This quote is so awesome I had to Meme it!

Adding as attachment and as an Imgur link:
http://i.imgur.com/hqtXcxF.jpg

They won't change those age old laws they invented to protect minors and which now are "protecting" everybody. "take it up with the German law makers" - LOL! You really don't know German politicians and German law. They don't care what the people say and in the end we are not enough people to change anything. In your country you just can talk to your politicians and everything will be changed? Then Canada has a much better democracy than Germany. Maybe we have to change this as well.

There are two things GOG is responsible though:

1) Officially targeting the German market at all by inventing the German web site, forum ect. Otheriwse there probably never would have been a problem at all and before that there never was.

2) If GOG really wants to "follow German law" and also tries to be attractive for German customers instead of simply blocking the games they could integrate an age verification system. Those games are NOT FORBIDDEN in Germany at all they just are not allowed to be advertized and they are not allowed to be sold to MINORS.

I understand that the easier solution for GOG would be to simply blocking the German customer completeley but THAT is THEIR decision and for this decision the Germans should be allowed to blame them because integrating an optional age verification system would be far more easier (and propable) than changing the German youth law.

Thank you. That was very useful.

They've missed the most obvious swastika :-)

I think the worst part of the changes is the translation of “WATCH TOWER”.

Very good to get this info right now so there is time to get the games before they are removed from store...

(btw, please fix that thread title +_+)

I am pretty sure its NOT "German" government. See Weimar republic limits or limits on Japan army.

I am also pretty sure that its most stupid decision. Its proven that nazi or far-right ideology does not depend upon country at all.

Also, its is known that nazi ideology can be easily (and dangerously fast) mass-brainwashed by media. For prime example, see Goebbels.

And on top of that, there is a saying that those who does not learn from mistakes WILL make them again.
And yet on top of that, its known that most forbidden thing is most attractive. 1+2 prohibit analysis and critical thinking/learning, at same time increasing interest in subject via censorship.

And finally, censoring someone's history is improper, because those without history have no future and without free thought and free access will feel oppressed/controlled/manipulated.

And its bad for business.

And its destroying games themselves. Its also probably destroying multiplayer gameplay because censored games probably will have difficulty going online with uncensored versions.

There are simply no excuses for this censorship.

Well, that argument holds no water whatsoever. I know for a fact that WWII is a pretty well covered part of German education. Germany doesn't hide away its (bad) history like Japan likes to do, which makes that kind of censorship (self-inflicted or not) even more baffling.

Misleading title, this isn't GOG's fault but stupid laws that are placed beyond their control. The link posted on the first page by omega64 lists some games that I do not fully understand why they are banned.

An excerpt from a wikipedia Article regarding AvP 2000 for example, it reads "Sega also announced in November 2009 that they would not distribute Aliens vs. Predator for similar reasons." Source

I checked it and my uncensored softcover edition is from 2008. Maybe they were brave at that time, because they didn't expect any problems, but got more cautious again after the movie was a big success (and so it was more likely that an over-ambitious lawyer would pick up an issue).

Laws are not really the problem for German comic publishers. As far as I know every lawsuit that went to court was won. But if you are unlucky it can take a lot of time and sometimes you are not allowed to sell the titles in question during that time. The Alpha-Comic Verlag was ruined by such a lawsuit, which is one of the reasons why everyone is still overcautious today.

Can't tell anything here, because I am not German and were never in German school.

That did not refer to Aliens versus Predator/AvP 2000, but rather the similarly named 2010 game Aliens vs. Predator. In that case, and the mentioned MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill, Sega simply chose not to release those games at all in Germany, out of fear they might get indexed or banned for their violence. Misinformation or laziness on part of the company may be to blame here, but this is something a lot of videogame publishers have done in recent years.

Also, none of the games up for the region locking are actually "banned", they're merely indexed or "blacklisted" by the BPJM because they were deemed to contain things that are "harmful to minors" at some point. This technically means they can still be sold and purchased in Germany, but there are certain restrictions placed on them: you're not allowed to sell them anywhere minors can see them, meaning you need to put them into segregated "adults only"-areas in your store or "under the counter", and openly advertising or even reporting on these games is also not allowed.
This should mean that adults still had access to them, while minors wouldn't even know they exist, but in practice, it's a neat way for moral busybodies to get rid of things they don't like.

Another problem is that several of these games were put on the index in the 90s, when practically everything under the sun was pulled off shelves by the BPJM (like the rather harmless Chaos Engine), but an entry on the index lasts for 25 years unless the publisher tries to get it off the list early.

In Russia, game censor you!

TinyE needs hug or might cry

Do you need hug eram?

They even killed Market Garden. What is it with those Germans ;P

So basically GOG is on the same level as Steam now for German customers with the major difference that you can buy newer games on Steam so GOG is a worse version of Steam.