Due to real life circumstances, i was planning to ask this question myself, quite some time ago. Thankfully i evaded any more danger than mere physical harm and regular psychological abuse i was forced to endure in the (relatively distant) past, so i daresay this is of no concern to me personally, at least for the time being. Should anything happen to me, though, i wouldn't want my collection to be permanently lost, i love it and i spent quite some cash on it, besides gaming hours... I would like someone else to get it in my stead. Especially since i have games inside that have been removed from gog and no one can guarantee they are going to be back again.

I disagree with TinyE approach on this one, since you cannot use anything post mortem, anyway, ergo no use "taking everything with you". Seriously, i would like for any gog member to inherit my collection, if and when i am a goner. Real life contacts and people close to me, especially the latter, i don't trust anymore and i would never again gift anything to them; everyone, even kin, facked me up and sold me out. Better someone completely stranger from the internet, whom i never even met.

Strange for you to admit that!

Anyways, i didn't joke here, unlike you. If i am a goner, even you i would like to inherit my account!

It's only strange because normally he does not need to explain it.

Still the same thing. The account is a service, so basically it is similar to what happens to someone's gym membership subscription, ie. if the original gym card owner dies, can his son inherit the service and go to the gym instead of him (for the rest of the year what the deceased one paid already)?

I presume that depends on the gym, but they are not obliged to transfer the service to a new owner.

However, the games themselves (ie. licenses) are tranfrerrable. So I guess one could pass downloaded DRM-free games to the new owner, but not the account itself (username/password).

Actually, i'm not too sure if the game (licenses) r transferrable cos they r 'tied' to the accounts they r on so it's gonna be hard if not impossible to transfer them.

However, i'm for the idea that the owner can set someone else to inherit his games (if not the account) on the owner's passing thru either a legal will or perhaps an agreement with GOG.

Another possible way though i'm not sure if GOG allows is like wat KiNgBrAdLeY7 hoped, that is for him to pass on his account to another member as i too do not wish games that hv been removed fr GOG but were still in someone's account to disappear along with the owner. That wld hv been be a waste.

I'm with the OP on this.

We're nearly 2 decades into the Information age. There are Billions of dollars worth of digital assets out there all locked in these "services" and being lost to the aether.

There should be, by now, a clear legal framework for digital ownership to which companies must comply for the transfer of digital assets. The frustrating thing is for commercial software, it has started to happen, but right now companies can pretty much make up any rule they want for consumer software (games) and apply the retroactively.

GOG and Steam terms say that you cannot transfer accounts at least as far as i know.

The issue here is whether dead person can have an account. As far as I know deceased people do not own property and relinquish their ownership over all their assets at the moment of death.

Therefore, it is not transfer and hence it does not violate the terms and conditions, because dead person cannot transfer anything as he does not own anything.

So, by my logic.

You should be able to leave your accounts to whoever you want and as long as that will is valid and enforceable, valve, ea, blizzard, gog must comply and cant ban the accounts nor prohibit you from using them in anyway (although i would say they are not under any obligation to change password for you if you lost it)

it has never been tested as far as i know. nor i doubt any of the companies would do that cause that would be such a PR nightmare,

They are not legally (nor technically, in the case of DRM-free GOG games) tied to the account.

When you create an account to the GOG service, you create a service agreement between you and GOG/CDPR.

When you buy a game through the GOG service (store), you create an agreement with the game publisher (not really GOG), by buying a license to their game through the GOG store. GOG promises to provide you support and updates to that game based on your service agreement, because you bought the game through GOG.

People need to remember that the service agreement (to the GOG service) and the license you have bought to a game are separate things. Even if the GOG service ceases to exist (hence you have no service agreement with GOG anymore), you still have the right to keep playing your GOG games, as you still have valid licenses to those games.

It becomes more complicated in DRM-services where the game doesn't necessarily work without the service. So you have a right to play a game... but in practice you can't, because the service needed for the game to run doesn't exist anymore.

Here is a non-trivial question: In this case, do you have the right to modify the game so that it can run without the defunct DRM service?

i mean, account with bought digital copies is private property like else properties. so, even if dead person hadnt left code in envelope, gog should to give access to one person chosen by bereaved, when they give evidence of running hereditary procedure (death certificate etc.)

in reality it wouldnt be very often case that bereaved have interest in a such thing. maybe, there are several accounts with games but suspiciously long unactivity of user already :-))) who knows..

I see, thks for clarifying this for me as i wasn't sure. :)

Easy solution to this problem. Just get a hold of some Illuminati life extension drugs and live forever.

Lol, Same here. I also want to be buried with my all worldly possessions.

Matt Bluestone would notice and prove the existence of the Illuminati then.

But seriously i see this happening in a number of steps.

1) Gog gets notified they died
2) New owner is assigned the games
3) Username/id is renamed to avoid confusion
4) Rep is reset to 0

or...

1) Gog gets notified they died
2) Account goes into a ghost mode for 12-24 months
3) If no access is used at all effectively confirming their death, the account is marked deleted, password nulled. (Don't actually delete it, some people go into comas for a long time sometimes)