GOG say the GOG Preservation Program is currently Windows-only
How does that work? Almost all old Windows games can be played on Linux with Wine or Dosbox?
How exactly is this any different to what they were doing 10 years ago?
Good on GoG and I do genuinely love most of what they have done.
But the “buy here and you own it” bullshit is a real laugh. It is still just a license that can be revoked at any point. And the “just download it and have it forever” is untenable for larger libraries and… the French Monk Debacle already demonstrated why.
For those not aware, in the first year or so of gog’s existence, they pretended they were shutting down the website and told everyone they had like 48 hours to download everything. People lost their shit, hug of death, etc. CDP immediately apologized and then put a “fun” character in The Witcher 2 that referenced that.
But… that is the reality. If the site goes down, you are only getting a fraction of your library, if that. And GoG have always been horrible about letting you know when a game is updated if you use the standalone installers. So, regardless, you are pirating shit when the site goes down. Same as Steam.
How else would you do ‘buy to own’ for software, though, that is not downloading and storing it locally? Every website and service will inevitably go down eventually, hence there is literally nothing else coming to my mind.
How else would you do ‘buy to own’ for software
I wouldn’t for anything where I don’t 100% own the license and rights in perpetuity.
Because GoG has already lost the right to sell many games (I want to say they lost Interplay two or three times?). And it is a matter of time until a publisher demands a game be fully revoked (which has happened on Steam a handful of times?).
Don’t promise things you can’t deliver on.
As for something where I do own the license and it will last the lifetime of my company? Bare minimum, I would provide a way to be properly notified of whenever an installer is updated. And I wouldn’t have quite so many “secret” serials required for games (like UT or OFP or whatever).
You’re unreasonable. Getting an installer that installs a fully working game is perfectly fine. Where you store your boxes or files is your problem, GoG won’t build a garage for you for your boxes, neither will they send you a data crystal that’ll keep your data integrity for a million years.
Stop shitting on great because it’s not perfect.
Right. So, no software ever, then. Even if you have a license that grants you perpetual usage rights, that doesn’t extend to anyone else shouldering the responsibility of perpetual hosting.
Your right to use software does not give you the right to expect others to store your digital junk for you.
