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General discussionHerzlich Willkommen! GOG.com goes German(641 posts)(641 posts)
(641 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 26, 2015
Herzlich Willkommen!




GOG.com goes German. Not completely, mind you, but starting today we'll be spreading our DRM-free love in one more language. Whether you're here because of the news, or you've been with us for a while, here is what we're doing to make our German speaking friends feel a little more welcome on GOG.com:




-A German version of our website. You can change your language using the drop-down menu towards the bottom of every page.
-A German corner of our forums. Your home away from home.
-German customer support. If you're more comfortable talking to us in your native language.
-More games in German. We're rolling out 25+ German localisations for our games today, bringing the total up to 350+.




No big announcement would be complete without a huge sale! This weekend we're holding the German-riffic <span class="bold">Herzlich Willkommen!</span> promo. The highlight is a ridiculous 97% off Deponia, but there are over 25 other German gaming hits available as well. There is adventuring with the remaining Deponia games, the cult strategy of The Settlers, the tough and turn-based tactics in Blackguards 1 and 2, and many, many more feats of German game design.


Check out <span class="bold">the weekend promo page</span> to see the full lineup. The promo will last until Tuesday, March 3, at 4:59 AM GMT.




Update:
Two games from our catalog had to be made unavailable in Germany: Commandos Ammo Pack and Commandos 2+3. Offering or promoting these games is considered a serious criminal offence according to German law, and we have to abide by this law to avoid the risk of serious legal action taken against GOG.com and GOG.com employees. Rest assured that if you've already bought a game - nothing will retroactively disappear from your shelves.
Post edited February 27, 2015 by Chamb
Posted February 27, 2015
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rayden54: *pulls out the popcorn*

Money > principles every time. I'm just surprised it took the rest of you so long to realize it.
Ironically you forgot to include "law" in your equation, which pisses on both money and principles.
Posted February 27, 2015
Nice! I liked the Deponia series.
Posted February 27, 2015
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j0ekerr: Lesigh, no they're not.

This is precisely what we were discussing in another thread. Swastiskas themselves are most certainly NOT offensive neither are they vulgar, they are a symbol of good fortune used for thousands of years in mysticism, and an important part of hinduism.

But they are forever marred by their association with offensive vulgar persons.
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Swonker: I'm sorry, but that's not the connotation they have anymore. Swastikas are created/displayed to send a certain message, and it's not good fortune.

What matters is the context, and swastikas are never used in a good one.
As a note, Swastikas have a negative connotation in the West due to people's actions. There's nothing wrong with someone wanting to work to break that association so that it's another historical symbol with a variety of meanings. It's not like we in the US shun the cross as a symbol of hate just because the KKK has a habit of using it as one.
Posted February 27, 2015
Challenging governments is way above GoG’s punching power. Companies don’t get to peddle their wares in a country and decide to not follow certain laws just because those laws are stupid. I really don’t understand what people expect here.
Posted February 27, 2015
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Klumpen0815: "Wo kein Kläger, da kein Richter."

Precensoring by the state is forbidden in Germany, all that could happen would be GoG having to take them down again IF some moron asks the officials to make such a request afaik, but GoG should really ask for professional legal advice before making such decisions.

And I hope that at some point devs start fending for artistic rights for video games, because it IS art indeed.
Yes, exactly. So far, nobody in the industry had the courage to take up that fight and, due to a lack of clarity in these issues and what appears to be widespread misinformation about these laws, distribution platforms like Steam and GOG simply decide to take the easy way out.
Posted February 27, 2015
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markrichardb: Challenging governments is way above GoG’s punching power. Companies don’t get to peddle their wares in a country and decide to not follow certain laws just because those laws are stupid. I really don’t understand what people expect here.
Challenging governments would be to refuse an official request of taking something down and starting a legal fight, nobody here expects that, although I'm quite sure a lot of people would donate for that (me included).
What has happened here is preemptive self-censorship.
Post edited February 27, 2015 by Klumpen0815
Posted February 27, 2015
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InfraSuperman: True, but the international versions of that game contain NS symbols. Even if they're not explicitly banned, they're still in violation of German law.
Not completely. NS symbols can be used for documentary reasons (certainly not the case here) and in art. Look at the Indiana Jones movies for example. Pure action flicks, but the NS symbols are no problems. I guess the censored version is self-censored and wasn't the result of a ban or a court order. Publishers often do that to avoid the debate about what's art and what's not.

It's the same for comic books in Germany. About ten years ago swastikas were self-censored in nearly every single publication because the publishers feared to get indexed if they don't do it. Today they don't do it any longer (or only if they want to sell their books in supermarkets and kiosks) and not a single one has been sued for years.

And by the way: Why doesn't GOG simply offer both versions for download? They do it with several other games as well (e.g. FlatOut, System Shock) and it doesn't seem to be a problem.
Posted February 27, 2015
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Lemon_Curry: The 'no compromise' speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6P3yOTR2Vc#t=21m32s

... because of their policies we couldn't make a one world one price and we couldn't make a deal without regional restriction. We would have to cut out the country. So we actually decided to give up on them. And that was nice money...
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Lemon_Curry: (21:58)

I miss you guys!
That's only a question of priorities. What are principles when you can make more money. :)
And it does even work ... in the short term.
Posted February 27, 2015
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InfraSuperman: True, but the international versions of that game contain NS symbols. Even if they're not explicitly banned, they're still in violation of German law.
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PaterAlf: Not completely. NS symbols can be used for documentary reasons (certainly not the case here) and in art. Look at the Indiana Jones movies for example. Pure action flicks, but the NS symbols are no problems.
Thats really the silly part, even ridiculously trashy action flicks (not talking about Indy) are legally considered art and all is fine as long as there is no glorifying, but a game is always just entertainment, no matter the story or creativity involved. That law needs some serious updates ;)

I can see the original intention of course, its a touchy subject here and if its all too tasteless i surely wouldn't want to play it, but as an adult it should be my decision...
Posted February 27, 2015
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PaterAlf: Not completely. NS symbols can be used for documentary reasons (certainly not the case here) and in art. Look at the Indiana Jones movies for example. Pure action flicks, but the NS symbols are no problems. I guess the censored version is self-censored and wasn't the result of a ban or a court order. Publishers often do that to avoid the debate about what's art and what's not.
I know. I probably should have written "technically in violation of German law". The law against the depiction would be in effect, but the legal battle about whether it actually applies to video games could be started, which everyone so far has been afraid to do.
A similar problem applies to many violent games. Publishers often do not even bother to submit an uncensored version to the USK and preemptively cut everything that might be a problem. This led to stupid situations like with Gears of War, where Microsoft didn't even try to get a rating for the first two games and refused to release them in Germany. As a result, the internationally available versions were almost automatically blacklisted. Then, they inexplicably decided to submit Gears of War 3 and actually got, in its uncut form, a USK 18 rating.

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PaterAlf: It's the same for comic books in Germany. About ten years ago swastikas were self-censored in nearly every single publication because the publishers feared to get indexed if they don't do it. Today they don't do it any longer (or only if they want to sell their books in supermarkets and kiosks) and not a single one has been sued for years.
Are you sure about that? I'm genuinely asking, since I was sure they were still doing that shit. The releases of the German translation of Watchmen are still censored, even ones from 2013. Although that might be because it's an older comic, of course.
I know that this never seemed to apply to the original English books, though. The uncensored English versions of comics like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns were always available in bookstores and on Amazon, without any problems to be seen.

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PaterAlf: And by the way: Why doesn't GOG simply offer both versions for download? They do it with several other games as well (e.g. FlatOut, System Shock) and it doesn't seem to be a problem.
I'm sure they already do/did that. The Commandos games include the, presumably censored, German language versions.
Posted February 27, 2015
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IAmSinistar: Yes, I'm beginning to share the feeling of others here that the debut of Galaxy will also be an exit sign for many of us.

[...] But now I just don't get good feelings from major changes here.
^ This. Too many signs to ignore them.
Posted February 27, 2015
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IAmSinistar: Yes, I'm beginning to share the feeling of others here that the debut of Galaxy will also be an exit sign for many of us.

[...] But now I just don't get good feelings from major changes here.
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HypersomniacLive: ^ This. Too many signs to ignore them.
I really hope they aren't going to make System Shock 2's english installer unavailable for users from germany. I don't want to play the censored mess!!!
Posted February 27, 2015
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InfraSuperman: The context in video games is irrelevant to German jurisdiction. The depiction of swastikas is allowed in art and documentaries. Movies and novels are considered art by the law. Video games are not, thus they have to be censored.

See also this post I made earlier.
That's freaking bizarre. Especially when you consider some of the random odd things that constitute art in many cases. Is there an exception for use/display for religions where it was a tradition (such as Hinduism), or is it still prohibited there too? Would seem like a bit of a jerk move to tell a religion they can't use the symbol that the country misused in a bad historical period, though that could open to a lot more argument for people wanting to not follow the rule for one reason or another.
Posted February 27, 2015
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Soccorro: I really hope they aren't going to make System Shock 2's english installer unavailable for users from germany. I don't want to play the censored mess!!!
That would suck, but I don't think that's gonna happen. System Shock 2 was never indexed, not even the uncut versions. GOG can`t get into trouble for that.
Posted February 27, 2015
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Soccorro: I really hope they aren't going to make System Shock 2's english installer unavailable for users from germany. I don't want to play the censored mess!!!
I think it would be a good idea to backup all the games that are censored in Germany as you never know what surprise will be sprung here under the guise of Good News again. It would be wise to be cautiously pessimistic about whatever changes GOG has planned for the rest of the year.
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General discussionHerzlich Willkommen! GOG.com goes German(641 posts)(641 posts)
(641 posts)