So I hadn't paid a great deal of attention to this whole kickstarter thing, until Obsidian's Eternity popped up yesterday. It got me thinking in a different way about how the masses can motivate companies to produce just the games we want. Which lead me to thinking of a different angle to this. What if we could persuade GOG to release the games we really want the most, and help them to sway companies to let them do so? Now hear me out, this may be a pipe dream, but it might not have to be.
This is what I thought:
What if GOG set up something similar to kickstarter, only giving us a chance to make pledges to games that are already out that we want on GOG. Say we want Civilization 2 here, and so a large number of GOG'ers show GOG and the company that holds it's rights that there is a high demand, and they will get money right away for it too. This way GOG can work on releasing the games that are most sought out by it's customers, with guaranteed money if they deliver in a certain amount of time.
I realize that some games take a lot more effort to get working on today's systems, so the pledge "drive" can be a success once GOG secures the rights (though of course they won't charge us for the game till it's out).
I'm not sure, but, I think if all of a sudden 5,000 (or more) of us said and pledged we would buy say Warcraft 2 if it came here today that this would give GOG better bargaining power to sign big companies who aren't here yet like Lucas Arts, Blizzard, and Microsoft.
Now as customers there is nothing we can do to make this happen here, but, if you think this is a good idea and/or would like to add some of your own ideas to it, maybe GOG can think about implementing something like it and see if it works. I think it's worth a shot, and it will bring even more involvement from the community and increase interest in what GOG has and may soon be offering. Any thoughts? Have I gone mad? Or is this some cool beans?

EDIT to clear up some questions and confusions:
1: We would not pay for the game until it was released on GOG.
2: The pledge would have a time limit and we could always withdraw our pledges whenever it pleases us before the game is released.
3: This is in no way a solid plan, just a start of an idea I had to, I think, improve GOG for us and them. So expect rough edges and maybe a little fuzziness too.
4: Yes, I know there is a wishlist. ;-p
5: And yes, I know this has a chance of happening about as big as Mr. T's navel.
EDIT2 to add another Idea I had:
To make this a more attractive prospect for all of us, (if) GOG could somehow get an agreement with the game company as to how many pledges must be made for the game to be sold here, that would really make this work better I think. For all of us to know the exact number of pledges to bring a game here, would add interest and excitement to the prospect of getting our favorite games on GOG.

Another Idea: Perhaps we could be able to vote on games for GOG to specifically go after (for the "Pledge Challenge" lets call it) as well as them bringing their own. Let's say it takes a few thousand votes to start a Pledge Challenge by ourselves, so were not flooded with them. And these challenges, unlike GOG's, won't have a number-of-units-sold goal (see above idea), but, will be an attempt to convince the publishers to sell here. If by the end of the pledge not enough have pledged to tempt the game owners to sell here, then the pledges would be void and nobody could start a new pledge on that game for a year or so. As always I'm just adding possibilities, not setting anything in stone. My idea juices are just flowing, and I'm going with the flow. :)

And Another Smaller Idea: We customers would be able to pledge any amount we want to the drive. Meaning, if there is a game you really want on GOG and have money burning in your pocket, you could pledge five copies of it just to try to get it here, and then gift the extra copies to your friends/fellow GOGer's if it does make it here.

https://secure.gog.com/wishlist

^^^ this. They can say "this many people want to buy your game from our site" already.

Ah, you guys miss the point. We can say we want the games, yeah, but, actually promising to pay for them when they first come out would, I think, increase motivation for releasing these games, would it not? Plus it would show companies how much money they will get right off that bat guaranteed.

EDIT: I know this probably won't even be considered by GOG, but, as it was floating around in my head, it seemed pretty awesome. There are a great many good games that have come out that aren't here, and obviously, it would be good for their business if they were here. This seemed to me a way to help GOG get those games on here sooner, rather than later or never. Now that GOG is releasing new games I don't think this would cut too deeply into them continuing to release good/interesting games every week.
Finally, I think this would help them to earn more money not less, because many people will wait for games to go 50% off before buying them. If GOG did it this way, many of those same people (me included) who would wait for a sale, would pay full price (or near it) just so they could get the games they really want here now, instead of next year or even never. I just think it could be a win win for everybody involved. Yet I am sure there are holes in my idea, yet I do think the concept has some merit.

preordering of games that aren't even available... that might help a bit in persuading some companies, but I wouldn't give my money for it.

kickstarter is more useful because the chances of the wish to be fullfilled are much higher.

I understand and I wouldn't give my money either. You see, they wouldn't charge us until it was released on GOG, if it is released on GOG. :) That is no doubt true, however if this can help bring even 10 extra good games a year here, or even a publisher or two, wouldn't that be a great thing? And I would think the community involvement in it would be a great little added bonus and would make us GOG'ers feel like we have a greater say, no matter how small it may be.

Hi-yah! ;-P
Maybe you're right, maybe it wouldn't do much. However, it would show companies a hard figure as to how much money they would get straight away, which might just make a few of them drool a bit, instead of estimates. As I said it just was an idea that came to me that sounded awesome, and so I'm just kicking it around with the boys. ;)
Passes the ball.

Sorry, but this whole plan makes no sense. You're better off just voting on the wishlist.

They are paying people monthly wages for that.

1 vote for the "I have gone mad" camp. ;-D
(Still I thought I had responded to what you just said already. The difference is that instead of just saying we want that game, us GOG'ers would say that "we will buy that game now" instead. I don't know about you but, every game I voted for on the wishlist I wouldn't necessarily buy right now (for instance I would wait for a sale). Plus some of those votes I made years ago, and I may have gotten them elsewhere already and wouldn't buy them here again.)
EDIT:
Hey, no harm in trying to help make the little gog guys job a bit easier is there? :)

Look, I don't mean to be insulting, but I think you're missing lots of essential points about the purpose and functioning of crowdfunding via services like Kickstarter.

First off, it's a third party that collects the money and only gives it to the people demanding it if certain requirements are met. Without the third party it's like throwing money at some company for no reason. I mean, you suggest to support ideas financially that weren't even proposed by the company that's supposed to provide the service in the end. But also you said that they will only charge people once the game is released. How can that work? The money has to go out instantly and be stored somewhere outside of your wallet (and better not at the company that's the ultimate recipient), you can't just "promise" you will pay up at some unpredictable point. And even if you could get yourself obligated to pay up at some point (which would be absolutely dumb and is not how Kickstarter works): cool, a game gets released on GOG like two years after you pledged, you didn't see it coming and suddenly you get charged because of something you considered neat ages ago? Things may have changed, you may not want the game anymore, you may be broke. Also you have yourself mentioned the example that you've made votes on the wishlist that aren't valid anymore because you got the game from somewhere else already. How is it different in this case? You've "promised" GOG your money, game gets released somewhere else, you grab it there, a year later GOG releases it when you don't want it from GOG anymore but your money is gone either way? It's even worse than a wasted vote! Also, crowdfunding only works with projects of some sort, what you're describing does not qualify for any definition of that word.

Expressing your wishes for future services (that may or may not become available) by paying or getting yourself obligated to pay up once they are available is non-sense.

Yeah, I tend to agree with the "nay-sayers" here.

There's just something odd about "Here's some money, in case you ever actually get around to making or providing this game here."

Might as well say "Hey, here's some money in case you ever get around to making another album" or "Here's some money in case you design some shoes I want at a future date." I don't even like pre-ordering solid projects since so many games now are "pre-order this for full price and get a little bit of extra crap thrown in!" Life is too uncertain to promise to buy something that may or may not see the light of day.

Brilliant idea, actually. I would definitely be up for it. I do tend to wait once a game is already on GOG, but if it is to encourage developers to release their game on GOG, then that would give me quite the reason to invest straight away. I like GOG quite a bit, and this would help me help GOG.It makes quite a bit of sense to me. The wishlist is great and I hope for GOG to keep it around and take it ever more seriously, but using money to enhance the credibility of the wishlist? Brilliant. I adore GOG. I want to buy the games I want off GOG due to GOG's policies. If I can hasten the process with some cash, then why not? It's not like I would be losing anything if the plan falls through.

I don't take any offense. Like I already said, this is just an idea that came to me, and sounded interesting enough that maybe we could chew on it for awhile.
And guess what I have chewed on it some, and I have another idea on how to make this perhaps work better:
What if GOG could go around to different publishers that won't sell their games here and ask them: "How many units must be pledged for you to let us sell the game on our site?" Lets say, they give a number, then we GOGer's know what the goal is to get the game on here for sure. Now this is all speculation, and may not even be doable. But, if they could this would give us a goal here as to how many must pledge before the game would be sold. That would I think make it a much more attractive prospect for all of us.
Another point, there are no set rules as to how they would do this, so no need to invent any. Such as when you said one would have to pay for something two years later. How about putting a time limit of say 2 months (or whatever they decide) on pledges and like kickstarter one can withdraw it any time before it ends? Don't see a problem there do you?
As far as having to charge you the moment you make the pledge, well I'm not big on knowledge as to how these things work. But, I have put in preorders on Amazon, and they wouldn't charge me until it came out. So I imagine it would work just like that, and doesn't seem to me to be too difficult to do, though I'm no expert on such matters. So I don't see how your argument about the money going out instantly applies exactly. Sure GOG would have to set something up for this to be doable, but, I think they are smart enough to figure it out. :)
Lastly, I want to make sure you understand that this is in no way an exact copy of kickstarter, only that that site gave me this idea which I have still been fleshing out. And I know very well that the chance of this happening is small, but, I don't see any harm in passing around a few ideas that I think would improve GOG, the community interest, and the services provided by them.

EDIT:
Again, as already stated: They won't get the money until they release the game. Further, as said above, there of course can be a time limit to how long these pledges last, and should be, and you should be able to un-pledge whenever you feel the urge.