Sorrowshade89: While I don't object to the sale of newer games, I am inclined to take some issue about the claim that the core values are being 'DRM-free and with goodies' and downplaying the focus on older titles. While a DRM-free policy is thoroughly commendable thing (especially with the ridiculous levels some publishers have been pushing DRM in the last few years) I do think that this is underplaying what I consider to be the more important side of GOG's work.

Platform/OS compatibility is a massive problem for videogames as a medium, far more so any other medium. Most libraries will usually stock books written over a hundred years ago and it's probably quicker to list the films made since the advent of sound that are not available in a format that can be watched today. With games though, it can take a lot of effort to get games from as little as 15 years ago to run on PCs, and it may not even be possible to get them stable at all on some machines, assuming you can even find copies of these older games. In effect, this makes it very difficult for modern gamers to access games from more than a couple of generations prior to the current one. Not only is this a great disservice to gamers, but it can potentially have negative consequences on game development as well since it restricts the range of games that a designer can draw influence from.
The main reason I first joined this sight, way back in the early days, was because it was first time I'd seen that someone was actually trying to do something about this problem (and it is a problem). That the games were DRM-free and had extras was a nice bonus, but the main reason I've supported it was because it makes older games available to a modern audience. As someone who grew-up in a mac-only household until my late teens, I've personally benefited a lot from finally being able to play games I'd missed-out on, as would anyone else who was not able to play these games back when they were out.


Now, as I said earlier, I have no problem with GOG.com stocking newer games as well and lord knows any step against the increasingly insane DRM-policies infecting the industry (which includes Steam, however many nice utilities it adds) is a good one in my book, but the value of making old titles functional on a modern OS really shouldn't be understated. While I very much doubt GOG would stop doing this, I would hate to see it get relegated to a lower priority.



Apologies if I'm just bringing-up something that's already been said and done with, but this thread is so long now I don't really have time to read through it all at the moment.