Maybe people have already mentioned this general concept on the gog forums, but had an idea after reading this article:

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/03/weirdness_this_footage_of_the_famicom_disk_writer_kiosk_is_a_bit_awesome

In short, people could bring their re-writable disk to a kiosk to be re-written if the game that was already on the disk wasn't to their liking/they had already finished it/got bored/et..

How do you all feel about this concept with digital distribution? For example, you buy ________, decide you don't like it, and then have it taken from your digital shelf in exchange for another title, at a reduced rate. I don't know how that would work on a place like gog where you can back up your games freely, but the concept opens up new ideas. I just want your thoughts on the matter. Thanks!

While it would serve some publisher's right for sending broken games out to the public, it would be severely overused by some people...you know the ones that buy a game to beat it and never play it again.
And good developer's deserve to make a profit on their games.

Greenman Gaming works like this, but uses some pretty heavy DRM. I can't really see that idea working without DRM.

Nice idea, but I wouldn't use it... I'm a hoarder, both physical and digital :)

And some poeple seem to have the notion that if you can't trade back or resell a game, it's DRM'd.

This^ :)

Better idea: developers and publishers release a demo that contains, let's say 10% to 15% of the full game's content, then people can decide whether they like their game instead of needing a way to overwrite their unwanted games because those turned out to suck. Or a rental service, kind of like OnLive was, but they would be honest about being just a rental service.

well... the whole point about trade-in regarding physical is that you hand in a used product and the seller can re-sell it again to someone else for a reduced price, and making a small profit on the process.

If you just re-write a disk - what is in it for the seller?

Woo-hoo! Owning stuff!

Yeah, me too, I sold my Dreamcast to my everlasting regret.
Never again!

also - the whole point about going digital is that I do it from the chair without having to 1) get unintentional exercise and 2) dealing with people. If I needed to mess about with a disk I have to physically go to a store to get over-written - what is the point about going digital? I might as well just bought a physical disk there then

This was the start of the idea, not the execution - I am proposing that, in a hypothetical situation, that if gog adopted a system like this, and you were not happy with the purchase, then you could have them remove it from your 'shelf', and you could 'trade-in' for another game at reduced cost.

To answer your other question: "what's in it for them?" In this case, retaining customers, as the 'trade in' would only work on a site to site basis.

I don't see the extra retention here, either way they have a digital download connected to them with that retailer already.

Once again, the new game would be purchased at a reduced rate, not at no cost.

so the vendor ends up selling a premium game for a reduced cost? For what purpose?

What is the cost benefit for them over maybe loosing a customer, but selling a premier game to someone else?