Does GoG have a sneaky little bit of DRM?

[votemarvel]

So to try and keep things brief, which is hard for me, I'm a big fan of Telltale's Walking Dead season 1 and 2. So much so I own them on 360, PS3, Xbox One, Android, Steam, and GoG.

I recently started a new run through the GoG versions of the games, I've hit episode 3 of season 2, and at a certain rope climbing point I thought "you know what? I might as well get the GoG Galaxy achievements".

So I fired up the client and was quite surprised to see that I had been gaining the Galaxy achievements even though the client hadn't been running.

Now colour me wrong but doesn't that mean that your games are reporting back to to CD Projekt, that they know when and where you are playing your games.

That in itself doesn't bother me all that much, Google after all knows many secrets about me I wouldn't tell my own family, but it is more that if the games are talking one way, isn't it possible they could be made to talk the other way as well. Such as disabling the games?

Is this DRM? Am I just being paranoid? Either way I am kind of disappointed to find out that my 'DRM free' games still phone home.

 

[Saelune]

More likely Galaxy just saw the info in the game files that you did xyz and recorded it. Like when you get achievements offline on say, Xbox, then connect again and they are recorded.

 

[The Madman]

DRM would be if you were unable to play the game without an online connection, what you're suggesting is just some form of stat tracking. Incidentally that doesn't need to involve phoning home either, Galaxy could very well just go by your savegames and I know in the case of Witcher 3 at least there's an optional form of Galaxy overlay, though I've no idea if TWD has a similar option.

You could always experiment by turning off your internet for a game session and seeing what happens in terms of achievements if you're curious, but I'm not particularly bothered either way.

 

[Tanis]

I don't think you know what 'DRM' is.

DRM can kill your game, simply because...'we say so'.

What you're describing is NOTHING like DRM.

 

[Kae]

Since when does GoG galaxy have achievements???

My client has no such thing.

 

[Saelune]

Since when does GoG galaxy have achievements???

My client has no such thing.

Very very very few games have them. Only game I own that has achievements is Shadow Warrior Classic Redux. Less than 200 games on GoG have them.

 

[Kae]

Since when does GoG galaxy have achievements???

My client has no such thing.

Very very very few games have them. Only game I own that has achievements is Shadow Warrior Classic Redux. Less than 200 games on GoG have them.

I see, not even an official list exists of games that have them, from what I can gather of the 164 games I have on GOG only a game called Dex has achievement support.

 

[Saelune]

Since when does GoG galaxy have achievements???

My client has no such thing.

Very very very few games have them. Only game I own that has achievements is Shadow Warrior Classic Redux. Less than 200 games on GoG have them.

I see, not even an official list exists of games that have them, from what I can gather of the 164 games I have on GOG only a game called Dex has achievement support.

On Galaxy, go to the store tab, click Browse Games, then the Features tab and click Achievements and it will sort out all the games with them.

 

[Kae]

Since when does GoG galaxy have achievements???

My client has no such thing.

Very very very few games have them. Only game I own that has achievements is Shadow Warrior Classic Redux. Less than 200 games on GoG have them.

I see, not even an official list exists of games that have them, from what I can gather of the 164 games I have on GOG only a game called Dex has achievement support.

On Galaxy, go to the store tab, click Browse Games, then the Features tab and click Achievements and it will sort out all the games with them.

Cool, it seems like the first list I found was correct and Dex is the only game I own that has achievement support, which is fine because I'm not huge into achievements but some of them can be entertaining, there are a few games I want that have them so I might just buy one to test it, though really if anyone decides to review my Steam profile they'll plainly see that I don't really bother with them most of the time.

 

[votemarvel]

I don't think you know what 'DRM' is.

DRM can kill your game, simply because...'we say so'.

What you're describing is NOTHING like DRM.

Which is why I asked the question and I confess I do love a good conspiracy theory.

As I said if the games are talking to a server to unlock achievements without the client, then what's to say that same connection couldn't work the other way? What's to say those games couldn't be shut down remotely?

Of course it is more likely that Saelune is correct and the data is just stored locally and Galaxy updated when you start it.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Technically Neverwinter Nights still has DRM in it. Which shittily stops you from ever playing expansion packs known as premium modules which you can never buy now like that awesome pirates module and the Infinite dungeons one. (I see to recall Bioware even saying that stuff would be released for free if they ever took down the shop for it...)

 

[TrulyBritish]

I'm not entirely sure I understand what the problem is. People complain about DRM because it can get in the way of actually playing the game (see the problems people had with say, Origin or Uplay) whereas this just seems to be that GOG keeps track of your achievements while you're online.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

As I said if the games are talking to a server to unlock achievements without the client, then what's to say that same connection couldn't work the other way? What's to say those games couldn't be shut down remotely?

GoG partially built its popularity on the premise that their games would not include DRM. "You buy it, it's yours to do with as you please as long and as many times as you want", so to speak.

It is one of GoG's major selling points and it would be a very stupid move on CD Projects part to take that away.

 

[WeepingAngels]

As I said if the games are talking to a server to unlock achievements without the client, then what's to say that same connection couldn't work the other way? What's to say those games couldn't be shut down remotely?

GoG partially built its popularity on the premise that their games would not include DRM. "You buy it, it's yours to do with as you please as long and as many times as you want", so to speak.

It is one of GoG's major selling points and it would be a very stupid move on CD Projects part to take that away.

No it wouldn't. People would make excuses, ***** and moan and then move on. Every corporation involved in the gaming industry knows that

 

[WeepingAngels]

I'm not entirely sure I understand what the problem is. People complain about DRM because it can get in the way of actually playing the game (see the problems people had with say, Origin or Uplay) whereas this just seems to be that GOG keeps track of your achievements while you're online.

Maybe OP is saying that if GoG has hooks in your games for achievements, they could have hooks in your games for DRM.

 

[TrulyBritish]

I'm not entirely sure I understand what the problem is. People complain about DRM because it can get in the way of actually playing the game (see the problems people had with say, Origin or Uplay) whereas this just seems to be that GOG keeps track of your achievements while you're online.

Maybe OP is saying that if GoG has hooks in your games for achievements, they could have hooks in your games for DRM.

I guess, but isn't this all related to GoG Galaxy anyhow? The completely optional client that you don't actually need to buy/play games on GoG?
Plus CDPR have been pretty clear that they're against DRM. Hell I've just been checking their page on Galaxy and they explicitly say that they collect as little information as possible, that they aim to have it be optional, that the features you use can be optional and that you don't need to maintain an internet connection to play your games. If this is DRM it's pretty unobtrusive.
I guess they could turn round later and implement more egregious DRM but CDPR have kind of built up some goodwill with their practices. Having said that, Valve was a gaming darling for a good while and look at the state of Steam nowadays.

 

[Recusant]

As I said if the games are talking to a server to unlock achievements without the client, then what's to say that same connection couldn't work the other way? What's to say those games couldn't be shut down remotely?

GoG partially built its popularity on the premise that their games would not include DRM. "You buy it, it's yours to do with as you please as long and as many times as you want", so to speak.

It is one of GoG's major selling points and it would be a very stupid move on CD Projects part to take that away.

No it wouldn't. People would make excuses, ***** and moan and then move on. Every corporation involved in the gaming industry knows that

Yes, it would. The portion of people who won't buy anything DRMed is very small, but they are market segment. And the portion of people who would prefer not to have DRMed products is huge. Further, half of GOG's shtick (pretty the much the whole of it, actually, now that they're not Good Old Games anymore) is being DRM-free; abandoning that would turn their loyal fans against them. It would essentially be suicide.

 

[WeepingAngels]

As I said if the games are talking to a server to unlock achievements without the client, then what's to say that same connection couldn't work the other way? What's to say those games couldn't be shut down remotely?

GoG partially built its popularity on the premise that their games would not include DRM. "You buy it, it's yours to do with as you please as long and as many times as you want", so to speak.

It is one of GoG's major selling points and it would be a very stupid move on CD Projects part to take that away.

No it wouldn't. People would make excuses, ***** and moan and then move on. Every corporation involved in the gaming industry knows that

Yes, it would. The portion of people who won't buy anything DRMed is very small, but they are market segment. And the portion of people who would prefer not to have DRMed products is huge. Further, half of GOG's shtick (pretty the much the whole of it, actually, now that they're not Good Old Games anymore) is being DRM-free; abandoning that would turn their loyal fans against them. It would essentially be suicide.

The small portion of people who won't buy anything DRM'd don't have a safe harbor. GoG could do what they want and those people would either start buying DRM'd games or stop buying games completely.

I'm just saying, people have proven that they will put up with far more shit than you think, clearly.

 

[Recusant]

As I said if the games are talking to a server to unlock achievements without the client, then what's to say that same connection couldn't work the other way? What's to say those games couldn't be shut down remotely?

GoG partially built its popularity on the premise that their games would not include DRM. "You buy it, it's yours to do with as you please as long and as many times as you want", so to speak.

It is one of GoG's major selling points and it would be a very stupid move on CD Projects part to take that away.

No it wouldn't. People would make excuses, ***** and moan and then move on. Every corporation involved in the gaming industry knows that

Yes, it would. The portion of people who won't buy anything DRMed is very small, but they are market segment. And the portion of people who would prefer not to have DRMed products is huge. Further, half of GOG's shtick (pretty the much the whole of it, actually, now that they're not Good Old Games anymore) is being DRM-free; abandoning that would turn their loyal fans against them. It would essentially be suicide.

The small portion of people who won't buy anything DRM'd don't have a safe harbor. GoG could do what they want and those people would either start buying DRM'd games or stop buying games completely.

I'm just saying, people have proven that they will put up with far more shit than you think, clearly.

You're missing the point: they do have a safe harbor: GOG. If GOG gives that up, they lose a big chunk of business. They're fully capable of doing so; it's not like it would collapse the universe, but unless they do, they are that harbor. Would they go out of business if they stopped being that? Probably not. But it'd cost them a lot of business. They're not the only game in town, though, even among the DRM-free crowd; they're just the largest.

The bulk of the market follows the strategy of cave-and-*****, no question, but the company that capitalizes on those who won't buy in, or would prefer not to, is a company that will give itself a big market share. People want to do the things that they want to do; I don't see how you're having difficulty with this.