steam Link(which also works with non-steam games). I mainly use it for a few games while playing PSO2 by just clicking play_pso2.exe(even when downloading through Microsoft Store). So, it's no real problem for me to download and install games through an installer and run them directly. I did this when I downloaded the translated japanese PSO2.

[Lyman the Lunatic]

21 hours ago, belegost said:

 

Actually it doesn't, depending on your point of view. On Steam, you can download a game, play it a bit and then return if it turns out you don't like it, it doesn't run on your system or the starting screen is the wrong shade of polka dot red and you're allergic to polka dots. No questions asked. The limitation is either 14 days or 2 hour play time, which may seem like a bad deal, until you actually read through GOG's refund policy in its entirety. Sure, you can return it any time, but only up until the point you actually download it. Since there is no DRM, once you download the game, you can't return it. At all, no matter the reason. You don't like it? It doesn't run? It's a piece of garbage? Though luck, you now own it, no refunds past this point.

 

I have successfully refund my GOG purchase multiple times, I don't know why you are struggling to do so. Steam has 2 hrs limit. I can't even properly bugfix my purchase because the 2 hr is up. At least GOG gave 30 days.
My advice, contact their customer support. Typically, they'll ask you to send screenshots. That's how I've done it.

[Lyman the Lunatic]

23 hours ago, Pamatronic said:

Interesting...? could you elaborate what that's supposed to mean?

 

I have no strong feelings towards steam. They certainly don't need me to defend their honor on a random internet forum.
I do however have strong negative feelings to individuals who write nonsense like this:

i.e simpletons with no brain who make objectively wrong statements.

You sounded rather bitter, my friend. It's kinda funny for some reason.

I recalled, some games can run without discs, and I have played another game while installing the other back in the disc days. I can't do that with steam because it'll bitch & moan, saying I MUST wait for an installation to complete, or it will PAUSE the installation. So what did I do? I play my GOG or log in to my other DRM & play my games there instead. I don't see why this kind of limitation is considered "progress" or, a"good thing".

So you are not that knowledgeable about how useless or annoying Steam is, then. I suppose that's understandable. Even then, you claim to not know, then you can't claim I make wrong statements. Be real here, if it's not for the steep sales, Steam is nothing.

[Lyman the Lunatic]

On 9/4/2022 at 12:30 PM, Vader666 said:

 

Save your account information on your PC and set steam to offline mode.

The only game i own which doesn't like that is Elden Ring, which is kind of Multiplayer.

Offline mode won't stop force updates on the games. Steam has removed that feature years back.