the bad thing about steam, is the possible shutdown. but *I personally think* that, while possible, we won't see it in a long time....

other than that, well, you need the client (for most games. some are drm-free and you can launch them without the client. but then, those are also on GOG... ). but it works fine in offline mode, and switching to that is easy, even if you don't have a connection. trust me, my connection is not the most reliable thing in the world... (not to say, on vacation I literally have no connection).

the others, I don't know. I have some games on origin, and the worst thing they do is needing yet another client on top of that. but if you have a decent computer, it's not *that* bad, really.

it's not as bad as some people say. nor as good as others do. I myself find it more usable (straightforward) than GOG, to the point I'm eagerly waiting for the GOG Galaxy, just to see if it does what steam's client does.

Wow, that actually hurt a bit.

I am kidding you know :-P

indeed. same apply if gOg remove access to your game. If you still have it installed, you can still legally play it. However, you can not use gOg's services (re-download, goodies, patches etc) for that game.

Crossing borders, though, is a bit different - you must then consider that the license may not be legal in the country, or it may not apply. Again, this is when Steam can enforce the license agreement - gOg can not.

edit: so it will be interesting how this goes with Galaxy.... will gOg remove for example MP via Galaxy if they remove access via gOg? hmmm.....

I have collection tendencies myself, but I realised at some point that if I lost all my collections, I would be sad but it won't really impact me. Sure, when the Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter ran I enjoyed finding and browsing the books, and I'm currently rereading Zelazny's Amber chronicles, but really, these are the exceptions. 99% of the content of my collections will never be touched again (or for the first time). They have sentimental value, but no real value. If they all burned, I will not replace them (which is why they're not insured). I will probably start building a new collection, and I might buy again a few items, but that won't be different than what I'm already doing (continuing to build some collections and occasionally buying items I already own, such as Android versions of PC games).

As for renting, it's a good way to discover stuff. I just tried Amazon Prime for a month, didn't use it much, but listened to some music, which I won't have access to again in a few days. So I might buy an Amaranthe disc or two. That said, I don't like renting that much myself. The idea of paying a regular sum for access to something and having access to everything taken if you stop paying just doesn't sit well with me. Still, Steam isn't renting (even though some here say it is), which is why I have no problem collecting Steam games.

Anyway, I think that collecting things and wanting to keep them isn't a rational thing. This is entertainment. It's what's in the book or game which matters, and that matters only for as long as we read the book or play the game. If we rented that book now and then rented it again the next time we wanted to read it, and renting cost less than buying the book, then in most cases we'll be better off because we won't read that book again anyway.

I've been trying to come up with a proper analogy to compare it.

Software is sorta like a hammer. You buy it, you use it. It's physical, and if that physical item breaks, you buy another one, or you might put it away in a shiny container with some label, or trade it or something else. You can do what you want with it because you own the physical copy.

Digital Distribution is sorta like NetFlix with mail and movies. First you get a certificate congratulating you on your purchase, then you get a hammer with this label on the side that says 'if found return to any mailbox. Return to xxx' where xxx is the address of the main company. If you lose your hammer you can just get another one just as perfect as the day you got it. Sorta like a lifetime warranty of a product. However the certificate doesn't contain just a number, instead it specifically has your name, a customer ID, and maybe other information like what credit card you used to purchase at what store on what date. Non-transferable, like your birth certificate.

Digital Distribution with DRM activated online, is similar to the Digital Distribution. You get a hammer and certificate and everything is fine. Then you lose the certificate, or maybe in some cases it's colored with a specific color, lets say bright red. The Red hammer is specially attuned to it's environment, and not only do you have to have the certificate on you at all times in order to use it, but you can only use it while working in a special red house. Now since you have the certificates always with you, potentially if you lose your hammer or have a complimentary new version of the hammer, they ask for your certificate and merely update it before giving it back with the hammer. But they could potentially just refuse to give you the hammer or the certificate back saying you're revoked for some reason or another.

Always Online, is like having a hammer... And a NSA agent with glasses, a ear piece in a black suit is watching you constantly. Not only do you have to have the certificate which is this encrypted mess, he has to verify it each time you touch it, and maybe make modifications to it to ensure it wasn't tampered with. At any time he could take the certificate away and not give it back, the hammer, or both. Not only that the hammer is attuned to the NSA agent, and if he leaves immediate sight the hammer becomes so very heavy that it gets sucked to the ground and can't get picked up again. But the NSA agent can pick it up no problem because he's like superman and can be in a thousand homes at once like that. Super, right?

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How does this apply to 'renting'? Well you really only own the certificate, be it in paper form, a chip, or tattooed on your skin. I'm reminded of Xbox Arcade games which you may buy and get a certificate with your game, but you can't transfer it easily to another machine because the profile is attached to your Xbox (the Red house scenario).

And there's also the example of the Amazon Kindle coming to mind. One day when people plugged their kindle in, two books they legally purchased were just removed and deleted outright, no confirmation, no warning, no nothing, just gone. Included Animal House and 1894 i believe, both quite old titles too. Why? I have no clue.

No one expects permissions/certificates to get revoked, but the fact is it happens. Maybe renting is the wrong word... Extended leasing? Borrowing? Loaning? It's certainly not owning (like say a physical hammer) if you have to worry about not only keeping a perfect copy and a copy of your certificate for it to work, or only play it on a machine never hooked to the internet.

Reminds me... Recently there were songs removed from GTA 3/4? Yeah they can still play their game, but content was removed... Someone shouldn't be able to make something worse on something you own, only better.

I don't know what to call it. Maybe my examples are good and maybe they are broken...

All this is a great conversation in terms of 'levels of ownership' but usually your average buyer isn't giving it that much thought. If they bought it they usually want to play it now or in the near future and last I checked you have no limitation where that's concerned whether it be Steam or GoG. Most who use Steam know what they are getting into (basically the notion that you do not have a physical copy of the game, it's all online). The average Steam user isn't giving much though to when or if they will lose access to their games. The best comparison I can come up with is someone who buys a MMORPG (like WoW). I don't think the typical WoW player wonders when they will no longer have access to the game when Blizzard shuts the servers down. I don't think the typical Apple user wonders when they will no longer have access to the hundreds of apps they bought on their phones if for some reason Itunes goes away.

Is it really renting? I'm not sure, renting implies you have to return what you currently have and in my opinion there is no surefire proof that you will have too when it comes to Steam games. Same goes with the terms loaning or borrowing.

Well, nothing lasts forever... Not even properly recorded history. Eventually steam will die and blizzard servers will go down. Will it happen in my lifetime? Probably not... Not unless Blizzard and Gabe both do some very very very very very very very very stupid stuff for several years in a row and lose all customer and business trust.

I wonder more though, how many of the gamers on steam happen to be 18 or under, and one day have to move out of their parents basement and live in an apartment that has no free internet and they have to pay bills and they have to work and they no longer can devote 60 hours a week to WoW. At 18-19 i got kicked out and let me tell you, between 2001 and 2008 i had no internet. I had a cell phone (because it was better than the lines available because a certain company named Sprint wanted to ping my credit score to answer the question 'how much is a basic land line?'), but a cell phone is not internet.

Today's world isn't very good at preparing you to things. Money management is bad, and that's sorta a shame. It seems either people get set for life early on, or they don't realize the upcoming expectations when they become an adult because they don't consider they are piggy-backing on their family for rent, food and utilities.

How many of them are older gamers who have already got a place of their own and a stable connection?! Don't forget there is a big portion of older gamers from the 90s who have an active gaming hobby. You're just going on assumptions now.

Assumptions are easy. But there's also trends that speak volumes. I'm not saying you're wrong, hell i'm a gamer from the 90's, but i'm not this generation's target for most games. A huge number of games that are being made are First Person Shooters, and you know sometimes when i play a game like that i get a headache as my brain just can't bend that way like it used to when i was 15. I don't like button mashing, and there's plenty of those games out there. I don't necessarily need high special effects to be happy, but games are pushed graphically first and everything else second usually.

Honestly a good number of the games i don't see the point of, either as a whole or in their being subscription based.

But back to assumptions. It's easy enough to assume that a good portion of people don't know how to manage their money, with credit card debts & gambling habits being the tip of the iceberg. We're sorta taught a 'buy now, worry later' mentality, and i broke away from when i was 5 (long story).

I guess to end this: If you have your own place, are financially stable and have internet, then GREAT! But that's not usually the case...

It's also possible that you have a split personality that you're unaware of that decided to browse GOG while you were sleeping. Best to consider all possibilities just in case. ^^

I guess I can say I understand the thought process you're going through. In the long run you'll soon realize that Steam, is in fact, a great platform. Especially not something that's going to disappear anytime soon. If it does go down, they already have a backup client to provide you with all the download necessities.

It's not to say that GOG isn't zaje***te (amazing) either. I adore what the employees at GOG as well as CD PROJEKT do for their community.

But the question is, why not both. It shouldn't be one thing or the other. Steam is great and so is GOG.

I'm just waiting to see what GOG Galaxy has to offer. The idea of cross-play is very interesting to me.

And avoiding it burns you... And trying not to use/install steam burns you (if you try to use steam games)...

I can't find steam as a great platform personally. My younger brother may worship it, but i've seen the warts, and experienced something better and don't want to go back.

Careful there! GOG offers German versions of quite some games here. And they're even advertising this on the store pages. Depending on the judge (I recommend the "Landgericht Hamburg") this could be interpreted as "directed towards the German market".

Yes, you're right. I somehow remembered that you have the right to return the product and get a refund, but it was "keep the product and use the EULA as toilet paper" instead. So... In GOG's case it depends on the game. EA and Disney have their EULA linked on the store pages, for example...

No it doesn't. Sorry ;P

The Erschöpfungsgrundsatz doesn't apply here. It only applies to bought products (European court decided that a timely unlimited license is treated like a bought product) but not to license agreements where your rights to use the product (especially regarding the duration of the license) are limited - and sadly that's the standard for software... That's why you still can't sell your used GOG or Steam games although the European court decided that you're allowed to sell used software. You don't buy games or unlimited licenses.