My wishes don't matter - they won't be fulfilled, anyway.

I forgot one! Resolving that Prison Architect contest! That would be perfect :D

My #1 wish: don't make things worse.

Don't break more things again, like in the last anniversary. Especially don't change the forum software to something that works even worse (including many that have been suggested by users here: newer is not always better) and loses all prior posts (which could probably be restored with effort, but I doubt they want to put that effort in). Don't add more animations and other distracting bling (in fact, drop most of what was already added: I don't like constantly running animations on the store page, and I shouldn't have to look for a plugin to disable it). Don't make the site more mobile-friendly or Chrome-friendly at the expense of everyone else. Don't make me use Twitter/Facebook/Discord/whatever is currently popular to find out what's going on.

Maybe don't add any more exciting new Galaxy-only features, especially ones that could just as easily have been done without Galaxy. Not only does that make your "optional" promise less valid, it alienates Linux users even more.

Things which I think would actually make things better:

Stop using Flash. It's been a blight for most of its existence, and its' dead now. I can't even take advantage of game giveaways any more, since the only way you support them is by clicking on Flash. [note: if I'm wrong, and the flash thing is a bug in your site when using my particular browser, then fix that. All I see is a giant "this uses flash" error, for probably years now]

Automate stuff. Manual procedures do not scale. This is why you get mistakes like broken/missing subforum links, missing "blue dot" update notifications, offline installers lagging behind vendor-initiated Galaxy updates, etc. Yes, automated procedures can fail. That's what logs and responsive admins are for.

Actually announce new games, in a post that announces games (not buried in a sale ad). Provide a way to easily filter out "coming soon" (and also show more news items, and move them to the top rather than making me use a CSS hack that breaks with every site tweak to do that), and try to stem that tide a bit (no "coming soon" at a greater rate than your average release rate). Provide an actual estimate for "soon". Pick a phrase, "in development" or "early access", and stick to it. Proofread your announcements. Put more thought into the 3 tags that you assign (I realize the other tags come from 3rd party sources, mostly, so you have no control over them, really).

I've given up on getting Linux support here. I guess I should just thank them for at least selling the vendor-supplied Linux builds. GOG can't even be bothered to provide Linux versions of many of the DOSBOX and ScummVM games.

Not much point in asking for new games, since that's entirely game vendor-driven. Don't know why people ask gog to release games, when it's not their decision to make (although I guess they might get more games if only they drop their only remaining distinguishing feature, which they will only do right now for CDPR games). If they do have some major game "in the works", I'd prefer they release it as soon as possible, rather than making it part of their anniversary plans.

I don't know what kind of broken setup you have, but it's not the site's fault. Flash isn't used and I've never heard of anyone having such a problem with the giveaway banners.

I have no suggestions for a replacement forum, because I've never needed to implement one myself (although I might do that in the near future, if I live long enough). I don't even know what they're using now. I don't want something that interferes with my way of doing things, which a lot of modern software does, with its over-reliance on JavaScript. There are plenty of little things that could make the current software better, if they only cared enough to do it.

Downloading old versions of games seems useful to me. Downloading "beta" releases as well. Neither of these would technically require Galaxy, but that's not how they implemented them. Their "offline installer" section only allows downloading of the current release, and I guess they don't bother with patches any more, either (although I'm not sure I remember ever having a game with Linux patches). The "grab the freebie" button on the front page (which is the only way to grab freebies; the store page for the game just links to that) doesn't work for me, and hasn't for a while (years?). It claims that it's flash. As I said, even if that isn't the case, there's no reason it shouldn't work in default modern Firefox. On multiple machines, with multiple versions of Firefox. Whatever. It doesn't matter that much to me, since I was only ever even mildly interested in one, out of morbid curiosity. I actually disagree with this. I have tried staging in the past. It is not well developed, or at least it wasn't then. Lots of really bad code, e.g. some 32-bit-only code, got in. The documentation was/is also worse. Any undocumented feature is a bug.

This is surprising, I don’t remember ever seeing anything related to Flash on GOG website.

Could you share a link to a page featuring this error?

Sure, next time there's a "giveaway" on the front page.

;) I got the reference without the link.

This made me chuckle! Got tears in my eyes... xD


Most of what I wish for GOG's 15th Anniversary has already been expressed by many here. :) But I'll be very honest..., reading everybody's wishes made me a little sad knowing that in all likelihood, none of these excellent ideas will be implemented. :( Nonetheless, it is important that your voices have spoken! :)

My 2 wishes are not for the GOG company,

1) But isolated to its Arts department: WOW!!
If there is something your company clearly leads over the rest is Art
You guys rock!! You are the top of the notch
Keep that huge talent going no matter what, yeah, even if EVERYTHING THERE declines
I wish you get all the credit your merit deserve & all the best!!
I hope the anniversary gives an excuse to spoil us with a huge goodies pack from you
(Avatars, wallpapers,
some kind of representation of the community through your eyes...)
Fingers crossed!! :)

2) To the GOG community: WOW!!
This e-store doesnt deserve you, I really mean it
Beyond all the stupid fragmentation GOG has caused itself, All your loyalty,
your Full Honesty (YES, the cornerstone to make digital-control-free work),
your Restless Spirit to Help, Share & Contribute
and your Infinite Patience are Totally Out-Of-This-World
I wish all your vgaming dreams come true (which are also mine hahaha :))
Thanks for making vgaming not only an Art, but Culture. A huge one!
Lets stay strong together & long life to the vgaming community!!
Everyone is invited!! :)

How about you and I watch Overdrawn at the Memory Bank over a cold cheers?

That'd have been worth a news article...

I had to wiki that... Now I'm all smiles! :D I think the first round of cold cheers is on me! ;)

That's really weird. Checked an archived snapshot of a past freebie, I'm seeing object tags there, but that's used for way more than flash. (Also "picture" and "use" tags and a custom "gog-countdown-timer" tag. And webp, png and svg images.)

Edit: Don't have FF but checked that snapshot in Palemoon. Unsurprisingly, doesn't load much of anything, but doesn't say it uses Flash either, the giveaway banner loads the picture and that's it, loading animation otherwise.