Every time you have to buy a game, write down a list of pro-cons.
This list includes:

- is it DRM free just in GOG or Steam/Origin too?
- Where is it cheaper?
- Who gives more bonus content?
- Do I need Steam social tools (screenshots sharing, achievements, etc...)?
- Do the developers support equally both platforms?

etc... etc..

Don't be binded to a single service. A servicelike Steam, GOG or Origin is.... at your service! Not the opposite.
It's cool to have a whole library in one place, I know... but it's not worth the money and the trust. Competition is always good, and I think is a good idea to use multiple services (just be sure to use the one that gives you more with the less money for each game).

I buy on both, and also used to use gamersgate when they had indie, eastern european games, and some others that weren't available through other etailers at the time but this has radically changed now.

Steam has a much larger community with better integration with the games as well as a better system for updating games and providing release notes which are utterly absent from GOG.

So at the end of the day AAA games that I'd buy on GOG would be CD projekt stuff, and older games that likely won't ever make it onto steam although I do note that that is beginning to change now as well.

That said IMO GOG is the closest thing that steam actually has to a credible competitor, but that competitor is VERY FAR behind.

NOTE: I also purchase from indiegala and the like but those usually end up being steam keys anyways, and I had forgotten to mention that back in the day that I did use desura as well but hasn't purchased anything from them since steam allowed early access and then they had their money problems... TBH I'm kind of waiting for that to happen with gamersgate and am surprised that it hasn't yet as they've got nothing on steam, and between GOG and steam I've usually got my bases covered.

Also remember that not every game on steam has DRM either. It's the choice of the publisher on steam, but yeah if they want cards, achievements, steam overlay, etc. they have to compile against steam's libraries.

Now after all this crap about DRM and how that alone makes GOG better, how many of you have downloaded and archived every single game that you own on GOG? And I mean archive in a semi-permanent fashion, e.g. SSDs? I haven't. When I used the downloader I used to backup the pieces to a network drive, but since I switched to galaxy I don't... If GOG disappears someday there's a chance that I'd entirely miss the warning anyways.

[EDIT]
Oh, and I almost forgot: Steam hardware.
ATM I only have the controller and obviously it works(integrates) best with Steam platform games. I assume that the TV link(or WTF they call it) is similar.

Now, these itrems DO work outside of steam, not ALL of the features that are available when used in conjunction with steam are available...

That said I wasn't very impressed with the steam controller, so I'm giving up on controllers for PC games beyond flight sticks and the like for flight/space sim games as pad controllers never seem to work out as well on PC games even where you would expect them to be perfectly suited, e.g. platformers, JRPGs, etc. I don't play many arcade/action games beyond ARPGs(and some FPS) and even on those I still find that the good old kb/mouse works best still.
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
Benlz got most of what I was trying to convey, and I didn't more or less explicitly spell out cost. Steam has some pretty damned good sale prices from time-to-time. I do the MAJORITY of my buying during sales, and it's the EXTREMELY RARE new AAA(or other) title that I buy at full price. TW3 was my last one(GOG) and I can't remember the one before...
[/EDIT2]

1. The biggest DRM is a lawsuit or criminal conviction
2. The easiest defense against the above DRM is the excuse
"They don't sell that game anywhere any more."

I'll let you do the rest of the math.

raises hand

I spend hours on about 5 different computers between work and home machines. Having installers on a drive I take with me instead of wasting time to re-download is awesome.

I'm not the only one doing this. Just look at all the alternative GOG downloaders, they all support mass-backup

I found this a little funny. The fact you fail to do your backups it is not a problem about this "crap" is your problem.

I agree, Im still buying games on Steam, uPlay or Origin, because I dont want to miss out on games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising etc.
Sure, Id prefer to play them DRM-free, but you cant have everything. Well, and you dont know when or if a developer ever decides to sell their games DRM-free.
Id say, if you think youd enjoy a game then buy it regardless of the platform.

Sounds like a plan.
I'd rather buy something DRM-free for $30 (or not at all if I can't afford it) than getting it for free with DRM though.
Everyone has his priorities.

I've never bought anything for Steam and never used it, so maybe it's easier for me anyway.
I stopped buying games when they had online activations and started buying them again years later right here on GoG. Weird, I always hear, that Steam saved PC gaming while it completely killed it for me.

Pretty much the same here, but it appears sanity is becoming weirdness.

Not necessarily, while I don't see this happening during current management, but let's suppose in the future Valve makes the decision they need more money, they may try making the service pay-2-play on top of the cost to "buy" the games. that could potentially cause an exodus to more forgiving stores & if enough leave it could cost more to run servers than Steam may take in. Hence PC gaming wouldn't have to die first just Steam gaming. After all PCgaming was around before Steam & could out last it as well

That's my experience as well.

I'm using GOG the same way, so i'm not "feeling" the whole DRM thing as working against me on Steam. And it isn't your problem because you don't save your installers. GOG offers the service that lets you to download the game from their servers whenever you want.
We did not received an download link that would have expired when we got the games. I'm done making backups when i can pay another party to do that for me.
It's an silly argument. It's like i would have an car accident, airbags would not go off and the car manufacturer would be like "well, you should drive more carefully".
If GOG offers that service, and i pay for it with my purchases, i shouldn't feel the need in making backups.

This can't really happen anytime soon. Physical copies started to disappear due to services that can keep your installers on their servers, like Steam. Can't think at a better alternative right now. For an successful service to fall, some better service might come into play.

Ah this again.

Keep living the dream. Maybe it will last forever FFS.

The dream is still reality though as of today, yesterday, last year and the 10+ years that Steam has existed. It may not last forever but it exists now and that is really all that matters for the average buyer. The millions who use Iphones don't contemplate what happens if Apple goes out of business in the future.

I answered this here (on this thread). The short of it is, even if you assume that Valve will end up doing something mortally stupid (an unlikely assumption by itself), this will simply make it a buyout target for another company. For this buyout not to happen, something bad must have happened in general to PC gaming.

I think it's better to live in a dream than in a paranoid nightmare. :) Also, if losing my games is the worst that would happen to me by the time Steam dies, then I'd consider myself lucky.

I just look at it realistically, if your only reason for not buying on Steam is that your games might disappear (and there are other legitimate reasons to avoid it) then I estimate that on average it's worth paying at most 5% extra for that. That's for the small percentage of games you'll actually want to play or reply enough to re-buy them after Steam dies, under certain assumptions I consider reasonable (but of course won't apply to everyone). Far as I'm concerned there are only two valid reasons to avoid buying games which are significantly cheaper on Steam or games not available elsewhere, and that's ideology and comfort. Fear of losing games isn't a logical reason, it's more a psychological problem.

Yes, but there's plenty of buyouts of companies that happened and ended up with the new owner driving it all against a wall, too. I doubt Valve will go any time soon, but they aren't immune from - as you said - doing something stupid. I am not that convinced that their steam boxes won't be making losses, for example. Entering hardware and doing well is well hard. Especially given that Microsoft and Sony - both companies with still vastly more resources compared to Valve - are okayish with making a loss on their consoles, at times.

I don't think Steam Boxes will hit Valve directly since they don't make them. Anyway, I'll grant you that I was exaggerating a little, but only a little. Really, just consider the chance of each of these things happening. As I said, I had games go through both a buyout and a split off and they're still available.

I do consider losing Steam games a possibility, it's just, as I said, worth very little extra expenditure.