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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
Oh, by the way, the update in the OP is nice and all, but I think it could be better integrated into the welcoming speech, as additional bullet point in perfect GoodNewsSpeak and all in good humor:
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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+.
-Less games for Germans. We're going to make sure that you won't get exposed to depictions of excessive violence that might have a detrimental effect on your development and that you're not caught with compromising material betraying your secret admiration of National Socialism.
;)

PS: I'm still waiting for the new Downfall parody. :P
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j0ekerr: The sad part though, is that going by what german posters said, Germany itself seems to be the country most intent on not letting go of that association and allowing the swastika to recover its original meaning.
No, not Germany - only German politicians. For me the war ( and the Third Reich) is long over. I was born in Germany in 1970 and the things people still associate with being German or Germany in general for me are simply a bad history with which I had abolutely nothing to do.

Sorry for OT - but I wanted to say this.
Post edited February 27, 2015 by MarkoH01
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Leroux: PS: I'm still waiting for the new Downfall parody. :P
Haha, I'm imagining it right now.
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ZombieIX: jeah that really sucks...and i bet a lot of games will follow...at least every version with nazis and swastikas or a big amount of blood and gore... like soldiers of fortune, dead rising, dead island, condenmed etc (if they ever come to gog

wasnt bloodrayne confiscated too?

the german index list is that short because extra violent games wont even be released and some are even untested...guess dead island was such a case
Right. The devs of Dead Island did not want to censor their game and so they decided to not release it in Germany at all. This is quite funny because the game has german text in it. After all the German version was produced but never sold - at least not IN Germany. It really does not matter that every German who wanted the game could get it if he/she knew what to do, where to ask or where to Import (got mine from humble :)). Another thing where we all can see how senseless this whole "ban" thing in time of the internet really is. But I am glad that those lying politicians at least FEEL good because they THINK (yes, that is why horses should do this work) they have helped anybody.

Why do I always get so emotional about those stupid things? The last time I nearly hammered mey keyboard to death this way was when they introduced those giant not removable rating logos for DVDs to prevent bad children shooting anybody (yes, that was the reason - unbelievable but true).
I expected this when they introduced regional pricing. Luckily I've downloaded my whole collection (including the Commandos) so even if GOG messes up even more (replacing bought uncut games with cut versions or even removing them completely) my games are safe.
The really disturbing thing is that german politicians really think that people learn how to use firearms by playing ego shooters. They said on tv that people would train their weapon skills with computer games and then they would go out and kill people!
How dumb can one be? Did no one tell them the difference between a real gun and a computer game controlled by mouse and keyboard? Is the requirement for becoming a politician in some partys the removal of the brain?
According the latest changes on gog I hope that they will never start czech mutation. I'll rather play game in english language than will not play it at all.
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DanTheKraut: So you won't tussle with the german government? Totally fine implement a age verification for german customers because every time someone buys a game rated 18 by the USK, buys a unrated game (which is automatically rated 18 btw. around 80% of all the games you offer count as unrated in Germany) or buys a indexed game it is a violation of the german youth protection law.

Of course you can't pick a random age verification system because there are only a few which are approved by the KJM also those age verification systems aren't cheap (Steam regret to implement one because of the costs but hey they don't care about german laws anyway).

You CAN'T just pick a law and say "we have to obey it " and think everything is alright. You have to obey ALL laws then because this is how it works or with your words "lawsuits tend to be costly"!
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jtsn: Well, currently Steam and GOG try operate under the radar. Block some "offensive" games and hope nobody notices, that they don't comply with JMStV at all. Someday someone will notice this and put the whole page on the BPjM blocklist, that means completely removal from all search engine indexes for Germany (including Google.de) and complete site blocking in routers with enabled youth protection.

To make it clear, GOG: It's illegal to sell the Witcher 1 and 3 (USK 18) to minors in Germany and that is exactly what you are currently doing. Where not talking about banned games here. You HAVE to implement an approved age verification system or otherwise it will get ugly in future.
It is new to me that internet blockig in Germany meanwhile is allowed - especially if it is not authorized by the government itself.
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Post edited February 27, 2015 by Impaler26
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gamesfreak64: just got port royale

its not the pirates! game i had on c64 /amiga but its the closest thing to it and its no 3d, the ships look 3d but i can let the computer handle the seabattles

all in all a nice pirates! clone
The game you are searching for would be "Pirates!" (without the "Gold" in it). There are several ways to get the original C64 version of it. Just google for C64 emulators).
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Rhyney: I am sure, the GoG downloader would be integrated into the galaxy client. Even if gog.com would be evil, leaving the downloader out would make no sense or profit for them.

Don´t judge someone based on your assumption, even If you were disappointed in the past. Lets wait until Galaxy is released.
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eiii: Right, lets see if it's usable on the command line or if it forces me to use a GUI and if it's open source so that I can check what it's doing with my game library. ;)

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BKGaming: Also even without the GOG downloader one can still download games via the browser, get a good download manager and that's really all you need.
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eiii: You probably haven't used the lgogdownloader so far, otherwise you would know that it's functionality (like local checksumming, archive integrity verification, automatic backup of modified files, check for orphaned files, ...) cannot simply be replaced by a download manager.
I'm not saying it will have all the same functionality, simply if for whatever absurd reason you fine to refuse to use Galaxy, you can still download via browser and a good download manger would work fine in most cases. But if you do use Galaxy, then Galaxy will simplify the process of downloading games/updates like lgogdownloader does now for Linux users.
Post edited February 27, 2015 by BKGaming
high rated
Here is another key for the fun game Deponia in order to help someone get started on this great trilogy. If you like adventure games, Daedelic, has a good selection and reputation. So take advantage of this sale.

Please, post once you redeem the key, in order to let others know that it has been used already. Thank you.

Here are clues to the two missing spots in the key:

Clue 1: Well known American convenience store where you can enjoy slurpees and name is made of numbers. Also in Japan.
Clue 2: Stock ticker symbol for Facebook.

49D94-5596B-7___A-66__9


Enjoy it!!
So thanks to that silly german version of the site we now have regional locks for certain games in Germany?!!
How comes you could sell the Comandos games to germans all those years and now all of a sudden we can't buy them anymore?!!

This is bullshit, GOG!! Screw censorship!!

:(
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Maxvorstadt: The really disturbing thing is that german politicians really think that people learn how to use firearms by playing ego shooters.
Who was it who wanted "youth protection" by allowing certain content only after 10 PM on the internet?

If it weren't for friends and family I would have left this country long ago. I could earn a lot more too abroad...
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Leroux: There's some truth in the bit about the protective bubble, but batshit crazy is only mobutu's reasoning. Suggesting that protecting children from stuff that might have a "detrimental effect on a minor's development" would make them go postal when they reach adulthood is just as silly as claiming the opposite, that playing violent videogames would lead people to go on a killing spree.

It's also worth mentioning that we're talking about two completely different laws here, the protection of minors is one thing, the ban on anti-constitutional nazi propaganda is another. And IMO the ideas behind these laws are not stupid at all (at least not to a certain extent), the issues arise from the incompetence and disinterest of both authorities and people in the industry to actually understand their meaning and deal with the matters in a rational way. There is no law declaring videogames with swastikas as nazi propaganda, the problem is the lack of an update to the old existing laws adding videogames to the exceptions made for all the other artforms (because they weren't a thing yet when the laws were created).
I agree with everything you said and you're of course entirely correct. I must admit that I kind of misread mobutu's post there and was simply referencing the "official" reasonings behind these restrictive practices as a response.

Make no mistakes, I do believe in and understand the importance of restricting certain types of media for minors, since there are lots of things that simply aren't appropriate for children, but that's what the official ratings by the FSK and USK are for. I find blacklisting and banning to be outdated and draconian practices that only serve to undermine an adult's right make their own decisions (I recognize that the whole swastika thing is a separate issue, so this will be primarily about violence).

There really shouldn't be any need for censorship in 18+ rated media. After all, only adults are officially allowed to purchase and consume them. Why does only a heavily censored version of Bulletstorm get a USK 18 rating? Why does the FSK refuse to give the 18+ rating to the uncut version Crank 2? Are they trying to argue that adults aren't capable of handling the content of these things or is the argument more along the lines of "Well, children might still be exposed to those things!"

If it is the latter, that would be quite sad, because it's basically a tacit admission that their entire system is broken and ultimately seems only to be in place to help moralizing busybodies in getting rid of things they don't like or understand.