Comment on GOG apologizes for emailing Nazi runes to its followers

DdCno1@beehaw.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• GammaGames@beehaw.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  It wasn’t, this is their second apology! From the first (with added emphasis):

  What was displayed in several devices as doppelrune is out of our control. ᛋ was displayed as ϟ on several devices (might display for you differently here as well just letting you know). We should pay more attention to checking it on a different systems and devices. I also recognize that placing two such runes next to each other could create an unfortunate association with symbols used by the Nazi regime. This was noticed before distribution, and out of respect for local sensitivities, the material was not sent to the German community.

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  • mrmaplebar@fedia.io ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    "We noticed it was some nazi shit but we did it anyway, except in Germany where it's illegal." Pretty wild defense.

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    • wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      They only apologize when they get caught. Everything else is “fine”.

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    • Muehe@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Well I don’t know. Their response overall is quite incoherent in places, but they mentioned somebody, presumably German, interfering twice now:

      we didn’t port the feedback from our German QA to other languages

      x.com/GOGcom/status/2062981104362242551

      This was noticed before distribution, and out of respect for local sensitivities, the material was not sent to the German community.

      old.reddit.com/r/gog/comments/1txmcyd/…/opxtour/

      And yeah I can absolutely see a German translator/QA person just going, “No, I’m not sending out a fucking SS rune. That’s a fucking crime.” Because apparently it was only censored in the German language version of the newsletter, Germans with language set to English still received it with the runes. So that part, the “hey the German censor was the only one who caught this”, that I can believe. And some PR person rephrasing this embarrassing state of affairs as “German QA” and “respect for local sensitivities” that I can believe too.

      Beyond that, there is pretty deep lore on this already. The developer used an Indian sun wheel before being made aware of possible “connotations”, and then apparently misinterpreted the term connotations, see here (same reddit thread as above, but different comment). Then the GoG rep saying in the reddit thread above the S-like runes were supposed to be Sowilō runes, which are indeed sun symbols, although not Slavic ones, which may comes in pairs, but not in the same orientation, and seem to render different depending on fonts. But the email seems to have used Greek Kappa, which may or may not render differently, looks like it doesn’t. It’s confusing, but plausible enough to have a difficult time disbelieving it outright.

      But on the whole, those three/four symbols just don’t come together by accident. Some person put those there on purpose and is trying to play it off as a mistake. I suspect the author of that first damage control message on reddit.

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  • Don_alForno@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    That’s not even true. Am German, got the mail. (To a “.de” e-mail adress btw, so it’s not like it would have been hard to filter.)

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    • Vodulas@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      AFAIK, it was not sent to people signed up for the German language newsletter. Filtered via language, not location.

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      • Don_alForno@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        This doesn’t even make sense when it’s about symbols that are illegal in one country. Not all German speakers live in Germany, not all people in Germany use the German language version of things.

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    • QuadratureSurfer@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Someone else further down mentioned that it was likely the translators that caught the issue which would make more sense as to why the German translation was held up while it was still sent out in other languages (regardless of user location).

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  • DdCno1@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    The S rune is not the only issue. By combination of runes, I meant the whole thing. All of these runes have been used by Nazis and extensively so. While the rune used by the SS is the most well known, this is like a best-of of which runes Heinrich Himmler and modern Nazis are especially fond of.

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    • GammaGames@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Looking further into that other thread I see what you mean, it looks like the devs themselves realized the other icons (and even changed one for the game’s logo) but GOG just not have known that. I’ll have to update my reply, thank you!

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  • RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    It’s worse to remind germans they were nazis than to blast nazi symbols at the rest of the world apparently.

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