Hi guys,
This is a very minor point but I just noticed we have 3 different suggestions for what I believe is the same game 'Draken: order of the flame'
Is there some clever way we can distill those few hundred votes into one suggestion so it gets a bit more prominence?
Its a wonderful gog-esque game and everyone should be given the chance to play it.
Keep up the good work and thanks for all the goging.

ya we have the same issue with roadrash there is roadrash and roadrash 95, the roadrash 95 is not needed at all

Yes, I thought this might be happening with other games too.
And naturally this leads on to the next question of how are games added to gog in the first place (Im sure I should read it in an about us but..)
If the publisher is no-longer in existence and the game is not supported, can it simply be added or is it much more legally complicated?

there is a small complication... just adding it is illegal! someone somewhere still owns the copyright unless it has been given to the public domain.

Basically GOG contacts (sometimes devs/publishers also contact gog too) respective rights holder(s) and negotiates a deal allowing GOG to sell the games here. In case either developer or (worst case) the publisher is defunct rights may be night impossible to deciper as they'll fall to various deptors and possibly original developers them self personally so you can imagine how hard it might become to hunt game rights owners down in worst cases. There are plenty of other complications like getting global distribution rights when there game was originally distributed by regional publishers. There's also the DRM free policy and set price points some devs and publishers have hard time swallowing.

Somebody always owns the rights, even if the original developer or publisher no longer exists. To simply add the game to GOG's library would be blatantly illegal (much like almost every "abandonware" website out there), so if GOG can't find the rights holder, then the game never becomes a part of GOG's library.

Heh. Funny with your mind and old games. My mind read Drakkhen and I didn't notice the spelling until having read the thread.

Tram, my mind and spelling are not the best of friends.
And when I first remembered the game it took me a while to find it using various spellings 'Drakken' 'Drahkn' etc..
As for tracking down the copyright holders.. I can now see this is a mammoth task and explains why some seemingly obvious additions to gog have not been added - yet.

I bought it for the amiga, heard it was really good but never got around to play it. It have a striking name and manual/box image and by reading the manual and what fanboys say it sounds like it is something worthy of GOG. :)

Well, some developer's/publishers are simply paranoid schizophrenic and like to sit on their IP rather than make money out of it (EA, Lucasarts). Some tend to act like assholes or are simply too greedy and try to make GOG sell junk games in exchange of better games from their catalog. Some rights are currently contested (AD&D license , Fallout and Operation Flashpoint come to mind). Some rights are split between various parties. And some rights and rights holders are hard to track down.

Except, GOG sells the Fallout games. The only thing that is being contested in regards to Fallout is the marketing of a boxed package called the "Fallout Trilogy", which apparently some people would expect to include Fallout 1, 2 and 3, but actually includes Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics. The rights to sell the games individually are not in question at all.

As does Steam and probably some other places, situation that is unlikely change before there's court order or the two sides make a deal.
Trilogy and rights to Fallout MMO actually and there was part about marketing of interplay's Fallout games (all new marketing material was to be approved by bethesda and Interplay circuvented it by reusing pre-existing marketing material. Actually the Trilogy box is the same, the box and it's art predates the deal between Interplay and Bethesda).