JacobNZ: What I did say is many don't unless you count disc checking as drm.

Delixe: Well yes, yes I do.

JacobNZ: That may be the case but its hardly a hinderance, nor hard to circumvent.

JacobNZ: Actually for the type of games sold on GOG $10 is alot.
Considering i got the sigma team games for $1 each.
CS:source for $5
Tourchlight for $5
Every Unreal game for $13
every ID game for $23
etc I could go on.
Also at $10 DD I can get most of them for new at retail for less.
As these games have already been released years prior, many sold prior at full price, meeting and exceeding initial R&D expenditure. Also as its digital in nature and the sale of information the contents do not erode with continuous sale reducing the cost of sale. This essentially means any game sold on GOG is pure profit for the developer, thus in my mind cannot justify their pricing.
Yes I know it is not alot of money, but it is in comparasion to the other games you can get for the same amount.

jimbob0i0: Part of me can possibly see the benefit of a 3.99 and 7.99 price point for certain games... However GoG starting with and maintaining only two price points gives them a stronger position when negotiating with publishers for rights to games.
Given that they insist that a publisher putting their game on here puts no restrictions on sale in terms of location (think of Steam and others only selling X to certain regions or altering price based on region) and with no DRM - not even a one time activation - it is important for them to set certain fixed prices so that the publishers don't give them the run around....
Despite the amazing stuff in the EA, Activision and Lucasarts back catalogue and the desire to see that old stuff in digital download no DRM form (Dark Reign, Magic Carpet, Syndicate, Sam and Max, Monkey Island, Warcraft to name but a few) I would rather GoG stick to their guns in no restrictions, no DRM and 2 simple prices then bend any of those against our favour to get those hold outs. After all once they have bent the rules once for the big guys likely the smaller publishers will think they can get the rules bent too... until we end up with everything at least having install authentication if not full Steam style stuff..

JacobNZ: I really really like the steam system though even if you guys do classify it as drm.

jimbob0i0: Well it is DRM at the end of the day...
I have an extensive catalogue on Steam covering a wide range of genres - all sorts from the entire Half Life collection through all the Civ3/4 games, the Total War games, Vampire the Masquerade, Bloodrayne 1&2, Darwinia, Defcon, Maxpayne 1&2, all the Hitman games, the list goes on..... So as you can see I have supported Valve quite a long time and have a large financial investment in my Steam account....
Now if anything ever happens to Valve, they randomly change their EULA and lock me out, my account gets compromised, VAC screws up and thinks I'm doing something bad and blocks my account I lose access to all of that.
I am fully reliant on Valve still being here X years down the road (which I believe likely but still... it used to be everyone used Altavista to search...). Not to mention I need the steam client to connect to install any of these items - even if most stuff single player can be run in offline mode if you tell Steam to start up that way next time....
This does mean that I can't pop it on a PC not connected to the net at that time for instance or where connection restrictions are in place - ie can't pop it on work PC to show colleagues some cool old game.
Add to that Valve do not support the games in Steam only the content delivery platform. There are many games on there which won't play properly still and Valve's position is that it is up to the publishers to provide support and if the original development house no longer exists me you bought it you live with it... just check out the Steam forums if you are feeling especially masochistic...
GoG support the games they sell. If they are selling it you know they have playtested it and if they say it will work on Vista or Windows 7 it will however old it is. I opened a ticket for Sanitarium shortly before the new year and they had a new installer up as a result with a fixed game executable for the problem - that's service!
Despite my large Steam catalogue I would in a heartbeat repurchase games here on GoG if they become available for that benefit of a simple installer to work on any machine with no DRM at all.....
Plus more than once Steam has stiffed me as I'm European and not North American....

JacobNZ: GOG could suffer the same fate, although the games could be backed up, if someone didn't and steam closed the games would not be accessiable.

JacobNZ: To be honest though most purchases do not last for ever. TVs 10 years down the track have no residual value, thus I have no qulams that in 10 years time valve may not exist. And knowing valve I am sure they with be operating in the forseeable future.
GOG could suffer the same fate, although the games could be backed up, if someone didn't and steam closed the games would not be accessiable.

Metro09: As far as the DRM debate... people are born with DRM... eventually your right of use over yourself will expire, too! Best get used to the idea that nothing is forever.

JacobNZ: To be honest I am not that fussed with DRM, as long as it not crippling like you have to be connected to the internet to play single player.

JacobNZ: I really like the steam system though even if you guys do classify it as drm.

Namur: EXTRAS
DRM FREE
REGIONAL LOCKS FREE
REGIONAL PRICES FREE