In other news: GOG is responsible for low birth rate in Germany because they force Germans to play video-games instead of making babies.

Considering that the same laws do not apply to Austria would it not make far more sense to completly dich all marketing for Germany and switch to Austria instead; change Flagcolor where needed and everybody but the Grinch is happy.

Because it is a youth protection law and the youth protection is part of our constitution (article 5) and article 1-20 are protected by something called the "Ewigkeitsklausel" and can't be changed.

The freedom of art (which is also part of article 5) is affected by the restrictions of the youth protection but those restrictions are not allowed to lead into censorship this is the reason you can order a magazine from the Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors which lists all indexed (if indexed on the public list a or b) and confiscated media from childporn to nazi propaganda and this is also the reason adults are allowed to buy and own nearly all kind of media with the exception of youth- and childporn (which was also allowed a few years back). The youth protection laws restrict the selling, the index which is part of the youth protection law restricts the public commercials and selling and confiscated (by court) media is even more restricted when it comes to selling and commercials are banned. Buying including import and owning is always legal, parents on the other hand can let their children have access even to pornography or violent movies, games and so on there is a specific exception in the laws allowing this.

Short form:
Freedom of art and the youth protection are both guaranteed by our constitution.
Freedom of art can get restricted by the youth protection = The reason why selling and commercials can get restricted.
The youth protection however is not allowed to lead into censorship = The reason adults can buy nearly everything including Nazi propaganda.

Back in the days it wasn't a big deal you bought a retail copy and played it but nowadays you can still buy a retail copy but sometimes it is regionlocked as example I can buy Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition in a store near by I can do this for the consoles only because the publisher decided to geolock the game in the way that you can't activate, install or play it with a German IP if you buy the PC version. As a console player I wouldn't have that problem.

One of the main problem is also that our laws are very old and our politicians are lazy c*nts. The youth protection law for digital media as example has time restrictions which were originally designed back in the 1970s for cinemas also our politicians missed the Internet rise so Germany is a third world country when it comes to this.

There are several lawsuits going on atm one is against the criminal code for the glorification of violence because this criminal code has no exception for art and also several other lawsuits against the index one is from the group Rammstein if you know them. Let's say it like this every lawsuit against a confiscation or the index was won in the last years but because our politicians are also old and conservative (besides being lazy c*nts) the Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors will stay.

Another thing with region locks is that they encourage piracy. If people can`t get the uncut version legally in a store, they often get an illegal, but uncut, copy instead. So Developers and Publishers vs. Software Pirates: 0:1.

I hate it when that happens.
That even killed the fun during the EM for me. No team left I can cheer for since the Netherlands were my second choice.
Okay it's only soccer and it's of course not only because of the games. That's just the the straw that broke the camel's back (... that proverb sounds really strange in English, guess it is wrong).

I recommend to everyone to buy Harvester and Phantasmagoria as long as it's not too late, those games are impossible to get anywhere else and they're amazing x(
And I don't know why they locked Commandos, you can get it here, I just got it on the flea market, no big deal.
And something I don't understand,neither, I could play Dead Island on steam during free weekend but you can't buy it...
So many good games banned in Germany...I'm glad there's at least something like amazon.co.uk.

The needs of Germany outweigh the needs of Gerfew.

who says there has been no effort?
It is just a tiny bit more difficult to change a law than to fix an online shop, don't you think? Especially when the law concerns sensitive issues like "what's appropriate for our children".
And as much as the critic & discussion about the outdated German youth protection law is warranted, it makes no sense to bring up that argument from a business perspective.
Telling the people "pls fix your law to be my customer" is rather stupid if those people could be your customer even under the existing rules.

Looks like Germany might be banning the new Carmageddon game, proving once and for all that we’re reliving 1997.

Governments are (generally) elected by the majority, so if you want change that’s where it needs to happen. If corporations put themselves above government laws, then we’re basically living a prequel to Bladerunner.

I don't see a change to those Y-P-L, like, in EVER. One doesn't need to get his or her hopes up.

Sorry to disappoint you but in fact especially the thing with the forbidden swastikas in games is a German law and it was invented by the German government. So called anti-constitutional signs like the swastika are forbidden in everything other than art and unfortunately games are not considered to be art.

If you like to use google translate you can find this law here:

https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/86a.html
With this law they don't want to hide their histoty they want to prevent that history repeats itself by pointing out that the people who were/are using those are dangerous to the country. This still does not explain why I am not allowed to shoot those damn nazis in Wolfenstein but I guess no law is perfect ;)
No, it is not misleading. It is the opinion of the thread opener. You may disagree but the title from the point of the thread opener is correct. And as stated several times: no, it's not GOG fault that we have these stupid laws but its their decision to block those games completeley even if there are ways to still sell them. Those games are NOT(!!) forbidden (except from the ones with swastikas in it) they are just not allowed to advertize and to sell them to minors.
Yes, so far this seems to be still the only (even if big) advantage GOG still has to offer. I am wondering when they will drop this last principle as well.

Thanks, I know this law (WP:RU). But its undeniable that its not German government, like its not Japanese government in Japan. I don't imply that this is good or bad.
Still, Bundeswehr uses Heer symbol, stripped from "right" background in its historical context. Thus not everything is utopian.

Twice! ;)

Not exactly true. Getting a gun in Germany is much harder than getting a gun in the united staed or elsewhere. It is true that it's quite easy to get some legally hardcore porn and it's pretty hard to get a violent movie.

You need a red pill, but I am all out of gum. ;)