Holy hell, this does not look like an accident. This combination of runes does not just happen. Whoever did this at the company thought they could get away with it.
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.
"We noticed it was some nazi shit but we did it anyway, except in Germany where it's illegal." Pretty wild defense.
They only apologize when they get caught. Everything else is "fine".
An apology is meaningless.
Tell us how and why two koppa were placed together, knowing they rendered incorrectly and even if they didn’t would still look like double sig runes. There was nothing Slavic cultured about two of them next to each other and the excuses made so far are unacceptable lies, who made that decision and why?
Until this is properly explained, I am never using GOG again.
The high seas welcome another mariner. 🤘🏼
How many layers of people did this go through? Between their history of transphobia and now this, they are painting a pretty bad picture of themselves
I'm not aware of their history of transphobia, could you share an article talking about it?
Of course! https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/23/18015434/gog-twitter-wontbeerased-hashtag/
https://kotaku.com/cyberpunk-2077-tweets-transphobic-joke-studio-apologiz-1828502562
I included CD Projekt in there since GoG is owned by them
How is this a history of transphobia?
Link 1: They made a pun using a trending hashtag without checking what the hashtag meant. They apologized when it was explained to them. This is an example of cluelessness or laziness on the part of whoever was running the Twitter account, not of transphobia.
Link 2: In their video game, containing themes like murder, rape, torture, and the abuse of society by megacorporations, they included a megacorporation misusing an image of a trans person for advertising. When asked about it, they confirmed it's part of the evil fictional world that they have created, and obviously they don't condone it, just like they don't condone murder even though the game features a lot of murder. Is it transphobic to include themes of transphobia in a game, even though it's shown as a bad thing?
Link 3: They didn't like a fan's assumption that only men work for the company, and used the "Did you just assume their gender" meme. They apologized when they were told it can be offensive.
I don't see a single example here of them being transphobic on purpose. And speaking of Cyberpunk, it features a major trans character whose struggle you are supposed to emphatise with, so they clearly care about the community.
I agree they should be more careful about what their post, but I think there is a big difference between being transphobic, and accidentally posting something transphobic without meaning it 8 years ago and then apologizing for the mistake.
It's not the intent of your post and I know I'm on a bit of a tangent, but the middle article about the oversexualization in the ad doesn't feel transphobic to me as a trans person. Or like, it does, but it does in a way that it makes perfect sense for the world that the game takes place in.
There are lots of examples of commodification of people's bodies in game, so leaning into that with a trans person feels like a very real version of what a company might do in that universe.
Not trying to nitpick or anything, I just heard about this controversy waaaaaay after the fact and never got a chance to chime in anywhere with anyone.
No worries at all. To me it felt more like fetishization but that is a totally fair take.
The point is, the game portraits a terrible world. The game contains people killing each other, that doesn't mean the developers condone people killing each other in real life. The game contains megacorporations misusing images of trans people for advertising, that doesn't mean the developers condone that either.
I think it's usually well understood that something being in a work of media doesn't mean it's representative of the views of the authors, in fact it's very common for media to contain themes like violence and abuse, not because the author is condoning it, but because the author is building a dark world for their piece of fiction.
Apologia much? 🤷🏽
If you disagree, feel free to discuss, no need to be dismissive for no reason.
Technically it isn’t anymore it’s owned by one of the founders, though he’s a chair at cdpr
Good to know!
I guess I'll have to buy my games from itch now sigh
There was also a period where transphobic comments in their forums seemed to take longer for mods to delete but I can't find anyone talking about that.
Also of note, GOGs sister company, CD Project RED, makers of Cyberpunk 2077, have been criticized for their handling of Trans people and response to trans critics as well covered some here
I would bet my last donut that the screwup has something to do with AI generating at least part of their email content.
Doesn't matter if it was originally added by an LLM (AI doesn't exist) or not. They stated they knew what it looked like and that's why they didn't send it out in Germany. That makes them fully responsible and aware of the message they were sending
Sorry, I missed where I stated that it mattered.
checks email
Yup, I got this one too.
Probably drafted by Grok
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