First of all, happy holidays to everyone, I hope you're all having a great time! And sorry for the walltext!

Now, a couple of days ago I submitted a ticket through GOG Support about something that concerns me a lot. Any official answer is yet to come (and that's fine, it's not an urgent issue and today is Christmas, after all) so I'd like to discuss it on the forum, because maybe some of you could find it interesting.

We all know what is GOG Connect. It lets you link your GOG account to your Steam account and thus it lets you periodically add some games that you already have in your Steam library to your GOG library. And that sounds cool. I myself have already redeemed something like 20 games through this service since it started last year, but I've come to think about something really serious, at least in my opinion. What happens if your Steam account gets banned? Or if it gets stolen? Or if you close it by yourself just because you don't want to deal with Steam ever again? Well, I already asked something like this in another support ticket back in August and the answer I got was "We don't know". That's my concern: they don't know.
Like most of GOG users, I care about game ownership and preservation, even though I don't backup everything I buy, because as long as GOG is around I can download it as many times as I want without any issues. I've also started using Galaxy to manage my games, and that's fine (but I hope that it stays optional forever).

But the thing is that I started using GOG and buying games on GOG in particular to get rid of Steam. I wanted (and still want) to stop being a Steam user some time in the future. Be it 2 or 5 years from now, when I get on GOG the games I want to keep from Steam, I'll probably shut down my Steam account.

Side note: Why shut down a Steam account that I don't use anymore? Security reasons, mostly. If I abandon that account, but I keep it functional, it could be stolen, and a lot of personal info that are tied to that account could be acquired with it. If I'm not around anymore to check the integrity and security of my account, it remains at risk. So, better shut it off.

What happens then? What happens to my GOG Connect games when I stop using my Steam account and it doesn't exist anymore? But also, what happens to my games if I get banned from Steam? I think it's reasonable to ask for an answer on this particular matter, because in the GOG Connect FAQs it's clearly stated that: "If a game is removed from your Steam account for any reason, such as through manual deletion or a refund – we reserve the right to remove the games from your GOG.com library."
But what if you lose all your Steam library?

Because of this, I've asked the Support team to delete from my GOG account all the GOG connect games I've redeemed: I'm building my GOG library to be indipendent from Steam, to support GOG as an alternative, and to keep my games when I'll not be a Steam user anymore. I've also asked them to unlink the two accounts (even though that's not technically possible, and honestly if I get my Connect games removed it doesn't matter anymore). I'll happily rebuy the games I own on Steam here on GOG, if GOG Connect comes with that... liability.

Think about something like Mafia or Alan Wake. What if you redeem a game through GOG Connect, then the game is not available for purchase anymore, and then you get it removed from your GOG library because you stop being a Steam user (voluntarily or not)?

Yeah, most of you probably will "never" stop being Steam users or have never been Steam users in the first place, but I demand some clarity about this nonetheless, and so you should. Because if you redeem 50 games through GOG Connect and then your Steam account gets banned, closed, stolen (and griefed), then you could potentially lose those 50 games on GOG, too. Because at that point, you'll not have them in your Steam library anymore, you could not have a Steam library at all anymore.
If that's the case, I don't know about you, but I'd like to know it in advance.

Let me know what you think about these first world problems!

Download and backup your GoG copies. Then it doesn't matter at all if you lose your Steam account OR if you lose your GoG account.

That's what makes GoG so secure: the downloading and backing up your own copies. Out side of that, you are trusting GoG to keep your games "in the cloud" just like you are trusting Steam.

In short, I don't really understand your problem...

Eh?

Once you redeem your steam games through gog connect, they're no longer connected in any way to steam.

To answer both of you, I'll quote myself:
"Like most of GOG users, I care about game ownership and preservation, even though I don't backup everything I buy, because as long as GOG is around I can download it as many times as I want without any issues".
I don't want to treat my Connect games differently.

And as long as Steam is around you can play your games. So, what's the difference?

"As long as Steam is around" is already an issue for me. Because having a part of my GOG library heavily tied to Steam is not ok, for my taste. And anyway, we should have clarity on the matter, don't you think?

Is there a list somewhere that says which games you can connect?

This should be what you're looking for: https://www.gog.com/connect To give you a better answer. They're still tied to Steam, because if you've not them in your library anymore, they get removed from your GOG account too (GOG Connect FAQ #15). I just want to know if that applies to the case of a Steam account getting closed, banned or griefed.

I think you are inventing a problem. "As long as GoG is around" is no less of a risk than "as long as Steam is around." In fact, it's a bit more of a risk. GoG has less money, less to fall back on as a company should they encounter hard times. Also, GoG already has problems with games that do not receive updates.

The only thing that makes GoG better, more secure, etc. is the ability to download and backup your games yourself. That's it. If ou aren't doing that, then your GoG account is not in fact any better, safer, more secure than your Steam account.

Ooh nice thanks for the link

There's a list of questions/answers at the bottom of the GOG Connect page:
https://www.gog.com/connect#faq

Seems like number 15 addresses this: So I take that as they're leaving it up in the air to decide later and perhaps on a case by case basis. Tends to be sensible approach in life, generally.

I think that question gets overlooked, otherwise people probably wouldn't sound so ecstatic about GOG Connect. I certainly wouldn't rely upon it as a permanent transfer. Maybe like a "try out" and then buy on sale, if I had ever bothered with Steam's management system.

Seems to me the GOG Connect option is more for easing people with Steam purchases into using GOG Galaxy for launching some of their games purchased at Steam instead of Steam's management system. That, and to get attention.

I backup the games that I really want to keep "no matter what happens". I don't backup everything, and I won't until it's necessary because "GOG is going out of business". But I also like GOG as a service and GOG Galaxy as a platform. I like it more than Steam, because it's more offline-friendly, the store is better curated and the games (especially the older ones) are more polished. This is why I want to support GOG and I've started buying some of the games I already have on Steam, and I've also started preferring to buy the GOG version, when available (Hollow Knight and The Witcher 3 are the latest examples of this). And the lack of clarity about GOG Connect is what stops be from quitting Steam for the time being.

Yup, that's the question that matters to me. If I quit Steam for GOG and delete my Steam account (which should be the main objective of competition - to get an user to leave a platform for another), I'm not sure that I could keep the games I redeemed through GOG Connect because, when you ask them, "They don't know". As I said, if that's the case, I prefer to rebuy everything over time, than getting it for free*. But they should be clear about it, because if you redeem "too many" games and then leave Steam, let's say 3 years from now, and the games get revoked on GOG too, it may be too late to buy (and preserve in your GOG library) them again.

I've already tried that, and the game doesn't disappear from my GOG library. But that's not the point. Potentially, I could redeem like 150 games on GOG that I already have on Steam, through Connect, if they are made available. At that point, I would love to leave Steam, but if doing that can put at risk 150 of my games, then I'll be forced to keep being a Steam user, and keep checking my account etc. Which is the opposite of whatever the target of GOG is, am I right? I'm forced to be a Steam user to keep my GOG library (or at least part of it). And look, I could accept that, it would just mean that I should stop using GOG Connect and just buy the game again here. But I need to know it (and I would also need, in that case, the possibility to buy again some of the games that I already got through GOG Connect). It's not "paranoia", I'm just asking what happens to my games if my Steam account gets closed or banned. The fact that it's not clear is an issue.

The key aspect of all this matter to me is the exact wording of that #15 clause: GOG is "reserving the right to remove the games from your GOG.com library".

So, in case something happened to your Steam account and/or your games, GOG may or may not do something in turn. Like, e.g. removing them from your GOG account. They may or may not do something.

But if I've learnt anything from my more than 3-year long relationship with GOG is that they are immensely more likely not to do anything than to actually do something (in that regard they are more like Valve than anybody would care to admit).

So basically, I wouldn't worry too much about your connected games no matter what. Having said that,it doesn't really hurt to download and backup every game you own here.