People who populate this forum! You must help me boycott GoG, as they are not only encouraging regionalism, but also ageism!

You may ask "How? Our magnificent GoG allows us to do anything DRM free, wherever and whenever we want." This is a lie, folks. They are discriminating, not only against me, but against the ESRB!

Now that everyone is either outraged at me, or wondering WTF I'm on about, this is just a complaint about age restrictions on games (as enforced on GoG). I'm a Canadian. I live in Canada. I'm seventeen. Canada obeys the ESRB when enforcing age restrictions, and games such as the Witcher are rated "Mature", or 17+. You can imagine my dismay, then, when I realized that GoG wouldn't allow me to buy their games until I was eighteen.

Yes, I am aware that this problem is easy to circumvent (I can simply change my age in my profile), but that doesn't make it any less fair for me. I like games too, people. I would enjoy being allowed to purchase them as well, especially because that appears to be the only new thing about being seventeen (M rated games).

Edit for clarification: Yes, I am one of those people who don't like lying about themselves online.

Edit of Edit for clarification: No, I am not actually trying to boycott GoG. Love what they do. Just wish I could give them money easier :P

Uh, yeah, that's totally awful and we need to boycott them over this right now </sarcasm>

Seriously, you're getting pissed about something that you can already circumvent very easily? I'm sure GOG only blocks that because of some legal requirement they have to meet, but just like with the location restrictions, they do allow us a means of circumventing it. I wouldn't expect GOG to change much of anything over this... I also wouldn't expect too much support for your boycott.

Yes, that was, in fact, a joke.

It's just annoying that I have to edit my entire account to do something that's legal anyway.

Talk of circumventing it aside, it is kind of odd that they would restrict it higher than ESRB guidelines.

Isn't the PEGI guidelines age cutoff at 18+? If so, that is likely why they are restricting it.

You're not old enough to legally view porn, and there are some pretty graphic parts of The Witcher.

Seriously. While some places take things overboard as far as ratings boards, I actually agree with the American/Canadian/UK ratings boards for the most part, and seeing that GoG enforces such ratings actually makes me HAPPIER.

A few weeks back I was shopping at GameStop (groan if you will,) when I overheard a mother talking to her eleven year old son about purchasing a game for the Wii. Her rules were that she didn't want him to buy anything where he would be killing other people, or with a lot of violence in general. His choice? CoD: Black Ops. She immediately vetoed it, so his next choice was Red Steel 2.

This was when I stepped in and politely asked her if she would like some help understanding the content contained in the games her son was looking at. We had a brief discussion, in which I talked to her about the merits of a parent who is unfamiliar with the games they are looking at checking the ESRB rating as a good guide to what is appropriate for their children. Needless to say, her son was less than happy with me, but she was thankful for the help.

And, frankly, if you're serious about this post, then really, why not just get your parents to buy the game for you or something? Again, this is like complaining about not being allowed to drink, or other age-restricted acts. You're underage, deal with it.

(PS: Sorry for sounding a bit peeved above, but really, people complain enough that video games aren't closely monitored ENOUGH. Crap like this just adds fuel to their fires, and people telling him how to spoof around it doesn't help either.)

GoG just hates you because you're younger and prettier than it is.

Gog is what, 4? Hard to believe a 3 year old (no matter how pretty) is capable of posting coherent posts

It's strange that the Witcher 2 page would list all the ratings from different regions but yet enforce the PEGI rating for everyone. I wonder if Aussies need to be 18+ to order the 15+ version?

This is my point, though. Seeing as I am, for once, legally allowed to buy the game under my country's restrictions, I would like to be able to actually buy it. Especially because I think that I'm slightly more mature than your average teen gamer (Proof: (Me) Hey guys! Check out the mechanics & skill systems in this game I heard about online! (Friends) HELLO BEWIES)

PS: I completely agree with you about the small kids and games issue, however. I find that many of them are little snots who talk their parents into buying them inappropriate games - much like how they cried in the store until their parents bought them the candy. Parents should strive to be more aware of what they are purchasing for their children. I was just happy that I could start to judge for myself (except on GoG)

That's the question. You're likely assuming the default, standard Gregorian calender at work here, but we're dealing with GoG and their high-tech, magical, hamster driven device.


Sorry, had to post that ;)

Well GOG does it [url=http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/the_witcher_coming_soon_pre_download_the_sequel_before_release/page1]of [url=http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/purchase_and_pre_download_the_witcher_2_assassins_of_kings_digital_premium_only/page1]time.

Well, they no longer accurately check region, so they can't really restrict anyone based on their regional ratings system anymore. Using the PEGI restriction was probably the safest compromise.

Maybe they could just implement a date selector at checkout for people who's profile birth date is below 18 so their "parents" can buy the game for them.

Or maybe they could just assume that anyone with a credit card or PayPal is 18.