skeletonbow: Yeah, that's the impression that I get too, is that some people want GOG to say "screw the law" and sell games everywhere either because they think there are zero consequences or because they simply don't care what consequences GOG might face as long as they can get what they themselves want - the games.

skeletonbow: What is it that people want? GOG to follow the law and succeed as a business? Or do people want GOG to not give a shit about the law, violate the law with some Robinhood "fuck German law" mentality and pay dearly for it later on, but make all their German customers pat them on the back?

NuffCatnip: Where is that surprise the gog staff was talking about?

PaterAlf: It has been explained over and over and over again, but once again for you: It's not against the law in Germany to sell these games as long as you don't sell them to minors and as long as you don't openly advertise them. So GOG could introduce optional age verification (like PostID or GiroPay-ID) and they could sell them to Germans just fine.

The reason why they don't do it is probably that it costs some money and some work is involved. And maybe they just simply don't give a fuck. Their lame excuse is: You can't buy the games at Steam as well, so why should it be any different here.

And the fact that repeatedly stated that it is against the German law (which is not true) is more or less proof that they don't really care about that matter and that they don't want to be bothered with the problem.

skeletonbow: Let me ask you this: By region locking games so that Germans can not buy them, what motivation for doing so do you think GOG has knowing that this will result in both lost sales and upset some of the German customers? What reason do you thing GOG would have to do this knowing that they will lose sales?

The reason I ask these questions is because over time I have frequently seen people both in Germany and outside of Germany get really upset and angry at GOG over this, but they almost always think that GOG has some beef with Germans as if GOG does not want German people to spend money in the store and are trying to aggressively single out Germans and make them angry.

That makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever. It would be very bad business sense, could only ever upset some customers and produces almost no benefit to GOG selling more games and growing their business. So why would GOG do this then if it obviously is going to upset customers and lose sales? Do people think this is a form of racism or something? Get serious.

The only reason why a store would put regional restrictions on games, movies or anything else which would then result in both lost sales, some upset customers and absolutely nothing beneficial to making money and growing business - is because the decision to do it is not up to them. They're either forced to do it because of German laws or because the publishers of the games are requiring them to do it, and the only reason I can think of for a publisher to require them to do it would also be because of German law.

GOG does not write the laws in Germany, but doing business in Germany they're going to have to follow German law, and if German law bans certain games or other products from sale in Germany then any company doing business in Germany is going to have to follow the law and not sell those games in Germany, or they very well could end up being taken to court or barred from doing business in Germany at all.

And for those people who think "Why is it a problem all of a sudden when it wasn't a problem last month or last year" or whatever, well there are several answers to that. One is that laws change over time, lists of censored/banned products change over time and things could be added or removed at any time. The second is that they very well may have previously not been in compliance with German law inadvertently or out of carelessness or simply not realizing it. As a company grows, these kind of legal issues as well as copyright issues and other legal matters become increasingly important. Small companies can get away with inadvertently not following laws/rules to a certain extent when they're small enough that nobody even knows they're doing it (even themselves), but the bigger a company gets the more visible they get, and if they are not properly following the laws of a country they're doing business in then they're going to find themselves sued eventually. But they're also not going to come right out and say "we made these changes because before we were not following the law but we realized we need to do this to be in compliance now" because well - that would be publicly admitting to previously breaking the law - not something you really want to air in public.

The bottom line is that people getting pissed off at GOG over this topic have completely misguided anger/rage. Get pissed off at your own politicians and laws, and call upon your elected officials to change the laws, it has absolutely nothing to do with GOG, and there is absolutely nothing that GOG can do about it other than either follow the law and avoid the potential to get sued or banned from doing business in Germany, or to knowingly say "fuckit" and break the law and wave their noses at German law, and eventually get slapped with massive fines or other legal consequences which could include being banned entirely from Germany.

What is it that people want? GOG to follow the law and succeed as a business? Or do people want GOG to not give a shit about the law, violate the law with some Robinhood "fuck German law" mentality and pay dearly for it later on, but make all their German customers pat them on the back?

Seriously, if Germans want a revolution with regards to censorship, GOG is a game company, not a political revolutionary. Go out and vote and leave GOG out of the political debates. The same goes for censorship/banning in any other country in the world, it is the job of the citizen and the government to sort this crap out, not businesses in Poland trying to make a living selling games.

</dose of reality>

PaterAlf: The reason why they don't do it is probably that it costs some money and some work is involved. And maybe they just simply don't give a fuck. Their lame excuse is: You can't buy the games at Steam as well, so why should it be any different here.

And the fact that repeatedly stated that it is against the German law (which is not true) is more or less proof that they don't really care about that matter and that they don't want to be bothered with the problem.