I re-read the post and somehow missed the DRM free part so that is on me. Thanks, yeah I can see why someone would be confused by this. Still I think it has merit because of the possible metadata in addition to the game itself

Oh I know that to run it you only need a single executable. What I’m talking about is more like sometimes there’s a registry that is needed somehow by the game (maybe a form of DRM since the installer asks for keys back then without internet). But then again, the last time I tried doing that is when copying data over CD/DVD was still a thing. I have no idea how modern games actually handle the registry now or if they are needed at all because I use steam and if anything is wrong with the game after reinstalling windows, they do some magic in the background to fix it.

I feel like I’m missing something still. From my understanding just copying the file doesn’t always work (unless it is an installer). So option 1 would still need more work? That’s why my assumption goes to running the game directly off of the NAS

The latency not to mention the speed of NAS would be limited compared to local NVMe. So if you install a game on NAS, it may take a while to load. Of course it also depends on the specific games, but generally it is not a good idea to install heavy programs on a network unless that program is specifically made for network use (think, collabora)