(all caps just to get people's attention, sorry to be annoying :P)

I just thought a thread reminding people to back up their GOG games would be a good idea, if they have the space available. The "gogrepo.py" script may be useful for you.

Related questions: how would you recommend backing up the games? What external hard drive would you recommend? Would you recommend a cloud service? (etc)

Why exactly? Do you have super secret inside information that games are about to be removed from our accounts

I feel like backing up your games on a cloud service you don't directly control is a recipe for disaster.

No but I think sometimes people almost forget this is an option, even though it remains one of the central features of GOG. The hubbub over the profiles did encourage me to make this thread.

Why backup your games? isen't gogs policy you should feel you own the product you buy - just like a book, or a dvd?

also

On GOG.com, no matter if you are online or offline, you will never be locked away from your purchases.

or they can remove games from your library if they want to? I guess we are only buying a license to play the games or do we actually own the games we bought?

"Why backup your games? "
-- Because you cannot rely on anyone to do this for you. Web firms go bust, can't afford the bills. If that happens and you don't store your digital items, they are gone.

"isen't gogs policy you should feel you own the product you buy - just like a book, or a dvd?"
-- No, not really. initially it was DRM free, its yours to keep, but in reality you are buying a license. You cannot sell it on like you could a book or DVD.

"On GOG.com, no matter if you are online or offline, you will never be locked away from your purchases."
-- That depends on wether you made your backup. If your offline, and have no backup you cannot access your products. This is why backups are so very important.

"or they can remove games from your library if they want to? I guess we are only buying a license to play the games or do we actually own the games we bought?"
-- Yes, they can remove anything from your account. If you don't physically have it stored locally to you and rely on a third party to hold it for you, then you have no control over that product, be it here, steam, or cloud based anything.

This used to be the main point of GOG, pay your money, download your files, and keep them yourself. This, and only this separates GOG from the likes of Steam (who do also provide some things like this) and others.

Backup all your products to a hard drive, then backup that hard drive to another one. If you can afford to have some fail over on each like raid, and if you can afford more then also have another site with a hard drive with a backup in case of fire or something like that. I don't think forgot is the applicable term here. No longer care. We are in the age of total rental, nobody owns anything. The latest generation don't even have concepts for these things. Rented TV, Films, books, games, cars, houses, everything brought on credit, etc.

As for my suggestions, I have found RAID boxes from Terramaster pretty good. Ram in some HDD's and that provides fallover between those drives. Currently I have:
1 10 tb in the machine
1 * 18tb raid 5
1 * 16tb raid 5
and a couple of other timepoint HDD's. This of course includes photos, documents, ebooks and such like. Will be looking at maybe a distant NAS or something like that in the future, save me dropping HDD's of at another location. Wouldn't mind a tape backup, but the big ones are way too expensive. Quite true, online storage is never fully within the users control, nor could ever be as they don't control either the internet or the firm which has the hardware. Did anyone ever get their files back from mega?

I'd say backup your favorites. No way I'm backing up 300+ games right now considering HDD prices and all the other stuff I have backed up right now. I think the chances GOG goes down in flames with little notice are extremely remote, so no need for panic buttons. Even Direct2Drive gave me a month or more to download my games, if I recall correctly (and then they came back anyway).

Even better: Back up everything! Games arent my top priority backup candidates at least. ;)

Just to play the pedant: you never own the computer games you buy. You're only actually ever buying a license to play the games. The difference with GOG is that - if you back up your games - your license is basically indefinite and cannot be effectively revoked.

I always back up my GOGs, I have since the very beginning. Each time I buy one, I immediately download it and store it into my Maxtor 4Tb external HDD. Still have plenty of space left, but you never know! :)

The entire point of DRM-free is lost if you don't keep a backup, as accidents happen and you may never know when your game will not be available any more.

ok thanks for the info :)

I can think of a few reasons.

1) internet will not always be available, and if you want to watch X show or play Y game, you may be out... for weeks or months.

2) Changes/updates to games sometimes breaks them and older installers aren't usually available.

3) Having a physical piece of media you can stick on your shelf might look cool... I mean, LGR has bookshelves FULL of games.. Being able to visually SEE all your games is different than just scrolling through 5 pages in your games library... and being able to pluck down any one at a given time... (although printing the cover, and/or manuals yourself sounds like a pain)

SO, HAVE YOU BACKED UP ALL YOUR GOG GAMES, TFISHELL?

This thread is giving me paranoia.

I store mine in the GOG cloud. can only recommend it, it's really convenient.
you don't even have to upload your game, it get's transferred there automatically after purchase :p

*scnr*