Both of these stores faced blacklisting in 2009. Gameware had to remove 3 videos (so, censor themselves) to avoid this banning, I don't know how Gamesonly got out.

Also, these stores deliberately don't advertise in German media, although 80% of their customers are German. GOG probably wants to advertise in Germany, they already got press coverage in GameStar, proudly linked by Judas. In fact this all positive piece containing the announcement of the German site version, could already count as advertising.

And this one clearly IS advertizing. Just have a look at the little word "PROMOTION" ;)

Interesting, especially when one considers that they seem to be profiting all along, with blacklisting and all, from these redundant laws in Germany.

When we look at the no. 5 of the list in that article, we see a problem for GOG selling that game on the german market.
I doubt we get the censored version of it here.

Somebody mentioned that this move was the opening of Pandoras Box and I think that thought is not too far fetched.

You're just proving his point, in a way. It is illegal for you to buy X, not for the company that resides in places where selling X is fine to sell X to you when you go there.

But this is applying law for physical purchases to digital purchases...

When have governments ever put in the hours to make a distinction between what is good and bad when it has no immediate effect to them?

All of this censorship here has come into play because of greedy businesses, bankers and government officials all over the world. Yet they feel little of this, big businesses will still flout the laws, but little businesses and individuals cannot do that so easily.
So it is the German gamers get hit because their government has no interest in them and wants to continue believing in an alternate history. The people know it is all a lie, but the governments continue to push it because they believe.

Additionally it isn't even illegal to buy some of those titles for adults. Only a bit more complicated.
One of the reasons this problem isn't debated much in politics is that once you turn 18 (and you can vote) you actually can get most of those 18+ articles in Austria or UK or wherever else except STEAM and now GOG.

It's like legalizing nuclear weapons for people above the age of 155 years, to make sure that you are wise enough to use them appropriately (meaning never) but you can only change this rule once you reached that age. Would be a far better censorship to me than this crap we have to face here.

My gut tells me If I'm going to list both Steam and GOG in a comparison in the same sentence with an and as conjunction this is not going to end well.

You mean a history in which the internet, digital markets and videogames as an artform never happened? ;)

Nicely put and although you probably didn't mean it that way, the point with a 155year old not needing nuclear weapons anymore anyway is a good comparison, because I seriously think, that our politicians believe, that people over 18 don't play video games anyway and it's just a thing for kids, henceforth the complete disregard as a form of art.

I would go one step further, saying that our politicians in charge are - technology-wise - not exactly advanced.
Or in other words, they aren't the most sensitive crystals of the LED display.
I think most of them haven't figured out how this espionage, NSA, Snowden thing works, some of them probably don't know how to use a computer and I dare guess that none of them have spent the time playing a video game together with their children.
I don't mind if all of them aren't as tech savy (or let's just say interested in technology) as I am, but it becomes bothersome when all of the ones in charge mostly have no clue about what they talk about.

It's disgusting. But one can't really blame GOG. They have the continual and constrant threat of death and violence by government hanging over every moment of their lives just like everyone else on this planet. The gun of government is pointed at all our heads 24/7. Every minute of every day their murderous minions are wathcing you, waiting for you to slip up so they can destroy your life. So of course the sick degerate corporate and government-bug-scum are going to stop you from playing (almost seemingly randomly chosen) video games for the most perverse and non-sensical "reasons" possible. Just keep fighting - they don't own you, you're an individual human being and your life is worth something. Peace. Keep speaking truth to power!!!

When you read the media from the UK in relation to films, games and books released over there in Germany, I would say that is how it looks to a lot of us outsiders.
I read an article a few years back about a book designed to be used to teach children about European countries where Germany had basically glossed over both world wars and jumped from unifying to the 1950's as though nothing of note had happened.

Before anyone thinks I am picking on the Germans. I admittedly have never read said childrens book and I think the only thing the UK had in their part was "We won like 2 world warz and are joined wiz France by a like big tunnels".

I've never heard that one, but it's possible that such a book was planned by someone somewhere. It's like those news items you read about some people in the US getting all worked up about Harry Potter and witchcraft or whatnot and the expected reaction to it is "so typical, these yankee bigots", and in truth it's just some fanatic out in hicksville and his mother who wrote an angry rant that hardly anyone else in the US paid attention to. The media just picks up the weirdest stories to cater to their audience, and I guess a story about Germans trying to pretend that WW2 never happened would be very popular in the UK. ;)

Anyway, I don't think there is any truth in Germany trying to hide their dark past, on the contrary. But there is a problem with German politicians and publishers being behind the time and not understanding videogames, the internet or any other new media (like ebooks), and sometimes you get the feeling they'd rather pretend all that stuff didn't exist so they can stick to their old ways and don't have to come up with new laws or business tactics, hence my comment. Because that's what it essentially comes down to in this case - they don't have a problem with historical depictions of the Third Reich and its symbolism in art, they just can't be bothered to accept that videogames are an artform, too, and that the law against the use of swastikas as anti-constitutional propaganda is not applicable here. If there was a Commandos book or movie, there's a good chance it would be freely available in Germany, but a videogame? No way!

Why and what WWI and WWII happened is the most prominent topic of 9th or 10th grade in all three subjects: German, History and Politics subjects. Most students are (understandibly) fed up at the end of their school career, as they have visited Dachau or another concentration camp, watched a lot of films and documentaries like Schindlers' List and had to write several marked essays and exams about Literature and/or historical sources concerning the III. Reich.
Some schools even have an student exchange programm with an Israeli school facing xenophobic and right-wing anti-german behaviour from older teachers there. Rather ironic, isn't that?
So, I don't have any clue what book you are talking about, and would like to see some sources for that to do some research of my own. Other than that, the Block Leroux already voiced approximately the same opinion about our politicians than I did a couple of posts before. So I have nothing to add, except the fact that I still don't think the laws in Germany aren't the problem. How companies deal with them is...

In case anyone wondered,
Gifting those evil contraband merchandise to someone living in the German enclaves of censorship does still work.

Or in other words: Contraband Commandos for the win...

Wondering when the German special Forces will trample down my front door and arrest me for my illegal and youth defiling material. I'm feeling lively again, the suspense is so electrifying I can almost feel my neck hairs getting charged up...