It makes no difference whether you own the product or just the license to use it. What makes a difference is not having to update tons of gigabytes every time you decide to play a game. I hate steam and it doesn't matter what argument may be used. GOG is the least invasive way to buy games and good self-control training. You buy and play what's available.

The steam backup system is useless since to install the game you need to be online and if there is a 30 gigabyte update you are obliged to download it.

But you don't need to own a specific piece of machinery to read a book. You DO need to own some kind of device to read the 0's and 1's.

What if computers stop working, or if they no longer accept binary signals? Would video games become permanently unreadable?

I'm sorry, use your brain, and stop asking stupid questions for no reason except to troll.

ownership is like... theft, man.

OP is either underage or just plain stupid. If there were physical disks available for PC today with the entire game on the disk, then i'd buy that for sure. Until that happens, GoG is the next best option.

just to be a devils advocate. legally, when you bought a disk with sofware, you owned the physical disk but only licensed the digital software on it. so with a physical disk, the ownership of the software was the same then as it is with digital now, except you do not buy ownership of the physical disk (the plastic and paper it is made of).

...and, since when Steam and competing online activation systems came on the scene around 2005, good luck finding a physical disc for non-consoles that isn't just a "save some time on the initial download after registering your non-transferrable activation key" thing.

Yup - and the physical discs often contained some form of debilitating "copyright-protection" (now often called DRM, really DUR - "Digital Usage Restriction") that prevented backup.

So buying from GOG is essentially BETTER - you own your copy of the game MORE than when it came on plastic in a cardboard box!

Don't forget, many physical objects can burn, consumed, or suffer damage by water or even just plain wear out. Nothing is for ever. So unless we go the whole "property is theft" route I'd say owning a game bought from GOG is as valid as any other purchase or gift. In fact, being able to buy and backup loved games from the past is how GOG originally lured my wallet out of hiding - buying games I already "own" but which probably wouldn't run in a PC Emulator in 2045 because of the DRM.

Yes!

And why do you need to be hateful? I have never stated GOG was not the best optioj available. I did wonder if the concept of ownership actually does have a substuntiation

We are on the same side, I too love physical gaming.

define "physical gaming", and I assmue it is opposite of "digital gaming" (which then need deffining as well). is not "physical gaming" things like baord games, D'n'D, LARP, football, hide and seek etc.