I have no idea what GOG even is but im seeing it as a steam competitor in headlines lately. What’s going on that’s causing it to come up a lot?
GOG is “Good Old Games”, a digital distribution service for PC games run by CD Projekt Red, developers of The Witcher and Cyberpunk. It mostly focuses on old games from the Win95/98 days that have been patched/fixed by their in-house dev team to run on modern Windows releases. However, it also sells all CD Projekt Red titles and seems to be expanding to just be a regular PC game distribution service.
It’s being talked about a lot right now because unlike Steam, EGS, and other stores they sell you a DRM-free download. Because of recent legislation in California, companies are required to use clearer language when they aren’t selling you something that you own forever, they are instead selling you a license to access something.
This has reignited discussion on digital ownership, Steam, and what happens if you die or Steam shuts down/is acquired and you lose your non-transferable access to the games in your library. GOG is the ideal solution right now, because it while it offers a client that is simple to use like Steam (called “GOG Galaxy”) but if they announce a shutdown or acquisition, you can simply download offline installers for all your games and you don’t lose access to anything.
Oic, thanks for curing some of my ignorance
I’m going to have a difficult time proving anything when I’m dead. Could perhaps someone who survived me provide such proof?
No idea what bequeath means but it sounds badass so I support this
It’s basically like a wetter, sloppier, longer version of a queef
bequeath /bĭ-kwēᴛʜ′, -kwēth′/
transitive verb
To leave or give (personal property) by will.
To pass (something) on to another; hand down.
“bequeathed to their children a respect for hard work.”
To give or leave by will; to give by testament; – said especially of personal property.It just means you are leaving it to someone when you die. It’s the opposite of inheriting.
It’s the complement of inherit.
Yes, that’s more accurate. Thanks.
And why is there a condition? Can’t gift the whole library to someone?
I assume this is an official way of claiming when you don’t have login information.
How do I posthumously prove anything?
Do I need a dead-man switch? Do they sell those?
I think a death certificate and your will are enough. Only one of the two is probably not enough.
Wills aren’t required and not everyone will have one.
I think the best course of action is to have a trust set up and have all of your assets under the trust. That’s how my attorney set up my end of life tasks. It saves you problems with probate and taxes while also giving you flexibility if you want to change things.
What if I swear on god FR FR?
That is kinda hilarious ngl
And just like that, GOG rose to surpass Steam as the better place to buy video games.
Correct me if I’m wrong: if you’re a linux gamer then GOG doesn’t support your platform, no?
Yes and no. They do have Linux binaries for games that support Linux, but GOG Galaxy is Windows. Heroic Launcher and others do support GOG.
Call me when they add regional pricing, otherwise their sales are still way too expensive for me.
GOG enabled regional pricing several years ago.
I even rebought some games I really care about on GOG.
It was already better as the games it sells are free of Digital Restrictions Management
Just call it malware. At least that’s an honest name.
The only client I would willingly install alongside Steam
If only they had a Linux client I might do that too, but the client they said they would come out with never apeared
Funny how people like it when they actually provide value to you instead of only forcing an ad delivery/data collection tool on you, right?
I’m guessing Steam decided against being able to leave your games to somebody else when you die because of how most EULAs I’ve read work: they are often non-transferrable licence and so in most cases the store has no choice in the matter. Now GOG are willing to say they will do what they can given this limitation, but I can see why Steam wouldn’t: it’s a whole lot of work for realistically not much benefit. It’s probably easier for Valve to gift the same games over to the new person.
And from the corporate side of things, it’s not very business savvy to miss out on an entire generation or two of gamers buying games.
If you and I are parents and our Steam library has 1,000+ games, our child likely wouldn’t buy those games. But if they need to create a steam account for themselves, now those games are back on the table, securing future revenue for Valve.
There’s workarounds sure, like family sharing or just ignoring the ToS and sharing passwords. I think the real tell will be for our grand/great grandchildren, for once we are 100 or 120 then Valve will probably start wondering… Is averyminya really still alive and kicking, or did he share his library?
Aren’t all the games on GOG DRM-free? If so, there’s not much difference here than giving someone a USB drive filled with the installers.
No, they’ve had DRM games for many years now.
Not many, but some.
Pretty sure that’s the technicality GoG is using when they keep saying all this sort of stuff. Their terms of service have effectively the same language about purchases only being a license that Steam does.
How can I prove that I’m dead if I’m dead? The fuck?
No, anything but that.
I see what you did there.
Postmortem selfie with the boys.
Out of the loop here… what’s GOG?
Competitor to steam, it’s selling points are DRM free games releasing old games in playable States for modern machines. They also sell contemporary games.
And owned by cd project (Witcher, cyberpunk)
Ahhh. Got it.
Your answer in the form of a meme
Awesome, thanks.