Hello!

Everytime I go to GOG Dreamlist (aka community wishlist) and see even popular titles still didn't reach GOG shelves, I become sad for good old games with bad promo campaign. Guess nearly everyone here have at least one such game.

In my case it's "SunAge: Battle for Elysium". It has 12 upvotes and it's dev / publisher is inactive. It seems like there's no point for this game to be in Dreamlist. Zero odds to by added to store or even GOG will pay attention to it.

I'm really sad for other good game with such fate. Hidden gems as they called.

Maybe it's a good idea to ask GOG to do such thing as a regular but rare tryout to publish such unpopular games? At least by random, one by one, with some timeout if the case met a dead end. In that case these game will have at least a chance, even the tiny one.

The estimated number of "videogames that exist in the world" ranges between ~100.000 and ~5.000.000, according to a quick search.
Even if it's "only" 100.000 - those games will never ALL be available on ANY store - much less on GOG.

So - don't expect all of someone's "hidden gems" to ever be released here.
It's an impossibility.

Over 1.1 million are currently listed just on itch, so even the high estimate may be off.

When you are writing such posts remember to give the link for dreamlist page.
https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/sunage-battle-for-elysium-2014

For unpopular and indie games it might be hard, but step by step and they will make it.
Such posts like yours, people browsing dreamlist by looking by genre for the games which they didn't have played and they will get more votes.
The most important thing is the game will not be forgotten and pages in Dreamlist are not limited by bare text, but have videos, screenshots will attract more possible players.

The good thing is, even lesser-known games without very much real demand sometimes get re-released anyway if the rights happen to fall into the lap of some dedicated "oldies" publisher like Ziggurat Interactive, Piko Interactive or SNEG (and there are surely some others I don't remember or have never heard of), and they can re-release them for cheap...albeit usually with little to no work done to make them run better on modern systems, and sometimes missing supplemental stuff (like the manual) that tends to be crucial for old games. But yeah, GOG themselves probably can't afford to bother with really obscure games.

Still, it costs nothing to vote on a game, and as long as you'd definitely buy it if it got released here, there's no harm, either. :)

How about adding your story/memories to the game ... ?

Even accounting for the myriad array of shovelware titles, naff arcade ports, single dev projects, I feel that a greater concern within the dreamlist is the number of implausible requests that one can find.

For example: Mechanical amusement devices.

Physical card games.

Games for computers that don't run x86 code and could hardly be considered computers...

Editions of games that feel like a misnomer to list.

Games which are language locked. (Bonus, this one never had a PC port.)

And I'm sure there's things like productivity suites, art programmes, and other such non-games which I'd have to ask, "Is GOG serious about preserving Office 97 or Deluxe Paint 2?"

Why would GOG go out of its way to bring non-popular games back when it's barely surviving?

I think they go "back to the farm" like my first dog. :/

Here's a GOG Preservation description:

"The GOG Preservation Program A small gamepad img ensures classic games remain playable on modern systems, even after their developers stopped supporting them. By maintaining these iconic titles, GOG helps you A small shield img protect and relive the memories that shaped you, A small padlock img DRM-free and with dedicated tech support."

and there's no word about how populars classic games are.

ZP has been doing it. But somehow, they have survived for ten years.

Even cancelled games...

https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/worms-v-lemmings

what's the point in voting for those... wishing GOG would complete them??

It seems to me, that it is only in the last two or three years that ZP finally spent some decent money, time and effort on the place. Before that it very much seemed like they were running on the smell of an oily rag.

Even now, we have no idea how financial they truly are.

I've bought a number of games from them and gotten all their free games, but if they were relying on me to survive, they would fail, because their prices are nearly always too high, and their sales too few.

So it seems to me they just exist, without much outlay to do so.
GOG on the other hand spend far more money on presentation, sales and promotion, and have far more games.

That said, I see ZP have spent some money and time on a Linux initiative, so kudos to them.

Aside from that, things happen too slowly at ZP, which is why I rarely check them now, and have missed a few sales, which is disappointing ... I certainly would have bought Duke 1 and Duke 2 in one of those sales.

But "iconic" is there.

I have zero expectations for something like:
https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/one-must-fall-battlegrounds-2003
ever hitting the shop, but thankfully a lot of my wishes have come true over years.

There's only handful of titles left that I personally consider must get, so if the new dreamlist gets even one of them added I'm happy.