Kerchatin: Assuming that one has already downloaded all of their games. If not, well then it's not so great...
I know for a fact that many users only 'download as they play' and don't keep a full backup of everything purchased, so if GOG did indeed disappear, a lot of people would be screwed.
nightcraw1er.488: That is the same for anything requiring the internet, however here it is slightly less as at least once you have downloaded something, then you don't need the internet any further, unlike certain well know stores.
As for "download as you play", if you can't be bothered to download things as you purchase them, then its really your own fault. You wouldn't buy a car and say, I will pick it up a few months later, just hope your still in business then, would you?
True, but there are very easy ways of making games from other stores offline-friendly too. Granted, it's not as simple as GOG's single download, but even they're already making it harder to do by hiding the regular downloads under 'More', heavily pushing Galaxy's Steam-like features. Many new users aren't even aware of the ability to download offline backups!
Actually, a lot of car places do have that option and many people do pick up their car some period of time later. Obviously not months, but days-weeks? Yes.
And anyway, you also have to remember that many people now using GOG have come from Steam, which was effectively 'download as you play', so a lot of users continue to do that.
Also, when sales come along, people will often buy large numbers of games at a time and it's impractical to go and download
all of them at once. Then there's the issue that GOG has had in the past with 'removed games' temporarily disappearing from libraries just minutes-hours after purchase (though I'm guessing with the new library system, that probably won't be a problem anymore).
Plus that's not to mention the inherent risk (albeit
very small) with hard drive failure.
Call it naiveté, but a lot of users don't really even consider the possibility of GOG disappearing and so put a lot of faith in the idea that their games will always be here waiting for them.
Personally, I download all of my games immediately upon purchase, but I don't think it'd be fair to put sole blame on the consumer for not downloading everything straight away.
Of course these are all natural risks one takes when buying download-only games, from an online store, and GOG is significantly better than any other, but it's still worth noting. :p