Guess where I am not going to buy games any more.
Gog is absolutely amazing. They have old games, no DRM and most games work out of the box with Linux.
Go complain about something else.
Their no DRM commitment and use of AI slop cancel each other out, in my view.
How so
I’m about as anti-AI as you can get, but that wasn’t a confirmation - it was a non-answer.
And considering how many things “AI” is getting crammed into, if they’d given a definitive answer, it wouldn’t have been possible to guarantee it - because they’re not in control of every business scenario in the industry.
I am genuinely curious why people are so angry and are jumping to conclusions, willing to boycott a company that has done great things for media preservation over an inconvlusive statement about something that will likely have minimal or no effect on them, GOGs employees, or the user experience of their platform.
AI assistance is a tool. Why would they ban their developers and maintainers from using Windsurf, for instance? Or their design folks from using AI tools to help make mockups? It doesn’t make any sense. If their workforce wants to make use of AI tools responsibly… why is that a problem?
AI use does not mean they will start churning out slop. And, frankly, GOG is a software distributor/vendor… they don’t have creative control over the games they sell. The AI would be in the behind the scenes development of their platform, not in the products. The only way it’d affect users is if they put it in the user interface somehow (but… how and why would they?)
I am genuinely curious why people are so angry and are jumping to conclusions,
because GoG was just sold, and its a tale as old as time for a beloved company, to get new ownership, and immediately start making stupid decisions and ruin everything.
GOG was bought by its own co-founder Michał Kiciński not BlackRock or something.
AI use does not mean they will start churning out slop
But they already did with that ugly AI sale banner that was taking over half their front page.
Because it will lead to buggy and insecure service, causing customer headaches. Imagine asking a random number generator to write your payment infrastructure!
Or your toaster what its prefered income bracket is.
that wasn’t a confirmation - it was a non-answer.
Same thing, as far as I’m concerned.
And considering how many things “AI” is getting crammed into
What they’re using is clearly generative AI, meant to replace artists. It would be very easy to say they were no longer going to be doing that.
I mean you said it in the second half but the non answer is the confirmation they will adopt it like everyone else in part because it’s become part of institutional tools
“adopting it” and “getting saddled with it” are two different things.
skavau is a clown
if not gog, i reckon i don’t buy videogames any longer
Yar matey, a true shame.
So much for the bright future under the new ownership. Meh, that didnt took long.
I love GOG and made tons purchases in the past if the games were avaivable there. I’d rather have my games entirely DRM free than having the conviences eg Steam brings to the table as a platform.
But the use of AI slop just isnt a good look. For me it only communicates one thing: We cut corners. Then not owning it up afterwards leaves a really bitter taste in my mouth. “Sorry, wont happen again. We wont use shitty genAI slop anymore on the shopfront.” That aint hard(edit: and would still leave the door open for rApId pRoTotYpInG internally). I still would have had a bit of trust issues. But with that corperate nonanswer i’m not really willing to spent money on GOG anymore.
Also i always fucking hated corpo AMAs. I would have thought GOG would be able to host an AMA which would feel atleast somewhat human. Like sure they’re still a business and have their obvious constraints what and how they can talk about things. But this? This was just a waste of time. Meh
Interesting to hear how they do somewhat allow DRM for online content - CD key to login kind of thing I guess? But offline must be DRM free.
DRM-free multiplayer, and the communication of it on the store page, is basically my only gripe with GOG right now. Sure, lots of things can be better, but this is the thing preventing me from shopping with them friction-free. In my mind, any game using the Galaxy API could be pointed to a locally hosted replacement instead so that devs who don’t want to, or historically didn’t, design with LAN in mind end up getting fully offline multiplayer on GOG with no extra steps for them. At least it’s on their roadmap. I hope we see some progress on this front in the next year or two.
I think the “0% AI” has almost no life left in it. The Linux kernel has AI code in it, as well as any other software you use. The game of the year had AI assets, as with just about every other contender. Next year, even fewer games will qualify for the title of AI-free. The “no AI” approach fundamentally assumes AI has no value, which is as crazy as the execs who assume AI will solve every problem. The future lies in middle-of-the-road approaches.
how is this even downvoted? every one of you knows that programming has some exciting moments but sometimes just a 50 lines very trivial and predictable text that has to be written by someone. i don’t see horses trying to pick up old carts to pull them around meaninglessly 😂
i wonder if an organized boycott of GOG would be feasible, boycotting them until they stop using the slop
i would participate. however, until there is a boycott i still think DRM-free games are a good value proposition
No. It wont.
because while there may be the rare people who are willing to speak with their wallet and make a personal sacrifice…
The vast, overwhelming bulk of gamers are myopic little weasels that’ll keep shilling out the cash, even while actively crying about the awful things they are supporting, because they are too afraid of missing the next shiny wave to dare make any kind of stand or sacrifice.
Don’t know why you got downvoted. This is the sad reality, not just for gaming, but boycotts in general. They rarely work because the majority just doesn’t give a shit.
It’s conflicting because the commitment to no DRM and the preservation efforts for old games, keeping them running on modern systems, are tremendously valuable in the current consumer-hostile gaming landscape.
you’re right, that’s why i think an organized boycott with a clear demand would be the best, instead of just going around saying “don’t use GOG they use AI”
i want GOG to stop using AI, i don’t want GOG to disappear
Not wanting them to use ai is wanting them to disappear. It’s quickly being obvious no company will be able to avoid using ai in some fashion because every tool is having ai shoved into it.
And companies can’t make all their own tooling. It’s physically impossible.
They aren’t even reliably committed to no DRM. They frequently sell games that require GOG Galaxy accounts to access certain content(online/multiplayer functionality, DLC packs). GOG has explicitly gone on record saying that these forms of DRM are acceptable, despite running a store for years without them.
And preservation of old games(at least how they are doing it) is an inherently unprofitable service. Them preserving games that they don’t even have the licensed right to sell is one of the dumbest decisions they have made so far. Most of their older releases have just been grabbing a bunch of existing fan patches into a more polished installer; these sorts of tasks will always end up in the hands of hobbyists who would do this work without being paid.
I feel like at this point, you have to focus on individual developers/publishers if you want to properly support DRM free releases. Having brand loyalty to GOG will get you nothing.
