AB2012: For many of us it's far less about "paranoia" of the Internet disappearing and more about longer-term game preservation. 20-30 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed I'd have more interest in replaying many 90-2000s games than buying new AAA's in +2020 due to their pre-consolization "feel", originality or generally the same reason why it's entirely normal to listen to / watch / read classic music / movies / books yet some have painted the false narrative it must be somehow "different" for video games but really isn't. GOG have done a lot to bring them here, update them, remove the DRM, etc. Galaxy's online 'features' along with devs shoving Farcebook & Twatter links inside their games (usually to marketing based 'communities' that shrivel up & get abandoned after 6 months) however has been zero "improvement" on anything at all for me and many others.
Breja: For me it's the reverse, it's the paranoia about Internet's pervasivness. I don't want my gaming, or any other activity of mine, tracked like that. I don't want it checked what I install, what I uninstall, how much I play, when, how, how well I'm doing etc.
I share both opinions at the same time. "Time played", "Achievements", etc are more useless then helpfull for gaming because the base idea of both tracking mechanics are the use of DRM and collection of user data. I hate that, personally, and one of the reasons I came to GOG.
Steam, for exemple, is so full of that, that, unfortunately, people buy games just for number of games. You even have Achievement Clicker games. Which means, games made for winning achievements for your public steam profile, it's pointless and just make Steam run slower.
Just like Breja, the feeling that they're collecting and using all my data is not good. Yes, we have Privacy policies, but, who will guarantee that they will follow all of this in practice and after the game and company closes?
Collection of data is fine, IF, the users knows exactly HOW the company will use their data and they agree with it. Otherwise this is privacy theft, imho.
Leroux: It's noone's business whether someone else enjoys achievements or finds it useful to record playtime, but forcing people who don't need any of it to still be online and have their data tracked and whatnot is not consumer-friendly. And offline games have the advantage that you can play them whenever you want to, even if servers go down, you have trouble with your internet, you are on the road or whatever.
^ This.
This is true
free market let people choose what they want and be happy.