Wouldn’t even matter anyway. If either service dies the games are gone unless you go through the hassle of manually backing up every single one - which you can do with the majority of games on Steam too.
And that’s a big “unless”. I actually do have a stored backup of my GOG library installers (of the ones where I don’t own a physical copy, anyway). GOG could disappear into thin air tomorrow and I would lose zero access. Not so with Steam.
On Steam you can back up game files only in the tiny fraction of games that ship with no DRM. Cases where you have to break DRM to make a backup are not “making a backup”. If that’s your standard you may as well just download a cracked copy later.
On GOG you specifically get an option to download a stand-alone installer for every game in the service.
You know what? You guys keep making the same argument, I guess I’ll just have to keep giving the same answer.
How many is many? PC Gaming Wiki lists 1000 DRM free games in Steam’s library. That is 2.6% of the service, by their count.
And all you get from those is the ability to rip loose game files, which is not the same as having an installer or a portable installation. GOG will let you download a backup installer of every game on the service. Not the same thing.
How could I possibly have it backwards? I manually backed up my installers. I don’t even know what you think “having it backwards” means. You think I’m misremembering downloading the installer files and backing them up? You think I did that on Steam and somehow forgot?
No, I don’t have it backwards, that’s how it works. There are terabytes of data on my backup drives to account for it.
Have you guys never even tried any PC storefront that isn’t Steam? And if so, why are you arguing about easily verifable facts? Go check it out, see if it’s for you.
GOG does have a launcher, it’s called GOG Galaxy. It’s… fine to good, depending on what you want to do with it. That will download, install and patch games for you, just like Steam does.
The launcher is optional, though. If you don’t want to use it, you can download installer files from the GOG site or from the launcher itself. Those are yours to store as backups. This also allows you to snapshot earlier patches and do other goo preservation stuff if that’s your thing. Steam has none of those features.
You can either take my word for it or go check it out, but seriously, I’m not lying to you. Why is this an argument every time? Why are there fanboys for digital distribution services? None of this makes sense.
I must not, because I see zero difference between Steam and GoG in this regard other than the fact that Steam provides a bunch of side services that GoG does not. Otherwise they’re both just selling you a revokable license to play a game.
No. You do not own the contents of a vhs or cd or whatever your preferred media is with copyrighted material on it. You can only make copies for personal use because of a limited, singular license.
When people say “I own the game” these days they are generally saying there is no DRM or other factor preventing their passing it around for whatever reason - whether it’s illegal or not is immaterial. They are saying they can easily hand it off (I.e. letting people borrow or re-selling your own individual copy). Almost always this means an executable file not attached to a platform or any sort of online “check” or, of course, a hard copy. It also means the vendor can’t revoke your license at-will. Which valve absolutely can. Nintendo cannot walk into my house and grab my hard copy of a game, but valve can absolutely revoke your license and you will no longer be able to download the game that you paid the exact same price for.
When I “buy” a digital game on, say, xbox, i cannot easily transfer those contents. So most people distinguish it from hard copies which you can simply hand off to people. If I talked about a game on my Xbox the same way people talked about games on their steam account, they would say that I don’t “own” the game on Xbox yet they own it on Steam. This is why I talked about “colloquially” because people are actually not following technicalities, people pick and choose all the time how to apply the term “ownership.” It’s more about the ability to transfer the contents than it is about any legal aspect.
This is why you hear people generally say “I buy hardcopies because I like to own my game.” Even though that is technically not the case. They have purchased a limited license on a piece of physical media.
To bring this back to GOG: I said what I did because their EULA they have is not unique, it has been the case in all media formats for decades. So if they want to be pedantic and point to that, then it is fair for me to say “well technically, no one owns anything then.” But we were talking using imperfect definitions. Otherwise, anytime somebody says “I own that game” I could be obnoxious and correct then by saying “well, technically nobody owns any game except the IP holder.” Which would be super annoying and besides the point, because we obviously all know what the person meant.
When people say “I own the game” these days they are generally saying there is no DRM or other factor preventing their passing it around for whatever reason
That’s why I said:
If it’s actual ownership instead of availability
The context is that the person I was responding to said they use GOG because they ‘own’ the game, in response to someone else saying that there are games on Steam with zero DRM that you can also buy.
Frankly, with the ‘availability’ argument you also don’t need Steam to play them and could copy them over to a PC that’s never had Steam installed and play them as well.
If it’s actual ownership instead of availability, then according to GOG’s own EULA, you don’t own the games there either.
Wouldn’t even matter anyway. If either service dies the games are gone unless you go through the hassle of manually backing up every single one - which you can do with the majority of games on Steam too.
No, you can’t.
And that’s a big “unless”. I actually do have a stored backup of my GOG library installers (of the ones where I don’t own a physical copy, anyway). GOG could disappear into thin air tomorrow and I would lose zero access. Not so with Steam.
Yes you can. Just because you don’t make a backup of one over the other doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. lol
I don’t think people get what I’m saying.
On Steam you can back up game files only in the tiny fraction of games that ship with no DRM. Cases where you have to break DRM to make a backup are not “making a backup”. If that’s your standard you may as well just download a cracked copy later.
On GOG you specifically get an option to download a stand-alone installer for every game in the service.
Not the same.
I am starting to understand you but it’s taking a lot of work tbh
Many steam games already have no DRM and ones that use Steam Launcher presence can be launched using a Steam Launcher emulator.
Ones you have to worry about are Denuvio games that aren’t cracked (you can keep track of them here).
You know what? You guys keep making the same argument, I guess I’ll just have to keep giving the same answer.
How many is many? PC Gaming Wiki lists 1000 DRM free games in Steam’s library. That is 2.6% of the service, by their count.
And all you get from those is the ability to rip loose game files, which is not the same as having an installer or a portable installation. GOG will let you download a backup installer of every game on the service. Not the same thing.
You have it backwards I believe
How could I possibly have it backwards? I manually backed up my installers. I don’t even know what you think “having it backwards” means. You think I’m misremembering downloading the installer files and backing them up? You think I did that on Steam and somehow forgot?
No, I don’t have it backwards, that’s how it works. There are terabytes of data on my backup drives to account for it.
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I am losing my mind.
Have you guys never even tried any PC storefront that isn’t Steam? And if so, why are you arguing about easily verifable facts? Go check it out, see if it’s for you.
GOG does have a launcher, it’s called GOG Galaxy. It’s… fine to good, depending on what you want to do with it. That will download, install and patch games for you, just like Steam does.
The launcher is optional, though. If you don’t want to use it, you can download installer files from the GOG site or from the launcher itself. Those are yours to store as backups. This also allows you to snapshot earlier patches and do other goo preservation stuff if that’s your thing. Steam has none of those features.
You can either take my word for it or go check it out, but seriously, I’m not lying to you. Why is this an argument every time? Why are there fanboys for digital distribution services? None of this makes sense.
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That’s a technicality that has applied to all media formats for decades. You know what I am talking about colloquially.
I must not, because I see zero difference between Steam and GoG in this regard other than the fact that Steam provides a bunch of side services that GoG does not. Otherwise they’re both just selling you a revokable license to play a game.
Guess you don’t either.
It kinda sounds like you dont either, tho
No. You do not own the contents of a vhs or cd or whatever your preferred media is with copyrighted material on it. You can only make copies for personal use because of a limited, singular license.
When people say “I own the game” these days they are generally saying there is no DRM or other factor preventing their passing it around for whatever reason - whether it’s illegal or not is immaterial. They are saying they can easily hand it off (I.e. letting people borrow or re-selling your own individual copy). Almost always this means an executable file not attached to a platform or any sort of online “check” or, of course, a hard copy. It also means the vendor can’t revoke your license at-will. Which valve absolutely can. Nintendo cannot walk into my house and grab my hard copy of a game, but valve can absolutely revoke your license and you will no longer be able to download the game that you paid the exact same price for.
When I “buy” a digital game on, say, xbox, i cannot easily transfer those contents. So most people distinguish it from hard copies which you can simply hand off to people. If I talked about a game on my Xbox the same way people talked about games on their steam account, they would say that I don’t “own” the game on Xbox yet they own it on Steam. This is why I talked about “colloquially” because people are actually not following technicalities, people pick and choose all the time how to apply the term “ownership.” It’s more about the ability to transfer the contents than it is about any legal aspect.
This is why you hear people generally say “I buy hardcopies because I like to own my game.” Even though that is technically not the case. They have purchased a limited license on a piece of physical media.
To bring this back to GOG: I said what I did because their EULA they have is not unique, it has been the case in all media formats for decades. So if they want to be pedantic and point to that, then it is fair for me to say “well technically, no one owns anything then.” But we were talking using imperfect definitions. Otherwise, anytime somebody says “I own that game” I could be obnoxious and correct then by saying “well, technically nobody owns any game except the IP holder.” Which would be super annoying and besides the point, because we obviously all know what the person meant.
That’s why I said:
The context is that the person I was responding to said they use GOG because they ‘own’ the game, in response to someone else saying that there are games on Steam with zero DRM that you can also buy.
Frankly, with the ‘availability’ argument you also don’t need Steam to play them and could copy them over to a PC that’s never had Steam installed and play them as well.
“I’m right and you’re wrong”. Colloquially, of course.
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