(Classic) PC games online – without DRM

It’s time for a non-technical post. Why? Because I got to know a website selling PC games with a philosophy I’d like to support: „We don’t believe in DRM“ is their statement.

No DRM, no data mining

The website I’m speaking of is GOG.com. Unlike with Steam there is no need for a software client to install and play the games. You just create an account like on any other Web 2.0 website. This only requires a username, an email address and a date of birth. Games can be paid either by credit card or PayPal. With PayPal this takes less than a minute and the game is available in your account.

Because there is no DRM in the setups, you can install the game on all your machines not only N. And there is no problem with keeping a backup on an external drive or a DVD, just for the case GOG goes out of business.

Back to the younger days

Besides the likable concept of GOG, I’m also glad that they have a lot of older games. Games I played earlier or always wanted to play but never managed to. Or those I didn’t finish. I could catch this up now – without paying astronomical prices for oddments. Some of the gems I spotted:

  • Commandos 1 and 2
  • Deus Ex
  • Fallout 1 and 2
  • Gothic 1 and 2
  • Jagged Alliance 1 and 2

Wishlist

Another cool thing about GOG is the wishlist where  you can vote for the games and features you would like to see next on the page. I can’t judge the impact the wishlist actually has. But I personally hope it works, because I would like to have System Shock 2 available there.

By the way, I think the philosophy GOG follows – easy access for a fair price – could be a real answer to piracy. The music industry also got this earlier. Still missing is the movie industry. I know several people who would pay for movies or TV series, if there was a convenient way to access them – that is no prescribed operating system or player software. Maybe one day they will also follow.

Update: I didn’t mention it in the initial post, but to some this may be important: The games on GOG are mostly (if not all) English versions.

Comments (1)

GeroApril 17th, 2012 at 20:25

My favorite gems are not mentioned: Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 🙂

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