I looked at zoom and IMHO it was not appealing to me.

Here is the thing. "By my definition" is rather meaningless, as anyone can make their own, differing, wildy inaccurate definitions about anything.

As far as i understand, you would like to get CP2077's registration rewards without registering. (I don't know about NMS or Absolver, so i can't argue about them.) But those "rewards" are - as far as i can tell - not DRM'ed. In other words: For you calling it a form of DRM, yoy will have to explain how CD Projekt Red / GOG would be able to restrict access to those "rewards" after registration. On the other hand, it seems to be a time-honoured tradition in this forum here to call anything one doesn't like about getting their hands on some game content DRM, whether it is satisfying the actual definition of DRM or not...

That's adorable, but we haven't exactly gotten our hands on a definition, have we? I'd like to get one from GOG, but it seems they want to keep pushing the line, which means making a concrete definition is not in their interest. That much is actualyl in the title. Acquisition of game content being gatekept by some form of management would have to be part of the defintion of DRM. Registration requirements would, therefore, be DRM.

Lol, what? There is no definition of DRM? Glad you provided then one, right? Are you already drunk in the morning?


Ah, you want to have your cake and eat it too? Allow me to take a page from your playbook.

To get any, and i mean any, game from GOG, i have to register a user account. By your (meaningless) definition then, every single game on the GOG store is at least partially DRMed, because access to those games is gatekept due to the requirement of registering a GOG account.

Do you want to be taken seriously?

Yes, i do. And, you are indeed technically correct. However, if you play close attention, the ability to play a copyrighted game is predicated upon having a licence to do so, which means that in practice you are wrong, because upon purchase of a licence, the DRM is removed (permanently as long as offline installers are present for all licenced content). Upon purchasing the license, barring illegal activity specified in the licence, your licence is irrevocable, and even when not, the expectation is there that only legal avenues are to be pursued to enforce said licence. Once i download an offline installer from GOG, the only way to separate me from my copy is to confiscate my backup mediums. I can delete all but the installer, and retain all data. Backups are possible. This is not the case for the registration derived content. In theory, you could "hack it in," but then we could be entering into territory that violates our licence, giving grounds to actually remove my backups. And do we know what content is even a simple flag in the game and what requires an extra download (other than some sort of confirmation key) be present, even if we did wish to go that route. If extra textures and such required download, doing so to regain access would be copyright violation.

Fundamentally, the DRM measures give companies the power to enforce licences that are separate to the ones actually agreed upon, which is one of the main reasons why it is opposed.

In the case where material is downloaded, it could be argued that it is not included in the game, and the purchase of licence is predicated on external registration. In that scenario, it would be hard to argue it's DRM. I'm aware that the No Man's Sky content does not function this way, but I don't know about the CP2077 content, so can't actually confrim if CP2077 has DRM content or not. Without a doubt, No Man's Sky does.

At least regarding the CP2077 rewards we are speaking about currently, according to the FAQ (https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/goodies#registration): Whether CP2077 will ever in the future receive DRMed content, we (obviously) don't know (yet). Lets discuss this when this happens.

That actually doesn't answer the dilemma: that says to claim the content. If the content is present in the files, it's DRMed. If it is, instead, separate DLC that must be downloaded, instead of unlocked, then it is not DRMed content.

And i noticed you didn't address No Man's Sky.

No. As i said in my first response to you, i don't know NMS nor Absolver, hence i can't argue about them...

I'm not sure what the deal is on absolver. Basically, with NMS, there are special missions or something that can only be acquired from daily logins or something like that. The usual argument is that they provide an easier way to get a material necessary for crafting certain equipment, and although the material is available without the daily missions, it's prohibitively slow, or something like that. The material would not be a strong argument, becaue it is indeed available, but it would be the missions that provide the material that would be argued to be DRMed.

An access restriction policy on content is the very definition of DRM. Having content already included in the game but locked from the user unless they complete extra steps unrelated to playing the game is nothing but DRM.

The reason I added my definition is because I am not aware of any formal agreed-upon definitive definition. If there is one, could you please post it here. If you know of some useful heuristic test (of the type "if you have to do X or Y, then the game has DRM"), please post it as well.

To get the main CP2077 game, all I need to do is enter my GOG account, download the installers once and I can play the game for all eternity, installing it as many times as I want. This will not give me what has been termed "My Rewards", because while they are found within the installer, they are locked (it's not too difficult to crack this lock, but that's hardly the point). To get "My Rewards" I am forced to perform an additional step of logging in via galaxy. This has to be done every time I install the game (possibly every time I begin a new character). If galaxy servers are unavailable, I cannot access "My Rewards" on a new installation, short of cracking the artificial lock.

For Absolver, the game prevents you from replaying boss battles in single-player unless you log in online during gameplay. I don't know whether there is a crack for this.

For NMS, some of the contents of the in-game quicksilver store are unavailable without logging in online during gameplay, which effectively blocks some single-player cosmetics and quests (e.g. living ship). There is a crack for this.

Fair enough

That said, if the site eventually carries Devotion, at least people will be able to buy it some day. :)

This is absolute rank, technocratic cowardice from GOG. And, as if that weren't enough, they try to throw sand in their customer's eyes, too.

Absolutely shameful. Going to download all my offline installers and hold off on any further purchases. This is not something a company that prides itself on good faith can weasel out of, hoping it flies under the radar.

And it's working too, the Hexen/Heretic thread is full of instabuy comments and any critical comments, no matter how mild, are downrated to hell.

Either the userbase is full of apathy or gog's capitulation has brought a whole load of wumao with it.

Release Winny the Pooh, you dunces.