toxicTom: Produced by Fox News?

Seriously, it's not that simple. A colleague of mine has lived and worked in China for several years, thousands of Chinese students attend universities in Germany alone. And while those are certainly all from upper-class, privileged families, I've never met any flag-waving "all hail the great leader" type. Idk if you have those too, if so, try to talk to them.

There is censorship, yes, and there's the uncanny feeling of being under observation all the time (that was, according to my colleague, the most unpleasant thing to deal with). But other than that, the Chinese are just normal people, who - like anybody else - love to complain about officials and governments. There are certain taboo topics, and lines you cannot cross (complaining is fine, calling to action will get you into trouble). But the Chinese are not some mindless drones blindly digging any propaganda the government throws at them, like you make them out to be. It seems to me that you instead fell for propaganda here - which is kind of ironic, don't you think?

If games disappear from libraries, Chinese gamers will be as pissed as anybody else would be. There's just not much they can do about it.

thefallenalchemist: It's important to note exactly what happened with Devotion in China. This was taken from a Eurogamer article written in February of 2019. It explains the circumstances that led up to a fierce review bombing of the game which eventually got it banned in China. However, it was actually well-received at first.

"At first, the game become extremely popular in the gaming channels in Chinese community," wrote ResetEra user SushiReese.

"Most of the streamers stream the game, millions of viewers watched the game playthrough. The game also receive universal praise from the media, it even become a trending topic in Chinese social media. The public give extremely positive feedback.

"However, after some users from Taiwan PTT and gaming forum post some screenshots related to OP mentioned and mocked that the game successfully fooled the mainlander into supporting a game to 'mock PRC people and KMT supporters (who tend to unify with China)'. It attract more attention when people dip deeper into the game.

"The anger transfer to outrage when people discover that the founder/lead designer's social media, he holds a pro-Taiwan independent political view and make quite a few political posts."

So the real issue here, is that people from the Taiwanese boards were making fun of the fact that they got China interested in a game that openly mocks it. That's where the controversy started. Even though the game was at first very popular in China and not at all seen as a threat until the Taiwanese gamers basically started drama over it.

So yes, I 100% believe that these are Chinese gamers. Judging from the facts and evidence surrounding what happened to the game in China, we can deduce that these same gamers were against it for the same reason. And unfortunately, the whole thing is Taiwan's fault, because those gamers made fun of the Chinese for embracing a game that openly mocks them.

thefallenalchemist: This isn't even about access to games. This is about the sheer fact that they don't want Devotion sold anywhere. It seems to fill them with anger and resentment. Adding to that, the developers thoughts towards a country that embraced the product.

Just because statista happens to state that most Chinese gaming is mobile, that does not mean that all Chinese gaming is mobile. We're talking about a country who went head over heels into the MMO market. People died playing MMOs. So PC gaming is still a thing over there. And they still like to stream games, mobile internet or not. China has it's own version of Twitch if I am not mistaken. And if the game became that popular on Chinese social media as the user states, then it makes perfect sense that most Chinese gamers were aware of it.

DukeNukemForever: Please read my text and especially the posting I answered to understand the context of it.

Of course PC gaming is big in china, but again, it's not so big (especially regarding GOG ) as many here may think and try to express.

thefallenalchemist: And unfortunately, unless toxicTom (nice name by the way) wants to reach his colleague and have the guy poll lots of Chinese about Devotion, this user's commentary is all that we have to go on regarding the reception of the game during it's Chinese launch.

toxicTom: You could simply ask over here: https://www.gog.com/forum/general_zh
If you ask politely, you may even get some responses in English, otherwise DeepL is quite ok for translating Chinese.

DukeNukemForever: Also I don't have any actual numbers regarding gog user-base, but as far is I remember the biggest share (with a really big gap) came from the USA and then europe. But that's some years old and likely have changed.

thefallenalchemist: 90% of the posts are about refunds. China does not want Cyberpunk 2077.

fronzelneekburm: You think the Chinese government has nothing better to do than sending threats to fledgling digital distributors over obscure indie games?

fronzelneekburm: Here's what actually happened: Gog shat the bed. Plain and simple. Some really bright bulb decided to release one of the most controversial titles of recent years within a week of Cybahjunk 2077 launching. Then some even brighter bulb decided to ADVERTISE this imminent release on a social media platform in a country where said title is de facto on the black list. Seeing their precious Cyberpunk sales threatened (and facing a potential firewalling), the brightest bulb of all decided to cancel the release and blame this cowardly move on "gamers". This last part in particular, this trying to twist your complete and utter lack of cojones into some type of pro-consumer move is hands down the most sickening thing of all.

All this is 100% on gog.

Gersen: With all that it wouldn't be too far fetched to think that, with the announcement of Devotion being released on Gog, especially on Chinese social media (stupid idea I agree), then when you add the nationalists and the "normal" Chinese gamers who were just afraid to lose access to Gog, then it is definitely possible that Gog actually receive a tons of messages from Chinese gamers and that it was what trigger their decision.

amok: Janaury and into February are historically very slow for new games. most publishers rushed to get the games ready for the Christmas rush, and there is then a bit of lag after where it is about taking stock where they are at and planing the new year. So not that odd at all.

rjbuffchix: While that makes sense, what I consider "big releases" aren't just brand new games that just came out this instant...where are Skyrim, Resident Evil, more Silent Hill games, etc?

fronzelneekburm: Why, thank you for confirming a creeping suspicion I've had.

I'm 100% convinced that the majority of people still defending gog are either more casual users who have no idea how bad things with this company really are. Personally, I've grown quite tired of the boiling frog treatment where they gradually phase out everything that set them apart from other digital storefronts. They've clearly been testing the waters with the cosmetic singleplayer content that's locked behind their precious Galaxy client, and the negative feedback has been nowhere enough for them to reverse course.

Or, in your case, they're doing it out of some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, where you defend a company - no matter how shitty it has become - because it's holding your entire game collection hostage. We're entering proper "No Steam, no buy"-levels of blind, deluded brand loyalty here, folks!

I've also seen the argument that if gog fails, DRM-free gaming fails - which is a somewhat valid concern since I don't see any other platform being able to step up to the task. Zoom Platform? Don't make me laugh! The thing is: Just because gog have aggressively promoted themselves as the saviours of DRM-free gaming, should we have to put up with whatever abuse, whatever nonsense, whatever plain idiocy they can throw at us?

Of course not. The Devotion cancellation (and gog having the gall of putting the blame on "gamers") was one major misstep too many for me. So I'm gladly putting my name down on the boycott list. And I applaud everyone else who does (especially the people who got refunds for all the crap that was still covered by their warranty). You can still rebuy stuff you're vaguely interested in at a later point when they've smartened up. As it stands, this is a company not worth spending money on.