I think the ban on nazi symbols is to prevent those idiots from NPD (or their voters, to be more exactly) to wear them in public. Just imagine the world wide media coverage when hundreds of idiots go to a demonstration, wearing swastika armbands and raising their right hand for Hitler salutes...

I'm far from agreeing with German politicians, but I don't think that's true either. They're much more ready to talk about the crimes of the past then to admit the errors of their ways today. ;) Actually it's mostly common people trying to pretend nazi times didn't exist, unfortunately (well, and extreme right-wing politicians of course, but luckily they don't have much political power and no part in parliament and government yet).

Yeah, probably. I edited my post with the few information I found on Wikipedia, and I came to the same conclusion.

Yes, that too.

No idea but Thief 4 is releasing next week.

Early access and the fact that Steam has a completely automated system for devs to push out updates through Steam all on their own are reasons you're seeing devs use Steam for early access before focusing on DRM-free early access as well probably, pushing out a ton of updates (common in alpha's) is a lot easier with an automated system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcrmTXb92DE&feature=youtu.be&t=11m23s

Heck, they're going to automate sales for devs ... let them put up a promotion, date, time, sale and it'll automatically run on the designated time without even having to communicate with Steam (well, people there). Steam's really focusing on taking out the middleman (them) as much as they can (all while making sure they *are* the middleman... lol).

Maybe you are right; it´s a good thing to share our concern about this decission, but maybe things could go even better (I still remember how much people complained about steam in the past and look at it now)

And If I need to point what company are probably caring about this money price, would be Disney´s Lucasarts.

(If that´s the price to finally get Grim Fandango here, I would totally support this decission)

I think the battle for regional pricing will be with the industry, starting with each big publisher. Petition to them, write to them, bug editorials to publicize how serious it is, but explain why it's not ethical so everyone understands who might not be aware of how bad it may be for you. I don't really agree with it myself, and I think the whole world in this day and age, especially digitally, should have one flat price as long as that is converted to be even in each currency (so $20 US to the equivalent uro, pound, yen, and so forth).

However, I'm one who's bought full price games for nearly 20 years, since I first got my Nintendo (which was $50 even back then). Now I'm buying $60 games for PS3. If prices for me inflated to $50-60 on GOG living out of the USA then I'd probably still buy it. I'm also the kind of guy who will save up for special box sets of JRPG's upwards of $100, especially recently with all that's coming out on PS3 (but I missed Tales of Symphonia Chronicles Collectors :( ). I'd pay the regional pricing on GOG, and I really don't make much money, but I think GOG's just trying to grow and expand and they can't do that without a couple compromises.

Just remember though that the forum thread title from GOG.com says "The DRM-Free Revolution Continues with Big Pre-Orders and Launch Day Releases! " Put on emphasis on the DRM-free, because that's what they're still adhering to. As long as they keep that principle, they're still GOG. And they did already state that their classic games and probably many indies will stay regional. Regional pricing won't be every game for sure, and furthermore prices will probably lower as time goes on. So many people here love old games they missed, so it's it really something you want, either wait it out on GOG, or buy it elsewhere for cheaper (if you can).

I feel sorry for TheEnigmaticT because he really got bashed yesterday. He's just a guy who works with the community and is a voice for GOG, who's controlled by another company. He can't change things and can only say what's true. He did nothing wrong other than spend hours trying to cull the upset people. And I'm sorry too really I am. I don't want upset GOG members. But I do want games. If this is a step we need to take, even if it's a step back, it might end up being a leap forward in the near future as more games come to GOG by big name publishers.

Though, if GOG was as large as Steam and could practically make the standard rules, then I can see them being powerful enough to set regional pricing. But for that to happen GOG would have to be far superior in popularity, availability, and accessibility than even Steam. Only time will tell. Wal-Mart demands suppliers that they need to lower prices and says they won't sell their products otherwise, so they're prices often create a monopoly (select products that is, not everything). But then that doesn't seem ethical either as it's sort of bullying people into lowering their hard work.

Finally, I think development costs are through the roof nowadays. It costs so many millions to make a high quality game, and if developers don't have millions then they have a small dedicated team who make good, short games (they have to be good otherwise they wouldn't get anywhere). This is also why a lot of smaller budget games are in sections or Acts, so that they can afford more development to further the titles as they break them up. It's also why a lot have turned to crowd funding, so they get' around a lot of development costs and get the core work paid for without having to earn it.

Smaller developers is what GOG usually has, but if GOG had those larger budget games it might bring in a huge crowd, which could in turn promote GOG and give it even more publicity furthering their place as a solid digital platform. In the end though I just hope everyone doesn't loathe GOG over this because they're doing the best they can and their trying to make sound business choices to grow and expand, which is the nature of most businesses.

That's actually a good question. The version we can get in EA's "Ultimate Collection" of the series, both in retail and on Origin are those silly versions only, but several German magazines had issues released with Tiberian Dawn and Tiberian Sun included, after EA made those freeware and they used the same uncut versions you could download from EA worldwide, which got USK 16 ratings, since none of the Command & Conquer games were ever blacklisted or restricted (well, apart from the bizarre case of C&C Generals). The robo-censorship back then was done as a preemptive measure in order to avoid problems, something that's still, very sadly, pretty prevalent in German game releases. Publishers often censor their games before even submitting them to the USK, without even trying to see whether they might be alright with the unedited version.

Yesterday I was so angry when I saw this, but I think TheEnigmaticT to have a point. GOG has been a great store for all of us, and I trust GOG to keep fighting on a fair wordwile prices, they just changed their policy to let in some games either way would be impossible to be here.

I think removing their fair prices promise from the front page is an error, in my opinion the regional pricing should only apply to those games that developers ask for to be regional priced (and warning you about it on the store page), while all the other should stay in dollars.
Of course I don't like this movement from GOG, I can understand it, and I find myself between two sides, fair pricing vs more good games.
Whatever, what I know is that GOG it's being insulted so much and that they do not deserve all this hate.
I'm angry, yes, but I think that GOG is trying to do their best and that now they are having a hard time becuase of us.

As in my country people says, I'll give GOG a point of trust, since I believe they deserve it.

PS: About germany... I hope, REALLY hope, that there is no censorship or region locked games, since that would be absolutely a pro-DRM movement. Gamers of Germany should not be paying what they (well, "they", their people) did almost a century ago, I understand the political reasons for those laws, but I find it excesive to apply it to games.

What would speak against a kind of refund for people who pay more than the average because of regional pricing. GOG could make an account in credit on their site and re credit the money which was payed too much. This can be spent in any other games in the game catalogue. So that the situation is as if the users who payed more than the average would have bought the game plus other lowpriced games out from an other country.

Using my expert hacking skills, I managed to visit the GOG.com site in 2016, and this is what I have found among the news:

„Holy cow! Perserverance once again pays off! Most of you may have lost faith along the road, but for the others, we’ve got in stock something very very special in time to come. Of course, we cannot tell you the exact nature of this extraordinary news at the moment, but let’s just say there is a high probability that some of the most demanded games ever will make it to GOG.com in the following months!

But on the other hand, there is some news, that some of you may consider a bit unpleasant, so we want to tell you about it in advance. To bring you this exciting new deal, we had to pay a price higher than we would have ever wanted to pay. But in the end, we have absolutely no doubt the hassle is worth it! As our loyal customers, you know very well our opinion when it comes to DRM. We are absolutely against it. We think it has never done anything good in the world. To be honest though, the same goes for maintaining extreme positions at all costs and not being able to compromise when the circumstances are right and the final result is beneficial for everybody.

As our loyal customers, you can tell that we have quite a history. We have always tried to get you the best possible deals. We tried, we tried and if we failed, we tried again. Sure, not everything did turn well in the end, but over the course of our existence we have achieved feats deemed impossible at first sight. We brought you games that were considered by many to be long dead and made them shine once again. For every game release so far (1200+ and counting), we managed to provide exclusive treatment, that your everyday digital distributor usually doesn’t bother with: no DRM, fantastic price and a bag full of free goodies. You will understand then, that we are not exactly happy when we have to put aside our own most valued principles, even if it was in only one case.

Sadly, the case is happening right now. After lengthy and numerous negotiations we finally hit a dead end, our partner still not willing to change his mind and not willing to negotiate any further. At that moment, it was a decision between having the games here with DRM, or not having them at all in the foreseeable future (quite possibly never). So we asked ourselves: „What is more important to us? To promote our company’s ‚no DRM‘ ideology no matter what, and go through the fact that our catalogue will still miss some of the brightest stars of gaming history? Or should we take a step back, so we can make use of the possibility to finally bring our wonderful and supporting community the games they so relentlessly and repeatedly requested since the very beginning?“ Trust us, the decision really wasn’t easy. Both ways, there was some grim sacrifice to be made and we didn’t dare to make it alone. We knew we had to somehow take into account your opinion. But then, there was no doubt: the numbers in the community‘s wishlist speak quite for themselves.

Good news is, we were assured that the Lion King Copy Protection (quite a cool name for a DRM, isn’t it :)) wouldn’t be as bad as the other software on the market. It is a very modern kind of DRM, that is „more effective and less obtrusive“. Of course, it still counts as a DRM and we aren’t much proud of having to make this step, but nevertheless, we personally believe it’s worth it. Who knows? Maybe this little compromise will help us bring here even more DRM-free games in the future. Maybe even this one particular publisher, watching as the DRM-free revolution grows stronger and stronger, will later change his mind about copy protection and lend us a hand in the fight for better world, where all games are DRM-free, fantastically priced, compatible with latest machines and packed with goodies and double portion of customer love.“

(Is it a fact? Is it a joke? Is it a dream? Is it a prophecy? Is it just a slippery slope fallacy? I don’t know, consider for yourself.)

A parody.

The translator made an heroic effort, but the result was hardly more understandable than the original.
Thanks!
The ad was not that funny, though it is good that the Polish agencies make creative use of the oppressive past.
About the German case, I thought that you had a German translation of the ad, oh well..
Swastika's can be very positive as well, they originally stood for progress and movement in general. A pity that they have been perverted by Goebbels and Himmler in the bad days of WW II.

Even though we went a little off-topic here, I think the swastika thing is a very minor issue for Germans compared to other problems, and it doesn't play a big part in why most games are censored or region-locked. I think most of the issues are connected to publishers that can't be bothered to check their facts and release games in accordance with German laws, so they decide to rather not release them at all or voluntarily butcher them without a real need.

Also, when Daedalic explained why they can't add German language to all of their games it was pretty clear that this was neither about German laws nor about offering adequate prices connected to a country's average income. It was all about not undermining the retail market which is still profitable for adventures in Germany, so the publishers take more money just because they can, and put region locks on games for monetary reasons, first and foremost. Just as DVD publishers try to region-lock DVDs so the customers are forced to buy the regional versions to the conditions they dictate (and they do enforce these region restrictions, surprise surprise, by DRM; so I don't think the two topics are completely separate).

Palloka, I think that this GOG movement is indeed because they wanted to bring us DRM-Free games they could not bring to us otherwise.

I don't see GOG removing their DRM-Free statment since it is the base of their philosophy.
I heard that JudasIscariot and TheEnigmaticT cried all night on their DRM-Free bed before they choose to sacrifice woldwide pricing.

Awwww..... come on.....

I really liked your price policy. As a german customer I already get ripped off by Steam's regional pricing.

What happened to this? -> see attached picture

Or this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRdfYwvGTos