Just letting you know.

Guess I should specify that I'm not Russian in the slightest, I just happen to hate the West's foreign policy. Half the world doesn't buy the Western media bubble hate for Russia right now.

you will own nothing, and you will be happy lmao


punishing your own customers for things they don't even control is the height of western arrogance.

Russians keep supporting Putin and show not much opposition to him. They let him consolidate power. Now they pay the price.

Russia is a totalitarian country... You protest? You go to jail or worse... The guy has been on power for like 23 years and the candidates that run against him... I don't know... maybe they run to Germany because they were poisoned! You can't put the blame of a government on the citizens in this case. It is not a free country, even if some leftist believe it. Is like blaming north koreans for their crazy dictator. Yeah, let's make them starve!! o.O

Plus, when the US invades other countries, I don't see the US gamers getting the ban hammer.

We're not talking about money, steel or ANYTHING that can be used in the war effort by Putin. We're talking about money actually GETTING OUT OF RUSSIA (if not already outside), for civilian entertainment that has nothing to do with the actual atrocities being made in the name of a crazy government.

To be fair. It looks the same in Australia.



17:00

Ya and this is bound to backfire given how similar unfair treatment to counteries peoples in the past has caused that countreies people to iether out of bitterness.. Rage or even they only have so little options left to go with the ruling power and thus end up the war growing worse or the country becoming a sort of globel power in some sense even if its just in the import manufacturing business.. I mean literally lets take in tyhis case do to war is the reason this is going on... looking at history Germany it shows strong circumstantial evidence that WW2 how it played out was Germany getting extremely penalized to a unfair degree.. To the point negative emontions made the German people that was mad enough over the extreme measures taken to be well you know how that basically played in the grand scheme of things .. Granted thats more related to the first way on the bad outcome factor

I don't know why you put "war effort" in double quotes, but let me ask you this. Do you believe no Russian should have consequences for their country's brutai invasion of Ukraine? Because that's the alternative, and that seems completely counterproductive in getting the message to the Russian people about this terrible invasion of a neighbouring sovereign country.

What I mean is, imagine for example "Dimitri" sitting by his computer in Russia. He is quite wealthy, otherwise he wouldn't even be purchasing PC games on GOG in Russia. Now, at the punishment of the government, making it a criminal offense to even call the invasion an invasion, all he hears from the war is government propaganda - all the free press has been exiled. He's being drip fed lies constantly and brainwashed. Now he wants to enjoy his free time and go browse some games on his favourite platform. But it turns out GOG has blocked all Russians and Belarussians from using their services due to the horrific Ukraine invasion. Does he start thinking "well, fck the West, they hate us, and are somehow profiting from this! i don't know how, and it makes no sense, but they are!"? Or does he start questioning his country's stance and the invasion, maybe opening his eyes a little to the reality of the situation? When the entire world is against Russia? Mind you, he's not gonna risk his life to go to even merely protest in the city, but he is no longer under the influence of 100% propaganda. And maybe, just maybe, at some point in the future when there's hope, he might do something impactful about it?

So GOG (or any company for that matter) has two options: continue business-as-usual getting money from Russians without taking a stand on the invasion and show solidarity with the Ukrainian people
OR
take a hit in revenue and at their own expense, try to make an impact, however small?

Well, we know which GOG chose. And I'm glad they did the right thing.

I placed it quotes because I may be using the definition in the wrong way (english is not my main language). I'll remove them since obviously I didn't failed at that and it does lend itself to confusion.

You do make some good points, but there are some things you're not considering though. Game prices in Russia are cheap, like Argentinian cheap (Argentina and Russia are really cheap specially on Steam, not on GOG since there's no Argentinian currency available here) and in fact, PC Gaming is cheaper than Console Gaming in some countries (like Argentina and Russia). So, no, is not some "wealthy Russian", well, maybe. But not specifically.

As for the whole "waking up from the propaganda", as a citizen from a brainwashed country, I can assure you one thing: it is easier to be lied to even in front of the evidence of it, than admitting you were fooled by someone. So no, I believe they would go full on anti-west (not everyone maybe). Still, we're talking about most likely teenagers and young adults that have nothing to do with the war or they would already be deployed.

Do we need to do something to help Ukrainians? Absolutely. Placing the guilt (or responsibility of stopping some madman in power) on Russian civilians is not the way. Maybe, just maybe, NATO and Europe should leave bureaucracy aside (Ukraine is not in the NATO, Europe has several space missions and gas imports linked to Russia) and actually take Putin down. Not necessarily war, but they could offer passage to Russian civilians to abandon that country, and THEN we would see how much power Putin actually has and then only people rooting for Putin would be affected. Free residency for Russian abandoning Putin's regime or something. And yes, I do consider it a regime after so many years and opposing candidates "misteriously" being poisoned or thrown in jail, etc...

By the way, just in case, I'm not boicoting GOG or anything, I just think they are taking the wrong action here, but they do have every tight to sell to whoever they wish. 11bit Studios on the other hand, are doing it right by actually helping Ukrainian civilians receive help and donating money from sales. Maybe GOG could use the same amount of money they lose by banning Russian gamers, donating it to helping Ukrainians...

EDIT: Typos...

There's already a massive conflict, though, I'm not sure you noticed ;)

And sanctions and blockades are the only reasonable choice we have. The next step is violence or war. With a nuclear nation. Ha.

We don't know if history would repeat itself or if there will be a repeat of nazi Germany. I'm not well versed enough in historical analysis (not even close) to argue how similar things are to then, or how different and if we can expect something similar to happen with Russian sanctions. They are already here, so it's too late to wonder about that.

Iran's sanctions for example have made them very wary of making nuclear weapons, or even weapons grade fissile matter. The populace has been suffering for years now, and turns out there's a great dislike of the religious government. To the point where it's not unforeseeable in the future that things might improve. Already they are close to agreeing on the nuclear treaty and easing of sanctions. The sanctions by the way brought about great suffering to the people, and many thought needlessly harsh. Yet here we are. No war with the West, and negotiations are underway.

Thing is here while physical good inporting bans makese alot of sense do to obvious safety risks for those involved and the like.. Digital goods banning does not .. Which FYI I love reading history and analyzing it .. I have seen so much history repeating itself in the last 4 or 5 years back to back I am quite sure this Russian situation will be a history repeating itself with Russia factor given how often I have been seeing my takes on ''this is history repeating itself'' be proven correct rather then a hunch both first hand and reading about it happening first hand in real time

It worked wonders on :
- Mao Zedong
- Fidel Castro
- Kim dynasty
- Saddam Hussein
- Bachar el Assad
- Muhammar Kadhaffi
- Iranian mullahs
- Slobodan Milosevic
- Chavez / Castro
- ...

I'm pretty sure that blocking video games will be the extra edge needed to tip the balance !

What's your criteria for 'working wonders'? Or just 'working' or 'not working'?

What alternative do you propose in this conflict?

The fact that they all left the power willingly.

Oh wait...

Diplomacy. Not cancel-culture-inspired russian-customers-ban.

I fear you might be right about this, but still, there might be a chance to reach a few minds. Better than nothing. That's not a bad idea. But Putin has essentially eliminated this possibility of Russians migrating and brain drain by making it law that no more than 10k USD can be taken out of the country. And martial law might be coming soon too, the way things are going. He's cracking down on this.GOG actually donated all fees from some games to Ukrainians, including This War of Mine. THey could have been completely profit-driven and capitalist, but they took a stand. Good for them.

I do get what you're saying though - Sanctions and blockades are not often effective yet always cause suffering for the population. The thing is, it's really the only option we have, as we are not going into war with Russia, so we need to consider bleeding their economy instead. And whilst I sympathize with some of the Russian population about the sanctions (though not GOGs inconsequential video gaming blockade), I sympathise far more with the Ukrainians who are being slaughtered defending their homes. We need to put things into perspective here.
THat's quite a steep criteria.

Totally realistic. Totally.

Did you maybe consider how effective the sanctions were in reducing the war coffer amounts? As a preventative measure? Or influencing the public opinion towards their leaders?

Just because there wasn't 100% success in getting rid of the tyrants, doesn't mean sanctions did not have a positive impact.

Russia met with Ukraine already. They wanted all of Ukraine. Same demands as Putin stated at the beginning of the war.

Tell me, which sovereign nation would agree to that with their invaders?