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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 February 26, 2015
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IAmSinistar: But wait, there's still DRM to come! Maybe that can get rolled into the Galaxy premier, since they like to pair the bad with the good here.
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eiii: Censorship on the forums has to come first, paired with the good news of a forum redesign. Then the outcry could easier be controlled ... but maybe there isn't one anymore at that point.
censorship?
depends on what kind of censorship and for what purposes


i understand the pegi, the 16 year the 18 year, the warnings about content like the litlle icons we all know
feet, mouth, spider,

to indicate what kind of stuff is inside like violence, 16plus content, fear and more
usefull for games and movies.
Posted February 26, 2015
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gamesfreak64: feet, mouth, spider
I can think of no way to combine those items that wouldn't immediately land on the banned list.
Post edited February 26, 2015 by IAmSinistar
Posted February 26, 2015
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MarkoH01: Being from Hamburg I can tell you, yes they would react weird. But it still depends were you are. Using "du" i.e. at your work is pretty normal and at least at my workplace there was nobody who was asked for permission.

But anyway - do you really tthink it is that important given that we are on the edge of censored and blocked games I couldn't care less if I should say "du Ars**" or "Sie Ars***" to the ones who decided to go the German way.

Name a year. This has been a long time ago.

Not true, In both cases the context would be more important than using "du" or "sie". And I am pretty sure it is civil law and not criminal law.
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gamesfreak64: you mean swearing /cursing?

profanity, if you google on that you see sites who have lots of swearing words.

that *** is the 1st word used in
'loch ness' i guess? :D
i am familiar with some german swear words .
Yes, you guessed right.

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gamesfreak64: There is a clip on youtube, in german, funny but hard...
ich will spielen.....
he wants to play Unreal Tournament
This is one of the 1st clips i saw on youtube.... very 'funny'
swearing in any language especially in german or french is very entertaining
Oh yes, I can remember this video. It is definbitely staged and not real. He's more screaming than anything. But I rteally pity his keyboard.
Posted February 26, 2015
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gamesfreak64: you mean swearing /cursing?

profanity, if you google on that you see sites who have lots of swearing words.
German insult law is about respect and honor and violating it by debasing someone. How you do this isn't explicitly codified, but addressing an adult like a child is one way to do it. Along with this, it's also a criminal offense to damage the reputation of a person.
Posted February 26, 2015
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Gersen: So basically the price to pay for having a German version of the site is to abide to Germany censorship rules.... not sure it was worth the price :( :(
As much as it was worth to get multiple currencies on GOG and lose several games from the catalogue as compensation (and get more regional pricing too).
Posted February 26, 2015
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jtsn: Along with this, it's also a criminal offense to damage the reputation of a person.
That's called defamation and I think it's pretty much standard in most Western countries.
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Gersen: So basically the price to pay for having a German version of the site is to abide to Germany censorship rules.... not sure it was worth the price :( :(
It surely wasn't to the existing German user base. It may have been to GOG and all future GOGers from German-speaking countries, though (not to mention that Austria and Switzerland won't be affected by the censorship).
Post edited February 26, 2015 by F4LL0UT
Posted February 26, 2015
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MarkoH01: Name a year. This has been a long time ago.
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jtsn: It finally got out of fashion post WW2, only a few generations ago. You now, Germans still think WW2 was "just recently", but then "siezen" of parents was, too.
Funny, I think WW2 was a long time ago and until now I thought I was a German - have to check my pass again ;)

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jtsn: Insults are forbidden and punished by § 185 StGB. You know the same law code that deals with selling banned games.
O.K. - so it would be criminal law. But a simple du would never qualify as an insult - I am pretty sure of that. As I said before the context would be important. And if my boss would fire me just because I would say "du" to him I would definitely win in courtroom (Arbeitsgericht).

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jtsn: And the official rule is quite simple: Unless you get permission, you just don't do it. Your specific counterpart may foresee your lapse or even be quite liberal about it, but that's not guaranteed. I bought up the boss and police officer examples for a reason. ;-)
I cannot remember that there really IS such a thing like an official "rule" it's more of a thing that you'd normally do or not do. Just like eating with an open mouth or not. True if you talk to a stranger using "du" he would look at you and maybe aks you why you speak this way with him. But I would only act quite unnormal and not against an official rule.
Posted February 26, 2015
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gamesfreak64: There is a clip on youtube, in german, funny but hard...
Small info about the "Angry German Kid" video that many seem ignorant of, the video was staged.
Posted February 26, 2015
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gamesfreak64: you mean swearing /cursing?

profanity, if you google on that you see sites who have lots of swearing words.
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jtsn: German insult law is about respect and honor and violating it by debasing someone. How you do this isn't explicitly codified, but addressing an adult like a child is one way to do it. Along with this, it's also a criminal offense to damage the reputation of a person.
so basically if a minor (>18 or 21) calls his parents or caretaker
you in dutch as JIJ (you in english) instead of using the dutch word U
they should be punished/locked up?

well the the prisons would be bursting, cause most kids call the elder people
in dutch:

je, jij and sometimes in dialect : gij instead of the preferd U (dutch)
i dont care what my kids or anyone elses kids would use, as long as they dont swear or treat elders like shit its okay
besides they are all grownups so there's no need to use the polite words.

It seems common that most dutch kids dont adress the parents/caretaker or peopel in function like we (and i myself) used to do in the good old days.
Times change (unfortunately) and most of the times for the worse, tehres nothing or little we can do about that, and enforcing by law to make kids talk like it should , is a waste of tax money.

I myself, would always use the right form of speaking to elderly people or people who are younger but have another position (doctors. dentists, lawyers etc etc)
but i cant order anyone else to behave as good as i do.
How some people behave is up to them and its their own responsibility.



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gamesfreak64: There is a clip on youtube, in german, funny but hard...
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JMich: Small info about the "Angry German Kid" video that many seem ignorant of, the video was staged.
:D i knew that from the beginning, may comics ans comic shows are staged , yet we still laugh about it when they make another funny, robin williams was very good at that, at least i think he was the best, i dont know about others maybe they cant laugh about him, but i think he was very funny.
Post edited February 26, 2015 by gamesfreak64
Posted February 26, 2015
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gamesfreak64: you mean swearing /cursing?

profanity, if you google on that you see sites who have lots of swearing words.
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jtsn: German insult law is about respect and honor and violating it by debasing someone. How you do this isn't explicitly codified, but addressing an adult like a child is one way to do it. Along with this, it's also a criminal offense to damage the reputation of a person.
Indeed, §185-187 StGB.

It is literally impossible to live in Germany without breaking laws and I'm dead serious about this.

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Gersen: So basically the price to pay for having a German version of the site is to abide to Germany censorship rules.... not sure it was worth the price :( :(
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eiii: As much as it was worth to get multiple currencies on GOG and lose several games from the catalogue as compensation (and get more regional pricing too).
Let me get this straight:
GoG noticed, that it has a high percentage of German customers,
GoG decides to enter this market deliberately by translating the site, introducing USK (silently, a few days ago, without a word) and self censoring to avoid any trouble with the German law preemptively.

The main reasons for Germans to be here in large numbers (besides DRM free which has nothing to do with the nationality) though surely are, that this is/was the only place German gamers knew, where they are/were not charged more than others and where they can/could enjoy uncensored gaming the way the artists intended.

Looks like a shot in the own knee to me.

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Maxvorstadt: Nun, wir haben gesprochen, klatsche er nun höflich Applaus, während wir uns in unsere Gemächer zurückziehen. Danach sei ihm gestattet sich leisen Fußes zu enfernen! :-)
Leisen Fußes aber hurtigen Schenkels!
Post edited February 26, 2015 by Klumpen0815
Posted February 26, 2015
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Maxvorstadt: The internet and it`s forums is a completely different thing. In german forums it`s totally normal to say "du" to each other. People that want to be called "sie" are very rare in german forums and are mostly not taken serious.
Depends, in the internet forum of "DER SPIEGEL" (biggest weekly news magazine) you won't call anyone by "du", or you get into trouble.

I think, this an interesting relict of Internet history: The first Germans who had access to the Internet were mostly university students with a strong egalitarian background. With "du" they expressed that they were all equals and they used "Sie" as an insult (members of leftist parties "duzen" each other too). This then expanded into other strictly non-commercial Internet subcultures.

But once you deal with regular people on a professional level in a commercial context, the regular rules apply again.
Posted February 26, 2015
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stg83: All these so called big changes in an year since the original Good News almost a year ago has brought nothing but harmful consequences for GOG's loyal customers that came here because it was supposed to be different then the usual digital distribution stores out there.
Indeed! I'm a bit more than a year on GOG now and it's "interesting" how much a company can change within one year only.
Posted February 26, 2015
Personally, I could care less. And I am from germany. However, if you do it, please do it right: No forced geolocation like steam and 'you' does not translate to 'du' - it depends on the context and the audience. I'm well over 40, and - as much as I like you guys - you're not my buddys, so I clearly prefer "sie", especially in a business relationship.

Anyway, GL and best wishes from thuringia

Alex
Posted February 26, 2015
I like how you tried to sneak pass bad news under good news, without creating proper news for it... AGAIN. Is this going to be annual thing with you Manny... sorry, GoG?

Since I'm somehow not worried you'll introduce DRM, you're kind of out of other principles to ruin. So I'm looking forward to creative ways of you ruining other things or coming up with another stupid ideas. My guess is that next big "good news, bad news" post will be at Galaxy Launch.

"Hey guys, I'm proud to announce that Galaxy, the client you've all totally been waiting for, that makes us more similar to steam (because we all know how you love steam) is out.


On a totally unrelated note, all games that are not supported by Galaxy are removed from our catalogue. Kthxbye"
Posted February 26, 2015
Thank you GOG for the new German game versions (Feeble Files, yeah :)) !
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionHerzlich Willkommen! GOG.com goes German(641 posts)(641 posts)
(641 posts)