*looks at thread title*
I cannot see any possible way in which this thread could go wrong whatsoever.

Not really, no. At least, not in that vein. So, GOG 'curates' their games, only selling games they think will be beneficial to their platform? OK, that's fine. Of course, that will mean they'll reject games that some gamers really want to see here. But it's a business - their business - and I figure they probably know better than the average gamer how to run it profitably.

As for the sales/discounts, that's disappointing, to be sure, but again, that's business. And while I think there may be some avenues for GOG to address things like this better than they are, it's likely more complicated than I or any of us other armchair businessmen really understand. Likely things like exclusivity deals with Steam (or other distributors), which can't be enlightened due to NDAs, etc.

No, the things that disappoint me are if GOG starts to stray from their 'core' values, touted when they launched the site. Which they've done more than once. So far not egregious enough to make me abandon them. But I'm watching them closely.

To answer your questions seriously: There is no real criteria that we know of. They apparently have some sort of curation process, but this has led to multiple games being rejected that many of us would love in favor of titles which, to us, look nowhere near as good, which has angered many (hence the "too niche" joke - GOG's canned rejection response is "we feel this game is too niche to appeal to our userbase" or something similar). Nobody's really sure exactly what they use to determine what gets the boot and what doesn't. My personal guess is that they're trying to appeal to some market which we aren't aware of (remember that the forum is a VERY small percentage of the userbase, and is in no way indicative of what most of GOG's users want). The publisher decides the discounts, not the store. We had an incident sometime back where Amanita Design released Botanicula here with a launch discount while it was at the $1 (or some other low tier) on Humble Bundle at the same time. People were not happy, to say the least. To be fair, this is the only place where you can find such a wide assortment of quality DRM-free games. I got ninja'd by a TREE?
I know my reflexes are slow, but c'mon...

Hey, at least it was asentient tree! Could have been worse, amirite?

That's true. I could have been ninja'd by tinyE.
*runs*

LOL - thank you for the literal 'laugh out loud'.

We want mediocre platformers.

I for one flat out refuse to purchase anything good and I won't stand by a company that tries to sell me anything good. :P

And NOT EVEN 1 MINUTE LATER he SHOWS UP!
Jiminy crickit! I thought you were sleeping?!

I don't sleep anymore.

At last! I have proof that my tinyE summoning ritual DOES work! I'll make MILLIONS! MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA! MILLIONS, I TELL YOU! MILLIONS AND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS...
...of stupid jokes.

The truth is way more pathetic. You didn't summon me; I never leave.

It's the off season, what the hell else am I gonna do?

SHHH! Quit ruining my marketing campaign, dagnabbit! At least wait until the bottling company signs the contract!
Arrange Legos into compromising positions?
Amuse the donkeys?
Play video games?
Take up knitting?

You're still so new that you compare GOG to Steam. Therein lies your problems. :P

Don't have any Legos
The donkeys are asleep
I am playing a game in another window
I hate knitting