GOG.com

[good fucking shit happen]

There is no point being DRM-free when you have thousand of games. Or someone here really keeps their installations locally?

That doesn't make any sense, why would DRM be good if you had more games? Since you ask though, yes, this gamer gremlin keeps a backup of the installers on a portable HDD.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

There is no point being DRM-free when you have thousand of games. Or someone here really keeps their installations locally?

That doesn't make any sense, why would DRM be good if you had more games? Since you ask though, yes, this gamer gremlin keeps a backup of the installers on a portable HDD.

That's just common sense and why GOG is superior to steam/epic/and gamersgate.

Maybe I'm a digital hoarder.

 

[DalekFlay]

There is no point being DRM-free when you have thousand of games. Or someone here really keeps their installations locally?

I can see this argument for modern 50GB games and whatnot, at least for now. Dual backups of shit that large is off the table for a long time, meaning if GOG vanishes overnight you're fucked, which is the opposite from the intentions of DRM free. In theory though this will change over time and GOG isn't going anywhere.

(Also for me DRM free is more about the principle than worrying Steam is going away anytime soon).

 

[cosmicray]

There is no point being DRM-free when you have thousand of games. Or someone here really keeps their installations locally?

That doesn't make any sense, why would DRM be good if you had more games? Since you ask though, yes, this gamer gremlin keeps a backup of the installers on a portable HDD.

No, DRM is bad of course. But once you have so many games, there is not real difference between GOG and Steam if you not hoard your installations.

 

[racofer]

There is no point being DRM-free when you have thousand of games. Or someone here really keeps their installations locally?

Time to share some of my autistic behaviors with the Codex.

This is my entire folder of GOG installers. Currently at 108 games and growing at a very slow pace. I don't hoard a bunch a games like most people in here do, and I tend to be very selective of the games I want to keep. Although I have a Steam account, I haven't used it in a few years, and the games that I really cared about I have repurchased at GOG with big discounts. About a dozen or so of the games I have on GOG came from the free giveaways.

Here are the worst offenders in terms of installer size. I keep them all up to date with gogrepo (for which I have mode some modifications myself). The entire library is also backed up on an external HDD, my home server, and on a remote location using Google Drive (encrypted to be on the safe side against Google's scanning of Drive contents). I keep it all in sync using rclone.

For actually managing the games, I initially used Galaxy, but then ditched it in favor of Playnite. All my GOG games are registered on the local Playnite database (which is also backed up on an external drive, home server, and remote location). The metadada of each game (along with icons, background images, etc) is obtained through Playnite itself using the GOG game ID, available from gogdb.org.

I have configured each game with relative install paths using folder junctions within Windows. This makes the installation of each game independent of where the game is actually installed at (my ssd or hdd, depending on the game). Moving the game from one place to another only requires updating the symbolic links, for which I use a small script for automating the entire process. Playnite only sees the relative install path of each game, making the process of migrating things around and restoring my setup at another computer a breeze.

Lastly, I have recently implemented a C# application for managing the backups of saves/settings of all my games. I have also implemented this application as a Playnite extension for simulating the cloud saving behavior of Steam/Galaxy, albeit with more functionality. Upon closing any game, the extension backs up the games data to the specified locations for safekeeping, e.g., my local backups drive and Google Drive, so that I also have an up to date remote location with my saves.

The benefit of my approach is that I can backup the saves/settings of any game, even those that Steam/Galaxy do no support. Children of Morta is only an example where the save data is in a regular folder, while the game settings are in a registry key. With my program I can back it all up and easily restore the backups whenever is necessary.

 

[Beowulf]

Uhh, that's some ... dedication.
And they say gaming is a hobby for the lazy people

 

[racofer]

Uhh, that's some ... dedication.
And they say gaming is a hobby for the lazy people

If I am going to go for something as a hobby/interest, I might as well go all the way.

It felt like playing Factorio through most of it, initially, but now this setup runs by itself and is totally worth it.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Release:
Phoenix Point
https://af.gog.com/game/phoenix_point_year_one_edition?as=1649904300

 

[cosmicray]

Here are the worst offenders in terms of installer size. I keep them all up to date with gogrepo (for which I have mode some modifications myself). The entire library is also backed up on an external HDD, my home server, and on a remote location using Google Drive (encrypted to be on the safe side against Google's scanning of Drive contents). I keep it all in sync using rclone.

I have configured each game with relative install paths using folder junctions within Windows. This makes the installation of each game independent of where the game is actually installed at (my ssd or hdd, depending on the game). Moving the game from one place to another only requires updating the symbolic links, for which I use a small script for automating the entire process. Playnite only sees the relative install path of each game, making the process of migrating things around and restoring my setup at another computer a breeze.

Lastly, I have recently implemented a C# application for managing the backups of saves/settings of all my games.

Holy shit!

Sadly, I gave up hoarding installers just like GOG abandoned Linux. I was, simply put, lazy to make some system so I pledged allegiance to Steam overloads. But your example might make me rethink this. Although, Proton is an awesome way to play non-Linux games.

 

[Bad Sector]

There is no point being DRM-free when you have thousand of games. Or someone here really keeps their installations locally?

That doesn't make any sense, why would DRM be good if you had more games? Since you ask though, yes, this gamer gremlin keeps a backup of the installers on a portable HDD.

Same here, i have all of my games stored in my external HDD, though as you can see it isn't just GOG (even though it takes by far the most disk space):

There are several reasons for "why DRM" but one can be seen in the image above: Desura doesn't exist anymore, yet the games i got from there years ago are still with me. As are the games under "Direct" which i got directly from the developers.

I can see this argument for modern 50GB games and whatnot, at least for now.

50GB isn't that much of an issue for storage (...says me while in the screenshot i have ~25GB free... but i'll get a new HDD eventually :-P), a bigger issue i have with modern game sizes is how long it takes to download a game.

(Also for me DRM free is more about the principle than worrying Steam is going away anytime soon).

Another reason for me is being in control: i can plug my external HDD to my GPD Win and install any game i want on it without having to install any client or bother with internet connectivity (i actually do not allow GPD Win to connect to the internet because it has a very small HDD and Windows updates tend to waste space). And not just GPD Win of course, many of my GOG games also work on my retro Athlon 64 (which has no internet connectivity at all).

Though even for Steam, i keep copies of Steam games (as can be seen in the screenshot) i buy. Some are already DRM-free so i just create an archive file with their directory, but for others i use Steamless and Goldberg's Steam emulator (both free and open source programs) to remove the dependency on Steam. It doesn't work for all games (Steamless doesn't support the older Steam DRM and while there might be other tools that do, i do not know of any open source tool and i'm not keen on using some shady binary-only tool... at some point i'll try to reverse engineer it myself), so i try to avoid buying games on Steam *unless* they're sandwich-level cheap in case i can't remove the Steam dependency down the road.

Though overall i'd rather wait until they get released somewhere else without DRM.

I keep them all up to date with gogrepo

The fact that there is a dedicated program like this shows that there are many other DRM-free game hoarders like us :-P (though i prefer to do my own categorization)

 

[DalekFlay]

a bigger issue i have with modern game sizes is how long it takes to download a game.

I live in a major Northeastern city in the US, so that's not really an issue. Unlimited 300mbps.

Edit: That sounds like a brag, I just meant everyone has different situations. I only have two 500GB SSDs so for me space is a bigger issue.

 

[Catacombs]

I live in a major Northeastern city in the US

New York or Boston?

 

[DalekFlay]

New York or Boston?

Philly.

 

[Tom Selleck]

 

[Ismaul]

Huh, and I thought I was a hoarder. Turns out I'm a casual.

I only have like 400GB of my GOG collection on my drives, didn't bother downloading it all yet, just what I've used as I go through it.

But I do have something like backups of all my Saves on two different drives (and auto-backups of saves from games I'm currently playing). Most importantly, I do the same for all patches, install notes, mods, design docs, concept art, manuals, whatever I come upon that might be relevant for a game I've played.

If I took the time to find the best version of this shit and download it, I might as well not waste my time doing it again. I hate doing the same thing twice. (Except ur mom ofc.)

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I also store shitton of gog installers for nineties games locally. Mostly because I usually use a 1024x768 screen for oldschool gaming and galaxy looks and works horrible in that res. Actually, it looks and works horrible in any res, so it's a net gain anyway.

Fun fact: steam scales and functions perfectly, despite obviously being much less oldfag-focused.

 

[Bad Sector]

I live in a major Northeastern city in the US, so that's not really an issue. Unlimited 300mbps.

Yeah, sadly i only have 10mbit :-/. Technically it is 24mbit but ISPs here oversell their lines so much that you never reach the advertised speed.

 

[Tom Selleck]

I am an agent of the decline: I don't locally download anything except for like a handful of games, and use GOG Galaxy, and delete games and saves when I complete them.

 

[Melcar]

Between my GOG installers, Steam backups and others (open source games and shit) my game folder is 560GB (tho my actual installed games are only 300GB). I keep them on a dedicated HDD that gets backed up every month. I hate having to download mostly because I don't want to have to rely on some server in God knows where to get my games. Fuck that shit. I want to be able to still install games from a local source.

 

[El Presidente]

Is GOG in danger or something or you guys simply like keeping backups

Cause I'm paranoid myself with this stuff but I don't keep any GOG backups. Should I? Reading the last couple pages felt like everyone around me is preparing their bunkers and stacking up provisions while I'm an oblivious retard strolling around with my propeller cap

 

[racofer]

Is GOG in danger or something or you guys simply like keeping backups

Nope. GOG is actually doing well.

Should I?

One of the reasons to buy stuff from GOG is that you can keep it for offline use. If GOG goes under, or if you lose your account, or if for any reason you cannot access GOG, then it doesn't really matter because you could have already backed up all your game installers.

Using GOG without keeping a copy of any of your stuff is possible, however, how different is it from having your games tied to a Steam account? Without backups, all of your games are tied to your GOG account, so.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

you guys simply like keeping backups

This, in essence.
I download my installers whenever possible simply because third world internet makes downloads somewhat time consuming. The internet speed has improved much, but the habit is formed.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Is GOG in danger or something or you guys simply like keeping backups

I've lived long enough to know that nothing lasts forever. GOG appears to be doing well, but that's no excuse why you shouldn't be making your own plans and backups. I have the same approach towards Steam BTW.

While I keep offline backups of most of my GOG installers, I have no idea how big it is in size, as they're all merged with an older collection of games.

 

[Guvide]

I'm a paranoid compulsive hoarder so I back-up everything I have, be it games, shows, music, books, all of it goes onto an external HDD and/or DVD.

 

[Infinitron]

Oh yeah, free Witcher 1 on GOG Galaxy: https://af.gog.com/news/the_witcher_enhanced_edition_now_free_for_all_gog_galaxy_users?as=1649904300