• Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
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    2 days ago

    Pros of GOG: ability to download an installer

    Cons of GOG: no features, very few games

    Pros of Steam: everything

    Cons of Steam: making backups of your games is marginally harder than on GOG

    I wonder why more people don’t fall for the GOG meme. Truly a mystery.

    • moopet@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      What do you mean by “no features”? I use GOG to buy games, that’s it. What other features does a game shop need? Serious question.

      • tempest@lemmy.ca
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        16 hours ago

        I’m not sure about the others but for me it’s proton integration.

        As a Linux gamer it makes a hell of a difference.

      • Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
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        1 day ago

        None. But since on other stores, running the game is tied to using their platform, they provide extra services to be more appealing, such as cloud saves, achievements, Steam Workshop, Steam Input, Linux support, remote play…

        • moopet@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          I never really considered cloud saves. That’s an excellent point.

          GOG has linux support (or at least lutris offers gog-specific wine config when you launch something windowsy).

          To be fair I have no idea what Workshop, Input or Remote Play are, so I’ll go along with them being wanted features. But I feel a lot of things are not really the responsibility of the shop and more of the client software.

          • Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
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            1 day ago

            Workshop is a built-in mod store. Input is controller remapping and emulation (typically used to play older games that don’t support modern controllers, or controllers at all). Remote is exactly what it sounds like (run a game on your powerful PC and stream it to your old laptop or phone).

            Those things are the responsibility of the client software, but on all stores except GOG, the client software is also the store client. You can’t (normally) run games without the client. GOG has a client (Galaxy) but it’s nowhere near as advanced as Steam.

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      How do you back up a game with DRM if said DRM stops working though?

      GOG guarantees this will not be an issue. Hell, there even are/were Securom games on Steam. You won’t be activating those anymore.

    • RedSnt 👓♂️🖥️@feddit.dk
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      2 days ago

      If you wanted to be tagged as a steam fanboy just say so 😅

      The only one feature GOG doesn’t have that Steam has that I can think of is the workshop, but they have all the rest like savegame cloud sync etc.

      EDIT: @sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works’s comment below points out additional missing features.

      • Tekhne@sh.itjust.works
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        18 hours ago

        Another one: steam has some sort of multiplayer integration for devs, so they don’t need to host their own servers and you don’t need to expose ports; instead you can add people using your steam friends. Found this out to my sadness when I bought risk of rain 1 on Gog and the multiplayer was completely gutted compared to my friend who bought on steam.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        That’s not true, here are a few more:

        • Steam Deck compatibility - not exactly fair, but it is what it is
        • Steam Input - I tend to piggy back off Steam using Heroic Launcher
        • library organisation features - I think Heroic has this now though? I use Linux, so I don’t know if galaxy has this
        • family library sharing

        That said, I think GOG is fine. But to say it has the same features as Steam is silly, I only mentioned the ones I care about, but there are plenty more.

        • Ulrich@feddit.org
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          2 days ago

          Steam Deck Linux compatibility

          This is a big one for me, honestly. I run some GOG games through Heroic but half the time they still don’t work.

          I think Heroic has this now though?

          Extremely rudimentary but yes.

          family library sharing

          Another good one. I share a massive collection with my family.

          • Gabadabs@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 days ago

            Linux compatibility is fine. You can pretty easily install gog games by logging into your gof account on lutris. It’ll let you see your whole library and install directly from it, and any games that work in proton will work just fine using proton via lutris. You can also just add your gog game as a non-steam game and run it there.

            • Ulrich@feddit.org
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              2 days ago

              any games that work in proton will work just fine using proton via lutris.

              No they won’t.

              • Gabadabs@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                1 day ago

                You can select to run them in proton, rather than just normal wine, in lutris. I’ve been doing it to run games from gog for years with few issues, namely games that are old and have the same problems working on windows as well. So… Yes they will?

                  • moopet@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 day ago

                    Can you give an example? I’m assuming we’re looking for something that works on Linux using Steam or some other store, but not using GOG - either directly or through lutris/proton. That might clear up what’s being asked.

        • RedSnt 👓♂️🖥️@feddit.dk
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          2 days ago

          Thanks for the correction. I play through Heroic and haven’t really needed to use what you listed, probably why it’s a blind spot for me. But it’s also why I prefer GOG, no downsides for me.

      • Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
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        1 day ago

        I’m not a Steam fanboy, I’m just sick of GOG being praised as the saviour of gaming in every video game thread on Lemmy.

    • Ulrich@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      making backups of your games is marginally harder than on GOG

      It’s often nigh-impossible. As is rolling back to an earlier version after the devs insert microtransactions, DRM and spyware.