So what doest it exactly? Does it only make games playable on new operating systems so you don’t have to make a workaround anymore?
For example with vampire the masquerade redemption…. What about cloud saves or maybe adding languages? Its on
english only

Precisely.

"The GOG Preservation Program ensures classic games remain playable on modern systems, even after their developers stopped supporting them. By maintaining these iconic titles, GOG helps you protect and relive the memories that shaped you, DRM-free and with dedicated tech support."

https://www.gog.com/gog-preservation-program

Furthermore:

"GOG Dreamlist (in the mid- to long-term replacing the community wishlist) is a community-based tool anyone can use to vote for the games they want to see revived or added to our platform (and eventually the GOG Preservation Program). These votes help GOG demonstrate community interest to IP owners and bring these games to life on our platform."

https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/

Its a well worded way of blowing smoke up our collective backside.

It is a way of pretending to care about something they can do, but have not.

What it REALLY is for, is to half assed, let us know, they are dropping Windows 10, when MS does. For a less functional buggy Win11. The gog staff apparently thought it would makem look better to pretend to care about game preservation.

Which is ironic. Because if they cared, they would offer content consistant with the preservation in mind. Which they dont. Period.

Can they? Yes. Will they? Probably not.

How and what type of content can they provide?

2 Simple offerings. 1 right now and 1 they offer now but have not talked about offering in the future.

1) Provide all DOS games in their latest original package. No gog or any wrapper. No removed files from the original game content. This would provide us with actual future proofing. This also provides new users, who would like to play such games an easy to use package, that will be able to be used across any platform. How so? Because at this time of writing. Every OS has some DOS emulator. But having to remove all the trash gog adds and may even strip files from, makes the cross platforming process a tedius annoyance. Plus it is not actual preservation, when tampering with those files.

Its like covering up nudity in old artwork, because some bozo, doesnt like nudity. Like adding a magic marker mustache to the Mona Lisa, because in the future, it becomes fashionable.

2) After MS kills off Win10. What can gog do? Make available the last, best known to function version for Win10, for the offline installer. Done. They already have this, literally now. Even offering a request option, if they feel the servers couldnt handle it for auto adding it to all accounts. Perhaps hide the option in the dropdown menu for each game. So accessing it would be intentional and not by accident.

Since staff could have done this for years and have not. This is why their gimmick is an insult to ACTUAL preservation. They can. They just dont.

What else needs to be said? You hit the nail squarely on the head.

Please allow me.

3. Recreate, and provide access to, offline installers of "old" versions of games, as the newest update is not always desired by every user (as we can see by Dragon Age: Origins discussion in nearly every thread that mentions the Preservation Program). There are any number of reasons why one might prefer a "less updated" version, from content removal all the way to speedrunners preferring certain bugs/glitches remain in place, or even people like me who actually like softlocks in some instance.

Imo, GOG should ensure that offline installer users are treated as well as Galaxy installer users. Currently, Galaxy users can "roll back" to previous versions. Offline installer -only users have no such recourse and get stuck with the latest version, whether they like it or not. Here is of course where Galaxy Guardians like the reddit crowd would jump in to interject "you don't have to download the newest version! Just keep your old offline installer if you refuse to use Galaxy, what's the problem, tee-hee!".

The problem is that if you don't buy a game in time before an undesired update, you (as an offline installer -only user) missed your chance forever. I have the old working version of Dragon Age: Origins, but what if I had waited until now to buy it, or all of my backups failed? I see people are having problems with F.E.A.R.'s Preservation update; same question. Even trickier territory presents itself when we consider games that had outright content changes like Chuchel or (UNWANTED!!) updates to a shiny new Remastered version like Saint's Row IV.

Other games are affected too:

The last updated build of Legacy of Kain: Defiance works on Windows 10 but now has issues on Windows 7.

If you install the latest build on a Windows 7 machine (at least on my system), all FMVs will stutter.
Thankfully I did not delete the build before the last one and this one does not stutter on a Windows 7 machine. Can anyone who owns Windows 7 and LOK: Defiance confirm this?

Preservation Program is essentially what everyone else has already described in detail in this and many other threads: making sure games work on Windows 10 and if that means creating issues with earlier versions of Windows 10, well too bad.

Preservation Program also means that games such as the PC port of Metal Gear Solid will never become a part of it, knowing it can be improved but doing nothing about it. I keep beating this dead horse but check these links below to see what I mean:

Playlist with 1 minute long comparison videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbaAx5NSsgo&list=PL09vbdSCGvkdHl9lrcvOUXwX41adLn0yt

Full game play-through:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IsBuGW5kZk

I am considering sharing my audio mod (the one in the videos above) with 1 individual from this forum or from Steam. It would be easier here since this community is magnitudes smaller than Steam’s community.

All you have to do is send me an invitation chat request. If I can trust that you will not release my work out in the wild I will share my mod with you, but you have to then provide your own feedback about it on this forum. Send me a chat invitation and I’ll know you are interested. We may know each other already, “if you know what I mean”.