I'm sure this is answered somewhere on the site, but where does money for these games go to? Obviously some of it goes to the people at Gog, but does any go back to anyone responsible for these games? The publishers, the inheritors of companies? This is one of the most important decisions about the service for me, since if it's going exclusively to gog.com people, it seems like it's just making pirating more expensive, unless they bought the rights to these titles.

It's a store bro. It goes to the people who own these games.

This isn't rocket science.

It all depends on the individual contracts. You can bet your shorts that, in most cases, the original developers don't get a dime. That's usually because they themselves couldn't secure a favorable licence deal with a publisher. GOG only gets a fair share for repackaging, polishing and distributing the games.

Simplest answer is the money goes to whomever owns the rights to the games and licensed them for sale to GOG. Sometimes that is an original publisher or dev, sometimes its whoever bought out that original publisher or dev when they went out of business.

And the credit card payment processors. ; )

The publishers, the developers, some grandmothers making cookies, and similar people.

This man speaks words of wisdom!

GOG are using the money to build a big tower. They've been told many times that it's cheaper to just use bricks. But they won't listen.

as a fellow married man of 10 years, never have more true words been spoken, my friend

If that was the case, the site (not to mention the company) would have been closed down long ago. Do you really think anyone can just slap up a high profile web shop selling pirated copies of games and get away with it?

All money is going to the giant Geralt mech suit they're building in their underground lab.

just another troll post, nothing to see here. OP is either confused or a bad troll XD

No, but people sell used games. I'm just making sure my money isn't going entirely to the middlemen. I didn't realize that was such an offensive question to ask. (not your response, others in this thread) A lot of these games are old and belong to now defunct companies. I think it's a very legitimate question in this case.

Anyway, thanks for your answers guys who were helpful.
I do appreciate the funny posts though. I'm not without a sense of humor. :)

Not digital ones, I think ;-)
Well, no. A lot of these games were made by now defunct companies. The companies which own them now are very much functional.

When a company goes under, or is bought by another company, it's IP doesn't just disappear into thin air. The rights to the various IPs are taken over by the new parent company, or auctioned off to the highest bidder, or in a very few cases may revert to the original creators.