rjbuffchix: In the case of a specific niche, it absolutely does mean that. IF not caring to maintain a specific niche identity, then yes, open the floodgates. Let me give an example of what I mean:

Say I want to open a storefront only selling survival horror games. Casual observers and even some customers demand I start selling Call of Duty in addition, and justify it with the flimsy excuse there is a zombie mode. I have a choice to make. I can either keep the vision of my store intact or I can compromise the vision of my store. Keep in mind that even by compromising my original idea and making more money in the short-term, does not mean that this ends up being best for long-term business and identity.

Even if GOG approved every game that they take under consideration to be here, what if I told you they would necessarily STILL be excluding games? That is to say, GOG has (thankfully) chosen to remain DRM-free, meaning they are effectively "curating out" any games that can't or won't meet this criterion. GOG has actively chosen to not be like another Humble that sells DRMed games alongside some DRM-free games. The fact that GOG tries to also be a selective store, within DRM-free market, does not strike me as altogether different from this, nor a bad thing.

timppu: No matter what they wrote, people like you would never be happy. You would just keep complaining.

Anyone with logic can understand that it goes case by case, it would be pretty much impossible to write a comprehensive acceptance rule that would always apply. For instance, I already mentioned that merely there being released too many similar games at the same time might be such a reason, or that overall the staff happens to be swamped with new (suggested) releases at some point.

I don't know what criteria my local grocery store uses for selecting new products to their store, and frankly I don't feel they should waste their time trying to come up with some kind of "clearly stated, objective criteria for product acceptance on the store" or even just "a FAQ lol". What purpose would it serve? I am sure they are already busy enough running the store.

timppu: You are wasting everyone's time with your inane and illogical demands on what GOG "should do".

As long as they are not breaking any laws, there isn't really anything GOG "must" do. If some rejected developer feels GOG has poor communication and will not contact GOG again because of that, that is GOG's problem, and GOG will take the hit from it.

Kids, don't try to tell adults how to run a business, ok?

timppu: No matter what they wrote, people like you would never be happy. You would just keep complaining.

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Anyone with logic can understand that it goes case by case, it would be pretty much impossible to write a comprehensive acceptance rule that would always apply. For instance, I already mentioned that merely there being released too many similar games at the same time might be such a reason, or that overall the staff happens to be swamped with new (suggested) releases at some point.

I don't know what criteria my local grocery store uses for selecting new products to their store, and frankly I don't feel they should waste their time trying to come up with some kind of "clearly stated, objective criteria for product acceptance on the store" or even just "a FAQ lol". What purpose would it serve? I am sure they are already busy enough running the store.
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timppu: You are wasting everyone's time with your inane and illogical demands on what GOG "should do".

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As long as they are not breaking any laws, there isn't really anything GOG "must" do. If some rejected developer feels GOG has poor communication and will not contact GOG again because of that, that is GOG's problem, and GOG will take the hit from it.

Kids, don't try to tell adults how to run a business, ok?

dgnfly: Your making this vision that if GOG keeps its bullshit Boutique style Curation it will net them more profit whilst actually people are more inclined to go to the storefront that gives you more option not takes it away at their whim.

dgnfly: GOG can't stay afloat regardless of their stupid Curation cause they won't be able to get the heavy hitting publishers newer games, and they now already alienating their Niche community.

rjbuffchix: And which storefront would that be? If you mean Steam, well that is where the vast majority of people go regardless, for a variety of reasons (which I have discussed in other topics but don't want to veer off track here). For a gamer like myself, Steam is not really a viable option. I value being able to have DRM-free offline gaming over having a larger selection, over having a client, over having achievements, et cetera.

As far as I see it, GOG is the only store to purchase a wide selection of big, expansive DRM-free games (including many AAA titles). itch has a wide(r?) selection of indie games perhaps, but lacks titles and appears to not have as many . There are some other small stores like Zoom Platform and Fireflower Games, with drastically smaller selections and which iirc have not received any new releases in literally years.

rjbuffchix: GOG got classic Blizzard games this year that nearly all users thought was an impossibility. GOG has gotten quite a relatively quite impressive number of AAA games here in the last couple years alone, as it is saying something given how these publishes luvvvvvvvv DRM schemes so hard. Also there are many new games coming down the pipeline...Vampire 2 is able to be pre-ordered, Age of Wonders, not to mention Bloodstained (one of the more hyped games around for older gamers).

Please consider that already with the curation many users are complaining about how difficult it is to browse for games given the website redesign, searches apparently not always accurate in terms of things like searching chronologically, etc. What would happen if GOG opened the floodgates and stopped curating? It could render browsing the store essentially useless unless you already knew the name of the title you wanted, because to just look through would require sifting through a sea of shovelware.

Linko64: There was half a project there to explain the curation process to act as a resource for users to checkout before asking why X was rejected etc but looks like no one picked up the idea to finish it. sorry ^^

dgnfly: [snip]

rjbuffchix: And which storefront would that be? If you mean Steam, well that is where the vast majority of people go regardless, for a variety of reasons (which I have discussed in other topics but don't want to veer off track here). For a gamer like myself, Steam is not really a viable option. I value being able to have DRM-free offline gaming over having a larger selection, over having a client, over having achievements, et cetera.

As far as I see it, GOG is the only store to purchase a wide selection of big, expansive DRM-free games (including many AAA titles). itch has a wide(r?) selection of indie games perhaps, but lacks titles and appears to not have as many . There are some other small stores like Zoom Platform and Fireflower Games, with drastically smaller selections and which iirc have not received any new releases in literally years.

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GOG got classic Blizzard games this year that nearly all users thought was an impossibility. GOG has gotten quite a relatively quite impressive number of AAA games here in the last couple years alone, as it is saying something given how these publishes luvvvvvvvv DRM schemes so hard. Also there are many new games coming down the pipeline...Vampire 2 is able to be pre-ordered, Age of Wonders, not to mention Bloodstained (one of the more hyped games around for older gamers).
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Please consider that already with the curation many users are complaining about how difficult it is to browse for games given the website redesign, searches apparently not always accurate in terms of things like searching chronologically, etc. What would happen if GOG opened the floodgates and stopped curating? It could render browsing the store essentially useless unless you already knew the name of the title you wanted, because to just look through would require sifting through a sea of shovelware.

rjbuffchix: I am totally in agreement that "reviewbombs" should not be political, but rather, for games being bad and lacking technical features (or requiring psuedo-DRM like MANY of the multiplayer titles here that require Galaxy and/or third party authentication). In fact I would say there are many undesired games here along these lines. If I was so lucky as to be in charge, I would have curated things differently, perhaps allowing some games not here but also excluding quite a few that are here (or are arriving soon).

timppu: So it would take much more endless arguments to go through the reasons, elaborating them over and over again, arguing back and forth whether or not the decision was "right" etc. Not merely "writing up a FAQ lol".

rjbuffchix: I am totally in agreement that "reviewbombs" should not be political, but rather, for games being bad and lacking technical features (or requiring psuedo-DRM like MANY of the multiplayer titles here that require Galaxy and/or third party authentication). In fact I would say there are many undesired games here along these lines. If I was so lucky as to be in charge, I would have curated things differently, perhaps allowing some games not here but also excluding quite a few that are here (or are arriving soon).

I do understand what you're saying. To give some perspective, my ideal of PC gaming is like mid-90s. Everything available retail, lush boxes, generally no DRM or if there is it was stuff like entering codes from a manual, not always-online-authentication nonsense. I am horrified at what Steam did to PC gaming since then and don't think PC gaming can truly ever recover from its effects. Ideally, I want all games available DRM-free. I think GOG does a pretty good job considering how resistant publishers are to ceding any control to the customer.

Deadly Premonition is a great example of a cult classic game. It is also what I would call a "AA" game from back in the day, a budget game but still made by a "real" studio. Indie gaming nowadays is not equivalent to "AA" games. Some indies may be, some may be equivalent to AAA even, but in general it is much smaller scale. The type of games I see flooding itch, for example, do not resemble the scope of a game like Deadly Premonition. Since you mentioned graphics, the graphics of Deadly Premonition are like original Xbox/PS2 level. Very few indie games are pushing even that hard.

dgnfly: I get ya with the 90's Vibe. But i think No-DRM is more becoming a thing because they know you can't stop piracy with just locking your game down. After Valve went with the whole STEAM/DRM thing I went with Playstation for the old school feel but sadly they sold out to SJW with their new censorship policy which I think stifles creativity, The notion that people always mimic what they see is Bull. I went with GOG cause i felt that DRM is important as a consumer rights thing, I wanted to support the old games I used to play for nostalgic and for them being groundbreaking games.
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Deadly Premonition would have been forgotten if it wasn't for the fans cause it sure got panned at the start for being broken and having low-grade graphics. So the problem with that is some people can appreciate Cult-classic but most people can't, And right now GOG's Curation team seems to be a bunch of simpletons that can't even recognize that all classical games are masterpieces for the most part for trying to be different even the older crappy ones.
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Curation has a problem of being afflicted by the people behind the scenes, either by political reasons like most are these days or personal ones. My no Curation leaves it up to the masses to sort out what's good or bad. They could even leave it to the wishlist but they even seem to ignore that. I'm still waiting for games like Hatred and Agony to release here but they seem to get hatred for being provocative while I just see Hatred as another Postal and I see Agony as something that stands out, but it seems people are scared of the idea of hell, Or they just so triggered by naked creatures.
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I like my games weird cause nearly everything else is copy pasted these days even the heavy hitters. So now I'm looking for games like the past, With that I mean games that try to be weird or they try to be retro.

GameRager: