I hate to be the loser who whines about wanting something but can't do it himself, but someone should REALLY make a program that apes the gog collection thing and that can be used to launch games. Not really that intense of a program, any hotshot programmers want to give it a shot?
it would be cool if there were some customization options too :P
just to contribute something, I made a nice shiny GOG icon that looks good on any desktop/quick launch app!

steam does it fine.

Blasphemy

i sense the beginning of an off-topic flame war

I could probably knock it up easy enough as a HTA but it'd need manual input of each game's paths if its not in the default loacation

What's wrong with the Games Explorer? It does all that and much more.

only if you have vista, i have xp on my netbook
plus, it doesnt look as cool. im loving the look of the gog collection, makes me feel good about my purchases.

I couldn't code two lines togheter to save my life (sorry), but i do like your GOG icon.

I like the shortcuts on my desktop.

It's a good idea but I fear it becoming a bit too much like DRM - however:
It can combine with the GOG installer, or have it's own to download games for you, setup files you have will be listed in the "Installers" tab.
Installed games (perhaps using the registry to look for them) can be launched from the main screen. A "Launch" button and "Uninstall" button by each, maybe even a link to the gamecard, don't integrate the gamecard through mshtml!!
As for the Registry - looks like all GOG games are in there like this:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GOG.com\GOG[GAMENAME]
I have here things like GOGABESODDYSEE, GOGDOSBOX, GOGIL2...
Ok well those are my ideas which I got carried away with.
***Joe waits for a programmer to come along

i'm not sure i see the need.
Try Find and Run Robot (or Launchy if you must). then if you want to play Giants you just type:
Alt+space G I Enter
Plus it works on all apps. Or try something like objectdock and make some nice icons.

The one problem you're going to really run up against is the need for such a thing. I usually group all of my game shortcuts into a folder and create a toolbar for them, by category. That's probably overkill for a lot of people I imagine.
StarDock has a neat (beta, quite possibly going to a paid version in the future) app called Fences that you might like. When I first saw it I didn't see the need for it, but I've come to find a use for it.

umm, check out my desktop ;)
(attached pic)
it's not a need thing, it's a collection thing. i lLIKE the way gog's collection interface looks and I WANT an app like that. i dont NEED it.
plus, those big shiny covers that gog makes are custom made by them and look way better than stupid icons that i can find. that would be one of the biggest draws of the program.

The box icons are included with the installation if you are using Vista or 7. For XP you can easily convert the box images to icons yourself using a website such as ConvertIco.