- I never read manuals if I don't absolutely have to and when I do, I just put my tablet beside the screen.
- Appartment space has become incredibly expensive and my current one simply doesn't have room for additional baggage that is mostly digital anyway.
- Disc checks annoy me, I want to get rid of discs and disc drives altogether since they are wear and tear elements and the parts I had to replace the most in all of my computers, way more often than HDDs
- I like to have an automatic search function
- Information about a game is more reliable in the net than on a backside

So, I don't miss physical boxes and discs in any way.

The only problem I have with digital distribution is online checks and since physical boxes often just contain a 1.0 betaversion dummy and a Steam key, it's basically the same there.

A DRM free digital installer is worth more to me than an retail copy and although the costs of retail are much higher, for some reason they are indeed cheaper in Germany than buying something digital here on GoG.

The general gaming audience (read Steam) came to accept the client and all the commodities that it offers, along with it there's cost cutting from the mass production of DVD Cases, Discs and Manual printing. In the end it's always all about the money. Last but not least, with the end of physical copies they no longer have to create standalone exe patches when they can push them through the client.

There are very little games I can still buy as physical without forcing me to use Steam, even then I'd probably feel forced to use a crack just to avoid having my disc in the drive.

Personally, i still prefer a physical copy over a digital copy as the feel (as described by HereForTheBeer earlier) is just different. Although some digital copys also comes with extras there's just no replacing certain extras that are not or cannot be replicated in digital form. By that i dun mean DLCs &/or sountracks which can be digital version but things like souvenirs (pins/tokens/keychains & etc).

Sadly, the truth is digial is the way of the future & as much as i still prefer Good Old Games in boxes they are getting harder to find with more games developer/publisher going for digital releases only. However, i'm still thkful i'm able to get games here on GOG which are DRM-free & often comes with many extras as compared to the same game on other digital platforms such as Steam & so on which may not be DRM-free as well.

That being said, i have to disagree with Theoclymenus that physical things such as books, newspapers, games & so on will be fully replaced by digital forms in the future. As we can see currently, there are already digital copies of various media but they have not lead to the extinction of them. The books & newspapers are the best examples. Yes, demand for physical copies may have decreased but i dun think they can be fully replaced. Well, not in the near future anyway. I believe digital copies are meant to complement the physical copy more than replace them totally.

As 4 games, they are more likely to be replaced by digital copies to be downloaded online as they are already in digital form in the 1st place anyway but some physical things that came with physical copies like those i mentioned earlier just can't be included in a fully digital copy of game.

Lastly, abt ur question on how to make the digital purchase better, i think a shelf to display all the 'game boxes' (like how GOG does here) is a step in the right direction. the ability to custom sort the boxes also would help. Can't really think of anything else at the moment but will add on when & if i think of them.

Digital-only games are worthless crap just the moment they are released. And DRM-equipped games are even more worthless.

I support GOG.com just because they release old games anew with no DRM. Steam is caca, and the bane of PC gaming's future.

Which got us where we are I think. Physical copies being turned into glorified digital downloads, those with poor internet connections left behind in the dust (read: not all of the world has access to the internet, etc. And companies are supposed to create the most value, and nowadays, having choices in buying their products in many flavors is just missing... its that one flavor (the DRM flavor) and screw you if you don't like it. Which leads to piracy knocking on the door, and now they're pretty much better in quality than the original for sale copies!

At least the 'disc in the drive' DRM to me is the absolute non-intrusive. Sure, I may need to keep the disc in an okay condition, but then it falls into my responsibility to deal with it, whereas those services, when they vanish, so do the games. A nice majority of them. Whereas the disc in the drive DRM will likely stay far longer than the online DRM'd ones, and I will lose access to them once I lose access to the disc, and not access to the internet.

You've been here since 2010, so don't you remember all the complaints when GOG changed all the game library arts to less flashier ones? Earlier they looked like pictures of boxes, they were changed to generic pictures.

I can understand why GOG did it though, as more and more of their library are games which don't have a retail release, so they would have to make fake box art for such titles, just to have an uniform look.

I personally couldn't care less. I love digital (DRM-free) releases as I can move even thousands of them with me on my laptop. I recall the times I had those CD cases which allowed me at best to have like one or two dozen games with me. Plus, laptops become smaller when you don't need an internal DVD-drive in them anymore.

To me the game itself is important, not the box, or trinkets that come with the game.

what do you think has to change in the way digital distribution is handled for you to feel better about your digital purchases? How do you imagine the ideal future of digital distribution in general?

There is one simple thing that has to change for me to feel better about my digital purchases and for the most part GOG has already done it, hence why I am here. It's called owning the product and using it without restriction. Now I know many will argue about the term ownership here, I care not for semantics nor will I argue the point.

I can just about put up with the loss of printed manuals and I can also just about put up with the loss of physical media, along with all the other cost reducing measures devs/pubs say they must implement to survive, but I can't put up with DRM, nay layers upon layers of DRM on a product I have paid for, especially when one might seriously ask this:

if a business needs to keep reducing its costs- eliminating printed manuals, doing away with the need for a distributor of physical media, etc., etc., why are they still throwing these savings into one thing only-preventing ownership? Preventing ownership!

Business is only to ready to reap any reward it can get from digital distribution, it's the future they say. But they cannot keep up with the future- they must restrict it- so now I am expected to have an account to play a game-check that-use a service.

The ideal future for digital distribution in my eyes is for business to realise that they cannot have their cake and eat it. If they wish to continue selling a product then their must be a product to sell in the first place.

Alas, I am an older gamer and know only to well that the industry has moved this way because it can get away with it-people buy it. I believe that these kinds of questions do not enter the minds of younger gamers or their families when clicking 'buy now'. As long as that situation remains the same and I suspect it will, I see no improvement coming. I will stay with gog as long as I can.

I used to strongly prefer physical copies of games so that I knew I owned it and fully controlled where it could be installed and when, as well as having the manual and whatever else comes in the box. To me there was something to be said for holding it in your hand, and I felt this way up until 2012 or so.

I've had an account at GOG since 2009, but I didn't truly discover GOG until 2012 at which point I really appreciated the fact they sold DRM-free games and the general GOG philosophy. I also liked the fact that they got ancient games to run relatively pain-free on newer OS releases as much as possible, and that installing a GOG version of any particular old game would most likely be a lot less pain than trying to get an original game CD/floppy to work on a modern OS manually fiddling with DOSbox or whatever.

Over the years I have accumulated tonnes of games on CD/DVD, movies, TV shows, magazines, books and other entertainment products and learning materials, etc. I have so much stuff I'm tripping over it constantly, it just takes up way too much space even packed into boxes shoved in the basement where frankly they probably wont be opened up very often if ever.

Ever since realizing this, I've had a change of view and preference. Nowadays I prefer my games to be digitally distributed because I find it far easier to keep track of them, know that they are not going to have a scratch on the DVD that prevents installation, I don't have to look around the house to find them nor trip over them, and they come with artwork, soundtracks, maps and other stuff all digitally and I don't have to trip over any of that either. On GOG.com I can download all of my content and keep a backup of hundreds of games on a single hard disk tucked out of the way, or multiple copies if desired, and/or I can install over the Internet via Galaxy if I wish to go that route and ensure I have the latest version automatically.

Years ago I was rather opposed conceptually to online services such as Steam and gaming clients because I feared that they would completely remove all control over the software from my hands and provide a completely poor end-user experience. I had reasonable fears over things that had not come to be, and some unreasonable ones too. I wasn't opposed to the idea of a gaming client, but I did fear the control such software might take away from me as a gamer.

Now here we are in 2016 and the majority of games are digitally distributed and/or require a digital distribution service even if you buy them in the box. I no longer buy games in boxes anymore and don't want the extra clutter around the house anyway. I now prefer digital download games and prefer them to be DRM-free wherever possible. When it comes to gaming clients I personally am all in favour of software that can make my life easier overall.

Gaming clients: When I look back at the 1990s and early 2000s at how we went about patching games by searching the web for game patches, then having to go visit each individual game company's website and search for a half hour to find a patch and not be sure it was the latest one half the time, and also possibly have to create an account there to even get it, I don't miss that at all. Personally I like the idea of having a program to organize, install, launch, and update my games as well as providing other value-adding features that I perceive to improve my own gaming experience. So in terms of features and ease-of-use, I like programs like the Steam client for example in terms of the features it has that I perceive to add good value to my gaming experience. It's not a flawless storybook love affair however either, as there are aspects of the software that I dislike as well, and further aspects of the way individual games handle things (such as DRM) that I may or may not approve of.

Nonetheless, despite there being flaws in the current way games are marketed, sold, and distributed online and flaws in the overall gaming experience that vary from service to service and game to game, I strongly prefer digital distribution nowadays over the days of tripping over scratched DVDs peeking out from under the couch. Digital distribution has made it easier than ever for me to play the majority of games overall, and despite any per-game drawbacks it might have. This is not to say that the experience is flawless or without fault however. There are pros and cons, but overall the way I personally embrace the technology focuses on the pros and try to avoid the cons wherever possible. For me, GOG is full of pros with very few cons, so this is my preferred service.

Similarly, I prefer movies, TV shows, books and other media and content to be computer based and digitally distributed in some manner or another. I can literally see the rug now, yay! :)

Not bothered by digital games , as long as i can play the games any time i want its fine , i would rather take the direct gog downloads over a clunky client that drains memory and cpu constantly

I want a clunky client that consumes a minimum of 4GB of RAM even if it doesn't actually use it all because I need something to keep my 32GB of memory busy so it doesn't die of boredom twiddling its thumbs. Same thing with my CPU... 6 of the 8 cores are normally idling and contemplating suicide, so this keeps them off the streets feeling like they're doing something and improves their self-esteem. :)

Like I mentioned, I don't necessarily have a problem with the box being removed and the lack of a 'new-game' smell, necessarily... My problem is that digital distribution hasn't evolved to the point where the purchase of the digital game feels just as satisfying as the purchase of a boxed game.

I was required to take a course in college about Human Interface Design, and there was a huge emphasis on designing interfaces in a way that emulate real-life tactile interactions with objects and products. For example, clicking on a button on a webpage feels more satisfying if the button is animated to actually 'press down' like a real button. I thought that was a very interesting idea that nobody really seems to flesh out anymore. It's weird, because I think that about 10-20 years ago, publishers and designers actually did try to do more with the setup menus, screenshots and even video game websites to make kids interact with the product before even buying it. It wasn't so much an emulation of 'real-life responses' or anything, but it did give me a connection to whatever game or toy I was interested in through something like a flash game on the website; it was just good effin' marketing!!

Anyway, I just think... Video Games have become too adult for my tastes! All kids get now is that "thank you for purchasing this game"-message. When I was little,I had the pleasure to go into a cool store downtown, talk to the store clerk, be excited about the game I am buying, be even more excited during the car-ride home while I read the manual for the game already, and then be excited when I slid in the game disc after which a animated autostart menu showed up, and then I watched the setup installation bar fill gradually while I looked anxiously at the screenshots that scroll in the background. I didn't even know those were things I enjoyed (especially the dreaded setup process), but I really, really miss those moments (except those that involved the game not working in the end after waiting for an hour for the installation to finish)

Yes, I am an adult too now, of course there is more on my mind than video games even while I am playing them, but that has other awesome perks so I can't complain. However, that doesn't mean that I shouldn't enjoy buying new entertainment and, again, I think that even kids aren't excited about video games nowadays because of this barebone switch to digital. Let's go all digital, sure, but... Let's actually try to make it more exciting than clicking "Buy Now" and then "Download now" :(

Do you seriously think that? Kids nowadays are growing up with digital so they would have an even bigger reason that than the older generation who merely got used to digital to not really care about non-essential game goodies.

That said you mentioned this part:
I did that too weirdly enough. Ever since puberty I got really bothered by the idea of external hype, I think it's just something someone else's uses for their own gain (they lack substance that have any real value) but watching an installation (even a slow) waiting in anticipation of a game I'll be able to play has always been quite satisfying. :)

I'm one of those tweaking weirdos though, I actually miss the good ol' days of making the game work like finding game cracks online because the CD didn't work or to you know, just avoid needing the damn CD, and that was even on dial up so it took ages.