If filters are available then people will enable them, and the homepage that they're familiar with will then be as family-friendly as they like. Yes, that means I want GOG's default homepage to be toned down, because I think that will bring more customers and therefore more chance of persuading publishers to go DRM-free.

Those of us who avoided bad decisions shouldn't be subject to those who made them. That should be their problem, not mine. Easy practical solution though? Avoid the front page and use the forum to get news of releases.

As others have already suggested, I see no reason (other than "the cultural conditioning factor") to distinguish these games from other, allegedly "harmful" games. DOOM and Mortal Kombat are now viewed as classics, but to people somehow unfamiliar with them, would likely not be considered wholesome fun-for-the-whole-family entertainment. Many people have criticized the game Tonight We Riot, which I believe may have even been on giveaway at one point, due to its themes of rioting and property destruction. To take an example from a different perspective, I would not say I approve of society's pro-police propaganda especially to kids who have not been made aware of alternative views, yet SWAT 4 is constantly in the bestsellers and has often appeared on the front page.

I do get the response that, essentially, "the adult games are what's controversial now, so let's just make a filter for them regardless of if it's consistent with anything else, since it will stop the current controversy." Aside from the slippery slope that people will then just get offended over something else, needing to filter that, and so on...there is still a very real problem in defining this "adult content." The Witcher 2 EE, aside from mature content in the game, contains a bonus goodie of "Triss Playboy" which depicts said character posing nude and provocatively. Yet...gasp!...no one is calling that game "porn for virgins" or other such pejoratives. Presumably, GOG does not want Witcher games hidden behind a filter, especially if by default, lol. How can this be resolved? Edit: perhaps The Witcher 3 as mentioned earlier in the topic is an even better example!

Best solution to me is for the user to be able to hide individual games, not a filter across the board which inevitably can't solve the edge cases I mention above. Btw, thanks for a great post with your OP yet again.

There shouldn't be any filters for AO games unless they are also & equally going to hide by default all three of the Witcher "porn games," same as they will hide every other AO "porn game."

Otherwise, that would be an example of GOG selectively cherrypicking which games to label as "porn games" and which games to avoid labeling as "porn games" in order to avoid stigmatizing those porn games that they especially want to sell, even though they have the exact same type of porn content as the other games that they will have labeled as "porn games."

Hide and a dedicated filter option would be great, something I've been saying for a while.

I'm going by the rating as it appears on the game card. I see this on Heroes of Might and Magic III (see attachment). Does it show a PEGI rating for you?

Ah, the same old, western good, Japanese bad double-standard. Have you ever played any of these games? I can tell you now that many have far better story and character building than many AAA western games. With the exception of some niches in the eroge genre, sex is not the point of the story, it's just not something to be shied away from, either.

I'm on a UK IP address. There's no rating on HOMM3 here (presumably because PEGI started in 2003).

I'm guessing that GoG show localised ratings based on the systems they have to use in each country and don't show the others (to avoid a proliferation of things like USK ratings and consumers getting confused when they realise something is USK18, PEGI 15 and ESRB Teen)

So, to filter based on age ratings, you would need to IP check country and then allow filtering based on the local rating that is displayed. To be honest, I don't think there's much more they should do (apart from possibly allowing users to block content above a certain age rating in the user settings - although as a GoG user has to be >16, this should be taken in to consideration). If you try to allow filtering of "adult" games then it's a bit of a minefield - where do you draw the line, how do you cater for differing opinions and tastes. What is adult to one person may be very mild to someone else.

When it comes to SWAT 4, I don't see it as police propaganda - the goal of the game is to use Special Weapons And Tactics, to safely handle sensitive situations. That means not hurting civilians, holding fire until someone is proven hostile, careful planning, teamwork, and so on. This is all about procedure and trying to uphold an ideal: minimum harm where possible.

Unfortunately, many real-world police forces decidedly don't live up to the notion of "protect & serve". I think the contrast of an ideal like SWAT 4 and what happens in reality would make people say "Why aren't they like this?" That is important for removing police privileges like qualified immunity, because we measure their actions against their idealized counterparts.

Disillusionment with established norms requires a contrast.

For this game nothing, but for others I have PEGI.

Thanks for clarifying.
And you too.

GOG is a service for adults. The user agreement says:

"If you're over 18, then welcome to GOG.com!
If you are not yet 18 years old you need parental/ guardian approval to use GOG.com."

If you've got problems explaining stuff on the page to your kids, don't let them use it. This is not the responsibility of the people using the platform as intended.

Optional filtes are always a good idea though, so users can customize the platform to their liking. I'd like to hide region blocked games, for example. If I can't buy something, don't advertise it to me.

i have played a few , all are the same rpgmaker/ffantasy system, and clearly story or characters are not better

I don't want to sidetrack the topic, but to briefly respond; the thing is, some of those situations such as for example a "drug bust" are instances where people are/would be behaving peacefully if not for the laws that make them into supposed evildoers. Beyond that, not everyone would agree it is valid to even have a police at all. This is basically what I mean. The fact that the videogame ones do a better job at things like "not killing innocent people" is not really the point I was getting at, though I agree it is a point worth making too and that the contrast is notable.
Have you played The Witcher 3?

Thanks all for the responses. I'm just chiming in to say that I am not in favor of the option being default and I am not sure if I clarified this should be done at user discretion. I also agree that general filters for games some of just don't like in general should also be added. You might like Football Manager, but I don't and would rather not see it.

not yet