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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 March 03, 2015
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FT337mZn: And all the germans I know play their games in english, so ...
As I was trying to say, but evidently not clear enough, this is a moot point. Some people enjoy spinach. Other people don't. He said his German friends/family play games in English. So I said my German friends/family play in German.

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FT337mZn: What is debated here is not the original censorship enforced by ze german bureaucracy, but rather GoG's move to subject itself to the latter. I think it's reasonable to discuss this here.
As I mentioned, GOG can only submit to the laws of the regions in which they sell their games. Take companies like Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft. If they want to do business with customers in China, then their companies must meet the laws of the countries in which their software is being allowed to be sold into. GOG is no different.

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FT337mZn: That's a possibility. But the point is that one of the things that *made* GoG so great was that they use not to have this geolock crap. I assume that the people who argue against GoG's latest move are actually supportive of GoG. We want GoG to succeed and to be an attractive marketplace for old games. And therefore we don't want them to fuck up like this.
Most organizations have simple beginnings, but over time, as they become more popular, their organizations will become noticeable by other agencies. GOG can choose to stick to their simple beginnings and never expand or they can expand their business and add more features. Of course, with all things in life, by picking and choosing various things to do or not do, a domino effect of consequences would result. In this case, GOG chose to expand..

NOTE, that I am not trying to debate that any of this is good or bad. I am just pointing out that people here tend to make a big deal out of things that GOG may not necessarily have much say into. It's either GOG stops expanding, stays small and sell a slowly dwindling catalogue of old games OR GOG expands and eventually get big enough to need to implement regional policies.
Post edited March 03, 2015 by ginsengsamurai
Posted March 03, 2015
In the meantime, the GOG website seems to have accepted that I'd like to see it in English. But how do I get the newsletters in English as well?
Posted March 03, 2015
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FT337mZn: And all the germans I know play their games in english, so ...
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ginsengsamurai: As I was trying to say, but evidently not clear enough, this is a moot point. Some people enjoy spinach. Other people don't. He said his German friends/family play games in English. So I said my German friends/family play in German.

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FT337mZn: What is debated here is not the original censorship enforced by ze german bureaucracy, but rather GoG's move to subject itself to the latter. I think it's reasonable to discuss this here.
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ginsengsamurai: As I mentioned, GOG can only submit to the laws of the regions in which they sell their games. Take companies like Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft. If they want to do business with customers in China, then their companies must meet the laws of the countries in which their software is being allowed to be sold into. GOG is no different.

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FT337mZn: That's a possibility. But the point is that one of the things that *made* GoG so great was that they use not to have this geolock crap. I assume that the people who argue against GoG's latest move are actually supportive of GoG. We want GoG to succeed and to be an attractive marketplace for old games. And therefore we don't want them to fuck up like this.
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ginsengsamurai: Most organizations have simple beginnings, but over time, as they become more popular, their organizations will become noticeable by other agencies. GOG can choose to stick to their simple beginnings and never expand or they can expand their business and add more features. Of course, with all things in life, by picking and choosing various things to do or not do, a domino effect of consequences would result. In this case, GOG chose to expand..

NOTE, that I am not trying to debate that any of this is good or bad. I am just pointing out that people here tend to make a big deal out of things that GOG may not necessarily have much say into. It's either GOG stops expanding, stays small and sell a slowly dwindling catalogue of old games OR GOG expands and eventually get big enough to need to implement regional policies.
Gameware.at (Austrian) sells uncensored retail games to Germans and when the German "Bürokraten" barked at them, they just shook them off and are still selling to Germans. No, GoG doesn't have an obligation to follow every stupid German law that is not compatible with the laws of the more progressive Europe, GoG just wanted to be on the safe side again and I hope they reduce this a little bit although now that users here have activated officials because of this, it may get worse.
Posted March 03, 2015
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ginsengsamurai: NOTE, that I am not trying to debate that any of this is good or bad. I am just pointing out that people here tend to make a big deal out of things that GOG may not necessarily have much say into. It's either GOG stops expanding, stays small and sell a slowly dwindling catalogue of old games OR GOG expands and eventually get big enough to need to implement regional policies.
And this is why I always hope that bands, brands or things I personally like never get too successful.
Once they start going big they get corrupt and sell out, It basically happens without exception.
Post edited March 03, 2015 by Reaper9988
Posted March 03, 2015
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ginsengsamurai: NOTE, that I am not trying to debate that any of this is good or bad. I am just pointing out that people here tend to make a big deal out of things that GOG may not necessarily have much say into. It's either GOG stops expanding, stays small and sell a slowly dwindling catalogue of old games OR GOG expands and eventually get big enough to need to implement regional policies.
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Reaper9988: And this is why I always hope that bands, brands or things I personally like never get too successful.
Once they start going big they get corrupt and sell out, It basically happens without exception.
So GOG is "corrupt" and is "selling out" because they are adhering to local law that prohibits them and their competition from promoting certain products in Germany? If anything you should criticise GOG actions prior to this change as they were clearly operating in some legal grey area as long as they could, knowing that their competition couldn't do it (also not by their choice but due to simply being bigger).
Post edited March 03, 2015 by d2t
Posted March 03, 2015
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Vainamoinen: In the meantime, the GOG website seems to have accepted that I'd like to see it in English. But how do I get the newsletters in English as well?
Someone posted a link to a tweet GOG made, but I don't have it handy. It suggested to set your location in your account settings to any place but Germany (I assume you should also avoid France as that might give you the newsletter in French).
Posted March 03, 2015
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HypersomniacLive: Someone posted a link to a tweet GOG made, but I don't have it handy. It suggested to set your location in your account settings to any place but Germany (I assume you should also avoid France as that might give you the newsletter in French).
Thank you for that. I asked myself the same question after I received a German newsletter yesterday.

Changed my location to Wake Island. Think it's the only appropriate location during an Insomnia sale.
Posted March 03, 2015
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GOG.com: starting today we'll be spreading our DRM-free love in one more language
Once you're going to implement the asinine German censorship laws, there won't be a whole lot to spread, believe me!

For instance, advertising banned games is also an offence in Germany. In theory, you're not even supposed to refer to the Commandos games by name, as that might constitute advertising them.

I'll just leave you with a few more points to ponder (they may have been discussed to death earlier. Sorry for not being able to keep up with the thread while on holiday):
- Is your URL gog.com or gog.de? Or gog.co.au?
- Amazon (not to mention their third-party sellers) sells films and games that are banned in Germany. What exactly sets them above the law?
- You guys sold Commandos for how many years now without incident? Why start censoring your catalogue when there never were any problems with it?
- The GOG community almost unanimously voted AGAINST regionally restricted movies. Why do you think that is? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this would've opened up the doors to precisely the sort of bullshit we have to put up with now?

Bottom line, I'm really disappointed by this development. This is a huge step away from the punk rock-attitude I've come to love about this site.
Posted March 03, 2015
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Reaper9988: And this is why I always hope that bands, brands or things I personally like never get too successful.
Once they start going big they get corrupt and sell out, It basically happens without exception.
^^ Sadly, this... Getting a bit tired of looking for the next good little guy, in a lot of fields, because soon after I find one and word gets around, they get bigger and things turn to crap.

Which is to say, I'd like good big guys, would make a lot of things much easier, but if you can't have both, better not get big than stop being good tyvm!
Post edited March 03, 2015 by Cavalary
Posted March 04, 2015
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ginsengsamurai: As I mentioned, GOG can only submit to the laws of the regions in which they sell their games. Take companies like Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft. If they want to do business with customers in China, then their companies must meet the laws of the countries in which their software is being allowed to be sold into. GOG is no different.
GOG did quite well not bothering about german laws in the previous years. That move was completely unnecessary.
Posted March 04, 2015
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ginsengsamurai: Open up your own online retail store and see how long you can go on before a government agency gets on your butt.
Can anyone else appreciate the irony? Imagine the German government suing a Polish company over a game that has swastikas in it. That would be some truly sublime idiocy.
Posted March 04, 2015
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ginsengsamurai: Open up your own online retail store and see how long you can go on before a government agency gets on your butt.
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fronzelneekburm: Can anyone else appreciate the irony? Imagine the German government suing a Polish company over a game that has swastikas in it. That would be some truly sublime idiocy.
If Australian government agency can sue Valve over breach of consumer (civil) laws due to Steam refund policy, I don't find case of suing company over breach of much more serious criminal laws being such an idiocy.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/valve-calls-for-mediation-before-accc-court-challenge/
Posted March 04, 2015
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ginsengsamurai: Open up your own online retail store and see how long you can go on before a government agency gets on your butt.
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fronzelneekburm: Can anyone else appreciate the irony? Imagine the German government suing a Polish company over a game that has swastikas in it. That would be some truly sublime idiocy.
Yes, there's some very strong irony involved. :D
Posted March 04, 2015
Uh, why did I get the rss update for this again?
Posted March 04, 2015
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ginsengsamurai: Open up your own online retail store and see how long you can go on before a government agency gets on your butt.
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fronzelneekburm: Can anyone else appreciate the irony? Imagine the German government suing a Polish company over a game that has swastikas in it. That would be some truly sublime idiocy.
But perfectly fitting. One of the reasons german bureaucracy has always been so eager to censor any reference to the 3rd reich is, that post-war germans did not want to be reminded of their embarrassing past. Thus they conveniently made it illegal to show any nazi symbols (even in harmless contexts like museums, to this date!) in public.
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Community
General discussionHerzlich Willkommen! GOG.com goes German(641 posts)(641 posts)
(641 posts)