Galaxy - and the direction it appears (to some of us) to be taking things - is a consequence of the marketplace we have today, dominated by one major player. I don't know if they want to get Steamy, per se, but the features that come from the big client are now things that the marketplace is expecting to see as standard. Hence, Galaxy.

What that means for the future... hard to say. At the very least, it can't affect the stuff we have already purchased and downloaded, so long as one doesn't allow Galaxy to make changes.

If there's an upside, Galaxy should speed the release of more and newer big name games on the store. Hopefully they'll remain DRM-free, and hopefully at least the single-player component will be client-optional.

I like the client for what it is, and i don't even mind using it. But the big one for me (and for everyone else i'm sure) is that it STAYS OPTIONAL.

Point of this thread was to evaluate whether or not this whole "GOG IS GOING DRM!!" is hyperbole or not, and i've come to the conclusion it probably is. I can see the appeal for a client neatly wrapping things up for people who want it, like you said it might even be an expected standard. But some might see it as a way of GOG to easing into a steam-like way of handling their business, which would take away what made this place and store amazing in the first place.

In order for GOG to get newer (older) games, it needs to be able to negotiate, and it's better if they have the numbers to back them up.

I see Galaxy as a way to get more people to buy games, attract new customers, and also get newer games published here.

With more people buying games and more developers selling here, GOG will be in a better position to negotiate with the big companies to let them sell some of those games we want so badly.

Me too. GOG has started out with many customer friendly principles, which they have abandoned one by one. (One-world, one price, only complete games, no region-locking, no in-game transactions... etc.) DRM-free is the last vestige of the originally good intentions and with the way GOG tries to push Galaxy it is quite clear that they want it to be mandatory. They just don't dare to go there yet. But they will eventually. They tested the waters with the 'let's include Galaxy in every offline installer'. This time, the outcry was big enough to make them row back. But they will keep testing and keep pushing Galaxy step by step until it becomes a mandatory client. Which is DRM.

I had no idea they included galaxy for a while in all offline installers... Very worrying indeed.

Not for all, they originally wanted to start off with a fraction of them.

In the last moment, they didn't. They announced that they would, but were stopped by the outcry in the forum and many threats of leaving GOG. Then they reconsidered on the day they had announced that they would start this scheme and announced instead, that they would offer both downloaders with a Galaxy-installation option but also clean offline installers. I just wonder how long they will stick to that and when the clean installers are quietly dropped.

On the plus side: they DID announce this attempted change and didn't do anything so drastic quietly yet. But the whole episode hasn't exactly restored the confidence that was previously lost by abolishing all other principles. Always with the reasoning that each move enables more games brought here.

Between us girls, I really hope it's a case of "The sky is falling!" What might be a sticking point in the long run - as more and more parts of each game become integrated with client features - is that developers will find it a pain to make things work both with and without the client so they simply go with the client.

Whether that's becoming Steam-like or simply going in the direction that the market is dictating...

But yeah, I really do hope they can make it work for us old-schoolers.

I want to be an optimist in this situation. Hoping this is GOG adjusting to the present market Steam created while using it as leverage to get AAA games to GOG and grow as a company. This increase in GoG's presence may sway more and more publishers to DRM free gaming or DRM lite (Galaxy) options, thus possibly taking Steam's place one day as the industry leader. GOG could very well make DRM the new norm in gaming, bringing gaming back to the old ways.

GOG can't go head to head with Steam. GOG has to beat Steam and it can only do that by changing the market in their favor. Which they are slowly doing. With how much GOG has grown as of late, the surplus of new users etc.
AAA games like Fall Out and Dragon's Dogma show there is hope for this gaming Utopia we all seek.

This market is dominated by 1 store. In order to survive, it needs to set itself apart from this and other stores.

What makes GOG unique, why would anyone come here if you took that uniqueness away?

Look at Humble Bundle.

Nobody is arguing against Galaxy or GOG having a client. It is only that Galaxy is now forced and no longer optional.

I downloaded Kerbal and of course it didn't run without Galaxy, because you know GOG had to F*** it up. I

I finally got Galaxy working, and a (not so) funny thing I noticed - even though I only launched it once and never signed in at all, when I closed Galaxy it was still running, Yup, it was closed and I had no programs opened, but check in the process section of Task Manager and that Mother F*cker was still running and chewing up resources.

As of right now, myself and nobody else can just download our games DRM free anymore. And GOG saying they need time make a "Classic" download option is total horse sh*t. Every game on GOG didn't have Galaxy prior so now all the other versions are gone? BS.

Where are all the old games GOG?

That's the first time I read about this. Could you elaborate?
Can anybody else confirm?

General consensus is that GOG could be nicer and Steam is not the best thing in the world, but apart from that a little resemblence to Steam is not the worst, however, there are some read lines, like having a mandatory client (among others). All in all, a thin line to walk for GOG, but worthwhile nevertheless.