I have alot of games from GG and i've never had any problems them. I dont buy many games from them these days but a few years ago, i bought alot. I have nothing bad to say about them.

Do you have to be logged on to play?

I think I am too old school for this.
I have a Steam account to be able to play Skyrim, not Skyrim because of my Steam account.

Once checked my account from work without login and saw those tokens or something and immediately contacted customer support, asking what those were and why everyone on steam can see what I purchased. Two days later they asked for a screenshot (customer support is hilarious at Steam).

Here I buy a game and use the download functionality to install it onto my PC. It is very nice to offer re-download as much as you like, because I don't need to keep the installation files. O'Reilly offers the same feature for e-books and they are also drm-free in kindle mobi format.

In short, no.
In a few more words, stand-alone installers exist, but it requires a workaround.

You do not need to be logged on to play a game.

You do not need to be logged on to install a game (unless said game comes with a third party DRM which have this requirement, but never from GG itself)

You do need to log on to get the first GG installer, but that is the same as everywhere.

Juri Gagarin was the first human in space.

The definition 'civilian' is a bit shady like 'amateur' was in former Olympics. Mike Melville was the first private person in space.

Juri was a member of the Soviet Air Force. Perhaps I should have been a little more clear with "civilian". Of course perhaps I shouldn't have derailed the thread with my stupid joke in the first place. :P

So Mike Melville? See my update to the former post.

Okay let me be more specific. XD This person was a civilian at the time they went into space. It actually get's grayer than that. I wish I had thought of a better gag.

A search engine would apparently be quicker than the GOG forums in that specific example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Civilian_and_non-government_milestones.

My guess of who you're thinking of is Byron K. Lichtenberg.

This has gone way too far. I was looking for Neil Armstrong who was a military test pilot but non-commissioned when he joined NASA and went into space.

I like them and use them (although less often than GOG) and I have no reason to complain. All the 5-10 games I own on GamersGate run out of the box and the one time I needed their service I got a sufficient answer within a short time. The experience/blue points thing I found fun and the search for games is easy enough.

However I still prefer GOG for DRM free games and because of worldwide flat pricing. I also use Steam a bit and can say that Steam's auto update feature is in generally doing what it should but the frequent interruption at startup (even during offline mode) for updates of the game or the client is annoying. GamersGate is missing the "social features" of Steam, as is GOG, but if you don't need them, you might actually be better off with GamersGate or GOG unless you need updates. Not sure how updates in GamersGate are handled, didn't need to use that feature.

If you buy a DRM free labeled game from GamersGate make sure to backup the installation folder after download and before installation.

I'm on there right now and I owe the forum an apology. A few weeks ago someone complained about the "Sim Craze" going on and I cut them a new asshole insisting there was nothing wring with it. Well, Gamers Gate currently has "Woodcutter Sim" on sale.

WOODCUTTER SIM!

What's next, Carpet Layer Sim!? Rose Gardner Sim!? Pink Flamingo Lawn Ornament Maker Sim!?

AHHHH!!!!!!!

For starters, there is Toilet Tycoon. Then, there is Warehouse and Logistics Simulator and finally, Garbage Truck Simulator. And that's only a small taste. The sky's the limit.