I get it and everyone has a choice, I for one won't buy Diablo III because some of the solutions it uses.

But quoting the article like that and going "Mr. Paradox failing at life" without understanding or mentioning half the problem is just wrong and I'd like to think GOG members are above such petty things.

my country isn't exactly backwards in any way, yet the fastest internet connection the two largest ISPs are offering to private customers are 20MBit. i'm on 15MBit.

Around here you can, but it's grossly over sold, comes with tiny caps and is just as expensive as a DSL connection.

The problem we have is that the rural parts of the country have been at war with the urban parts for decades, but due to a constitutional mistake when the country was being founded, the small states have a disproportionate influence on both the legislature and the Presidency.

At present there are roughly 2 dollars flowing from urban areas to rural areas for every one tax dollar they put into the pot. In the mean time the infrastructure is crumbling and the rural folks are demanding more spending cuts to the things that urban voters want.

The last time it was this bad in that respect was right before the Civil War.

There's absolutely no reason why we need to be this far behind, but the fact that there are people in urban areas just next to a major IXP that only have 1.5mbps connections is embarrassing.

You do realize that it is using a finished solution and not to have someone to watch over you? Huge difference.

Next thing you'll say that you would prefer Games for Windows Live.

@ Fred_DM You quoted the wrong guy up there ;)

Lucky, the best I could do currently is 7mbps. Which is nearly double the speed that was available in the late 90s when we got that first broadband cablemodem.
Not really. I used to prefer G4WL, but I've heard it's changed since the days of FO3. Back then it was a much more sane solution than Steam.

And what do I care if they watch me play? If I can't play because of DRM that's a completely unacceptable situation. I pay money for games on the basis that they will be there for me to play. If I didn't need that reliability I would either rent or just pirate them.

Scratch that, if I actually cared about playing my games when and how I want, I'd probably pirate them. Because quite frankly, pirates seem to care more about my experience than most publishers do.

At least GOG has the sense to not put people in the position of envying pirates.

Do we have to go through the "gog is/isn't DRM" discussion again?

sorry about that. i corrected it. but the quoting system on this board is really the worst i've ever encountered.

no, the same way we don't have to go through the "Valve is evil" and "Steam is killing PC gaming" nonsense every two and a half days.

As a Python fan, you're obligated to not just take part, but find the most ridiculously absurd officiating position possible.

Besides, as long as Steam exists there will be reason for us to bash the hell out of it for damaging the gaming industry. The same way that as long as Apple exists there will be a reason for bashing the hell out of Apple for making unusable crap popular.
More or less.

YES! I like to creep into threats, start a small fire and than watch the discussion burn XD!

Honestly, I don't care how you call that duck, as long as it tastes good.

In reality most of us don't need a faster connection than ~5mbit so 15mbit is quite alright (I hardly use 15 of my 100mbit, but it is only marginally more expensive than the 10mbit offer from another provider, and my provider is known as one of the most stable ones)

It sounds like the telecom companies are basically abusing their power. Are there too few providers on the market? Over here the providers are fighting over the relatively small customer base that exists, so a mobile internet connection is relatively cheap. And if they can offer relatively cheap mobile internet in a country like Sweden, with its spread out population (Sweden is quite big), it should be possible to do in countries like the US as well. If the companies providing the service are forced to improve.

There is quite a lack of communication here. I think at this point of this thread (and the history of gog forums) it should already be accepted that:

a) Steam is popular because it gives what its customers want and is basically the most accepted DRM and the most reliable client based DD out there.
b) Steam is DRM and some people wont accept any form of DRM and will be as vocal as needed when someone, especially a publisher/developer, suggests it isn't.

Although it has already been explained that this Paradox guy may be referring to Paradox developed games only.

And to add something to the discussion, I believe Steam is doing an important damage to PC gaming. There is a lot of developers, especially small ones, that bend to the Steam solution just because they don't want to try and make their own multiplayer solutions. Yes, it can be costly, but it doesn't cost you anything to let me do multiplayer P2P with my friends, I don't need a centralized platform for that. I could even accept that the non-Steam version of a game comes limited in multiplayer option, without a matchmaking system or whatever that Steam platform does that you cannot do on your own, but give alternatives, goddamit!

depends. when we're talking about digital editions of games like The Force Unleashed or the upcoming Fall of the Samurai we're talking 30GB per game. that's a pain to download even on a 15MBit line, and i usually go for a physical copy instead when games are that large.

maybe i wouldn't really need a 100MBit connection, but i'd sure like to have at least the option of getting one.

funny that you should mention that ..... I do prefer GFWL, which is really sad since I'm one of those people who use a dollar sign when spelling M$.

Even being online is not necessarily enough. I have a speedy internet connection right now, and still Steam doesn't work. Reason being, Valve does not allow proxy servers, which are mandatory in many networks all over the world. GOG games I can purchase, download and even play just fine through the same network. Ok, GOG Downloader does not seem to work (at least the last time I tried it from behind a proxy), but it is optional anyway, and it seems some 3rd party GOG downloaders are more advanced anyway.

But I agree with the previous writer that definitely there are worse DRM methods than Steam, a bit like having genital herpes is preferable to lung cancer (or so I've heard).

Anyway, even that cannot be much of praise because Valve constantly allows publishers to add third-party DRM on top of Steam DRM, including HW lock-in, installation caps etc. I might have a bit more respect for Valve if they didn't allow that, just like GOG does not allow any (extra) DRM. Currently Steam gives you only genital herpes by default, but you get lung cancer as an extra from many non-Valve games that Steam offers.

If GOG acted like Valve/Steam, they would claim to be DRM-free, while at the same time allowing Electronic Arts, Ubisoft etc. to use third party DRM in their GOG releases.

Oh, and in the long run Windows Store will kill Steam and others anyway. This might include GOG as well, but GOG is mostly in the market (old games) that doesn't concern Windows Store that much. But ultimately GOG could run out of "new old games" to publish as well.

Good thing GOG games backed up locally don't need any connection to Master Server anymore, so ultimately all my GOG purchases are completely safe.