Some direct answers to your specific questions: Yes, when you install a game it will put a launcher shortcut on your desktop by default unless you turn the option off during installation, and it will also put a submenu for the game on your Start menu under: All Programs -> GOG.com -> Gamename When you buy a game from GOG.com, it appears on your GOG.com game library in your account on GOG.com. In order to download and install the game you must log into your GOG.com account through your web browser, click on ACCOUNT -> LIBRARY, locate the game on your game shelf and then you have two options for downloading. You can either: 1) download it through your web browser, which is the default option in which case the file(s) will be downloaded wherever your web browser puts downloaded files by default or wherever you specify if it is set to ask you where to download things. Or option 2) You can install the GOG Downloader program which is a small application that runs in the systray by default, then you can toggle a switch on the game's download page to turn GOG Downloader mode on, in which case when you choose to download any game or its extras it will automatically fire it up in the GOG Downloader program, which downloads to a particular directory (which is user reconfigurable if you don't like the default location).

Once you have downloaded the game, any patches it might have, and any bonus/extra items you prefer to have downloaded, you can go into the download directory and start the game's installation EXE then follow the installer prompts to install it. Once the game is installed you're free to play it by launching it from your start menu or desktop icon, and there is no need to log in anywhere or run any other software or client application.

As others may have mentioned, GOG is in the process of making their own new optional gaming client which will be another alternative method to interact with GOG.com. The GOG Galaxy client will act as an alternative interface to the GOG.com game storefront, game library, community forums, some social networking features, a game downloader/updater/installer and launcher, but this is all optional functionality and will be able to be used in an online mode or offline without any need to log in except to download games you've purchased. Galaxy is in alpha now and while there is no ETA on its release it will probably be sometime later this year. Depends on what you mean by that specifically I suppose. The GOG.com community forums tend to mostly be a tightly knit group of people enthusiastic about GOG.com in general and discussing many things of a general nature, new game releases, store policies, website related stuff, and a lot of random chatter about various games. There are game-specific forums for all of the games on GOG.com here as well, but they tend to get a lot less traffic than does the main "General Discussion" forum. There is likely to be a rather large number of GOG forum members anticipating Witcher 3 enthusiastically, and discussing it in the forums here. It may or may not be what you're looking for community-wise, but keep in mind that one can buy the game from any particular store (preferrably here though) and participate in forums or other communities involving the game anywhere online, GOG, Steam, Playfire, or anywhere else. No reason to limit one's involvement online just to the store they bought something from. ;)

In the future, once Galaxy launches there are likely to be other community oriented features built into the Galaxy service that enhance the community aspects of games offered at the store though too. I wouldn't doubt it if we see the social networking aspects of Galaxy really enhance interaction with specific games, sharing of screenshots/videos and other content, and who knows, maybe even an integrated MOD workshop of sorts sometime - although all of that is pure speculation on my part for now.

Anyhow, welcome to GOG.com whether you've become a customer officially yet or are just dropping by to sniff it out and say hi. :)

No, you're buying a license to use the said game. You don't own it in any way.

While that is legally true with pretty much all proprietary software, having a physical copy of a game or the digital equivalent of that as GOG provides is more or less the same as ownership to the end consumer even if it is not correct in the strictest of legal terms.

In other words, I've downloaded my entire GOG.com game library of 423 unbundled games and now effectively I own them in terms where I physically have possession of them on my own hard disk and neither GOG.com nor any other entity can prevent me from playing my games and enjoying them without some form of explicit strong armed legal manoeuvre that would more or less require a SWAT team storming my house and removing my physical computer from my possession.

So, the individual game companies technically own the intellectual property, but I have within my personal physical possession the physical manifestation of the copied instance of their property and completely control whether or not I can use it at any given time for offline use and in the majority of cases for various online usage as well.

I may not own the intellectual property, but that legal difference is just a game of semantics to any gamer and rather moot outside of a courtroom.

Yeah, this here+1 to you

the publishers use the logic that if someone say they own an apple they think it applies to all of that kind of apple when the customer just applies ownership to the one they have in hand.

Yeah, to the consumer it's more or less a game of "call it whatever magic legal term you like, but I am holding it in my hand and have complete physical control over what I do with it and when I want to do whatever I want with it unless I'm being tased and attacked by a K9 unit." ;)

But I could sell you an apple with a license attached that forbids you to let someone else eating the apple, film yourself while eating the apple and put that on the internet, eating from the apple in an unapproved manner (cheating), ..

I guess it's also to do with what people are willing to put up with.

I sure am glad we're drowning in a sea of lawyers around here. If I ever need to consult with a professional concerning legal matters, I'll be sure to head over to the GOG forum first.

Wow! What a wonderful response to a seemingly simple question! I've learned all I wanted to know and a deal more! Sorry for getting back to this somewhat late in the day, but it seems I have to actively seek out these forums to respond. Unlike on Steam, where I get notifications of responses, so there's a plus for Steam. I realise now that I inadvertently titled my OP in what could be read as a provocative manner. I didn't mean to imply a 'contest' between GOG & Steam, more to discover the differences. I understand people's (GOG or otherwise) passion for a good thing & admire those who defend that thing loyally. I'm a mature gamer & appreciate robust forum discussions, so long as they don't descend into abuse & insult. There are too many good replies to mention you all but special thanks to karnak1 for first suggesting the free games thing. Also Trilarion for the first comprehensive and concise answer, skeletonbow for THE comprehensive answer and Ciris for the professional answer. To clarify some points. Firstly, my Q about community referred to W3 specifically tho it's encouraging to see that GOG has an active and vibrant community too. I've never been too bugged by DRM, even the infamous Games for Windows Live didn't give me too much trouble, tho it was the best example of DRM frustrations imho. As to 'owning' games, the only real way is actual disc copy & even they can get damaged or become redundant on some OS's. Perhaps the most valuable info I've gained here is concerning game updates/patches & Steam would be the easier route there. However, I've decided to buy W3 with GOG to support CD PR as much as possible because I admire their ethos & I'm encouraged by this community response. Maybe I will be able to 'add' W3 to my Steam library & get the best of both worlds until such times as Galaxy makes an appearance, which I look forward to. So, thank you all for your excellent feedback & warm welcome. Now I'm off to see if I can close this thread as my original questions have been more than adequately answered. :)

yeah right now patching games on GOG isn't everyone's cup of tea, but that will change when Galaxy drops. Well unless your the type who will just tick the global "Do not update" box since some people don't like to update their games unless it's really needed.

As for owning, yeah you can make that argument but the thing with GOG is you can download a installer even through their Galaxy client(though admittedly it's easy to overlook the link to where the installer can be found currently) which will have the game in it and your free to take that installer and back it up on whatever format you choose or how many you like with out having to worry about having to go through a online activation check or have to find some crack to remove the client check and so on. So in that sense yes you do own your games much like you would if you had them on disc provided that said disc/game didn't have securom, Stardock or god forbid Tages. Even if you install the game directly through Galaxy you can copy those game files/directory, back them up and install them elsewhere later and never have to worry about having to run it through Galaxy or having it need to log into a server online unless of course it's a multiplayer game but that should logically be a give in. Nor do you have to boot/restart the client up in offline mode if the internet goes out.

As for Galaxy there is a closed Alpha though it is getting easier to get access to it since it seems now if you have a game that uses Galaxy multiplayer you get a key for the Galaxy Alpha where as before you had to submit your email and wait for a round of Alpha keys to be handed out. But honestly with how fast things seem to be moving now and where the current Alpha build of client currently is from where they were months ago and how the closed Alpha is seeming to open up more and more based on how many more people seem to now have access, it's plausible we may hit beta in the not too distant future(next Sunday AD, sorry can't help making a MST3K reference when I see In the not too distant future) and unless something changes the Beta is planned to be a public one probably because the Witcher 3 is supposed to make use of Galaxy's achievements and such, much like how they gave everyone who had Aliens vs Predator, Witcher Adventure game and Double Dragon access to the Multiplayer aspect of Galaxy way before their was even a basic client ready.


Edit: Well it seems we are now in public beta for Galaxy
https://www.gog.com/galaxy

OP: I would go and get the best of both worlds. There is no point in limiting yourself.

Tell that to him.

Ol Keith went a bit too far into one specific thing lol. I'm sure if he had a brain cell left he'd regret it.

If you go to "Account" and then "Forum Replies", it'll show you all the threads you've posted in recently, as well as point out those with unread responses. Just click on the little gear symbol with the arrow, and it'll direct you to the reply (see attached image).

Well, the beauty of GOG is that you can make your own physical copy of any game if you want to, simply by burning the installer to a disc. Some people even made custom DVD-covers for that purpose.