I also prefer to have a manual. Most people don't read them, though, so some publishers / game companies don't want to get too elaborate.
You should be able to either resume a broken download or re-start the download if you loose your connection. It depends on the service how long after purchase you can re-download (I believe Steam allows multiple downloads without a time limit). I would want to burn the install program to disk for a backup, though, even with the ability to download it again.
My main concern with digital downloads (other than simply preferring to have a physical product) is online authentication. Steam probably isn't going to disappear anytime soon, but I have several games sitting on a shelf waiting to be played from companies and/or publishers that went out of business. With a physical disk I can still install and play these games; with digital downloads I could be out of luck. There are places like
Good Old Games that sell games without any DRM (and allow multiple downloads). Newer games are less likely to be free of copy protection, but at least some publishers seem to be starting to pay attention to the negative publicity caused by the more draconian copy protection schemes.
There has been no official mention either way of a download for D2:ED. Beyond Divinity is available for download (from
GamersGate) and they mentioned DD was in the works, so Larian at least isn't opposed to the concept.
Welcome to the forum.
