GOG Fighting the Good Fight
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- 11 days
Just a quick reminder that discs that you burn yourself at home do degrade pretty quickly, much faster than pressed discs. I personally have had burned discs that failed after approx. 6 years. It can happen even faster if you use low-quality discs. Even pressed discs can fail after 20 years if you are unlucky.
Using 2 big HDDs (2 for redundancy) full of your installers might be safer in the long run and also easier to manage and backup.
11 daysI laminate my punch cards for longevity. Wouldn’t want them breaking down.
- brown567@sh.itjust.worksEnglish11 days
I prefer to cut archival cards from 0.7mm 316 stainless steel sheet 👍
Clay tablets have been demonstrated to last much longer than paper or metal
- brown567@sh.itjust.worksEnglish11 days
I suspect corrosion-resistant steel alloys haven’t been around long enough to prove themselves in that regard XD
Corrosion-resistent is not the same as non-corrosive.
I suppose gold as a noble metal would be stable over a long period, as it’s non-reactive. But certain kinds of acids can still dissolve it, unlike ceramic
- HerbGrower@slrpnk.netEnglish10 days
I can already see them rusting down by the harbour. Meanwhile people still find bits of ceramics left from ages last on the beaches.
So if you bury your clay tablets in a treasure chest it should be good.
- 11 days
Nonsense. I got some high quality copper from a merchant I fully trust and I bet this will last forever.
Was his name Ea? His name isn’t known today for being engraved in copper…
- Janx@piefed.socialEnglish10 days
Sure, but what if there’s a fire!? My favorite game is Ocarina of Time. I don’t want to risk losing it, so I memorized the binary digits that comprise the code. Can’t be too careful!
- Xey@sh.itjust.worksEnglish10 days
Hope you keep your brain safe. Even then illness can easily rob you of those memories.
- ChexMax@lemmy.worldEnglish10 days
Fully agree. This is why I’ve made multiple children. Then I train them on the binary digits the way other parents teach shapes, numbers, and the ABCs. Can’t be too careful, it’s best to have multiple backups
- GreyEyedGhost@piefed.caEnglish11 days
Print them on clay tablets. Those will stand the test of time, especially with the right level of error correction. (Sorry for the ad cancer - I didn’t want to promote a specific brand or spend forever finding a good review site.)
- thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish11 days
Can confirm, clay tablets can last thousands of years to archive your
grievancesdata.
Typing them back in after the apocalypse will take a while, but you’ll be able to impress all the other wasteland mutants with a working copy of Half Life Alyx.
- Onyxonblack@piefed.socialEnglish11 days
Use M-Disc media. It’s said to last 1000 years. It’s expensive and very slow to rip at the suggested 4x speed.
I’ve been very satisfied with them, and you just need a regular Blu-Ray drive.
Cheapest solution is an HDD + one more for backups. M-Discs for 15-17€ per 100GB are for the games you wanna take to your grave.
- Onyxonblack@piefed.socialEnglish11 days
I mean they are games that i no longer have to worry about data corruption or loss. Like ever. And i can Will these to family & friends. The cost is easily worth that!
- Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Yeah, normal burners are more like printers, where the write laser activates or deactivates a pigment which then either reflects or absorbs the read laser to represent 0/1. But that pigment can degrade over time, turning 1s into 0s.
M-discs are instead etched and iirc use constructive and destructive interference so the reader (which is the same reader as normal discs, just the writer needs to specifically support M-disc) reads the 0/1. It will also degrade over time, but since it’s a thicker layer of difference, it will last significantly longer than a thin layer of pigment. And I bet that special m-disc specific readers could be made to read it again after it degrades to the point where the interference technique stops working, since an image could still show where the high and low points are, even if the waves don’t align perfectly anymore.
In practice, I’ve found that the drive was way easier to find than the media for m-disc. Like most optical disc writers these days seem to support it but the discs are expensive af compared to non m-disc.
Though when I was going through my old burnt CDs and DVDs, I was surprised at how well they were holding up. I was expecting at least some read errors by now but everything has been fine so far.
Well, other than the data quality lol. Not like the readability of the file but stuff that took days to download back then would download today in seconds and a good monitor I got well after my early files was only 720p for its resolution. The data I prized as a youth is kinda sad today.
- wylinka@szmer.infoEnglish11 days
Verbatim Datalife HTL BD-R discs are supposedly made in a similar technology (some folk on r/datahoarder think they’re exactly the same but idk). At the very least they won’t have the same problem as DVDs (no organic dye) and they actually work out cheaper than half decent HDDs. I can get 25GBx50 cake for £30. I’ve only started burning them a year or two ago so time will tell if I lose my data :x.
If I were more serous I would probably get a couple of those. I remember it being part of our procedures at a gov office.
- 11 days
What about Verbatim AZO? I’ve heard good stuff about those, and they’re not expensive.
Also, as far as CDs go, I’ve found that an old degraded player which doesn’t read burned discs anymore but plays pressed discs will still play burned AZO discs just fine.
- SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish11 days
And reminder that solid state drives (including thumb drives) can lose data after a couple years if they are not plugged in from time to time
- 11 days
It can happen even faster if you use low-quality discs.
Yep. I got some no-name DVDs at Kaufland as they were just EUR 1 for a 10-pack. They started having read issues after just 4 years.
Also, they easily peel apart with just fingers and no effort.Edit:
Packaging:
Media ID: MBI 01RG40- 11 days
The worst case I experienced was a disc that disintegrated after a couple years. It got an actual extra hole in it, in a way that looked like somebody spilled acid on it and the acid burned right through the disc. In reality it just lay in my drawer.
- rozodru@piefed.worldEnglish11 days
yup. God knows how many Dreamcast games I’ve had to toss and reburn over the years.
Note: Don’t use SSDs for this either. They can easily corrupt and lose information if not powered on for as little as a year, in some cases.
From what I recall, only self-burnt CD’s and DVD’s degrade quickly, while self-burnt blu-rays last significantly longer, even if not m-discs.
- 10 days
Apparently blu-rays are even worse than other discs. This is from the abstract of an accelerated ageing study (sadly I don’t have access to the whole paper):
Overall, the stability of the Blu-ray formats was poor with many discs significantly degraded after only 21 days of accelerated ageing. In addition to large increases in error rates, many discs showed easily identifiable visible degradation in several different forms. In a comparison with other optical disc formats examined previously, Blu-ray stability ranked very low.
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/doi/10.1515/res-2017-0016/html
- michaelalf@lemmy.worldEnglish10 days
Yep! Quote from digitalfaq
The BD-R write-once type is based on a completely new concept for the recording layer utilizing a two-layer structure composed of silicon (Si) and copper alloy (Cu) inorganic materials. When heated by the recording laser beam, these melt and the Si and Cu alloy become a composite forming recording marks. Because the material is inorganic, it is not affected by light, thus realizing a disc with outstandingly high reliability in terms of archivability.
And another quote from the same source
Write-once recordable DVD-R/DVD+R media (as well as CD-R media) all uses synthetic organic based dyes – usually azoic dyes (metallized azo chelates or azo metal chelate). Some of them are based on other synthetic organics, such as cyanine, dipyrrometheme or oxonol.
- 10 days
Your source is just a forum quoting manufacturer marketing texts.
In an accelerated ageing study blu-ray performed worse than other discs:
Overall, the stability of the Blu-ray formats was poor with many discs significantly degraded after only 21 days of accelerated ageing. In addition to large increases in error rates, many discs showed easily identifiable visible degradation in several different forms. In a comparison with other optical disc formats examined previously, Blu-ray stability ranked very low.
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/doi/10.1515/res-2017-0016/html
- HerbGrower@slrpnk.netEnglish10 days
Plus you can store more games on each one. Don’t they cost quite a bit per disc though?
- michaelalf@lemmy.worldEnglish10 days
You can get a 50 pack of Verbatim’s standard BD-R for ~$40 AUD, or their premium Datalifeplus discs for ~$100 AUD. I’ve used both of these discs, and I’ve run burn quality tests and they’re both great. This is just talking about single layer discs, so 25GB per disc. 50GB discs are reasonably priced, 100GB and 128GB start getting a bit rich.
- HerbGrower@slrpnk.netEnglish10 days
Oh yeah, its the very long life ones I was thinking of that cost a lot. If there are more regular ones at lower prices with still a moderate lifespan then that probably makes more sense.
Yeah a HDD with another for periodic backups would be a lot more reliable.
- chunes@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
This is the message we need to hear. The bread and butter. I get so tired of people nitpicking GOG and Mozilla over every relatively minor thing when they are some of the only people trying to hold back the deluge of bullshit.
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish11 days
Agreed. Someone complained Firefox moved to updates every few days or something.
They had no clue Firefox updates like all the time.
- Goodeye8@piefed.socialEnglish11 days
Do they? Maybe for minor releases but I’m pretty sure Firefox is currently doing major releases every 4 weeks and starting from September they’re going to do it byweekly. Personally I don’t see what the big deal is but I can absolutely see someone on the fediverse being outraged by the idea of a more frequent release schedule.
- vandsjov@feddit.dkEnglish10 days
Ran into someone complaining about the same with Edge and updates going to every 4 weeks. Showed them the release log where they have been releasing one to two times a week - minor updates but still updates that require the browser to be restarted but that the person never noticed.
- 10 days
byweekly I think you mean semi-weekly. Bi-weekly is twice per week
Also it means every 2 weeks. Which is the case here.
Semi-weekly however ONLY means twice per week.
- 10 days
Also it means every 2 weeks
Only for people that can’t speak English
https://writingexplained.org/bi-weekly-vs-semi-weekly
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/semiweekly
https://www.grammarbook.com/blog/definitions/bi-vs-semi-weeklymonthlyannually/
You are pedantic-ing and getting it backwards.
- mortemtyrannis@lemmy.mlEnglish10 days
Mozilla is the best browser to ever exist and I will die on this hill.
You mean Firefox? Or is Mozilla the actual core or something? I thought they were just a company or a foundation or whatever
- Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish10 days
Yea, they mean Firefox. Mozilla is the non-profit foundation, along with its subsidiary company by the same name, that makes it along with other open-source software.
The Nazi thing is nota nitpick though. They need to address that properly instead of the “sorry we got caught” response they gave.
- ericwdhs@discuss.onlineEnglish10 days
GOG’s founder did eventually give a better reply here (scroll to Mikee’s comment): https://www.gog.com/forum/general/nazi_symbols_in_an_email_and_bs_excuse/page18
I’m not convinced GOG owes us any explanation beyond that. Even in the worst case where the accusers are right and it was an intentional dog-whistle, the marketing guy who did it probably gave his superiors the same explanation we got, in which case GOG management genuinely believes they already 100% told us what happened.
Also, the argument that GOG not sending the email to Germany proves they knew that it was bad ahead of time on an organizational level is common enough to be worth addressing here. It ignores how localization is often done, one person writing a template that then goes to others to localize and send out individually. I assume adding some review time between localization and send out is among the process changes they mentioned.
Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that. The first half of mikee’s comment is exactly what I was missing from the official “apology”.
- Syrc@lemmy.worldEnglish10 days
Is this about the Gog Newsletter thing? I’m not 100% informed, but didn’t they pretty much admit that they weren’t aware that ᛋ displayed as ϟ in some devices?
It’s not even a “sorry we got caught” thing, they had nothing to gain by sending a Nazi symbol in their newsletter. What more are they supposed to say?
- Jako302@feddit.orgEnglish10 days
They specifically didn’t send it to German accounts cause they knew it could be shown as Nazi symbolism.
This isn’t a “sorry we fucked up” this is a “we knew it could go wrong but didn’t care enough to do anything about it”.
Personally I don’t really care that much. These promotional emails aren’t reviewed by every company member, so even if it was deliberately used Nazi symbolism, its at most someone in the advertising department. But I also understand why people are really upset about this.
- Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish10 days
An explanation for them not sending it to Germany could be that the localization team for the German region, probably being more aware of such nuances, spotted it and removed it whereas those who did the localization for other regions just didn’t spot it, so it slipped through.
There could be arguments about communication between teams but, honestly, localization teams don’t really need to communicate with one another so it isn’t surprising that they didn’t.
Most likely it actually is a “oops we fucked up” situation.
Yeah that is not hard to do at all. This is not an unreasonable standard.
It’s not a nitpick, but also that newsletter is not indicative of GOG being a Nazi organization. The idea that they specifically decided to advertise a new game based on Slavic mythology specifically so that they could send a mass advertisement to half their user base intentionally using Nazi symbolism is wild. It is much more likely that some marketing dimwit Googled “Slavic runes,” and copied some random ones from the first site they found.
Screenshot of the first result for “slavic emoji” on google
It’s one data point, not a pattern. Definitely something to watch out for, but there’s literally nothing else in the history of the company to suggest that they have any white supremacist tendencies
Almost like “slavic emoji” means something… Why does my dog keep crying?
Given it was an advertisement for a game inspired by Slavic mythology, “Slavic emoji” means “advertisement for a game inspired by Slavic mythology” in this case. Do you think the developers of The End Of The Sun are nazis?
The Slav’s use the same emoji’s as the rest of the world.
I think some idiot was trying to be edgy (👀) and GOG’s PR dept obviously sucks, they put the shit out to begin.
btw, that’s not a special slavic emoji
It’s literally the first result when searching the phrase “Slavic emoji” on google. Hanlon’s razor applies. Most normal people are not aware of any nazi symbols other than the swastika
Hanlon’s razor applies.
That’s why I’m trying to be patient.
Why do suppose that would rank so highly in a search result?
Yeah I agree with most of what you said. It’s concerning though, they could have easily responded with a responding “Nazi shit has no place here, super sorry we let that slip through”
It is much more likely that some marketing dimwit Googled “Slavic runes,” and copied some random ones from the first site they found.
That’s the part I find doubtful, this sequence can only be found on a site by or about Nazis. I feel like even the dumbest idiot would clock that, but I’ve underestimated idiots before
this sequence can only be found on a site by or about Nazis.
I mean, that exact sequence is in the header of the first result for an ostensibly innocent google search. Spend some time where normal people hang out, and you’ll find that a lot of them can’t clock Nazi dogwhistles. I’ve personally had to explain the significance of “14/88” to people who thought I was nuts for calling the My Pillow guy a nazi
Oof, yeah that’ll do it. Seems like emojidb needs a report button.
- Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish10 days
I’ve been a gamer for almost 4 decades, so I have quite a lot of experience wanting to run games that I remember were a lot of fun and it turns out they are so old they won’t run anymore.
Typically it’s one of 3 things:
- The hardware I have now won’t support it (say, I don’t have a floopy drive anymore, or they’re from an entirelly different architecture such as the pre-PC game consoles). There’s also quirky ones such as games made at a time when CPUs were so slow that the game just runs as fast as it can (which was fine for older CPUs, but not for CPUs which are thousands of times faster) rather than use the system clock to set its tempo.
- The OS I have won’t support it. Say, it’s a DOS or Windows 3.1 game
- The game has DRM which relies on shit which doesn’t apply anymore (for example, OS quirks that aren’t present in newer OS versions).
There are often ways around the first two - for the hardware sometimes you can get modern versions of older hardware (for example you can actually get an external USB Floppy Disk Drive) and if it’s old enough there will be emulators, whilst for the OS it’s either emulators or adaptor layers.
Only way around the third is either a game crack or the game having no DRM to begin with.
Now, outside the transition of hardware architectures (say, from Amiga to PC) this used to apply maybe after a game was out 10 - 20 years. In the Phone-home DRM generation this seems to apply much faster - the game maker just turns off their servers 5 - 10 years after the game is out and now you can’t legally play that game anymore.
All this to say that GOG and Pirates are the only ones fighting the good fight on making sure we won’t suffer this shit some years from now, which is even more important now that we’re in the Phone-home DRM age.
GOG trying to drum up positive pr after that Nazi symbol newsletter.
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish11 days
Didn’t they instantly flag that? It was for some slavic game thing and all of those symbols are rooted in cultures long gone that nazis appropriated.
The symbol alone was OK, but they doubled it to read SS, and they didn’t send it to Germany; which means it was 100% intentional and not just a little oopsie.
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish10 days
That’s because the German team flagged it.
I don’t think it’s a good look but to decry they’re nazis for an email showing runic alphabet and slavic symbols doesn’t exactly trigger me too hard. It really sounds like someone fucked up.
People out there still buying Bayer products and they genuinely were part of the Holocaust, a huge part of it. Ford, Volkswagen, etc.
- hzl@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish10 days
There’s a world where someone uses a kolovrat or a sigel without intending to relate them to the Nazis. There is not a world where they use both a kolovrat and two sigels in a row and don’t know what it means. Maybe someone at GOG didn’t catch on, but the devs knew what was up.
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish10 days
So we think the entire dev team, marketing team and anyone else involved had a whole meeting and plan to do this? What’s the end goal?
Hanlon’s Razor dude. Going to need more for me to decry the Nazi label onto someone.
no goal beyond having a laugh at triggering people with nazi symbols; same as NYT did with their Nazi symbol crossword.
The fact the apology didn’t make an effort to say something like “those responsible have been sacked” and instead said something like “nazis shouldn’t have all the Nordic symbols” told me all I needed to know about their workplace environment and the types that work there. no bueno for me.
Not saying I’m boycotting them, because ethical consumerism is near impossible, but I’m not going to rally behind them or applaud them for anything like they’re to be championed sans asterisk.
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish10 days
I really doubt that’s even what happened here. I don’t think the people who run the company, any member of the marketing team or even anyone important sat down in a meeting to decide this for a fuckin laugh.
It’s probably some dumb AI, some intern or some individual fuck or just a genuine mistake. The character doesn’t even render the same on every platform. Maybe if there was more than this one event I’d be more interested but I really think this is goofy.
Especially because I know most people crying about it have definitely owned something Microsoft or IBM related and don’t even consider it.
Most people only care cause they read an article about it and are genuinely looking for any excuse to hop on their high horse and act high and mighty.
It’s silly. I bet you can get most Wolfenstein games on GOG. We gonna be mad now because that game has Nazi symbolism in it? C’mon.
No matter who flags “you platformed Nazi shit”, you immediately escalate this, halt all outgoing communication until you got a lid on this and fix whatever led to that happening.
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish10 days
Maybe if it was more severe. But like I said in another comment, what did they accomplish here? Is there some huge master plan? Did they all sit down and come up with a plot to transform us all into nazis? What’s the end game here?
Hanlon’s Razor dude, likely it was something stupid that happened.
There is no benefit for them doing this. And doing what you suggested would be some serious pandering for a bunch of unserious pearl clutchers who likely own hanes clothing, buy coke products and drive fords without a second thought of how it has affected the planet and other humans. The only reason most people care about this is because the news told them to or they read it on reddit. Unserious people.
Are you kidding me? They sent Nazi symbols to users.
Not just “nordic symbols that happen to be used in Nazi symbology” but an unmistakable sequence of symbols only used by Nazis (and people teaching others about Nazis).
Also how are you supposed to learn about anything if not the news lol? What weird argument is that supposed to be?
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish10 days
And now we’re all nazis for it, they sure got us 🙄
Have you never heard the revolution will not be televised? The government will not educate you about their own wrongdoings? I’m pretty sure most of us here treat all news with a little skepticism which is why most are here and stopped using reddit.
Sorry someone sending an email with some symbols as the tagline isn’t enough for me to get out the noose and piss my pants.
- 10 days
No one listens to the logos of God. It’s either the pathos or the ethos; the emotional arguments or the ones that fall squarely on authority holding up what they say is true. Like, I can explain to you that everything you experience is in your brain, so all experiences must correlate with something in your neurons, so these words you’re reading on this device are actually inside you, and thus the Earth isn’t real as the Buddha and the kid that bent spoons at the Oracle’s in the Matrix explain. Cognitive dissonance is king in this world, because the rift between what we’re told is going on and what is really going on is absolutely enormous. Some game studio trying to capitalize on a demographic doesn’t perturb me. Corporations are going to corporate. What bothers me is how the sheep behave in response to such dipshit shepherds who have taken the reins of the flock. You’ve let this happen to yerselves.
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish10 days
Wow what a super condescending way to say absolutely nothing worthwhile.
This rune displays differently depending on what program or app you view it in. The game itself was something about a sun which is what the symbol represents.
If GOG was full Nazi I’m sure they have better ways to express it. I think it’s super pathetic and screams of pearl clutching to dive on the Nazi label and freak out. It’s also so dumb to assume the entire team is in on it like they sat down and plotted this whole scheme. Could be a stupid intern, could be overworked skeleton crew, could be AI.
Sorry you’re gonna need more than that for me to become a giant weiner about a stupid game company I could not care less about.
Also stop being such a tool.
- 10 days
Hey brother, I know you think you are helping the world, but you’re telling off a cop.
Combined with a kolovrat.
There’s no clearer way to say “we are Nazis” other than saying “we are Nazis”.
I bet you will be forgotten about it in 2 days if it was Steam who send it
nah valve can eat shit too. look at that I can hate two things at once. dab on it.
sorry I like to remind people not to get cozy rooting for for-profit corporations that’ve shown some ick recently. took as much effort to remind as it did for the post, but whatever constitutes “elephant” in your book.
“SS” runes and a kolovrat is completely impossible to be interpreted as anything else but “we are immense fucking Nazis”
The only way you could be clearer is by writing “we are Nazis”.
These symbols appearing together means that someone put them there who is a Nazi or wants to teach others about Nazi symbols.
Last time I checked, platforming Nazis is very much an elephant kind of thing.
- onnekas@sopuli.xyzEnglish11 days
Pull out disc with a game from 10 years ago
Installs just fine and launches
“Connecting to online services…”
“Timeout: Retry? Quit?”
Huh?
- Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish10 days
It’s exactly GOG’s thing that games sold there can’t have any DRM, so this scenario is out. (Also, no disk with GOG games ;))
Probably why you won’t find things like Red Dead Redeption II (PC) in GOG, since Rockstar wants to force you to register in their systems to get your sweet, sweet private info. (Curiously, the pirated version has no such anti-consumer crap)
In my experience as a gamer for almost 4 decades, the most likely scenario with a really old game is that it simply won’t install or run in the OS version or even hardware that you have now, though give it enough time and somebody out there will have created an emulator or adaptor layer for it (like DOSBox).
But yeah, any game from the Phone-home DRM generation which isn’t bought from a seller which has No DRM policy (which only GOG has, as far as I know - even itch.io doesn’t have a No DRM policy) will almost certainly have an artificially created end-of-life that has nothing to do with the OS or hardware you have being too new for the game.
- doctor0710@lemmy.zipEnglish10 days
They sometimes also provide alternative versions of games. I was very happy to buy Kane and Lynch (1 and 2), but the co-op feature is missing (both local and online). I guess that part was licensed differently or something
- Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish10 days
no disk with GOG games
Did you just miss the context of the post about burning the installers onto a disc so it’s yours forever?
Sorry, I know this is nitpicking but that line just bugged me.
- cardfire@sh.itjust.worksEnglish10 days
I absolutely adore GOG for being like this, and for consistently applying pressure to publishers and other marketplace vendors alike.
I just also have A Steam Library with like 1200+ titles, and it’s measured in Terabytes. And butrot in my physical media will be non zero, in long enough timescale.
I consider my continued patronage of buying games to be my subscription costs to the platform vendors. 🤣
- AstralPath@lemmy.caEnglish11 days
Bit rot is already happening to my PS2 games. MGS2 is completely dead for me now. Its a copy I’ve had since I was a kid when it came out.
The only way to be sure is to save it on a quartz matrix. Only issue is it’s read-only. Not rewritable ever. Once you etch your data into quartz that’s it.
Storage is amazing, though. All of human knowledge (so far) has already been etched into such a storage medium by the UN a few years ago. It fits in the palm of your hand.
- stuner@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Or… you could just follow the 3-2-1 strategy with normal drives and regular scrubs. For most purposes (including a game library) that’s way better.
- book@lemmy.zipEnglish11 days
Archive multiple copies with something that has error-correcting codes. Use btrfs, zfs, par2, rar, raid-5, DVDs etc
- dreamkeeper@literature.cafeEnglish10 days
GOG also has a 30 day refund policy which blows everyone else out of the water, and they’ve honored it the few times I used it
- cardfire@sh.itjust.worksEnglish9 days
Yes! GOG is absolutely excellent! For what it’s worth, Steam Support from Valve can absolutely issue refunds past the two weeks window, and I’ve done it for me in the past if the request was justified. The inside two weeks window that everyone knows is just for a no-questions-asked refund as long as the hours count is below two played.
I’m glad to hear GOG has an even better method of handling.
If only they would post more stuff on Bluesky or even use Mastodon instead of TwitterX
(Yes, i am aware they have a bluesky profile but they post less stuff on there, it seems)
- NotSteve_@lemmy.caEnglish11 days
Yeah I’m still pretty concerned about that whole event but it seems like everyone has just forgotten about it.
I could have forgiven the initial email as a rogue nazi intern but their official response being “we made sure not to send it to Germans and its on you all for seeing nazi symbols as nazi symbols” is pretty fucking problematic. Also before anyone defends them as just being pagan symbols, the ones they chose to use were both modern creations by nazi germany
For anyone who’s not up to date: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/gog-apologizes-for-emailing-nazi-runes-to-its-followers/
I definitely agree that using those innocuous Unicode characters in the way they did was someone’s subtle attempt at evoking Nazi imagery, but the whole Germany part of this story is meaningless. Germany is known for having excessive language restrictions, to the point where every marketing department has their standard library of phrases and whatnot to not use in Germany. They are used to making substitutions for the German market to swap out genuinely innocuous phrases simply because they have a different connotation in Germany or whatever. As far as we can tell, that was just yet another piece of marketing material that went through some automated regex filter for German subscribers and no one thought twice about it after seeing that fact.
- chortle_tortle@mander.xyzEnglish11 days
From their reddit post in trying to cover up:
… I also recognize that placing two such runes next to each other could create an unfortunate association with symbols used by the Nazi regime. This was noticed before distribution, and out of respect for local sensitivities, the material was not sent to the German community.
They knew and actively chose to not send it to the country that criminalizes Nazi imagery. To me the Germany stuff is the most damning part.
- NotSteve_@lemmy.caEnglish11 days
Yeah 100%. Their response to the event is pretty much where all of my feelings come from on the subject. They explicitly state they knew they were releasing literal nazi iconography and then explicitly chose to put it out where it wouldn’t get them in legal trouble.
Not only that but IIRC they actually changed the original game dev’s marketing material to use the symbols without the devs even knowing.
It’s all pretty fucking damning and it makes me incredibly sad
- Zombie@feddit.ukEnglish11 days
It always amazes me when people from anarchist servers bend over backwards to make excuses for for-profit private companies.
- 11 days
That was about their German language newsletter though. They have separate, localised newsletters for several markets, which I’d assume are manually translated. Also, as a native German speaker, I really don’t think it’s all that different than other European language regions regarding sensitivities.
- VitoRobles@lemmy.todayEnglish11 days
Their marketing team was warned that there was some offense images and it would stir trouble in Germany.
Rather than say, “Oh shit this will look bad.” They said, “Oh let’s just change it for Germany.”
Do you not understand the root issue?
- 10 days
That’s conjecture. And I feel like that there are certain things that, when flagged, should be sent back up the pole. Not cause it’s part of the teams job explicitly, but because it should be common sense.
Rather than say, “Oh shit this will look bad.” They said, “Oh let’s just change it for Germany.”
I am saying that this Germany scenario occurs all the time. That is SOP. Very often, a marketing team discovers that “oh, this copy is considered Nazi imagery in Germany” even though it is entirely innocuous to any other culture, so they alter it for just the German market. So, because they are so used to not looking further into common false positives (inspecting the situation and determining if that might actually be Nazi imagery elsewhere as well), it is possible that this is what happened here. Someone may have figured this was just another false positive like all the other German false positives and just sent off a culturally sensitive version like they always do with false positives. This situation might just indicate that they need to make it SOP to investigate every false positive and question if they might actually be genuine.
Again, I do think it was intentional Nazi imagery for other reasons. I am just saying that the “Germany” reason isn’t a valid reason because that situation could have potentially been incompetence instead of malice. Even their corpospeak explanation of the situation complies with this possibility.
- 10 days
Hey, as a “pagan” (practitioner of a Left-Hand Path centered on Lilith) myself, I’d warn you not to commit to religious intolerance conflating paganism, which includes Rodnovery, a Slavic Native Faith likely the one depicted in the The End of the Sun game, with the shitty nazi dog whistle done at the sole discretion of GOG. The devs of the game made it clear that they had absolutely nothing to do with the infamous GOG newsletter and its nazi dog whistle. We pagans have nothing to do with shitty far-right bigotry.
- WereHacker@lemmy.mlEnglish10 days
Sorry I should have written “pagan”. I know nazis will do anything to legitimize themselves. I just dont want to white wash GOG.
I should get more things on gog.
Steam just makes things work on linux without issue so thats why we still get steam games.
You can add any gog game to steam and run it through whatever proton compatibility layer you would like. The Heroic launcher and Lutris both also allow this.
- scutiger@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Heroic launcher pretty much does the same for GOG games. Sad that it needs a third-party launcher, but it works quite well.
- Goodeye8@piefed.socialEnglish11 days
I guess I have to give Heroic a try. I’ve been using lutris but the auto-generated install scripts are kind of a hit and miss due to gog changing their naming convention on some games.
- scutiger@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Heroic lets you log in on your GOG, Epic, and Amazon accounts and then can install your games directly from your library and sets up Proton like on Steam. It’s not 100% as user-friendly, but it’s pretty effective.
- Goodeye8@piefed.socialEnglish11 days
Lutris does the same. I don’t know if it has Amazon integration but it has itch integration which is more relevant to me. It also used to have pretty good gog integration where you just log in with your gog account, pick a game, click install and play. It would even find all the DLCs you have for the game and offer easy installation of those as well.
But recently gog has started changing the names of their install executables so the installation scripts lutris autogenerates fail due to not finding the correct installer. It’s not every game as some games still use the old naming convention but some games require manual installation and if those games have DLCs then those become an extra annoyance due to how gog handles the installation of DLC.
That’s why I’m interested in Heroic because if it’s still as convenient as Lutris used to be then I’m willing to sacrifice itch for better integration with gog because my gog library is much bigger than my itch library. But if it’s having the same issues as Lutris I don’t see a reason to pick Heroic over Lutris because Lutris has more relevant (to me) integrations and I’m pretty familiar with how to use it as a tool to get troublesome games running. I just don’t the benefit of learning a different software if it’s not going to give me any benefits over what I already use.
- scutiger@lemmy.worldEnglish10 days
I’ve never had any luck with Lutris, it was always troublesome to get things working for me, but tbf I haven’t used it in a while,
If itch is something you care about, you may want to stick with what you’re used to, as Heroic doesn’t do itch natively.
- brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Sadly, based on market share, people seem to be picking Steam over GoG.
They almost always pick what’s most convenient/familiar over what’s principled and better in the long term.
- Leafimo@feddit.orgEnglish11 days
Until gog finally gets a good first(!) party linux client buying games there is not really worth it yet.
- brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Yeah.
I know it must seem like a small market to them, but Linux should really be higher on their priority list. As it’s growing at Windows’ expense.
- pressanykeynow@lemmy.worldEnglish10 days
Why do you need a first party client when third party client works fine?
- doublah@sopuli.xyzEnglish10 days
Because the third party client based on reverse-engineering and undocumented APIs could break at any time.
- pressanykeynow@lemmy.worldEnglish10 days
Fair point but it’s also true that first party client can break at any time just as well.
- alexquiniou@lemmy.zipEnglish11 days
I’m in the opposite team ! I always buy in gog store first then steam. But yeah, steam is here.
I don’t even buy on Steam anymore. I’m tired of my shit being stored on other people’s computers. If I won’t own the game I buy, then I don’t buy the game.
- brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Same.
So many games aren’t there, though. And Steams pricing policy means they can’t be cheaper on GoG, anyway, otherwise Valve would delist them.
- GreyCat@piefed.socialEnglish6 days
Steam does not have such a pricing policy though. You can sell your game for cheaper on other stores just fine as long as it’s not a Steam key generated on steam that you are selling.
- locahosr443@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
I buy on steam mostly cos it has a Linux client and Proton is built in. I still go to gog for some 90s stuff cos they fix them up a bit.
When gog release a Linux client, it’ll get the same consideration as steam, that’s all they’ve gotta do, I’m not even asking for any packaged compatibility like proton
- locahosr443@lemmy.worldEnglish9 days
Why would I bother to take the extra steps when they can’t even be arsed to release a client for my os?
- neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish11 days
They don’t have regional pricing, so games there are typically a lot more expensive.
- Elshender@sh.itjust.worksEnglish11 days
GoG is doing well in the convenience category too though. Their GoG launcher is amazing and syncs with all your online libraries (steam, ea, epic, etc).
But yeah, I think until Steam screws up or goes public or something, and gives people a reason to switch, there’s not gonna be a ton of people jumping ship.
- doublah@sopuli.xyzEnglish10 days
GOG pride themselves on being a “curated” store that rejects a lot of indie games, and Indies are what’s driving Steam’s growth right now.
- takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish11 days
I’m doing my part. With exception of portal 1 and 2 GOG is the only store I am purchasing games from.
- Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish11 days
Are they competitors even? I thought GoG whole schtick was selling retro games, hence their name.
I know they sell some newer games, but not really sure how it compares to a platform like Steam.
- brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Nah, they sell tons of big budget and new indie games.
But this is their biggest problem. Most don’t even know they exist, and sell modern games.
- ObsidianZed@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
I pick whichever is cheaper with a heavy preference towards GOG. I am also a patient gamer, so I’ll watch and wait for deals so I can get it on GOG but that doesn’t always happen. Also Steam bundles can skew price deals for me making it more attractive.
- FauxLiving@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
More like, Linux supports GOG and they don’t try to stop it.
The thing you want is the Heroic Games Launcher, you can login to your GOG/Epic/Amazon and install/launch games (using WINE/Proton) pretty much like using Steam.
It’s even available as a Flatpak so you can use it on the Steam Deck.
4 replies and all of them “yes but actually no”.
I’ve been waiting for GOG Galaxy to be Linux compatible for over a decade. When they start supporting my OS I’ll start supporting their store.
- mirshafie@europe.pubEnglish11 days
But why do you need a launcher though? Is it to play games socially or something?
I just launch from the start menu. My issue is that there aren’t enough Linux titles, but at least GOG is very good about marking Linux titles and making them searchable.
So I can keep my library of games I own in one place, install it on my OS and (ideally) maintain them (patches, mods, scripts etc).
If they really wanted to be a source of competition maybe even something like the community hub of sorts where you could download the aforementioned patches or fixes for your games but primarily for centralisation of my library in app form.
- mirshafie@europe.pubEnglish11 days
Yeah, patches and updates is probably a good use case. GOG should probably just make a command line tool for Linux modeled after something like apt, with the difference that you need to log in to access your purchases. I think many users would also appreciate a curated directory of mods.
- 11 days
Use heroic? It allows GOG login (amongst others), and does all that.
- doublah@sopuli.xyzEnglish10 days
There’s this revolutionary new technology I guess the start menu gamers haven’t caught onto yet known as “cloud saves” which make it a lot easier to continue playing games on different devices and through uninstalls.
- mirshafie@europe.pubEnglish10 days
I bring my home directory with me across installs, but I never felt the need to continue on a year-old save. Across devices I can maybe see, if you have both a gaming PC and a Steam Deck, but I think that’s a fraction of players and I don’t think I’ll join that group any time soon.
GOG is just a storefront. The specific titles you purchase on that storefront may or may not offer Linux files.
- NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish11 days
But gog makes a launcher and library tool. But not for Linux.
That is GOG Galaxy. So, “Does GOG Galaxy support Linux?” is a different question than “Does GOG support Linux?”, and the answer to that question is “no”. But if you really need a local launcher software like that for some reason, there is Heroic Launcher, which definitely does support Linux. Though realistically, you don’t need GOG Galaxy, Heroic Launcher, or any similar software to play the games. GOG is just a storefront to purchase DRM-free games. You can simply download those game install files using a web browser and install/run them normally.
- NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish10 days
Yeah, but if they dobt put any effort in, I consider them non supporting. They used to say things like working on it or coming soon. But they never did.
So as far as I am concerned, they dobt support Linux.
- Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish10 days
Have you ever even tried Heroic or Lutris as launchers rather than the store-specific launchers?!
They integrate with pretty much all big stores so you can see your entire games collection (not just the subset for a single store). Also they’re way (WAY) more customisable and flexible in how you run you game, so for example most of my games running in Lutris run behind a proper sandbox (firejail) with networking disabled (something that the No DRM of GOG games also helps make possible, as to be sold via GOG games can’t require a network connection to run).
Furter, the Open Source launchers don’t care how you sourced some of your games - if you have it you can add it there and launch it, even if it’s an old game with a CD installer or something you got from sailing the high seas.
I have both the Steam Store App and Lutris and whilst Steam has a slicker UI and deeper integration with many games from that Store (for stuff like Achievements), using Lutris is IMHO a better experience, especially when it comes to supporting my entire games collection, what I have access from the UI to tweak to get the more stubborn Windows games to run in Linux (you can easilly change actual launchers - including but no limited to Proton - as well as seriously customise how the game is run), overall privacy protection and digital safety (the whole sandboxing with networking disable thing) and, curiously, even because games in Lutris launch way faster since unlike Steam when I launch a game in Lutris I’m not constantly forced to wait for the store app to update before the actual game starts.
Things like Lutris and Heroic are done following an Open Source ethos (highly customizable, which also means you can get overwhelmed with options if you try and change anything from the defaults) and no trying to serve objectives which are store-specific (i.e. they’re not at all trying to do what’s good for that store, such as shoving adverts in front of you to buy more games or supporting high integration of specific games and a specific store).
Whilst in Windows I actually tended to avoid launchers (literally installed GOG Galaxy once, checked it out and then uninstalled it), after switching to Linux I have come around to really appreciate Lutris. I haven’t got around to appreciate Steam all that much - it constantly gets in my way when all I want is to enjoy the game (generally because I often start the game from a desktop shortcut and have to wait for Steam to update before the game starts) and it’s a bigger hassle to try and tweak stubborn Windows games to run in Linux via Steam than via Lutris and, of course, there’s the whole “can’t cut networking for it” thing.
Absolutelly, GOG’s lack of support for Linux beyond just having Linux versions of some games available (which sometimes don’t even work well) and the open REST API so that open launchers like Heroic and Lutris can talk to the store and fetch and install games directly, is a negative.
At the same time, the Steam app is also an inferior game launcher versus Lutris and Heroic, and I suspect so are all game store specific game launchers since they’re designed first and foremost to benefit the store, whilst Open Source game launchers are designed to benefit the user.
- NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish10 days
Again, has nothing to do with GOG. I have no idea why you are bringing up other launchers. Maybe to be helpful I guess? But its really off topic. Point is gog kept telling me they would do something for LInux, yet never did. My only OS has been Linux since about 2002. I have been a member of GOG’s since 2010, so its not like I am against them.
But what the heck I have some time:
Open Source launchers don’t care how you sourced some of your games
Steam doesnt care either. Although Steam also makes “sailing the high seas” pointless (as does gog frankly) as they are so cheap on sale.
I suppose you haven’t used Lutris long enough to remember how bad it was. Started out great, then It became nearly unmaintained, scripts were breaking, there were regressions. I quit using it a long time ago. Now people are questioning the devs use of Claude AI, so I think I will pass.
Heroic on the other hand is pretty good, I have it on my steam deck. I don’t use it much though.
I disagree with you on Steam though. It is the easiest and simplest tool of them all. Remember when you could link your gog games to steam, so that was all taken care of?
Really I don’t want to launch from GOG galaxy, I just want to be able to log in, browse my library and download on any device. Like steam does.
I often start the game from a desktop shortcut and have to wait for Steam to update before the game starts
Yikes! I hate desktop shortcuts. So much so that I have my desktop set to not allow items in the desktop folder. In any case how long does it take steam to update? 10 seconds maybe? Its never frequent.
Worth mentioning that Valve contributes greatly to Wine and Proton obviously (as does Codeweavers), and none of this would be as good as it is without them.
GOG offering the API is a good step in the right direction of course. Their mission is even better, so don’t think I am against them.
GOG does not have a Linux launcher. There were some rumblings about focusing on Linux development when there was a change of hands, but we still have to see anything coming from that.
However, GOG does host Linux builds of games where available.
- SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish11 days
Kind of. You can install stuff like lutris or steamdeck plugins that connect to gog and download games for you
The cover question is: do the games support Linux? And with proton, a lot of them do
- 11 days
What does the “Linux” filter refer to then?
https://www.gog.com/en/games/new?systems=linuxEdit: I tried with a random free game. Provided was a shell script with binary data appended to it.
So Linux users can install the game without having to use some translation software like Proton.
- SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish11 days
Depends on the game. A giant part of their library is, well, good old games, that only run on Windows natively
- 11 days
Yeah, I thought that was the question. I never considered downloader/launcher, or whatever their software does.
- 11 days
I’d recommend Bottles over Lutris due to the latter’s unfortunate use of LLMs/AI.
- 11 days
Yes and no.
GOG games run just fine on Linux, some native and some under Wine\Proton (almost entirely on the game’s devs, but GOG does have their support program to get Wine working on older unsupported games).
GOG Galaxy, their launcher app, does not have a Linux version. You have to download games off their website directly or use Lutris, Heroic, or some other third party management platform to manage them. The advantage of using a game manager–aside from easier monitored game downloads, automatic updates, and community features–is that they’re usually set up Wine for you as well, which can be annoying to set up and use correctly.
- Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish10 days
I did not at all like using launchers back when I gamed in Windows, but I really got around to liking Lutris now that I game in Linux - it integrates with my entire games collection (including older titles from physical media), is not trying at all to push me to buy, buy, buy and it doesn’t get in my way when all I want is to start a game and have fun (i.e. no waiting for store app or game updates).
Also I figured out how to configure it to run my games sandboxed with networking disabled, so that’s my default game launch config now. Can’t do that at all with Steam.
Finally, it’s way more flexible when it comes to force the more stubborn Windows games to run in Linux (including the funny and more extreme case of a certain game that wouldn’t run in Steam no matter what I did, but the pirated version wasn’t that hard to get to run fine in Lutris).
No, but they support MAC now. I had a little reactionary chuckle reading that. I know the Apple arm chipsets have been really good, and most games from gog are not very demanding, its just funny to me that historically Mac has not been known for gaming and they get support before Linux. Shout out to the Heroic Launcher Team.
I just made my first purchases from GOG a few weeks ago, and did it from a Linux machine. I believe it auto-detected I’m on Linux and said “Hey, this game does not natively support Linux” right at the top of the game’s page, and even said “Hey, X games in your library dont natively support Linux” when I was at the checkout. As for the ones that did, it changed to saying “This game does support Linux” on the game’s store page.
Honestly, feels good to see this sorta stuff, but this is just each game on an individual basis, independent of GOG’s launcher.
Edit: Thankfully, throw in a smidgen of wine or proton, and it’s likely all the incompatibilities are compatible.
- Maultasche@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
I’m already designing covers and checking what disc type is needed for some of my favourite games
- Dookieman12@piefed.socialEnglish11 days
Optical media will eventually suffer bit rot and be useless. Save them to an old HDD, SD card, or USB drive, they’ll last longer.
I’ve been wondering if my 3.25" floppies copy of Doom from the 90s still works but I haven’t gotten around to buying a usb adapter drive to try them.
- Maultasche@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
I already have the installers on an HDD, I just like keeping games on my shelf
- 10 days
Love to see it from GOG. Now if only they had a Linux launcher akin to Steam Big Picture Mode.
They would be the dream imo
- auntieclokwise@lemmy.worldEnglish9 days
Check out Heroic Games Launcher. Launches games from Epic, Steam, and GOG. Runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS.
- CaptPretentious@lemmy.worldEnglish9 days
I wouldn’t hold my breath. When they release their latest launcher (2019), it still had example code from the Windows Vista days. Using extremely old libraries to manage storage I believe (or at least accessing storage). So they can’t even actually develop a launcher for Windows. When I messaged then about it, they didn’t care.
What if I build my own yacht out of the CDs I burned my GOG installers to?
- frunch@lemmy.worldEnglish11 days
Somehow they’ll get sued over this for making the other companies look like crooks and thieves
- Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish10 days
I’m here wondering if this quote is going to age like milk or not.
- Saledovil@sh.itjust.worksEnglish10 days
Well, if you download an installer from gog and save it to a disk, it’s yours forever, regardless of what gog does. Of course, the window to do so might close with very short notice.
- Karjalan@lemmy.worldEnglish9 days
I imagine what they mean is that, in the future, GoG does what seemingly every other successful company that has “good morals” does when they get rich and famous… Renegs for more $$$
See Netflix “we’ll never have ads” and using sharing accounts as a promotional tool. And Googles “do no evil”. Etc.
Obviously they can’t undo your ability to install what you already have, but they could prevent you doing it in the future.
Literally impossible for it to age like milk. They can’t remove games from your library, the way every other storefront can
