I don't get the clear conscience part. If you can buy them here then they are not abanoned. I define abandoned as not being offered for sale though.

I think the question should rather be why people do not pirate GOG games? I guess, because the conscience is even clearer when you buy. And there is a small risk of getting persecuted. Maybe it is also the less time consuming choice. Maybe a mixture of all three: clear conscience, nice experience, no risk.

My top reasons:

- Because old as they may be, I like the feeling that I legally bought those games.

- I like GOG, appreciate and respect the huge effort they make to bring all those games, especially the ones with licensing issues, without them we wouldn't have access to such a huge collection.

- I was born in the late 80's and grew up with dos games, I still like most of them.

- I'm a gamer.

Reason 1: basic r35p3c7

Reason 2: Owning a legal version of a game is and has always been more fun to me than having an illegal copy. The only reason I borrowed and copied so many games as a youngster was because I couldn't afford to buy all those games, plus the nearest civilized city with a game shop was 1 hour away by train. I never thought cracking and pirating were "cool", at all.

Because :

* If it's not worth my money, it's not worth my time
* If I get to enjoy a game, I find normal to pay for it
* I get a ready-to-play game, without headache for the technically challenged like me
* It's quick and easy to find the game I want
* I don't have to risk myself on disreputable sites and other hives of scum and infamy
* I want other publishers to sell their old games too

Basically, if I can find something I want legally, I'll buy it. Simple as that. Treasure-searching in a trashbin may be cheap and exciting, but going into a store is much more confortable, and better for the ego ^^

1) No need to worry about malware.
2) Hope of compatibility with newer systems (now and in the future).
3) No need to worry about DRM if game gets abandoned by publisher.
4) Nice catalogue.
5) Expect the game to be working and complete
6) Support the release of old games
7) If the game isn't available as abandonware: The chance opportunity to play the game

Hmmm its certainly not a hard-and-fast rule - personally I like to feel like I own stuff legally and its in my collection to easily install whenever I want

I certainly wouldn't begrudge anyone from checking out what all the hype is about for something that has very low chance of ever turning up legally again - like Blade Runner for example but people ripping off stuff that IS on GOG, especially torrenting the GOG packaged versions does make me sad
It's especially grey when you start looking at console ROMS - for instance, I'm not going to illegally acquire anything Sega have put out in their Genesis Classics range BUT the Phantacy Star series starts at no. 2 there because the first one is a Master System game and they're not doing those - I want to start from the start without any extra hardware under my TV so....
Also what about the unreleased English language version of the original 'Mother / Earthbound Zero' for NES? Literally no choice if you want to check that one out!
I was good and purchased Driver 2 (which had no PC version) on PSX for running from the media in a PSX emulator but technically getting the PSX BIOS ROMS for it was still dodgy - everyone has to draw the line where they feel comfortable drawing it, I think!

To support GOG, to prove that I prefer to spend money on older but better games and because it is more convenient.

In the past I often played freewares and also abandonwares games (new titles have always been too expensive).
Now that I can obtain these old gems 100% legit, as DRM-free digital copies and with great discounts.. there's no reason to stay in that "grey area" anymore.

Because as much as I don't agree with their be polite at all times no matter what philosophy for this forum, GOG doesn't enforce this with an iron fist to people's faces. GOG is the only company I know that lets people truly express themselves in their forums. This shows that they don't believe in silencing people. This shows they believe in true freedom of speech. This shows, they believe in a world where good ideas destroy bad ideas. This also shows they have a level of respect for all their customers. They won't bully us with their power for simply saying things they don't like. They only use their power when necessary. Such a company deserves our support.

They are also the only company that sells DRM Free games only(other than DotEmu). It should mean a lot to you that you can back up your GOGs so that 1000 years from now, if you are in the mood, you can play System Shock 2. I highly doubt Steam will be around for more than 100 years so...GOGs are the way to go, especially if you plan on transferring all that you are into a machine or becoming a vampire before the grim reaper becomes too friendly with you. From monkey to machine, the day will come!

GOG's service also saves us hours of time messing around with Dosbox. That is more time to play games. So how can I not support these guys whenever I can? Buying a $5.99 or less GOG instead of downloading it for free is not too much to ask considering how awesome GOG is and what they bring to the table. Sure, they aren't perfect but no company is... We should forgive GOG for the regional pricing thing some time ago. All humans make mistakes. And I don't see their past mistake as something unforgivable. Last time I checked, nobody suffered or died because GOG decided to go with regional pricing for a short time.

And in a gaming world becoming darker and darker, they set a bright shining example for all other companies to follow. They show other companies that you don't have to behave like greedy control freak douche bags to make money.

Yes, you're right. I think i failed to express myself correctly. What i wanted to say is that i don't really enjoy looking for fixes made by the community when GOG already gives me a functional copy of the game ready to run on modern PCs. Like System Shock 2 and Thief, for example, which are a real pain in the ass to get working (well, at least i spent quite a few hours trying to get my physical copies to work).

I once bought a game from E-Bay (Operation Flashpoint or Red Alert2 IIRC) and the key was actual pirated, couldn't play online and the CD not original. Ever since, I never bought anything else from that marketplace.

GOG provides a clean install of games. Very good naming conventions i.e. C:\GOG\<NAME>\ and the cached files are wherever you put your downloads. Uninstall is very clean in GOG as well.

Steam does something like C:\Program Files (86)\Steam\Steamapps\Common\<NAME> and if you define the library somewhere outside that folder (why would you do that, because you need to check online if you are allowed to use the files), it cannot auto-update or something. The cached files are also somewhere, I haven't figured out yet. Some stuff is spread over the users documents files as well.

I did something terrible yesterday and bought Dragon Age Ultimate on Steam. The original game installed fine, then I had to reset my very old migrated account (I cannot remember why I originally had one there, I think Warhammer or LotRO or some other MMORPG, or Red Alert3 which never worked for me because of DRM) at Origin and download all the DLC manually, find out how daupdater.exe works and implement them all on my own, because I don't want to be logged into my account when I play the game.
tl;dr it is easier to buy any Dragon Age title directly in the EA-Store or Origin than Steam.

I am really scared of many other platforms :)

I buy them because it makes me feel good.. for a few minutes.
And I think you should only pirate games if you absolutely can't get them any other way.
So if I can afford it and want it, I'll buy it.

Yeah, I've never understood why Steam puts all your games in a folder called 'Common' - you'd think that would be for shared files like dlls or whatever - odd!

That's not true. I have my Steam files scattered all over my HDs (i have 3 HDs with 3 partitions each, to a total of 9 partitions). I have 3 "Steam library" folders in different partitions and i have never had any issues with auto-updates or anything like that (and they're not in Program Files folder).

One of the biggest complaints about Steam was that it wouldn't let you set a different directory for your games. But they changed it a long time ago.

I buy them for one simple reason: I expect to be paid for the work I do - if I choose to charge for it - and feel that if it's the policy that I wish to hold (having the option to collect revenue for the effort I put forth) then I should have no qualms doing the same for the products and services I want.

In other words, if you own the property and want to give it away, then it's your decision to make, not mine to arbitrarily make for you. Otherwise, it's a value decision: is this title worth - to me - the price being asked? If it's worth stealing, then it's worth buying.