I've been thinking about making the change from Steam to GOG for a while. I just made a GOG account a few mins ago and my biggest question is this: "How is GOG DRM free?"

I'm an idiot, so please help me understand. I've only been into PC gaming for a couple years and the transition to a new platform was confusing. Here's what I know: DRM platforms keep your games in a bank that's closed when you're offline (Sunday). I don't have the luxury of going into files and manually launching the game.

If I buy a game off GOG can I open and launch said game from files? Or do I have to be logged on?

You can indeed launch GOG games from the files without an internet connection.

In fact, you can install and play GOG games even on a computer without Internet access (assuming you have a way to get the installer onto that computer, like a USB flash drive).

GOG provides off-line DRM-free installers with their games. So once you buy the game, you can go to your Library, DL the files and install them without needing any internet connection. You can back these installers up and never have to be connected to the internet or sign into GOG again.

With one caveat: some games require GOG Galaxy (their version of the Steam client) in order to play multiplayer. But if you don't care about multiplayer and don't want to rely on a client, then just don't bother using GOG Galaxy.

short answer:
ABSOLUTELY YES

In fact I not only don't buy any game on Steam that's available on GOG, I sometimes actually push off paying for crap on Steam if I think there's even a chance on getting it through GOG in the future instead. I haven't actually yet bought Dustwind for exactly that reason.

GOG Galaxy in particular is basically like Steam was back when Steam used to be good, the client is good, there's no horrible bloatware, and the games they sell ACTUALLY WORK. You literally should never EVER pay for an older game through Steam. PERIOD. I've had to refund multiple games because Valve just lists them without even making sure it works on modern systems and by modern I mean anything after Windows 7, it's terrible. Plus you don't actually own any of your games through Steam. If Valve ever shut down you only actually have *licenses* to effectively rent those games through Valve.

I cannot even begin to express how much I f'ing hate Valve and Steam at this point which on top of that I straight up boycotted them back in like end of 2019 because of how broken the client now is and the absolutely toxic sycophantic community there kissing Valve's ass who never help solve the numerous problems every time they do a client "update" breaking s**t and trying to tell you "no it's your system." I've had two separate systems running different hardware, an Intel+nvidia one and all AMD one, an older system on 8.1 and a newer one with Windows10 and newer hardware, which couldn't f'ing launch the games, and had their toxic retarded community tell me endlessly how the problem sure is my hardware my OS anything other than steam's client being broken and bugged.

I literally only buy s*** on Steam at this point because I'm saddled with all the crap I bought on there over the years which I can't transfer to any other client so I can't just buy the DLCs for it through GOG. But other than DLCs for things I already got stuck with on Steam? I get everything through GOG. Holy crap I love GOG over Steam, and sadly Epic just has got a lot of the kinds of problems Steam does only exception being they haven't got the hideous shovelware problem but we're given a bad triple A oriented client instead.

I will tell you what I want to see happen the most is for me to find some kind of a way to launch my Steam games without ever having to bother with that godawful client again. You zoomers have got no clue what you're missing from not knowing when Steam was actually good about ten years ago. They actually had great sales. Their friends stuff to client worked and was good. Now what do you get? F'ing Steam points shop instead of Steam sales where you can use your points like some gay ass Chuckee Cheese coupons for some *****y emoticons. Steam has fallen so far it's unreal.

I would like to someday see some way, somehow, to launch all my games exclusively through GOG Galaxy rather than running Steam client in fact that's the original reason I downloaded GOG Galaxy to begin with which I got as a beta through some Russian friend. Sadly I found out you still effectively have to launch Steam and then run all your Steam games through steam rendering it pointless, however I wish to someday see please please based GOG make your client work for launching any game without their trashy bloated clients and let me have some way to get your DLC to work on Steam games.

If I could actually pay for DLC here to use on games already in my Steam library, I would. If I could get every indie title or early access game via GOG instead of on Steam, I also would. Sadly GOG hasn't actually got every single game or even a lot of new games still nor does it even have each and every older title. Like only Silent Hill 4 is on GOG what's up with that??

Is DRM-free worth it?

IMO yes...

... but...

... DRM-free on GOG often comes with some shortcomings.

Publishers don't like to maintain DRM-free games as often (orphans abound)...

... GOG doesn't tend to facilitate MP on many older games (for obvious infrastructure reasons)...

... a number of GOG releases are missing some level of functionality (usually related to MP)...

... and...

... games tend to come late to GOG.

If you tend toward solo experiences, IMO there are minimal issues.

I've scaled back purchases on Steam and console and now focus mainly on GOG. And while I sometimes get exasperated when I find a game that's "gimped" (or that leaves GOG!!!!), I'm still glad I made the choice to prioritize GOG.

old post but interesting question in my mind: is it too hard to use more than one shop because we want all our games in one place for the Convenience which is King? *thinkingemoji*

For many years your attitude was my attitude. I hated Steam with a passion. I hate DRM, and Steam is the biggest pile of crappy DRM ever made. It still boggles my mind that some people don't realize that Steam = DRM.

I had a Steam account but the only games in my library were the handful of games I had bought on disc which required online activation through Steam to play.

But over the years I saw many games that I really wanted to play which didn't come to GOG, or came only after a very long time. Also, I think my personality became a little less defensive and a little more mature, although I still struggle in both those areas. These days I'm more tolerant of things that I can't change.

I particularly got tired of waiting for Skyrim to come to GOG and now that Microsoft owns Bethesda it may never come here. I saw it at a big discount on Steam so I bit the bullet and bought it. I did the initial online launch, as Steam requires, but always played it offline after that. I'm glad I did. I easily spent 2,000 hours playing it and it's one of my greatest gaming experiences ever.

So I've changed my policy. Now if there's a game that I very much want to play which is not available on GOG I'll put it on my Steam wishlist and if it is discounted at least 75% then I'll consider buying it on STeam.

There are indeed some terrific games on Steam which are not available on GOG and I frankly have no idea whether they will come here. Here's a few examples: Unheard, Alien Isolation, Portal and Portal 2, The Bridge, Eastshade and Resident Evil 2 to name just a few.

So it's fine to hate Steam. I hate it. But remember that you are denying yourself some great games by refusing to use it at all. I did that for many years but I'm glad that I became a little more tolerant and didn't miss out on some great gaming experiences.

Nobody likes DRM except publishers. Steam goes even further. You pay full price, but you don't own the game, you essentially rent it, and you can't get to your game without being advertised at, and the client serves no purpose except to harvest data, expose you to security risks, and clog up your PC, and your gaming privileges can be withdrawn at any time according to their whims. I really don't understand why anyone would put up with that. I wouldn't touch Steam with a shitty stick.

I'm only hanging around here as long as the games are truly offline-install and play, transferable to my other hardware, registration and DRM-free. The moment that changes, bye.

That only works if one only wishes to consume as many games as possible, but as I tend prefer to have a collection of games that I would wish to replay over and over again, waiting for a game to become DRM-free or abandonware before trying them out is actually a great way to filter out all the crap my younger self might have been duped into playing for countless hours.