this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
130 points (100.0% liked)

Gaming

30555 readers
195 users here now

From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it's gaming you can probably discuss it here!

Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.

See also Gaming's sister community Tabletop Gaming.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org
gyrfalcon@beehaw.org
Whom@beehaw.org
The_Hunted_One@beehaw.org
chloyster@beehaw.org
remington@beehaw.org
130
GOG’s new preservation program intends to keep classic games playable ‘forever’ (www.theverge.com)
submitted 3 days ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/gaming@beehaw.org
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
top 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 35 points 3 days ago (5 children)

https://www.gog.com/en/gog-preservation-program direct link to GOG, because the link provided in the The Verge article is goskimresource that is blocked by my browser extension uMatrix. From the original articles FAQ at GOG:

What about macOS and Linux?

The GOG Preservation Program is currently Windows-only. Our priority is to preserve as many games as possible under the Program, before expanding to other operating systems.

Sad. How about supporting Linux? This would be the right direction to preserve games, as they are no longer tied to the Windows operating system. That's why I use Steam and do not buy on GOG.

[–] Dymonika@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Off-topic: do you have a guide on how to get uMatrix to do this blocking? That sounds great but it looks to be all manual. Do you run it with uBlock Origin?

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, I have uBlock Origin and uMatrix active at the same time, on Firefox. Maybe if you are using a Chromium based browser, it does not work the same? After all Google made changes. Otherwise, I'm not sure which setting in uMatrix will cause to block this. Therefore I'm not sure how to help with that at the moment.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I've looked again and it's probably one of the lists that contain hostnames to block. skimresources appears in all of these three, so enable them manually if they are not enabled: Dan Pollock’s hosts file, MVPS HOSTS, Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list

Edit: In the addon menu you can enable or block the domain dynamically when you are on the page. Unless you save the setting this is only temporarily changed.

[–] jherazob@beehaw.org 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Tha's been my beef with GOG for years now, their utterly stubborn stance of ignoring anything besides Windows even when it's common sense to do so

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That's why I use Steam and do not buy on GOG.

Wait, why Steam? GOG only sells DRM-free games. Any Windows game that works through Steam on Linux, works downloading it from GOG with standalone WINE. Or via things like Heroic Launcher, Lutris or Bottles.

[–] Vodulas@beehaw.org 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Or even playing it via Steam using Proton.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 days ago

Yea, that as well for sure.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I play all my games via steam, was the easiest way to set up proton for me. 😂 now I have my productive windows app in the steam library as well 🤷🏻

[–] Vodulas@beehaw.org 3 points 2 days ago

Same, run the install file via proton even. Works great

[–] msage@programming.dev 4 points 2 days ago

No, there are DRM games on GOG (or have been anyway).

And Steam also has DRM-free games.

[–] knokelmaat@beehaw.org 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I can understand that their priorities lie with Windows initially. I also prefer Steam for their amazing linux support, but for preservation Steam is also a mess: delisting of games / the fact that the games are not DRM free. A copy you buy on GOG is yours forever, a copy on Steam is less certain. Also know that GOG operates at a fraction of the budget that Steam has, so they don't necessarily have the money to put someone on linux support too. But hopefully in the future this will change!

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes, the DRM free games is a huge win for preservation. I'm not discounting the value of GOG. But that's something we had already. My critique was about the focus on Windows only, which is not the best idea if games should be preserved "forever". Because Windows 11 will be the only supported one soon.

But any efforts trying to make games work forever is always good. At least they didn't rule out other OS in the future. While my initial reaction was a bit negative in the nature, because I was very disappointment, I'm still happy they do something about it. It's even more bitter because they supported Linux in the past... But let's see how this is going. I don't want to end this in a negative note. I mean it can only get better with such a goal.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think, if they are preserved for windows DRM and anti-cheat free, it should be no problem launching them using wine / proton. In the other hand, a native Linux game will not run as smooth on WSL as a comparison.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago

I'm not suggesting to preserve a Linux version only. If anything, I meant to test and make sure the Windows build works with Proton on Linux, in addition to making sure it works on Windows. Some games have Linux versions, they just do not care about them either. And maybe make a Linux version of the GOG launcher as well.

[–] GetOffMyLan@programming.dev 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The problem is it's a tiny fraction of games and users. It's a lot of resources for little gain.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This has nothing to do with current market share.

[–] GetOffMyLan@programming.dev 9 points 3 days ago

If you're trying to save as many games as possible and the vast majority are on windows it completely does.

[–] jherazob@beehaw.org 1 points 2 days ago

Two words: Steam Deck.

[–] secret300@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I can play my pirated games forever too

[–] AgentRocket@feddit.org 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As long as you keep a pc with the specs and OS of the time the game was released. GOG is also making an effort to patch these games to make them run on current hard- and software without the hassle of finding and downloading fan patches, running emulators/virtual machines and all the other hoops one might have to jump through to get an old game running.

Of course you could theoretically pirate the gog version after they made it run, but given that these games usually cost about 5-10 bucks and some go as low as 1-2 when on sale, i think that's worth it to support these efforts.

[–] SuperSteef@beehaw.org 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You are right, they are doing good work to help make sure these games run.

One point of clarification though, they are pulling in the fan-patches themselves and building installers to install the emulators/vms as part of the installation. So they aren't updating these games, they are creating an environment where, regardless of how things change, these games will be playable.

What this means for the end-user is that any mods or other fan patches can still be used, because they haven't changed any of the game's code, so they are actually doing a better job at preservation than many of these companies releasing "Remastered" versions of their games are doing.

[–] Kissaki@beehaw.org 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

They've already been doing that, right? I assume this is marketing more than new or a change?

[–] knokelmaat@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah I believe so. But I'm 100% for it, the work they do deserves recognition.

[–] theangriestbird@beehaw.org 3 points 3 days ago

Yeah, it's like they are creating a GOG seal for games that are basically only available because of the special work that GOG does.