A long post but I think worth the read and especially the conversation. I've been mulling starting this topic for a very long time...

Except for a few notable exceptions (IE System Shock 2, etc.) I've noticed for the last year or so that we've had remarkably less older games getting released on GOG. I still religiously check every Tuesday and Thursday and frankly I can't really even remember the last time I bought a game. I would say that I'm a pretty loyal GOG fan as I have a GOG collection of 60 games/compilations.

I know some months ago now GOG kicked around a lot of polls about our opinions on newer games, DLCs, episodic games, MMOs, yada. A lot of things that for me personally stray too far away from the original vision for GOG. For awhile now I've been irritated and angry at GOG for taking some of those paths. However, after taking a more reasonable look at the situation, I evaluated GOG's current offerings. My conclusion is that I think its a fair assessment to state that by and large GOG covers the majority of the major classic franchises.

Sure we've all seen the requested games lists and there is absolutely good stuff there. But are we ever really likely to see some of those franchises? (I'm looking at you Blizzard games). With that in mind has GOG really exhausted the cream of the available crop? Even in a potential pool of 10s of 1000s of PC games made in history. Have we more or less hit the ceiling?

I don't want this turn into a suggestions thread of what random fan of so and so thinks is a crucial missing misc game. We all still have something we'd like to see on here that isn't. For me I really want to see Warlords 3: Darklords Rising, but I realize that is middle tier type of franchise and personable favorite.

Anyway. Long story short. Is the GOG that we knew officially gone? For the foreseeable future is this now, by a vast majority, an indie game venue? Several years ago when many of us discovered GOG did we ever expect the ceiling for 30-40 years of PC gaming history to cap out at only a few hundred games?

So let's talk your visions of GOG's potential future strategies. For the sake of argument let's ignore how impossible the logistics might for any idea, but just pitch something you'd like to see.

For me I would love to see DLC/Expansion/Add-on packages for our classic older games. Say Baldur's Gate for instance and the vast amount of excellent fan-made add-ons. Again, I realize how very very unrealistic it would be to ever coordinate an agreement between a copyright owner and the modders and then package add-ons like that AND have GOG assuming the liability for them to work correctly. Just pitch your ideas. If anyone chooses to comment on a pitched idea let's avoid any negative "can't ever happen" comments and try to think of "how it can happen."

So besides retro indie games (we are seeing plenty of these). What else could be done to continue the "true spirit" of Good Old Games.

Well they did change their name from the acronym G.O.G. (Good Old Games) to GOG which doesn't stand for anything.
And they release several oldies every month.

At the risk of getting copious amounts of shit for complaining, we seem to be averaging a thread a day on how bad GOG is getting. I'm not here to argue that, I still love em but that's me; what I'm here to argue is that there are WAY TOO MANY threads about it. It's starting to remind me of my asshole 3rd grade gym teacher who kept telling me what I was doing wrong over and over and over and over leaving me to believe he must have thought I was deaf. My point is that I think they get the point so we can stop posting about it.

"Quit pretending that rope is a man!"

I'm getting pretty sick of these threads too.

Sorry, guy, it's clear you're new but it's seriously been discussed to death around here.

edit: Also, it's kind of funny because there was guy just a few days ago complaining about the lack of new games.

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/sighstill_new_games_not_coming_to_gog

Just can't win.

Just because you don't like Wing Commander: Academy or Thunderscape doesn't mean they're not good old games.

It's bound to happen, though. There's a limit on how many old games GOG can get its hands on, and how good these games are. GOG is still releasing a couple of old (10+ years old) games a month, and I'm sure it's going to continue, but adding newer games is a reasonable way to move forward.

I will also agree that this shouldn't devolve it a bitch session. I'm sure GOG has spent a great deal of time brainstorming ideas such as the ones I'm suggesting people should pitch. The point of the thread is to pool our minds on ways that the spirit of the Good Old Games concept can continue to live on. But perhaps some fresh idea can come of a civil discussion on the topic.

This is not a criticism of GOG. Any logical thinking person can see that GOG has given a lot and perhaps all that they can. I love GOG, I think the service that they have provided to us gamers is phenomenal. But is there something else that can be done? I don't have a problem with those titles. Releasing a few older games per month doesn't change the fact that we've essentially run out of the top tier high caliber franchises. As I stated though there will be of course notable exception from time to time (IE Wing Commander). But if we're not at the ceiling yet then we are extremely close.

If one has been gaming for a longtime (especially if your over 40) one does realise there are literally tons and tons of classic old games (some pretty shit ones admittedly as well). Heaps more than recent games imho.

LOL. That is ironic. Again though this isn't meant to be a new games versus old games debate. I'm fine with GOG releasing newer games, especially retro styled games because I feel this is in the spirit of Good Old Games. I didn't always necessarily feel that way, but as a survival strategy for GOG it is a legitimate pathway.

Yeah, I'm sorry but this all sounds like I've read it all before several times a year since I've joined GOG. Before there can be any meaningful discussion you'd have to provide objectively verifiable proof that your premise of GOG releasing lesser old games than before is actually true. In the past whenever someone "felt" like GOG was releasing less old games than before, they were proven wrong by a listing of the year's releases compared to previous years. So do you have that list of this year's releases of old and new games ready, so we can check if this perceived change from old to new/indie is an actual fact?

As for that cream of the crop thing, which is a bit subjective, it's only natural that there will be more spectacular game releases immediately after GOG manages to sign a big publisher. They convinced a few of the big ones, but not all of them - yet. Sure, Blizzard seems pretty unlikely right now, but many people didn't expect EA or the D&D games to come here either.

Don't worry. Over five years all the games that are being released right now will be Good Old Games.

GOG has stated that at this point the hardest part of getting old games on here is the legal jungle that is licensing. They've said that sometimes the companies have no idea who currently holds the license for a particular title and without that license you can't sell the game.

There is another thread that's attempting to find out where those licenses might be:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_search_for_game_rights_a_diaryesque_thread

So the community is actively doing something to help GOG acquire these games, but again, the problem is finding those rights holders and getting their permission in the first place.

Also The Chaos Engine is a barely touched port of the superior Amiga version of a 1993 classic, You should really count it as still 'old' just because its been scrubbed and polished a bit
Just go look of the Gorky 17 forums at the people saying 'C'mon GOG CDProjekt bought the company that originally developed this so you MUST have access to the source code therefore you should re-write broken chunks of it'
Same with Lords of Midnight too!
Also it looks like the summer slump is over and we're being hit with a torrent of goodness again \o/

yeah, there's just so many good old games that aren't on gog yet

We've never had this conversation before! Certainly not hundreds of times the last couple years, no sir!