That's something else that was mentioned that always has me worried about not having "disc" copies. I like digital copies because you cant lose a disc etc, however that opens up another issue. Since one guy used "steam" for example about renting games from them, he is correct , but it gets worse.

If they ever ban your account, you lose access to all your games. So lets say you have a library full of over 1k games and each one is worth $20. If Valve/Steam ever got a stick up their heiny holes, then you could be out nearly $20k worth of games. I personally know a few players who had this happen.

Also what happens if for example GoG or even Steam shut down their servers, *pray that day never comes* then you lose access to your games anyways, or rather whatever you dont have downloaded already. Digital games are great but always open up issues in a round about sort of way, but I'd rather trust GoG than Steam.

I buy online games on Steam and buy offline games on GOG. As a single player i would prefer GOG. I'm running Linux as well so obviously GOG, only need the games, no need third party software. Steam on Linux is a disaster, crashes many time on my Linux Mint and Ubuntu.

I think what CEG does is to tie execution of the game to the Steam client. Which means, if the Steam client is not up, the game won't run. There are illicit tools around to remove CEG, if it comes to that.

@OP
I noticed you are new, so welcome to GOG, Acanex88! :D

I like GOG better. A big part of it is because they are DRM-Free, which enables me to own my games. I find the website design neater and more attractive. The "Releases & News" are boxed tidily in the left corner, where I can just comfortably browse through the new releases to pick what I want. Also, I like that their screenshots do not "jump" like the way Steam does. Steam's interface on the other hand is very cluttered, with a lot of stuff I don't care about shoved in my face.

The community here is definitely much more pro-consumer, and that is something I like. More than ideological trolling, I can't for the life of me understand why would someone "bend over" for a random company, when they are getting nothing out of it, or worse, be severely hampered by said company's actions. Pro-DRM and Pro-shitty policies trolls are the worst.

GOG also does technical support for their games, on top of normal support. However, due to the growing number of customers, GOG support may get bogged down a wee bit. The Cons are, admittedly some of Steam's features and the client are kind of more stable. I know I had problems with Galaxy, but Steam was relatively smooth.

GOG also creates their own custom installers in-house for their games. I appreciate this sort effort to make sure everything goes right (as possible). However, at times, with developers only caring about Steam or the downtime it takes for fixing up the patches, sometimes our games get updated slower. GOG has been trying to use Galaxy to change that, where immediate fixes can be uploaded straightaway by the developer.

And, sometimes GOG does weird things, and don't communicate it well to the userbase, till the community notices it. But, they are on the whole, a lot nicer to us than Steam is. Steam only started changing after being threatened by the law.

Lol yeah I started about two months ago when I was looking for a game and didnt wanna pay the insane price Steam was asking and I found this site. Was impressed and decided to stick around. As for Steam on changing after being threatened by the law, they are still dragging their feet about it and they do not much like their own userbase.

If prices are similar I would pick steam over GoG just for the extra security of a refund if the game is bunk. But I have no allegiance to either. Steam for the most part are cheaper therefor I buy more there. Many old these old games are way overpriced.

I don't want to open this can of worms again, but I would argue that age shouldn't determine a game's price.

I would agree that several games in here are overpriced, but it's not because of their age.

GOG

Pros
▲- no DRM (except in theory for some MP accounts).
▲- lots of good promos, giveaways and cool releases (classic and new).
▲- less games than Steam, but they're improving. Also, no Greenlight s**t or exploitative titles, and that's good.

Neutral
▲- GOG Connect for who uses Steam (useless for who boycotted it).
▲- optional Galaxy client for who wants it (achievements, multiplayer, cloud saves, auto-updates, etc).
◆ - the community is mixed nowadays, due to years of "anarchy". Will it get better again, now that mods are here?
◆ - some games remain outdated for months or miss features due to Steam Workshop. Maybe Galaxy will fix this?
◆ - support quality and speed varies.
▼- a few new games have microtransactions. Not a good sign..
▼- the client is becoming a bit less optional (opt-in in standalones, no notifications in forum, sudden compatibility problems with old OS).

Cons
▼- forum and site are full of problems and with little improvements since years.
▼- managing and updating standalone installers is hell.

You must have some extremely special friends because they haven't done this to anyone since the early Steam days unless you're perhaps committing serious monetary fraud through their systems. They only restrict accounts which 'freezes' them as is, which still allows you access to your entire library.

Mind you, they *can* of course. But for it to happen you'd have to be doing something incredibly wrong. (beyond chargeback fraud which still only leads to a restriction)

I avoid making any purchases on Steam as much as possible. I almost never give Steam any money, because Steam itself is disgusting DRM. The only way I'll buy on Steam is if it's a multiplayer game that I feel a super strong desire to play and Steam is the only "choice" (really there is no choice).

I've played video games for decades before Steam existed. Back then when I bought a game, I owned that game forever, period. A lot of those games had DRM, but those forms of DRM were not as bad as the Steam DRM, because they did not stop those games from being mine forever.

Then came along the cancer that is Steam, which has now successfully fooled most gamers into accepting the terrible paradigm that it's fine to pay full price to rent your games, any or all of which Steam has the power to steal from you at any point.

Appallingly, over the last ten years or so, even most retail boxed copies of games are infested with the Steam DRM, which ruins the whole point of having a boxed copy and renders them useless.

So I'll stick with GOG and/or with the very few boxed copies of games that still come out and are not infested with the the Steam DRM cancer (I think boxed copies which are uninfested with Steam DRM will be extinct soon), and/or use alternative ways to acquire and play my games DRM-free.

I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, GOG transforms into DRM just like Steam is currently....especially since I've seen another member on this board link to GOG's mission statement/future goals, and it doesn't say even a single thing about DRM or about keeping DRM out of GOG.

If & when GOG turns into DRM, then I'll stop buying from GOG too.

I think many would. If I pay full price for a game, then I should be allowed to determine what I wanna do with my game without being told what I can and cant do. Wasnt too happy about that actually. I remember when I first got Morrowind in 2002 and it didnt have horrible DRM on it...and I enjoyed it.

- May 2017 transplant from Steam as well, OP.

- Feel more at home with GOG community & Staff (especially after I received a personalized email response after canceling a support ticket).

I have ethical objections to Steam as a service and I value my principles over convenience. Don't go insulting people just because you don't get their legitimate issues.

I like the DRM free thing that GOG has going. One thing I have noticed though is GOG had its summer sale and now steam is having its summer sale and a lot of the games that were on GOG summer sale are now cheaper on Steam for that summer sale. So for whatever reason the owners of these games are charging a premium on GOG, maybe its the DRM free thing? Ori and the blind Forest 17.99 gog and 9.99 steam, Untold Stories 7.49 gog now 4.99 on steam, mind path to thalmus 2.99 gog, now 1.79 steam, Full Throttle Remasted 11.99 gog now 9.89 steam. Basically I could keep going on and on but I just noticed a trend that a fair number of games are comming out cheaper on steam than gog during sales. I think its because of the drm thing/promise you get with gog so the people who own the game are charging a premium here or maybe they sell a lot more on steam so they discount the game more?

Just on GOG. 1.With absolute lack of interest in newer games gog is my choice 2. DRM

Heretical as it may be, I prefer Steam to GOG. The main reason is pricing. I'm a cheapskate so Humble Bundle is pretty much the main place I buy from. I learned my lesson a long time ago on which store I preferred when I bought Lumino City here for around $10 (I forget the actual price) only for it to hit the $1 tier on a bundle some months later with 2 other games thrown in. Most bundles are Steam keys, ergo, most of my games are on Steam. Not to mention it's way better for multiplayer in terms of both selection of games and functionality that meets my needs. Achievements (which I may or may not be throwing in just to make you people angry) are also a big plus depending on the game.
That being said, I definitely prefer GOG as a store. They seem like people who're passionate about what they're doing and I can get behind that. I dig the moral aspects of DRM-free, it's just that DRM honestly doesn't affect me in any way that hinders me since I have a pretty darn stable internet connection most of the time. I'm no activist and ride with my wallet. I'm not about to limit what games I can play just because I don't like DRM. The only reason I came here to begin with was to finally be able to replay the old classic adventure games that I couldn't find anywhere else (although nowadays, Steam is getting a good number of those as well as lots of great indies that would probably never make it to GOG). If I had a huge supply of cash though, I'd buy from here just for the sake of supporting the store and encouraging devs to bring their games here/go the DRM-free route.
Also, I never buy from Steam if I can help it. Not unless it's some uber-amazing deal which I'm sure won't be happening again anytime soon. I'd much rather wait for a sale on the Humble Store where the same games (usually, but obviously Steam has the biggest selection than anybody else in the market) go on sale at the same prices and with them, I can donate a portion of my money to the charity of my choice rather than have 100% head to Gabe's overflowing wallet.

Really, pretty much the #1 thing that's ever kept me here on GOG is the community.

TL;DR:
Steam is great if you're a cheap American with morals of ill repute like me.