Gog Promotional E-Mail Containing Nazi Symbols Goes Out to Subscribers

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Quokka@quokk.au⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://outof.games/news/9091-gog-promotional-e-mail-containing-nazi-symbols-goes-out-to-subscribers/

Well that’s a headline I never thought I’ll write. Several posts and comments on the GOG subreddit have noticed a promotional e-mail that contains some… interesting symbols, which I can confirm with my own e-mail. As can be seen from the screenshot below, an e-mail containing a discount code for the game The End of the Sun (nothing out of the ordinary so far) contains 4 symbols that resemble Nazi iconography.

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Comments

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Corngood@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

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.

Zero explanation for why there were two of them, and the thing about Germany makes them look worse.

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- PonyOfWar@pawb.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  It’s also not even correct. I am in Germany, with a German (English-language) GOG account and I received the email with those symbols. Someone should get fired over this.
  
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- hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Yo wtf that’s mens rea
  
  They just admitted they knew it was bad and were like “but it’s legal in the US so it’s fine to send it there” but ignore it’s about as bad as it gets for legal symbols.
  
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- drmoose@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  But it’s not the same symbol despite being two of them.
  
  Let’s not nazis hijack the letter S and fucking sun now shall we? This is so tiring.
  
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  - cecilkorik@piefed.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    As much as I would like to not let Nazis hijack certain things, the simple fact is they did, they have, and they continue to. If Nazi-ism were gone and a distant memory, which perhaps even a decade ago I might’ve believed we were nearly at, then we can start working on reclaiming what they have polluted and bringing back its true, full history.
    
    But that has all changed, the masks are coming off and we are starting to see how far these white supremacists have metastasized and how much power they are beginning to take control of with their fascism. Now is not the time to begin trying to reclaim these symbols, precisely when they are actively using them as dogwhistles and trial balloons, actively spreading their vile ideology and starting to signal to and coordinate with each other to make their ever-so-predictable moves against humanity once again.
    
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  - prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    And they decided to remove them specifically for Germany because…?
    
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Protoknuckles@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
First of all I love GOG, I love their mission, and I have stood by them since the beginning.

That being said, why the living fuck did they put 2 of the last symbol? What did that represent!?

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- carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  to me it’s pretty clear that it was intentional. like ffs, they explicitly chose to send the email with that title everywhere except germany because it’s illegal to have nazi symbolism there. so obviously they knew! they realized what this came across as!
  
  idk if it’s an edgy representative, and now they’re defending that rep or something (or maybe the rep is the one writing the shitty non-apologies)… but yea, i’m downloading all my offline installers and if they don’t have a real apology and commitment to not fucking do this again then my account is gone.
  
  fuck GOG. the ai shit was bad enough, this is fucking unacceptable. i’d rather put up with steam’s drm than give money to neonazis.
  
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  - REDACTED@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Can’t you just read the ducking explanation by the GoG? It makes sense.
    
    Besides, as an Easterner, I fully agree with that highlighted comment from Polish dude - the symbol you see in the title has nothing to do with Nazis, it is cultural heritage that we still use around.
    
    For us it’s different, but idea is the same - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugunskrusts
    
    Better don’t go to India
    
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- ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Did you also stand by them when they started using AI images in the store? Or when they started that patrons thing where they just ask you to donate to a for-profit store?
  
  GOG has been kind of weird lately, and I can’t say I like what I’ve been seeing.
  
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  - Protoknuckles@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    The second yes, the first no. I can see a patreon type thing for game preservation being a good thing so long as they maintain a paper trail. You’re not wrong though.
    
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  - yakko@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Aw maaan. I saw some of these and managed to overlook them separately, but taken together it’s not looking great. That sucks, I liked GOG.
    
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- athatet@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  The two together at the end is the ss lightning bolt. Hitlers gestapo.
  
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  - Protoknuckles@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Yeah, I get that. But my point is, if they say it’s not supposed to have been that, when that’s what everyone else sees, what were they trying to represent? Like, ok, Nordic runes are touchy because of the nazis, but there are plenty of reasons to use them. But using that rune twice? Why? Why only that rune? How can you say you didn’t mean that? What else could you have been trying to represent?
    
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  - Zombie@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    A nitpick but the Gestapo were just a part of the SS.
    
    The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS (General SS) and Waffen-SS (Armed SS). The Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of the combat units of the SS, with a sworn allegiance to Hitler. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; “Death’s Head Units”[2]), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps. Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organisations. They were tasked with detecting actual or potential enemies of Nazi Germany, neutralizing the opposition, policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology and providing domestic and foreign intelligence.
    
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel
    
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- Quokka@quokk.au ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  The twin suns of tatooine?
  
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capt_wolf@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Wow… I really don’t buy those excuses…

They literally admit to seeing the problem before distribution, but instead of just deleting them from the email, they decide to just not include the place where it would get them into the most legal trouble instead?

Uh… No… That’s not an accident anymore. There’s no oopsie there.

Then they go and double down on reddit by giving the excuse that the symbol has been around way longer than it’s modern historical use, so we shouldn’t stop using it because someone corrupted it?

No, that’s not how it works.

Things get ruined and they take on new meanings, that includes words and symbols. You don’t just get to decide that you’re going to take back the symbol of some of the worst evil mankind has known just because it had another meaning before that and then expect everyone to be like, “Oh, alright…” It has a new meaning now. One that everyone recognizes… A meaning that it is blatantly apparent they were aware of beforehand and decided to use anyway.

Anyone buying that bullshit excuse is an idiot.

Fuck GoG.

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- BCsven@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Some people still keep the old meaninga going.
  
  The west hates the Swastika for obvious reasons, but whenever I go to an Indian store there are swastika brand products because it still has its old meaning to Indians.
  
  First time I went to an Indian coworkers house I stopped dead in my tracks when I approached their door, it was a Hindu special time and they had a giant swatika on the door.
  
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  - capt_wolf@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I’ll give you that, and the swastika and manji came to mind. I’d originally included in my post the suggestion about going and putting up swastikas and was like… “wait… That’s still a thing.”
    
    I get that it’s a Norse rune and I recognize the history and heritage in the same way, but in that case maybe just one ᛋ would have sufficed. However, considering someone thought enough to say, “Hey, this is going to be problem in Germany.” it would have hurt literally no one to just say, “maybe we just shouldn’t to it at all.” Deleted. Literally no controversy.
    
    Instead… here we are.
    
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KaChilde@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Was willing to buy the “oopsie daisy! The symbols displayed incorrectly” defence, but admitting that they KNEW the issue existed, put two of them side by side, and then doubled down by basically saying “one bad egg shouldn’t spoil a perfectly good rune”, then not sending the offending email to German customers is baffling!

Time to demand a few refunds I think. Can’t support any justification for promoting fascism.

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- white_nrdy@programming.dev ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  The “not sending to German customers” is the cincher to me.
  
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TipRing@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
So they knew it was there and decided not to send it to the market where it would be possibly illegal. This is pretty brazen and I cannot imagine what they are thinking would come from this that would make the reputational impact worthwhile.

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CosmoNova@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Surprising amount of people here seem to believe the PR bullshit non-apology. You probably think Musk just did a Roman salute too. Pathetic.

Good to know most people have a brain and are capable of critical thinking to easily see through the bullshit.

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placebo@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
After nearly two decades working in IT companies, I can see how someone could discover this issue and notify someone else, but it was never properly escalated and addressed due to ineffective internal organization. I don’t mean to defend them, but I don’t see any reasonable explanation for why they would have done this intentionally.

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- CubitOom@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  They didn’t use the The Schutzstaffel Nazi symbol in the German mailers because they thought it would violate hate speech laws.
  
  There was no reason to use 2 of those runes together.
  
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  - placebo@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    
    They didn’t use the The Schutzstaffel Nazi symbol in the German mailers because they thought it would violate hate speech laws.
    
    That doesn’t contradict what I wrote, though. I can see how some manager who didn’t care enough or didn’t understand the implications would accept this half‑assed measure somebody suggested on slack.
    
    I mean, they should be criticized and shamed for what’s happened, but I see no evidence of malicious intent.
    
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- grrgyle@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  It looks pretty intentional from where I’m standing. At best the shot caller was apathetic to it looking like actual Nazi iconography to some recipients.
  
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- mellowistheyellow@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  After four decades of life on this planet, I can think of a million reasons why this was done intentionally. Maybe you just arent that smart?
  
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SourDrink@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
One day I wish we as a collective humanity can reclaim these symbols. Growing up in a Chinese household. I’ve know the manji as symbol associated with the Buddha, not as a symbol of hate and oppression.

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- CubitOom@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Neither the “Doppelrune” (Doublerune) nor the “Siegrune/Sig-Rune” (Victory rune) are historic runes and were created 1929 by Walther Heck. The “Siegrune” itself wasn’t even inspired by the germanic “sowilo” rune (ᛋ), Walther Heck himself stated, that he created it, as he disliked the soft form of the “S” in the latin alphabet and wanted to provide an alternative to the “Fraktur” style that was commonly used in germany at that time.
  
  This ᛋ is “sowilo/sigel/sol”, the germanic rune for sun
  
  This ϟ is the “Siegrune”, created 1929 by Walther Heck as an alternative to the letter “S” and was used by the Nazis
  
  This ϟϟ is the “Doppelrune”, also a creation by Walther Heck and used as a symbol for the SS
  
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  - SourDrink@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Gotcha. Nothing historical about that specific symbol. Never meant as a symbol of fortunate or goodness. Just some Heck dude who thought an angular S was cool
    
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davel@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Ackchyually It’s about ethics in gaming journalism.

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- Hell_nah_brother@thelemmy.club ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  “You don’t understand, they call us Nazi so we have to do this to prove them wrong!! Why are you doing this to us!!!”
  
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tidderuuf@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
It’s a rune and displays differently depending on where you are viewing it.

That author is one hell of a pearl clutcher.

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- Sanctus@anarchist.nexus ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Idk, GOG even said they were aware it might “cause problems”. So why include them at all and risk the trouble? They even removes it from the German announcement. Like come on, thats obvious enough where you probably shouldn’t send it to the whole world if you won’t send it to the country the Nazis spawned in.
  
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  - YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Nazi symbology is probably illegal in Germany.
    
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- Quokka@quokk.au ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  It’s double runes of a different unicode character (they claim it is the Ϟ rendering as ᛋ), they recognised that it would appear to be Nazi and they deliberately did not send it to Germany where it is illegal.
  
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  - lmmarsano@group.lt ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    
    reddit
    
    opinion discarded
    
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- CubitOom@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  It’s a literal hate symbol.
  
  You are defending a company using Nazi imagery.
  
  There was no reason for the inclusion of the Nazi hate symbol.
  
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  - tidderuuf@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Oh boy! Look at you making assertions. Please fix this for us by boycotting GOG and telling all your friends at Starbucks.
    
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lmmarsano@group.lt ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I got that email. Symbols verbatim

𖥞 ꥟ ϟϟ

Let’s look those up.

𖥞

BAMUM LETTER PHASE-D MVOP

not a germanic rune

꥟

REJANG SECTION MARK

not a germanic rune

ϟ

GREEK SMALL LETTER KOPPA

not a germanic rune

0/3 germanic/nazi runes. They resemble if you willfully go there.

verdict: reaction bait for reddit-grade pearl clutchers
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- RunawayFixer@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  This explanation falls apart when it comes to the SS symbol.
  
  Gog claims that they were using the sowilo rune, but as you found they were using the lower case koppa letter. The sowilo rune is included in unicode, there was no reason to use the greek letter koppa for it … unless they wanted to hint at something else. And the elephant in the room: why did they put 2 of the things next to eachother? Gog hasn’t found a suitable excuse for that so far.
  
  It’s an obvious dog whistle and it’s rightfully being called out.
  
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- wpb@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  This has to be satire. You’re doing satire, right?
  
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  - Magnum@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    No, its bait.
    
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- BradleyUffner@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  A straight line isn’t a Nazi symbol either, but if you put 8 of them together in to a pinwheel shape, well now we have a problem.
  
  Context matters.
  
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- prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Then why bother removing them for Germany
  
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- mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  just look at these two innocent numbers
  
  14 a factor of 7 and 2
  
  88 a factor of 11 and 2^3^
  
  Still think there is any malicious intent here??
  
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fenrasulfr@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
This needs to be properly adressed and whoever did this and whoever greenlighted it should the full feel consequences.

All that being said I can not see this being a company wide intention. Just from a business point of view this is so stupid that it beggars believe. Even if the entire company are neo nazis they would know that openly espousing those ideas would result in losing customers and losing partners. The big game publishers would not want to be associated with Nazis at least publicly so they might pull games from GoG to stop the reputational damage. Anyone that has at least a functioning brain would stop buying from them until there is a full explenation and proper resolution. And considering GoG barely keeps their head above water, they can not afford this at all. Unless the new owner wants to tank the company and sell off the assets.

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AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Maybe support for Ukraine lol. Zelensky just honored Andrey Melnik, a twentieth-century Ukrainian fascist leader and Nazi collaborator who fought with the Nazi’s against the Red Army (NYTimes)

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- edible_funk@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Oh look an ml account repeating the Ukraine nazi Russian propaganda talking point. How surprising.
  
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  - goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Til the new York times is now Russian propaganda…
    
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hakase@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
So nobody here wants to actually read the article where it was very clearly explained that this was a rendering error of a different symbol on some devices?

Y’all just really, really wanna be mad, huh?

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- Quokka@quokk.au ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  We all did, we also read the other messages and saw through the flimsy excuse provided.
  
  Please do tell us why putting two Greek Koppa together was necessary, and how it relates to Polish cultural history. Why they realised that it appeared Nazi related, and instead of simply not doing it decided to only not do it in Germany.
  
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  - hakase@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Lol, no, I’m just here to laugh at everyone malding about what is very clearly an innocent mistake.
    
    Seriously, this is Tankie Triad levels of conspiracism, y’all.
    
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- CubitOom@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  The Schutzstaffel is purely a Nazi symbol.
  
  There was no reason to use 2 of those runes together, especially when not using it in German mailers because they thought it would violate hate speech laws.
  
  Either you are trying to gaslight people into thinking that ᛋᛋ is not a symbol of hate and genocide, or you are extremely ignorant.
  
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  - hakase@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    No, I’m just capable of reading an article and understanding an explanation, unlike you and most other people in the thread.
    
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  - drmoose@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Did you read the article? It’s not Schutzstaffel.
    
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- mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  They didn’t even use the rune though. They didn’t use the sowilo rune ᛋ but the koppa symbol ϟ because it looks more like the sig rune. If they actually meant to use the sowilo rune they would have and also why make a doppelrune? This is nazi shit.
  
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TaeKwonDoh@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Image

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CubitOom@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Good Old Germany

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JonsJava@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Comments have gone off the rails.

Locking this down

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brsrklf@jlai.lu ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The fact the game has changed logo and gog decided they’d include the old one stinks.

This makes the runes in the gog mail feel like a reaction to the devs “going back” on their original iconography and an attempt to “fix” it.

“Oh, you changed your symbol because it was too nazi-like? Let us double down on it.”

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fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Any publicity is good publicity, I guess.

Game looks quite good. No evidence of any Nazi related stuff in the gameplay, Steam forums etc. That seems entirely to be GOG’s doing

Might buy it at on Steam at 45% off as part of their “women-led games” sale.

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GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
where are all the people that were attacking valve yesterday? c’mon guys! GOG is the best, right??

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- SomethingBurger@jlai.lu ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  But on GOG, you actually own your games! Well, you don’t, but you can download the files and run the game without the launcher! Well, you also can on Steam and EGS, but… uhhh… whatever, Valve is a monopoly, this is why you should buy from GOG and not any other major competitor to the monopoly like EGA, Ubisoft Connect, BattleNet, itch, Xbox Store, Amazon…
  
  GOG is a meme service, and its fanboys are even more annoying than Valve’s simply because their platform of choice is objectively worse. At least no one defends EGS or Ubisoft Connect.
  
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  - grrgyle@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I for one complain about both platforms for subtly different reasons!
    
    Now I’ve got one more with gog, I guess.
    
    Other than the rare direct purchase, where are folks getting their games anyway? Zoomplatform??
    
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liinux@pawb.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Why people cry so much about something like this? Yes, the Nazi’s did something horrible and I’m not here to tell the contrary, but why in the hell using those simbols offend so much?

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- Quokka@quokk.au ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Because Nazi dog whistles are a problem. Nazism didn’t end in 1945.
  
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Mac@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Dont worry, when we let Nazis take symbols they’ll eventually accumulate them all and we’ll have none left to use.

I think we should take them back—just like with 👌

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lemmyng@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
THAT.

IS.

WHY.

I.

PIRATE!

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Bloomcole@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Just think they’re ukrainian, then it’s OK

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SupremeJerk9999@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
What’s the game btw

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warmaster@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Is this a case of AI ?

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