Well I know a couple of people who lost their accounts and thus libraries. So it's temporary. They are landlords renting out. Move in, you can be thrown out. GOG sells me little house. They can choose to never sell me a house again. But they can't take what I already have.

"When backups fail"... Yes, when my house burns down my entire library of books will be gone too. So what? At least Amazon can't come and take the books from off shelf. But they can take the DRMed books off a Kindle - see the 1984 debacle...

GOG can shut down my account. They can delete games from my account. But they can't come to my home and make the installers useless. Buy to own - on the frontpage.

Steam can make your installers useless. Try to re-install Skyrim from disk after your account was banned. It's built for exactly this kind of thing. All the auto-updating and achievements and stuff is just sugar coating on the Digital Restrictions Management. You don't own a thing - you're just allowed to use the software for the time being.

Yes, your house can burn down after you get booted. Not gOg's fault if one didn't make backups, and their system would allow you to continue to enjoy those games long after said booting and subsequent fire / other disaster so long as you had those backups. And even then, you might be able to appeal to gOg to get the installers for which you paid money.

So yes, they can cut you out of your library, as in you no longer have access to the files via the website. If you already have the installer then you can continue to install and play the games just as before, long after you have been booted and long after you no longer agree to the site's ToS.

And yes, gOg could fold. And if it does, you can still install and play the games so long as you have the installer.

The difference is in enforcement of the post-purchase EULAs. gOg does not have a mechanism to do so (beyond not installing that particular game if you don't agree at the time of installation), and Steam does - which it can enforce, incidentally, long AFTER the game(s) is / are installed - via the client. Doesn't matter if you agree with the game(s) EULA; the client itself can lock you out of your previous purchases.

Tell you what - try this simple experiment: the next time you're greeted with a new EULA upon login to Steam, simply choose to NOT click the Agree button. And then try to install and play one of the Steam-client-required games from your library. Next, logout of the gOg website and turn off the downloader, install any game for which you have downloaded the installer, and then try to play it.

You'll see the difference: one has you playing the game and the other has you cussing-out a certain industry titan.

What if Steam banned you? (like in the link I posted above).

Read my post again, I clearly said: if Steam falls. By that I mean if Steam is offline or you lose your account. Your disk will be useless since extracting the files within requires both the Steam client and a valid cd-key, which you no longer have.

At least in Germany post-purchase EULAs are worth less than a rabbit's fart. Everything you didn't know when you made the purchase isn't part of the agreement/contract.

Except what happens - in reality - if you don't click Agree? Regardless of what the law says, in Germany are you still locked out of your Steam games, or is it handled differently for those customers?

Well, I don't know about Cyprus... In Germany a phrase advertised like this would mean exactly this. I bought it, I own it. They have to make sure I can get at least "my" copy. The force is strong with consumer rights (at least in some regards) in Germany. But that makes running a digital business a legal hell here too. I wouldn't do it.
You click agree, but to get the software running. But the contents of the EULA are of no interest. That's why in Germany i.e. Microsoft Software always has the EULA on the outside of the package. There's your chance to read it before purchase and thus it is legally binding.

Not many people got that kind of ban. I am dead sure. That's just fuel for propaganda.

If you get VAC banned (and you don't get really VAC banned until you're VACbanned in multiplegames, sadly) you can still play all of your games, save for the multiplayer portion of a game.

In the end, believe what you want to believe. I am personally happy that both GOG and STEAM exist. I don't like any type of propaganda on either side.

How old are these posts? GoG says they were made like 20 minutes ago, but I don't remember making any of these posts.

Ok fair but for the two or three people you know that lost their accounts (why?), I'll show you millions that haven't. I'll show you millions of players who have been buying games since the service started back in 2003 and not one of them have been prevented from playing any game that they purchased over that time (I'm one of them). Steam banning your account is a very extreme scenario that affects what? Less than 1% of the total of Steam users? And then we go into why they were banned in the first place (Steam doesn't remove accounts randomly for no reason or else the shitstorm would be pretty big).

You are arguing Steam DRM is bad because of the less than 1% chance your account is banned for some reason or another. Everything else is a hypothetical, what may or may not happen if the service shuts down (which I believe is usually the crux of the issue people have with Steam, not so much if they get their account 'banned').

majority of my games are on steam...but gog is doing very well catching up with it, too well for my wallets liking. Anyhow, i am personally taking bit of risk and hoping to forthcoming gog galaxy will (eventually) will the few needs i have that gog doesnt do atm (auto-goddamn-update, gogchat and stuff).

If you forget about that most Steam games arent drm-free, its pretty positive really. It works actually very well, especially if you have stable internet connection.

for quite some while ive been getting only the stuff that i cant get on gog on steam though. I have kids and multiple comps so i am doing bit saving there as extra ;)

I have origin as well, but besides the couple exclusives i really want to have, i dont really have any use for it and i dont automatically start with it the comp. I dont like the client either, just feels akward.
i dont have cd drive anymore, so only reason for me to buy boxed is because its cheap and i know it has steam code :)

...not that this has happened more than like twice in the last three years.

OK, something strange is going on here. I just woke up, and there are half a dozen posts under my name that I haven't made at all.

Must be Valve's doing ;)! That DRM is so persistent it will try to advertise itself on forums! Just joking mate,eh:)

Is it possible that the thread got necro'd, and the replies are actually years old, not less than 14 hours?

One post under my name was edited to say "WAIT this is WEIRD! I'm Adokat? WHAT HAPPENED! " Seems strange.

So the guy who posted that reply to me and added "I am Adokat?" actually wasn't you? And you then added the other edit?

As crazy as it sounds - it seems that someone has somehow managed to accidentally log himself in as you and wasn't aware of it himself. Must be one hell of a mix up. o_O I'm wondering which user it actually was.

You should really change your password, btw, just in case.