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rjbuffchix: Unless people are boycotting specifically because of this "hypocrisy" (which it isn't, as, among other reasons, the treatment of the two games is not a 1:1 analogy; e.g., one game was already on the store for purchase and the other came close but wasn't available for purchase), I don't see the relevance to this topic.
I completely disagree. Forum censorship is one of my main reasons for being in this thread. IMO its the most critical issue for this thread. Because with forum censorship they can just kill this thread. So the biggest threat. So while technically from the POV of someone who personally does not have an issue (in terms of reason for boycotting) with forum censorship forum censorship may be irrelevant for the "topic" but its still highly relevant for this thread about the topic.
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rjbuffchix: On that note, I caved recently and bought those shiny new 7th Circle dungeon crawlers. Granted, this is still in keeping with my version of boycott, only buying what I consider must-haves. I have to say GOG has done a better job at these than I thought, as I expected to buy absolutely nothing for most of the year, but that doesn't mean I am satisfied.
I havent bought anything since Dec-12 and used to buy lots before that. (Not formally boycotting though.)

Edit: pointless re/edit - messed up posting.
Post edited May 06, 2021 by Zrevnur
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[EDITED, no point in getting worked up over things that can't be changed]
Post edited May 06, 2021 by morolf
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morolf: But I sure don't think Gog is in any way more "moral" than its competitors.
Depends on your definition of morality. I am sure GOG strictly follows morality of corporate capitalism.
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Mafwek: Depends on your definition of morality. I am sure GOG strictly follows morality of corporate capitalism.
Sure :-) And tbh it probably was always naive to expect anything different, in the end it's a corporation like any other.
sign me up for "unofficial boycott". i hardly buy anything these days anyways
because of my backlog, freeware, abandonware, animes and lack of motivation to beat games.
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patrikc: It was only a matter of time, no surprise there.
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Breja: Does not make it any less staggeringly hypocritical. Remove Devotion for political reasons because "users demand it"? Sure, >poof< it's gone. Sell and later give away a blatantly political pro-communism game? Sure, no problem. People discussing the blatantly political game? Lock it. Users asking for its removal? Lock and censor it.
Hear ye hear ye.
Post edited May 06, 2021 by dick1982

Do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!
Yarr har fiddle dee dee
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Executer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ju_10NkGY
RIP, whatshisname /fit/ guy.
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rjbuffchix: Unless people are boycotting specifically because of this "hypocrisy" (which it isn't, as, among other reasons, the treatment of the two games is not a 1:1 analogy; e.g., one game was already on the store for purchase and the other came close but wasn't available for purchase), I don't see the relevance to this topic.
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Zrevnur: I completely disagree. Forum censorship is one of my main reasons for being in this thread. IMO its the most critical issue for this thread. Because with forum censorship they can just kill this thread. So the biggest threat. So while technically from the POV of someone who personally does not have an issue (in terms of reason for boycotting) with forum censorship forum censorship may be irrelevant for the "topic" but its still highly relevant for this thread about the topic.
Also: The OP (poster) has "Free speech and honey!" under the forum name ('Time4Tea') and in the OP (post) mentions (Chinese) censorship as one of the reasons for boycotting:

I won't repeat everything that has been said about this in other threads, but GOG's decision to be complicit in imposing Chinese censorship on non-Chinese users is simply unacceptable.
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The fact that GOG is not letting 3rd parties hijack their platform by turning it into a medium for bashing China and its government is a *good* thing in my opinion - and a strong argument against any boycott. GOG should stick to being a politically neutral game distribution platform and it should resist the pressure of this current political moment to join the information war against China with content aimed at questioning the legitimacy of its government. China is hardly unique in censoring information and Chinese are not unique in demanding basic respect as paying customers. Those who want to raise their principled voice against censorship would be better served by starting right at home, China should be the last of their worries (unless they themselves actually live in China). I am for instance, as a non-US citizen, far more affected by US censorship than by anything China does and I think this holds true for the vast majority of GOG users...
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retrorealms: I am for instance, as a non-US citizen, far more affected by US censorship than by anything China does...
Can you elaborate on this?
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retrorealms: GOG should stick to being a politically neutral game distribution platform and it should resist the pressure of this current political moment to join the information war against China with content aimed at questioning the legitimacy of its government.
In principle I agree with this...however, as I understand it, the (ill-advised) joke about Xi Jinping would have been already removed in the version of Devotion that would have come to Gog - so just by releasing the game Gog wouldn't have endorsed anything directed against Xi and the PRC (if I'm wrong about this, I'm open to corrections).
As for politically neutral platform, I also agree with that in principle...but gimme a break, Gog sees nothing wrong with publishing a game promoting far left rioting, at a time when there has just been months of violent rioting by far left extremists in the US, and when far left violence is a serious problem in many other Western countries. They aren't "politically neutral", they just go along with what's best for their business. In China that means behaving submissively towards the party's leadership, in the West it means going along with the "progressive" agenda and its egregious double standards. That's not neutral at all.
Post edited May 06, 2021 by morolf
Note that all the following is my own personal perspective on this. I do believe that some other people here have quite different ones.
I dont agree with your perspective. Its GOG doing the censorship and not China. My issues are with GOG.

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retrorealms: The fact that GOG is not letting 3rd parties hijack their platform by turning it into a medium for bashing China and its government is a *good* thing in my opinion - and a strong argument against any boycott. GOG should stick to being a politically neutral game distribution platform
I do believe you got this the wrong way round: GOG took a political position by reversing their Devotion release. This is the originating cause for the China bashing here. And I dont see why that would be an argument against a boycott. I am not here for China bashing. I am here in this thread (in terms of the censorship context, there are other reasons for me being here too) because GOG censors stuff (Devotion, forum). Not because of it having to do anything with China.

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retrorealms: and it should resist the pressure of this current political moment to join the information war against China with content aimed at questioning the legitimacy of its government. China is hardly unique in censoring information and Chinese are not unique in demanding basic respect as paying customers.
For me this is not a political issue. If anything its an anti-political issue. I dont want politics (etc) dictating what can or cant be released or said on GOG.

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retrorealms: Those who want to raise their principled voice against censorship would be better served by starting right at home,
I dont see your point - especially as you complain then about US censorship:
GOG is in Europe, you are in Europe, I am in Europe.
GOG is in this forum, you are in this forum, I am in this forum.
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retrorealms: The fact that GOG is not letting 3rd parties hijack their platform by turning it into a medium for bashing China and its government is a *good* thing in my opinion - and a strong argument against any boycott. GOG should stick to being a politically neutral game distribution platform and it should resist the pressure of this current political moment to join the information war against China with content aimed at questioning the legitimacy of its government. China is hardly unique in censoring information and Chinese are not unique in demanding basic respect as paying customers. Those who want to raise their principled voice against censorship would be better served by starting right at home, China should be the last of their worries (unless they themselves actually live in China). I am for instance, as a non-US citizen, far more affected by US censorship than by anything China does and I think this holds true for the vast majority of GOG users...
Yes, it’s very politically neutral, the recent tonight we riot is a good example of that!
Achieving neutrality by publishing only non-political games is not really an option, since any game could be seen to have political connotations if you look hard enough. Some have more and some have less, but you can find something that someone will be upset about in anything.

To be politically neutral, GOG would need to publish games based solely on what its customers would buy, regardless of their political connotations. If GOG is picking and choosing which games to publish based on their political connotations, then it is not being politically neutral, especially if it is basing its choice on demands from governments.
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ScarletEmerald: Achieving neutrality by publishing only non-political games is not really an option, since any game could be seen to have political connotations if you look hard enough. Some have more and some have less, but you can find something that someone will be upset about in anything.

To be politically neutral, GOG would need to publish games based solely on what its customers would buy, regardless of their political connotations. If GOG is picking and choosing which games to publish based on their political connotations, then it is not being politically neutral, especially if it is basing its choice on demands from governments.
Hard to do that if for some reason , China decides to flood GOG with CCP nationalist "gamers".
Post edited May 08, 2021 by dick1982
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retrorealms: Those who want to raise their principled voice against censorship would be better served by starting right at home, China should be the last of their worries (unless they themselves actually live in China). I am for instance, as a non-US citizen, far more affected by US censorship than by anything China does and I think this holds true for the vast majority of GOG users...
"we have bigger problems on the radar so let's ignore this one"
Please...

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Enebias: It *is* about money. CDP is a publicly quoted corporation, and there's nothing less Communist than a publicly traded ltd. corp.
If there is any "political leaning" (which may or may not be) it is because they are trying to appeal to a certain market share.
There is no such thing as "ideology" in a money machine, they go where the profit is higher -and CDP has certainly demonstrated that in the last year.
Pick one as you are contradicting yourself.

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Breja: Now they also locked the thread about removing Tonight we Riot from the store. Because, you know, when "many gamers" demand a game be removed for political reasons on twitter the game gets removed, but when some actual GOG users do the same on the forum - FCK them.

The best part is that they also edited the title of the locked thread, to remove the title of the game from it :D I guess so that no one even knows what game someone wanted removed. I could not make this shit up.
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ReynardFox: ...Wow. That's hypocritical even by modern GOG standards. Christ.
Don't misunderstand. They do not have so called standards so the rules associated with those don't apply to them from their perspective.