Asefo: I don't know if it is exact, but according to KillerBee69's review (from 2013) about
Divinity dragon commander:
"Multiplayer is nice. You can play in teams. Just a quick skirmish or strategy maps.
BUT the multiplayer lobby is steam-exclusive. Vault and GOG versions can only play via LAN or DirectIPConnect. Larian is still writing "GOG, Steam, Vault etc... No differences" on their HP so they mislead at least me quite bad. They provide NO official substitute platform for non-steam users, not even a forum. MP is non-existent outside steam and since SP is shortlifed on its own."
ChrisGamer300: Neither Larian or GOG has the ability to host a server like Steam and that's the reality of it, Lan and DirectIPConnect is the substitute even if it's not official or what people want. Unfortunate but not second treatment.
I guess GOG could possible negotiate a deal with Steam to allow Galaxy to use Steam for MP but then we run into other issues, the game was never big anyway so finding mp matches couldn't have been easy some time after release so in that case the other mp solutions make sense even if they're limited.
I sympathize with those that also want the online option, but this is a good time to point out more generally how VERY FEW games (particularly newer ones) do allow LAN/direct connect/even hotseat. It seems the majority of games have ONLY non-local multiplayer, with online requiring Galaxy, to boot. If only GOG could focus its energy on negotiating with publishers and developers to have DRM-free versions of multiplayer in their games, meaning it can be played forever as long as the user has a computer, not reliant on online and certainly not reliant on a client.