They'll do that over here if the Don gets elected. You can't bite the hand that feeds you. :D

Not really ;)

But the logic behind forbidding a FPS in which your aim/target is to GET RID of Nazis and only because it is showing Nazi-symbols (which by the way is ok in FILMS) is not really explainable at all. and on top of it, it is playing in an alternate reality anyway, so by definition fiction. It really sometimes makes me wonder what those guys deciding do smoke or eat.

Sorry, but that's nonsense. Posession of the games is never illegal in Germany. Selling might cause you problems, but that's about it.

And the link to you posted is about indexed games, not about banned ones. If you don't know the difference, you should probably stop posting about that matter.

Edit: And River Raid is neither banned nor indexed. It was removed from the list years ago.

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Spiele-Thema-239104/Tipps/Indizierte-Spiele-kaufen-und-importieren-1026829/2/

Sorry it is:

verfassungswidrige Symbole, §86 StGB
https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__86.html
https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/86a.html
https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/86.html

The possession is illegal. Don't argue with me, argue with the politicians and judges.
1.) Where did I say that River Raid is still banned?
was is the past tense of is, just in case you do not know what times are about.
And as you might know, any banned game is indexed by default, which means they are being banned from being publicly displayed.
If you want to nitpick you should really nitpick and ONLY use indexed. As banning according to the German law is only a sub-form of the indexing. But nevertheless they are ALL banned from being on public display, right;)
EDIT: changed a wrong link

From your own link: "Nicht verboten ist der bloße Besitz."

The possesion is not illegal.

Your not allowed to sell the game or to give it to other people, but possesion is absolutely ok.

And now you have me wondering what the difference between "high impact violence", "scary violence" and "extreme violence" is. You'd think I'd know better, what with all the Horror and Splatter games I've played. What about "ultra violence"?
I'd have to second PaterAlf there, and call bullshit. You're not allowed to sell/distribute those games at all, but as far as I know mere possession is no criminal offense.

I actually own an uncut copy of Dead Island. Because fuck da police.

Edit: Fun fact, I've been playing Evil Within recently, probably one of the goriest Splatterfests I've ever seen in a video game, easily on par with most of the games listed above. And what do you know, it's a German retail copy, 100% uncut, and freely available for purchase. Go figure.

But this isn't about regional blocks that prevent users from buying games, it's about blocking users retroactively from playing the games they've already paid for, without even refunding anything.

How did this thread turn into another discussion about German laws and indexed games, that's a completely different topic than what the OP was talking about ...

Interesting that you left all the other relevant part out:
The only way to get such a game, you have to import it:
Same article:
Händlern wie auch Verbrauchern drohen bis zu drei Jahre Haft oder Geldstrafe, unabhängig vom Bestehen einer Indizierung.
Seller as well as USER up to 3 years or money
further:
aufgepasst: Gerichte können je nach Zahl der vorhandenen Medien ein „Vorrätighalten“ zum Zwecke der Verbreitung feststellen
If you own more than one game out of this list courts still can safely and legally assume that you horded them for selling.
And as STGB 86 clearly defines:
einführt oder ausführt (imports or exports) is anyone possessing it already breaking the law.
NOW if the police/prosecutor/judge will punish you is another question.
But as you can only have received it by illegal means you would be punishable. If a friend gave it to you, doesn't matter, you would need to name him.

So possession is not ok, it might be ignored, two different things. (unless if you would have more than one)
They really did posted this sentence badly. Unlike a weapon or similar police would normally not make a hassle out of it, yes, unless there would be other indicators. Similar as it was handled a long time with certain drugs. You were not getting prosecuted if for own consumption, BUT according to the law, you still did break the law.

Plus the state would need to prove how long you already have it as otherwise certain limits would have expired. (Verjaehrung)
So if you just own 1 or 2 and don't have anything else, you will not get prosecuted. Was trying to find some court rulings, but the only one a wee bit closer was this one:
http://www.gesetze-bayern.de/Content/Document/Y-300-Z-BECKRS-B-2016-N-17608?hl=true&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
This guy in jail was NOT able to buy FSK18 films (so not really on the bad bad list, just one below ;) ).
Bullshit on the laws maybe, but not on me

Edit: my opinion as well, that those a bullshit laws, and actually the second page of this link I gave gave some interesting stuff about steam, if people would bother to read.......

The link you gave have nothing to do with "normal laws". The guy was forbidden to get indexed games into jail, because regulation authority thought it would get into the way of rehabilitation to play/posess the games in jail. It has nothing to do with posession for "normal" people outside of jail.

Law might be strange, because it's illegal to buy and to distribute the game, but legal to posess it. But hat's the way it is.

If you don't agree, please show me the paragraph or a single verdict where one was sentenced, because of pure posession of a banned game.

I did, if you would have read:
STGB 86

I even explained it, read what I wrote, or better what is written in the law. I even gave you a valid cross reference to check up on it. (hint drugs)

And did you read the second page of the link as well?

Um, no? Yes, they shut down the store. But any GFWL game already redeemed is still completely playable, at least in a single player capacity. Couldn't say about multi-player as I don't bother with that. But all of my GFWL games are still playable, even today. Ultimately the only thing potentially complete lost was any DLC.

As for blocking access to games in regions after said game had already been available... Personally seen it happen on Steam. I actually had to contact Steam support and ask them to remove a game from the Japan store after the developer placed an IP block on access from Japanese IP addresses. People who already had the game and made in-game purchases, were SOL though. Didn't get that money back.

I also vaguely recall GMG a few years back removing access to their store from a certain country after getting pissed off with someone's support request. But I can't find info on that any more.

I was obviously speaking with respects to the US. Remember this part of my post:
'Also, this is something that only affects a small country that 99% of Americans have never heard of... '.

Yes, compared to the US, Myanmar is a small country.

What I think is absurd is that the OP on Reddit said Steam and GOG both worked .... so why doesn't he play games from Steam and GOG then ?! If gaming is so important to him.

It feels like such a childish and spoiled thing to complain about for someone living in a dictatorship that had serious human rights violations, not to mention the risk to personal safety by being a foreigner (probably Westerner) living in such a country.

OP stated in Reddit the following: "I've bought the full editions of all of the Battlefield games up to this point, with their season passes". Childish or not, I don't know many places where one can buy and play online Battlefield series.
Steam sells Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (+ Vietnam), I might suggest that the OP is a fan of fast paced multiplayer FPS and he loves to play Battlefield 4 a lot, like many others prefer Call of Duty or Halo, or Overwatch or something else.
Personally I don't like those games, but I can easily understand his dissapointment. I would feel the same if US puts Russia in some black list for media content (incl. video games) and Origin forbids me to play Dragon Age 2 or Command & Conquer games.
Don't you really see a point here? It's all about exlusives bought for real money and restricted because of some political bull shit interpretation by EA.

EA has been a nasty pig ever since they broke the Westwood/C&C series, so this does not come as a shock.

This is exactly same thing as with PeePee (paypal) and Visa; even if there's no direct laws as to WHY they're still blocking/banning, they are being owned by powerful organizations that would stop at nothing to enforce a policy, which we today would call fascism. Even Obama said 10/7/2016 that the embargo was considered absolved, so my hypothesis is that there is something else behind the curtains.

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/burma_eo_termination.pdf

EDIT: They've always known what the status quo have been in those countries.

Why start now with the blocking or banning? First they have a open door policy to those countries, makes lots of cash - and then just deny their costumers their rightful access. Think about it; EA would never consider blocking France or Sweden for what ever reason! This type of "hostage-situation" is exactly what we see more often of today.

Every hundred years or so this continues like a cycle. It's like a kindergarten-fascism-epidemi; A spreading mentality to punish or deny access for a human just because (s)he happens to live in a country where the rulers don't play fair, or by another ideology. It should be the other way around: EA should be denied access to every country when they act like that. EA should be forced to open up access again, pay back, or take a heavy fine.

Unfortunately, EA (like many others) will continue like a benign bully.