that last sentence is not entirely true, call it small but, i did gave the purchase of asian hardware a thought or 2

Asus is of course the brand that springs to mind. Well respected, Well known , i have good experiences with their motherboards and gpu's ... like most maybe....

In the end i decided to go through with the purchase of asus hardware, but not without a thought.
If the situation in China becomes truly dire, as seen through the eyes of a Westerner, and lets face it, we are already pretty near dire with how they expect certain population groups to behave ( though in all fairness, i would have stood behind any European uhm behavorial conduct towards certain population groups but that is besided the whole ordeal ) i would probably stop buying those products.

It would be nice i guess if all the big video hardware bloggers would ban their products from their video's etc
then i would be sure to walk in line ;)

Correction - The USA has the American Institute in Taiwan which operates as a de facto embassy.

I even looked up the meaning of that, because I did not know -

A de facto embassy is an office or organisation that serves de facto as an embassy in the absence of normal or official diplomatic relations among countries, usually to represent nations which lack full diplomatic recognition, regions or dependencies of countries, or territories over which sovereignty is disputed. In some cases, diplomatic immunity and extraterritoriality may be granted.[1] (from Wikipedia)

And from some japanese people i've been talking to who have been looking into history and declassified documents from the japanese government, the rabbit hole gets really interesting. Apparently, japanese aristocrats didn't do anything without support from a certain group of american politicians.

I keep hearing conflicting stories about that. Someone else said it was the Chinese publisher of the game (not the Taiwanese developer studio) that pulled the game from Steam, trying to save their skin and keep their license to do business in China... and now the developers can't allegedly publish the game themselves on Steam because the agreement with the publisher prevents that.

I think that last part was just his assumption though, trying to come up with some explanation why the developer doesn't re-publish the game on Steam, if Valve has claimed they have no objections on the game being on the store (who knows for sure...).

I forgot to comment on this, but I think it's time I do so. That's saying a lot. I'm noticing that some movies are doing better in China than in North America. Examples I can provide include two of the latter Transformers films(Age of Extinction AND The Last Knight), both Pacitic Rim films, Warcraft and Terminator: Genisys. Even more so, I believe that the video game marker is far bigger in China than in America, Japan, France, Germany and Britain COMBINED! Mainly it's through PC gaming, Mobile Phones and Browser games. And it's all through the power of Capitalism.

Even if its some politics, real talk once in a while because this thread seems fitting. I believe that GOG simply doesn't want this game on here because there is too much correlation with real and loaded political strife. It was just too politically loaded to appear on the store. Once the dust settles I'm sure that Detention and Devotion may appear on the store, or maybe not since I still remember the Hatred controversy (different context of course). And lets not forget that Cyberpunk 2077 is at least as buggy and error ridden as The Witcher 3 was. The Witcher 3 turned out fine due to its many updates and hints towards their policies (free minor DLCs, etc). I'm sure we will see a similar thing with Cyberpunk 2077, which is way more ambitious than the last CDPR game anyway so updating it until its done it may take longer. I'm excited for 2021 though regardless. Cyberpunk 2077 is actually kinda living up to the hype, at least for me because I was mostly unhyped and neutral. Didn't even knew that they put Keanu Reeves into the game, apparently they revealed his role years ago. I pretty much went into the game unspoilered.

Regarding any political talk, I thought that gamers are all like "keep politics out of mah games" and the general reaction I'm seeing on here really is opposite of that, albeit that reaction had to be expected. I bet that most of the people who're really pissy about the move of GOG and CDP don't usually care about politics as well, at least stemming from their very own biases. Thats simply a educated guess though. I know for sure that GOG labels itself as a "store for gamers by gamers." and at least they're true to that saying. I would wish CDP or GOG-staff would communitcate it that way.

So if a game reaches the point where its more known due to political controversy rather than the game or the gameplay itself then I would feel that not selling it on here is well justified. After all, thats staying true to their approach of leaving politics out of video games and keeping a neutral stance. The problem I see here, again, is that GOG does not communicate it that way. From an outsiders perspective, it seems that GOG is siding with the Chinese government instead of being neutra. And being neutral (game is more knows regarding controversy rather than the game itself, such reactions are not very gamer-like) would put GOG in a much better position than what they're doing now thats for certain. I believe that they're way past that point but I still wish they would release official statements.

IMHO but I'm sure most agree is that GOG-staffs messaging, or at least their ability to communicate to the public, is pretty much catastrophic here. They're seriously not versed in this sort of thing, which is some of the easiest things in the world to do. Which is exactly why I wonder the inability of GOG to release such statements.

What is also a big deal is the kneejerk reaction by gamers who wish to burn GOG to the ground because of this one game. Its not really a good look for anyone. Meanwhile, the Chinese Government probably doesn't even notice this entire controversy if it wouldn't benefit them. They're just letting the dices roll as they're fully aware that they always get the best dicerolls. Like capitalism, Chinas growing properity put them in a position where they're simply too big to fail. The only losers here are us and Red Candle Games. Hell, I bet my ass that the Chinese Government could easily twist around praising themselves while making us look like animals from the eyes of the Chinese population, such is the nature of propaganda. We're pretty much shooting outselves in the foot perfectky in regards on how China could use this outrage to benefit them solely.w

Lets say GOGs reaction regarding this game leads to GOG going out of business because as many are simply fed up about them. This pretty much looks to me that the Chinese Government may see controversy as a perfect weapon to destabilize Western electronic businesses worldwide. Just rail up fake controversies in order to look weak and the dices roll again. Some of the Chinese people probably laugh their asses off which is business as usual. Even if we point our fingers laughing at Chinese Government for being too thin skinned because of some minor reference regarding some Chinese politician who looks Winnie the Pooh, they're obviously having the last laugh to all our expenses. I couldn't care less, I just want the games damnit.

Regardless of me not caring about the political nature, I'm still amongst the most pissy person about any of this since its so easy for GOG and CDP to come clear so the dust settles much faster. This leads to people forgetting about this and China doesn't have any possible ammonition to use against GOG or any other business. Just phrase a neutral message about the reasons why Devotion is not released and perhaps promise to put both games at a later date. If people really like the game without taking any political stance (they like what they see, so to speak) then I'd say that putting it on the store is at any case well justified then people reacting like its some sort of smoking gun, which may lead to even further problems. Many games that deserve to appear on the GOG storefront may thus never appear, which is a shame. I wish things would be different but alas they are not. I support GOG because I know that even if GOGs hands are bound they do try to make up for it in other ways.

That or perhaps GOG and CDP really are siding with the Chinese government for whatever reason. Just kidding, the reason starts with m and ends with oney. The Chinese market is gigantic and a company like GOG probably benefits hugely from at least attempting to get into such a market. I've heard however that China has their own storefronts and sites where people buy games and that the chinese population isn't allowed to purchase from western stores (am I wrong?). IMHO GOG should stay true to their core principles whilst being as neutral as they can. They just need proper and consistant communication about any of these topics the minute they're brought up. No discussions or what not, just well written official statements that stay true to the core principles of their business on how people see them.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I was so unhyped about Cyberpunk 2077 that I didn't even knew Keanu Reeves was having a role there a few weeks before the games release. Didn't even see those CDP promotion videos about the game. All I knew that the game was going to be most likely a homage to Deus Ex role playing games.