Why does GOG.com not offer BitTorrent as an option? It should be ideal for such big files. Blizzards uses it since years. Error checking and resuming of downloads comes for free and GOG.com would not have to maintain their download program (that I'm not gonna install anyway because I do not need any more download-managers on my computer).

Protections against unwanted non-paying peers should be possible, webseeding also exists, so why not?

Bit torrent personally gives me the creeps. As for Blizzard their cheap ass motherfuckers, at least that's how I interpret it.

Maybe GOG doesn't want to swap bandwidth costs from GOG to it's customers, like Blizzard does, I dunno.

GOG's servers are fast and reliable. If you do not want to install the downloader, you can download the files through your browser. There is no good reason for GOG to spend resources on creating and maintaining a _third_ completely different download system.

BitTorrent, eh? Is that where all them dadgum pirates hang out?

If the servers are fast an reliable, why was there any good reason to spend resources on the downloader in the first place?

As an option, sure, why not. Just as long as it is really just an option, because p2p does not work too well from many networks (e.g. from my work, corporate network). And others may have issues with their low monthly upload caps by ISPs etc.

It doesn't have to be another client, it could be just an additional checkbox in the current downloader client. Like in Blizzard's client, where you can switch the p2p connectivity on and off at will, IIRC.

Currently GOG doesn't seem to have much of issue with download speeds though, I easily seem to get over 10 mega_bytes_/sec from my work, even without p2p. But e.g. with the recent Strategy First bundle that trickled down mostly at 30kbit/s (not from GOG, but StrategyFirst website), I definitely would have hoped for a speedier p2p option in their downloader.

How about Gopher protocol support?

BitTorrent could be a nice option. It might come in handy as the site expands and gains more users.

Because the downloader allows for functionality that regular browser downloads don't provide: queuing up several downloads, pause and resume, choose number of connections to download from in parallel, downloading all extras with a single click ...

Plus, the downloader could be expanded by community functions in the future (while remaining completely optional, of course).

Well, as I said - you're free to completely ignore the downloader, and get the files directly through your browser. The freedom of choice is right there. There's no need for a third option (which would require users to install a 3rd party downloader for BitTorrent, and would require GOG to provide support for the problems that users might have with these 3rd party programs, on top of having to spend the resources to implement such a system in the first place).

Your choice. :)

For years, I've been using GOG without downloader on my crappy internet connection and I've had no issues with it. Only recently have I installed it, and it does just and only that: Downloads your games. So yeah, it is very optional.

edit: Damn Psyninjaringe.

There's also the whole "tell a company's lawyer that you're going to put their game on a torrent and they'll freak out and set your office on fire" thing.

I'd love using torrents. Especially since my connection is slow and the downloader has been very subpar recently. They did finally add a bandwidth limiter though, which would be good if it worked properly (and didn't just say it was using less while still using the same bandwidth).

The best thing Humble Bundle ever did was start using torrents.

P2P protocols certainly work better for DRM-games (like Blizzard's Battle.net games) where the downloaded games are useless by itself without an online authentication, but I guess it should be quite feasible for GOG to create a p2p protocol/client that tried its best to make sure you can't get bits of the files from other users you are not entitled to.

But it could still be just another headache for GOG, though. Fortunately GOG's download speeds seem quite good nowadays even without p2p protocols.