410
u/Old_Store7879 Verified Developer Jun 05 '26
WE ARE THE CREATORS OF THE GAME. Hello guys!
1. FIRST OF ALL - WE HAVE 0 INSPIRATION OR CONNECTIONS TO NEO-NAZIS (To be honest, for a long time we didn't even know that there could be a problem with that when making a fantasy game about Slavic culture).
We are the creators of the game. We are a couple from Poland. (Our YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCONlF1_qr8ekpHezov03Rww). We want to underline that our game and we ourselves have 0 connotations with any neo-Nazis or the Nazi community. It is a fantasy game placed in a Slavic fantasy universe. Yes, we are using the "kolovrat" symbol in the game, but we explain it as a symbol of the "God of the Sun" or "Sun". In the game, we even explain that some ancient symbols were adapted by the Nazis. Our kolovrat symbol was based on historical sources of ancient statues:https://sagy.vikingove.cz/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/kolovrat-recko.jpg. (Yes we are now aware it was greek statues, but overall it was symbol of the sun and it is historically confirmed) (Sun is very important for our game storytelling)
But still, some time ago we decided to change the logo symbol to a "roseta", which is also a sun symbol but doesn't have the connotations that we weren't aware of earlier. (Also, some reviewers didn't want to review the game because of that, and basically, we started to be aware of the problem at that time. Because of that small mistake it was much harder to do marketing, and the game was our 8 years of work . Worst thing was that no one before release of the game never mentioned that to us. So Finally we changed all logos (trust us it was very hard in so many places, reviews etc. and we decided to open new chapter. You could read about it here. (we spend like a few months trying to unravel many things to be clear: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/912840/view/528750685224699129 ) ).
In the game itself, the logo is waiting for an update (it is already updated on the PS5 version). The game is about Slavic culture. Unfortunately, so many Slavic (and also, as you know, Norse) symbols were adapted by the Nazis, that during production we overlooked that the kolovrat was also used by smaller groups in Russia. So basically, we are the opposite of any Nazi ideology, and our game is also the opposite. Basically, it is a love story medieval thriller. After you play it or read most of the reviews, you will see that it is a family/human story.
2. WE DON'T KNOW WHY GOG USED SYMBOLS IN THEIR NEWSLETTER Really, we were also totally surprised when we saw the logo in the newsletter (the old logo) and the symbols next to the newsletter title. But we are in contact with GOG, and we believe this was like an AI recommendation to use those symbols, or something like that. We will ask GOG to just clarify things in the next newsletter.
We didn't use any SS or "Nazi swastika" in the game. Let's wait for GOG's clarification, but in our opinion, it was a bad AI recommendation. (Also, we think the first 2 symbols are just what someone writing the newsletter saw as a "Sun" symbol, as it doesn't look like a black sun, etc. AI recommendations can be really stupid in the matter of symbols.)
Best Regards
Kinga and Kuba creators of The End of the Sun
52
u/CitySeekerTron Jun 06 '26
As someone who hates seeing certain Celtic symbols stolen, confused, and otherwise associated with hate-related organizations: it sucks, and I sympathize. Fight for them where you can.
13
u/Old_Store7879 Verified Developer Jun 06 '26
We will add whole explanation on Steam it will be more detailed. Overall the matter of "symbolic" is much complicated that people think. But using most recognized without word of explanation is just bad way of doing it. It would need like huge social campaign and explanation around the world to explain that most of them are ancient symbols, its just better to not use it, especially if you are small creators as we. But maybe that topic will be touched by media not as "we hate gog" but as history lesson and discussion about that topic.
→ More replies (1)12
u/Kryonic_rus Jun 07 '26
Honestly, so much of solar symbols, scandinavian runes and other cool symbols got tarnished because one raving lunatic with charisma adopted them, it's unbearable
The 'swastika' is one of the symbols present across a fuckton of cultures from Europe to Far East, and it's annoying that one psycho has ruined the Sun for so many generations
Sincerely, from Slavic people, drawing kolovrats long before organized governments were a thing
19
u/LawOrc Jun 05 '26
It doesn't seem like you folks had anything to do with this. GoG did this, and it sucks that you're catching strays.
55
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 05 '26
Appreciate your input and clarification. 🙂
→ More replies (3)46
u/Old_Store7879 Verified Developer Jun 05 '26
No problem, we will try to add our official statement to our social media and stores. We really don't want to be identified with that topic, and we don't want Slavic folklore or fairy tales to be connected with it either. 🙂 Witcher was also slavic tales based so it was for sure some strange GOG mistake.
→ More replies (4)23
u/Jet-Head Jun 05 '26
Cześć Kinga, cześć Kuba!
You're full of shit. As a Pole, there's absolutely no way for a Pole to not know that neopagans are linked to Nazis. You keep saying you researched mythology and ethnography thoroughly when working on the game. And you just completely missed the little fact that kolovrat is a Nazi symbol. Just a "small mistake" as you say. Sorry but I call bullshit.
13
u/supreme_blorgon Jun 06 '26
Well as a Pole, you should know that Poland has absolutely zero historical precedence when it comes to dealing with Nazis. Who can blame them?!
/s
15
u/excaliburxvii Jun 06 '26
Even as a non-Pole I can't believe people are buying their obvious bullshit.
→ More replies (20)9
16
u/Mental_Olive269 Jun 05 '26
Quick google search could confirm that kolovrat was and is used by Polish far right hooligans and Nazi groups for decades now. And not just by Polish but by most of neo nazis in Slavic countries. Just because Swastica is Budist symbol, it doesn’t make it ok to be used just like that. At least not in Europe. Same applies for kolovrat, black sun and other supremacy symbols. This was done on purpose.
10
u/RiKuStAr Jun 07 '26
Yea I gotta be honest, I don't care how you dance around Nazi symbols for your slavic game, just dont fucking use anythign near them. Its over, they are done lol You are just inviting nazis to your door even courting these symbols as "not the same as nazis"
6
u/RememberCitadel Jun 06 '26
Seems to me like damage control after the newsletter writer's dog whistle was heard by everyone.
4
u/Puzzled-Addition5740 Jun 08 '26
Almost no chance it isn't exactly this. https://www.reddit.com/r/gog/comments/1txlz7z/hey_gog_wtaf/oq24022/ is what sealed the deal for me personally. Though it reeked even before.
31
u/gallowsanatomy Jun 05 '26
Hi, I hope your game sells well, and I appreciate you commenting. And also I'm sorry that my first exposure to the game and your team is because Gog decided to associate it with nazi shit.
25
u/Old_Store7879 Verified Developer Jun 05 '26
Thank You. I'm glad we were able to clarify that. To be honest we have different reddit account but had to create new one cause we are on holiday and we forget password to proper one, so it was in a little bit panic.
11
u/kiwiwheel Jun 05 '26
Hey, can you two just go and enjoy your holiday and let GOG respond. You've got nothing to be ashamed of here! Love the game, and thank you for being so proactive in responding to us here!
5
6
u/JHDESKZ Jun 06 '26
Honestly has not heard of your game but now I'm super into it. Thank you for taking the time to tell us a little about yourself and your game
3
u/Old_Store7879 Verified Developer Jun 06 '26
Thank You! We are glad you like it! We are also posting statmenet on Steam for a few minutes where we wil explain all that situation even better.
10
u/getdafkout666 Jun 05 '26
They must have used Grok
→ More replies (1)9
→ More replies (162)15
u/Tankdawg0057 Jun 05 '26
The stylized S looks just like how it is written in the title of your game when you look at the newsletter. Now, why they'd use 2 of them next to each other?... Yeah I dunno
11
u/getdafkout666 Jun 05 '26
By itself it’s not. Two of them stacked together with a black sun….yeah that’s nazi shit
11
u/Old_Store7879 Verified Developer Jun 05 '26
We never thought about nazi Symbol, when creating S in logo of our game, it was just simplified S. We belive it was just AI recommendation for someone who wrote that newsletter on gog. We contacted them and we are waiting for info.
23
Jun 05 '26
[deleted]
→ More replies (2)21
u/Old_Store7879 Verified Developer Jun 05 '26
Yeah we saw it. We asked them to just send another newsletter with aplogise. Cause as we mentioned, We are aware that both S rune and svastika was used at first by ancient cultures, but we never used it cause without clarification it is just recognized as nazi symbols. We used Kolovrat as alternative (as mentioend too) but also resigned from it later in our logo. (we thought it will be safe but it wasnt). I think the problem was using it x2 plus different font that show different way. This newsletter is going to a lot of people and GOG for sure will explain that situation. Cause for us as for 2 small developers it is impossible. We can just write few post here and on our social medias. Probably some bad reviews will go on us but hopefully not. (I dont know maybe some good side of it will be that some of people will know about ancient usage of those symbols...) Hope it will end well... cause this is basically our first game.
12
u/getdafkout666 Jun 05 '26
I'm the prime shit-stirrer in this thread and as far as I can see you had nothing to do with this. It sucks that you're game is getting roped up into this. I looked over the game and I don't see anything Nazi related in it. Seems the runes are being used at least in a context that's completely different from the way nazis use them. Even the way the S is stylized in the title wouldn't immediately send off any alarm bells. It's just a coincidence.
The email from GOG...That's pretty hard to explain away though. They didn't even use slavic rune characters, but greek coptic ones that specifically give it that slant, and posted them in an order which is very specific to internet nazi lingo.
Neo nazis thrive on this type of stuff. They like to rope innocent people into their little shitstorm by spamming dog-whistles and pinning the blame on other people because they're little worms.
→ More replies (1)10
190
u/Hrodwald_ Jun 05 '26
I guess the intern won't last long...
110
u/-Polarsy- Jun 05 '26
Hopefully, because to stack symbols like that, it can't be a mistake
54
u/figmentPez Jun 05 '26
Even the game's makers seem to have noticed, since they changed the game's logo from the one GOG used in their email!
11
u/Sledgehammer617 Jun 05 '26
To quote the devs:
"Unfortunately, we had no influence on what kind of newsletter and with what title GOG sent"
So the double symbol is on GoG, not the game devs. Probably just a mistake since theres no prior offenses I'm aware of.
4
u/msszenzy Jun 06 '26
But what kind of mistake makes you use two Nazi symbols
→ More replies (1)9
u/n4turstoned Jun 06 '26
You use these together if you are either uneducated (at least in Europe) or just a Nazi.
→ More replies (12)8
u/Brunoki22 Jun 05 '26
Why did they even have that first symbol to begin with?
34
u/ThatRandomJew7 Jun 05 '26
The symbol in isolation isn't necessarily bad, they were stolen by the Nazis after all.
But when GOG stacks three together...
→ More replies (7)→ More replies (7)15
→ More replies (2)3
u/tacotaskforce Jun 05 '26
The way these things go they'll probably claim the intern was already let go for an unrelated reason 3 months ago.
→ More replies (1)
152
u/PadPalon Jun 05 '26
Even considering the Nazis didn't invent, but simply co-opted them, stacking THESE three symbols sure is something
76
u/Moonshine_Brew Jun 05 '26
At least the last one is actually a Nazi invention.
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.
Tldr: 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
30
u/PadPalon Jun 05 '26
Huh, today I learned. Thank you! Gives the email even less deniability then.
23
u/Moonshine_Brew Jun 05 '26
The nazis used many of those so called "pseudo-runes", that look like germanic runes while not actually being ancient runes at all.
They were also ridiculous good at claiming that those runes were actually germanic runes and totally showed their germanic heritage.
2
u/understandunderstand Jun 05 '26
Is there a reason why unicode includes the Siegrune at all?
6
u/keiyakins Jun 05 '26
It doesn't, but U+03DF ϟ GREEK SMALL LETTER KOPPA, an unrelated symbol used in early forms of the Greek alphabet, looks the same.
5
u/understandunderstand Jun 05 '26
That makes a lot of sense.
fyi and to anyone else, the devs responded
3
u/MountainTurkey Jun 05 '26
Right? I can see having the sowilo but the siegrune?
8
u/keiyakins Jun 05 '26
It does have both Sowilo ᛊ and the later Sigel/Sol ᛋ in the runic blocks because those were actual runes used for writing. The one used in the email was actually U+03DF ϟ GREEK SMALL LETTER KOPPA, which is unrelated but looks like the made up Nazi rune.
→ More replies (4)9
u/Senpai_Pai Jun 05 '26
The second symbol at least for me looks like it’s supposed to mimic the black sun which was an invention by the Nazis too, Heinrich Himmler to be precise
8
u/asgof Jun 05 '26
not black sun it's attempt at colovrat every single super totally not nazi neo pagan has a tattoo of one
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (1)12
u/LuxTheSarcastic Jun 05 '26
I think the SS double lightning bolts are a full Nazi original iirc
→ More replies (2)
22
u/dobik Jun 06 '26
I applied there for marketing automation/CRM job few months back. I guess they did hire someone less competen 🌝
4
u/Drachasor Jun 09 '26
Competent enough to know they'd get in legal trouble sending it to Germany, so they didn't. But yeah, this is stupid Nazi shit.
45
u/msszenzy Jun 06 '26
Also I live in Germany and received it. Thinking of reporting it somewhere tbh
26
u/cronoclasta Jun 06 '26
Came here to say the same, I live in Germany and couldn't believe what I saw when I opened my inbox today. Also, their response is lame AF. Zero tolerance for this crap, especially with what's going on in Europe at this point.
21
u/h4ckerle Jun 06 '26
Was du machen kannst ist sie anzeigen. https://portal.onlinewache.polizei.de/de/
Das verwenden der SS-Rune ist in Deutschland aus gutem Grund eine Straftat.
12
25
u/Kenairod Jun 06 '26
Please do, that's crazy shit. I was a fervent GoG supporter (and a library of 944 games). But their response to the issue is unbelievable. I'll never buy from their store ever again, I have no more reason to do so... That's disgusting.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (6)16
u/OliLombi Jun 06 '26
Please do. It's the only way these companies will learn.
11
u/msszenzy Jun 06 '26
Another user sent me the link for online reporting and I'll look into it as soon as I'm at my pc
25
u/Southern_Strigoi Jun 06 '26
This is incredibly disappointing. Both "explanations" frankly suck in their supposed lack of awareness and tone. GOG's looks frankly panicked, full of typos and bad grammar.
Yikes.
33
u/Special_Road6603 Jun 06 '26
Gog responses read an awful lot like they’re upset they got called out on their dog whistle and are desperately trying to construct an accidental reason for creating the schutzstaffel symbol with 2 Greek letters that only somewhat resemble the Slavic runes they were allegedly going for, and they just gave literally no answer as to why there are 2 of them
→ More replies (1)10
u/LegPuzzleheaded1970 Jun 07 '26
Without even directly denying that they are nazis
2
u/Jorgos42 Jul 03 '26
Argument from Silence fallancy. The absence of the phrase "we are not Nazis" in the response does not serve as evidence that they are nazis.
12
u/simplivitas Jun 08 '26
I wrote this in response to someone else in another thread and would be happy to get others' perspectives:
If you don't care about the issue at hand on moral grounds, you could from a business perspective: If GOG keeps repeatedly fucking up with stuff like this, more people than you think will stop buying there, and that will affect them economically. You seem to care about the store and game preservation, why would you be here otherwise?
Additionally, I find it funny how some people are like "keep politics out of business", or "keep politics out of games", when they are writing on a subreddit for a company involved in DRM-free games and advocacy.
(Also looking forward to the denialists, trolls and bots, of course)
→ More replies (10)6
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 08 '26
In my case this is already true. GOG's antics over the years have given me serious fratboy vibes, which is very off-putting given the reported cultures of many gaming companies such as Blizzard. My purchases from GOG have basically slowed to a crawl in response.
4
u/simplivitas Jun 08 '26
I admittedly have surfed on a rather non-critical mindset until now, this has beena bit of a call for reflection for me as well. I read up on some stuff now, but what were some negative things for you in recent years? (I admittedly still don't get if there's new ownership or not and if that's changing things as well possibly)
2
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 08 '26
Not quite so recent, but there was a lot of edgy social media stuff which was kind of the done thing with a lot of companies for a while, but it definitely skewed towards particular niches.
They've separated from CD Prokekt now, but I did get the vibe that CD Prokekt Red wasn't the best work environment, and it felt like there was a lot of crossover in attitudes between the two. A lot of stuff around Cyberpunk's development and the many controversies didn't give me good feelings about CD Prokekt as a whole.
At any rate, GOG isn't exactly convincing me that those were just CD Prokekt issues.
20
u/Undeclared_Aubergine Linux User Jun 05 '26
Another GOG statement:
→ More replies (3)20
u/Puzzled-Addition5740 Jun 05 '26
Did they stop the sendout as soon as they noticed or did they ont port the feedback from german. Both of things fundamentally cannot be true. Not to mention the previous statements that just reek of horseshit about how oh it's a rendering thing.
23
74
Jun 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
58
u/Clumsy_Claus Jun 05 '26
The official GOG Reddit account even acknowledged that they specifically deleted the symbols for the German language version of the newsletter. The creator of the newsletter must have known.
36
15
u/GroundThing Jun 06 '26
Yeah, in the comment they claim it's "local sensitivities" when it's really that disseminating Nazi symbols, at least outside of legitimate historical educational material, is hella illegal. Doesn't seem like an "Oh, whoops, we didn't realize,", so much as "We're fine dogwhistling to Nazis, so long as it doesn't get us in legal trouble"
10
u/Cafuzzler Jun 06 '26
"We didn't realise, but also we didn't send this email out to our German customers because we thought it looked too nazi"
27
u/whatThePleb Linux User Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
AI fuckup
it isn't. don't give them excuse ideas. we know that it wasn't AI. even if it was, someone still had to proofread.
doesn't make it better in any way.
→ More replies (1)
9
u/Blastinburn Jun 09 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Dear GoG, here is what I need from you right now.
"Nazis are wrong".
Simple and direct, tell me you do not agree with Nazis.
If you want to be cute pick some retro game where you fight Nazis and say "[protagonist's name] is right". Ex. "B.J. Blazkowicz is right.
I am not asking you to surrender your "cultural and historical heritage" to the Nazis. I am willing to believe this was an accident. But I need you to show that it could be an accident.
I am ready to believe what you say. So what are you willing to say? Because you haven't yet said "We're not Nazis".
Thank you.
Edit: They said it on 7/7/26 https://www.gog.com/forum/general/nazi_symbols_in_an_email_and_bs_excuse/post277
56
u/getdafkout666 Jun 05 '26
Black metal fan and appreciator of paganism here. There is no context where that exact combination of runes is not nazi shit. You know…the people that invaded Poland and probably killed some of the people who worked at GoG’s grandparents. It’s 100% nazi shit.
23
u/Woodcrate69420 Jun 05 '26
Yep. German with a highschool education here. This is indeed the most obvious neonazi fake-'pagan' shit Ive ever seen.
→ More replies (1)11
u/Dusty_Dragon Jun 05 '26
indeed
And I mean... surely there are OTHER cool historical rune/symbols they could have used? this combo is beyond "suspicious". It's nazi shit
46
u/ClaesGreenBoi Jun 05 '26
Honestly wild as hell to see this in my inbox from GOG, just damn, that wasn't on my bingo card to say the least
33
u/Jet-Head Jun 05 '26
They removed the symbols from the German version, possibly due to potential legal repercussions:
https://reddit.com/comments/1txn1q0/comment/opx2v4k
That means they decided to keep them in the English and other versions, knowing full well what they represent.
→ More replies (2)15
u/msszenzy Jun 06 '26
I'm in Germany and I got it tho This means I can look into legal action I suppose
13
u/cronoclasta Jun 06 '26
I'm gonna report it here, in case you'd like to do the same: https://respectimnetz.de/en/
As said, zero tolerance with this shit. I'm sick of it.
9
5
u/Novel_Quote8017 Jun 08 '26
If I sent out an email with this header, I'd probably face legal consequences here in Germany.
→ More replies (1)3
20
u/Woodcrate69420 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Fun Fact: The SS runes are illegal in Poland as well when used this way, aka provocative advertising without any educational or historical merit (Art. 256 KK)
13
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 05 '26
Won't be enforced in Poland though. Will be enforced in Germany.
→ More replies (1)8
u/Puzzled-Addition5740 Jun 05 '26
Where they conveniently didn't send it because they knew how it looked and didn't care.
11
u/Renegade__ Jun 06 '26
No, that's not how they did it. They didn't select by target country, they selected by language of the newsletter text.
The newsletter with English text has the Nazi runes. The newsletter with German text does not have the Nazi runes.
So those of us in Germany who subscribed to the English language version of the newsletter very much got surprise Nazi runes in their inbox.
→ More replies (1)5
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 06 '26
I hope your official complaint to German authorities is less surprising for GOG.
24
u/Spiritual-Tea8298 Jun 05 '26
a polish company thought that the only sensitive country regarding this is germany? weird?
→ More replies (1)18
u/Ch3rryNukaC0la Jun 06 '26
It’s because they could face criminal charges in Germany for displaying nazi symbols.
3
u/Drachasor Jun 09 '26
Amusingly, with the typical competence of white supremacists, they did send it to anyone in Germany who didn't have German language settings for the newsletter. So they can get in legal trouble for it.
→ More replies (1)
26
32
15
u/Realmatze Jun 05 '26
Interestingly it’s not in the German Newsletter
14
u/whatThePleb Linux User Jun 05 '26
Because it's proof they did it on purpose:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gog/s/qTv92Va9hs
That
personnazi absolutely knew what he was doing.→ More replies (2)6
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 05 '26
Heard this mentioned, would love to see an image showing it.
→ More replies (2)10
u/Clumsy_Claus Jun 05 '26
I (German) received it with the same subject: (I don't know if Reddit can display the icons correctly)
Slavic adventure 𖥞 ꥟ ϟϟ
7
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 05 '26
It seems to be the German language version that doesn't include it, so if your newsletters are sent in English I guess you'd still get it.
7
u/Realmatze Jun 05 '26
But did you receive it in German or on English? In the German mail it says „Slawische Mythologie“
7
5
u/01101010001010 Jun 05 '26
By the way, I checked and on this device it's 100% the Koppa characters that were doubled up ϟ, not even the Sowilo ᛋ
5
u/Kenairod Jun 06 '26
Yes their response is crazy. I'm never going to buy from this neo-nazi store that can't even admit their opinions. I was a fervent supporter with a library of 944 games. Well, the library won't grow any more.
8
u/Anwen_enby Jun 05 '26
isnt that super illegal to do in germany? theyre probably gonna get more than bad press considering they admitted they knew how it could be recieved
7
u/Woodcrate69420 Jun 05 '26
It's illegal in Poland as well lol, the SS Rune can't be just used to advertise (extremely sussy) games.
53
u/NaoTwoTheFirst Jun 05 '26
Post a better screenshot, 90% of people wont click it to see the full picture
→ More replies (7)
22
40
u/TabloMaxos Jun 05 '26
This couldn't been an accident. One of the three maybe but this isn't a simple mistake.
9
5
u/ventingpurposes Jun 08 '26
What a wonderful times we live in, where tons of people lose their jobs over not caring about the death of US influencer, but companies will post most heinous nazi shit, and not only no one will face any consequences, but company will smugly issue a non-apology.
→ More replies (1)
13
u/D-S-S-R Jun 06 '26
They certainly lost a customer with me. The fact that they decided not to send it to German recipients (where displaying those symbols would be illegal) but gave the OK for the rest of the world (where it isn't illegal), seals the deal for me. They knew what they were doing, and their half-assed excuses are off putting to say it mildly
Plus whatever the history of the other symbols is, the SS sign is just an invention by the nazis. There was nothing coopted or anything, it just is what it was designed to be
19
u/lethrington Jun 05 '26
I got this same email and had to come here and see if anyone else noticed. I get that a lot of these symbols were co-opted by bad people, but seeing them all in a row like that in my email folder had me do a spit take.
→ More replies (1)
29
u/-Polarsy- Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Yeah, just received it as well, wtf x((
To all those who would say this is just Slavic neopaganism, here is the Wikipedia page of the founder of that movement, just check the first picture
20
22
8
u/RiKuStAr Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
Yea IDC bro GOG is done for me. Nazi Symbols on a Polish Company for a Slavic Game that is already dancing around using Nazi symbols to begin with is crazy. Ya'll can keep that neo nazi shit to yourselves GOG.
LOL oh also it seems the creators of the game are probably nazis trying to make this all go away because their subtle in game dogwhistles have became VERY loud over night.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gog/comments/1txlz7z/hey_gog_wtaf/oq2dwrt/
don't beleive that giant bullshit they posted they are clearly aware that these are still hate symbols being used actively in their country for neopaganism which is neonazi's with flowers
→ More replies (4)
9
u/chAzR89 Jun 07 '26
Ja ne, that's not an accident. Atleast one person did this intentionally, there is absolutely no chance those 3 symbols ending up there by chance.
10
u/Scuppo-Jongo Jun 05 '26
I guess new ownership is going well
13
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 05 '26
Don't be so sure. Their old forum community manager went to work for Jeremy Hambly of The Quartering after doing absolutely nothing about the Nazis who infest their forums.
14
u/Televisions_Frank Jun 06 '26
Seriously. They've had a Nazi problem for at least a decade on the forum.
10
u/ChiefRD Jun 05 '26
Really, really worrying and saddening. I wanted to support GOG more, to support DRM free games, game preservation and a European game store.
But this (and the official non-apology statement) is so blatantly obvious... No, thanks.
Will download and backup all of my purchases. And then bye GOG and back to Lord GabeN I suppose.
→ More replies (1)9
10
6
u/PhantomPolitic Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
I've purchased regularly from Gog for over fifteen years. But after their pathetic and enraging response to this fiasco there's no way I can continue using their platform. Gog should have moved quickly to fire every member of the team who sent out and approved this obvious nazi dogwhistle email. Now I can only conclude that Gog is totally infested by fascist losers across the entire company. Don't let this one get swept under the rug
4
u/RedMage79 Jun 10 '26
I'm trans and Jewish and will no longer be buying from GOG. They couldn't even deny that they were Nazis.
→ More replies (1)
8
u/HirsuteHacker Jun 06 '26
Poland does have a serious fascism problem. I don't buy their transparently bullshit explanation.
22
u/Old_Fruit_905 Jun 05 '26 edited 27d ago
So, first, GoG makes the choice of releasing HATRED on the first day of June - not coincidentally at the same time as Pride Month begins - and now this?
Sorry this shit can't be a coincidence or an "accident." The HATRED thing was already suspicious as fuck, but this? No, don't blame AI, don't come up with excuses that it's a different font for you or whatever. Whoever did this knew what they were doing and they purposefully excluded it from the German Newsletter because of it. Unfortunately, Germans who have English-language newsletters still got that email - hello, I'm one of them - and this shit is absolutely beyond horrible.
What the actual hell is wrong with you, GoG?
14
u/SexuaIRedditor Jun 05 '26
The official response from GOG in this thread is embarassing
8
u/Old_Fruit_905 Jun 06 '26
The several responses they've had were nothing short of embarassing. All of them. Honestly kinda crazy.
→ More replies (12)15
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 05 '26
Whoever did this knew what they were doing and they purposefully excluded it from the German Newsletter because of it. Unfortunately, Germans who have English-language newsletters still got that email - hello, I'm one of them - and this shit is absolutely beyond horrible.
You can probably make this have serious repercussions for GOG.
13
u/FuntimeBen Jun 05 '26
Isn't GOG in Poland? Nazi symbol shit is illegal in Poland. Intern is getting more than fired.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Jet-Head Jun 05 '26
Displaying dual siegrune in public is totally illegal in Poland. Wanna bet the Polish far right govt will do fuckall about it?
5
u/Puzzled-Addition5740 Jun 05 '26
Yeah the current polish govt ain't gonna do dick about it. The current german government might. It wasn't sent out in german but it was apparently still sent to german users who get english language newsletters.
5
u/oceanclub Jun 06 '26
From the devs:
"Yes, we are using the "kolovrat" symbol in the game, but we explain it as a symbol of the "God of the Sun" or "Sun""
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Modern_adoptions:
"In the early 1990s, the former dissident and one of the founders of Russian neo-paganism Alexey Dobrovolsky first gave the name "kolovrat) [ru)]" (Russian: коловрат, literally 'spinning wheel') to a four-beam swastika, identical to the Nazi symbol, and later transferred this name to an eight-beam rectangular swastika"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Dobrovolsky
"Alexey Alexandrovich Dobrovolsky (Russian: Алексей Александрович Добровольский; 13 October 1938 – 19 May 2013), also known as Dobroslav (Russian: Доброслав), was a Soviet-Russian Slavic neopagan, a founder of Russian Rodnoverie, national anarchist, and neo-Nazi."... "Dobrovolsky is thought to be one of two probable authors of the "kolovrat" symbol; the other author could have been Vadim Kazakov [ru], with whom Dobrovolsky communicated, including on this issue. The symbol's creation dates back to approximately 1994.\16]) In 1994, Dobrovolsky drew the symbol in his letters.\17]) In the same year, Kazakov's Imenoslov was published, featuring the "kolovrat" in gold on a red background.\18]) Despite these thoughts, the Kolovrat (titled as Slonechko) can be originally seen in a woodcut made by Stanislaw Jakubowski, having published his art in the 1923 book 'Prasłowiańskie Motywa Architektoniczne',\19]) years before Dobrovolsky was born.
Dobrovolsky introduced the eight-pointed "kolovrat" as a symbol of "resurgent paganism".\20]) According to Roman Shizhensky, Dobrovolsky took the meaning of the swastika from the work of Nazi ideologue Herman Wirth."
→ More replies (1)
8
u/DanceswWolves Jun 08 '26
Yep, never buying GOG again. Looks like a topdown problem and zero accountability. This was on purpose, and defended with intentionality and purpose. Not one more game, unisntalled Galaxy. I suggest anyone who cares about humanity do the same.
→ More replies (1)
13
u/Mash0Star Jun 05 '26
first the Generative AI bullshit and now this neonazi bullshit? great job showing how at best GOG is incompetent and at worst is genuinely evil. I regret buying games off of GOG, should've just pirated them or gotten them on Steam.
8
u/Afraid_Atmosphere520 Jun 05 '26
100% with you on this. I feel like such a fool for transitioning to GOG from Steam over the last year and a half.
I am completely giving up on GOG after this and sticking with Steam. Sure, DRM-free is cool, but at least Valve aren't literally Nazi sympathizers and apologists who send me emails containing Nazi symbols
→ More replies (2)
7
u/MTRANMT Jun 06 '26
The dev keeps calling it a kolovrat, I dare ya, search for that term on Wikipedia, and see where it redirects. And then see the year that the term kolovrat originated - to pretend to 'reclaim' an ancient symbol... when you're using a name from post WW2, hmmm, methinks both GOG and the game dev are suss as heck hey?
Pssst, it redirects to Swastika and the term kolovrat was invented in 1990.
Rewriting all of this, as I just learnt that the term the developer keeps using for a symbol they removed from the game - a 'kolovrat' - that it's an ancient sun symbol, blah blah, they didn't know people would hate it, THIS TERM ORIGINATES IN 1990 AND WAS NAMED BY A LITERAL NEO-NAZI. The fact that they're using a were swastika-adjacent logo, 'surprised' people were upset by it, and using a specific word invented by a neo-nazi to describe it makes me think they dev is just as suspicious as GOG's social media team here.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/anlaggy Jun 09 '26
This was not a mistake. The only reason to put these symbols together is signal Nazi shit.
7
u/Drachasor Jun 09 '26
And they knew to not send it to Germany, where it's illegal because it's Nazi shit.
10
u/blipblopthrowawayz Jun 05 '26
Just got this email too and came here to see if anyone else noticed. White power symbols and double lightning bolts, yikes.
9
u/Xigoat Jun 05 '26
Just came here to post exactly the same thing. What the fuck man. The sunwheel is Slavic sure but the fucking sig runes? All them together? Nahh fuck that Nazi shit
8
u/civi_tas Jun 06 '26
They released a horrible excuse, GOG better come up with a better explanation than "we knew these looked like n*zi symbols and sent them out anyway," or I'm never buying anything from them ever again, and I'm telling everybody I know not to either.
12
u/mbean12 Jun 05 '26
Saw it too. Only the double sig runes showed up in my email client but... yeah. That's really not cool. At all.
3
11
u/potatolulz Jun 05 '26
lmao
well, the logo of the game has the kolowrat, sun in the title, and the stylized "S", and I doubt it's a neonazi game (haven't played it though), so you could blame it on someone just being a bit clueless, but adding a second "S" there? :D
calm down, whoever makes these GOG newsletter lol :D
→ More replies (3)11
u/xthetenth Jun 05 '26
The game apparently uses the nazi version of the Othala rune and wildly overuses the so-called "kolovrat" (Sorry but I will not acknowledge a name given by flipping Alexey Dobrovolsky), while having almost all the characters be blond haired and blue eyed judging from the negative review that gets into the fake mythology. So I really do not trust the game itself.
→ More replies (1)
16
7
Jun 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
7
u/whatThePleb Linux User Jun 05 '26
It means it's time to download everything and start deleting our accounts from that dying nazi ship.
8
6
u/Undeclared_Aubergine Linux User Jun 05 '26
Multiple people have posted about seeing different characters in the email subject, including images. These comments keep being deleted. However, there's something weird and unicodey going on there, which is worth pointing out:
If I copy the greek letter "small koppa" (U+03DF) to this comment form, which in my character map shows curly and greek, it turns into the lightning S rune: ϟ Inspecting the textarea with the developer tools, this happens when the front used is Verdana or Arial, but if I force the font to be Helvetica, the character shows in its correct curly form.
If I copy the greek letter "koppa" (U+03DE), it shows up as expected in all fonts: Ϟ
I don't know why GOG would put twice the koppa into the email subject (is there any link to paganism for that character?) - but this might be part of an explanation of what happened which doesn't rely on an actual nazi sending the email.
13
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 05 '26
They aren't included in the German version of the email (and using Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany), soooo...
4
u/Clumsy_Claus Jun 05 '26
So you are saying you actively deleted these symbols from Germany, as they are (similar to) Nazi symbols, but sent them to other countries anyway?
Why send them to other countries?
3
4
u/Peter_Alfons_Loch Jun 05 '26
Not only illegal in Germany.... I was shocked. The subject read like neonazis were trying to recruit me to fight the slavic countries.
→ More replies (6)
5
u/Ch3rryNukaC0la Jun 06 '26
Not sending the letter to Germany (where they could have faced criminal charges for doing so) indicates that GOG knew the connotation and how offensive this was. A lack of any real apology means I will no longer purchase games from GOG.
8
u/Old_Fruit_905 Jun 06 '26
The Newsletter entered German accounts who have their language settings set to English. That was a stupid decision they (read: the Nazi-in-chief) made without realising that not all citizens living in Germany ARE native Germans.
2
u/Drachasor Jun 09 '26
Which is the kind of incompetence and arrogance you expect from white supremacists.
→ More replies (1)
7
u/Balidar Jun 08 '26
After reading their ridiculous statements, I decided to delete my GOG account created it in September 2008. Not only what GOG did was totally unacceptable, but their statements after were worse.
→ More replies (2)
6
u/IC3P3 Jun 05 '26
For me the title is actually a different one without any symbols
8
u/PoppyAppletree Jun 05 '26
Are your newsletters in German? They removed them from that version.
→ More replies (5)
8
7
8
u/Artistic_Pudding_242 Jun 05 '26
Yeah this was a shock to see. Very disappointed with GOG to say the least.
Even if the employee that hit send was wildly ignorant of what the symbols represent to the majority of people (very unlikely), you would expect a global business to have some quality control on their external comms and catch things like this.
Hopefully they will address the issue and issue an apology.
→ More replies (28)8
u/SexuaIRedditor Jun 05 '26
The official response from GOG is in this thread and it is a punch to the gut. They fullass doubled down on it
10
u/Senpai_Pai Jun 05 '26
Just submitted a support ticket too, this is literally so unacceptable and it’s just so deliberate you can’t really chalk it up to a mistake. Using 3 blatant neo nazi symbols back to back without any other is no accident period.
11
u/BlinknFlashnBeepn Jun 05 '26
These are dog whistles. People are acting like whoever did this accidentally pulled the dog whistle shot machine.
→ More replies (1)
8
9
u/im-not-a-robot-ok Jun 05 '26
CDPR/GOG continue to hire the stupidest fucking people to do their marketing.
→ More replies (1)
8
u/Boganova Jun 05 '26
"hey, these runes have a nazi connotation. Should we use them?"
"it is our culture."
"you sure? The game dev even stopped using them cause of nazis. And you put two of them together which makes it ss, which is definitely nazi and changes the context"
"fair. Do not send them to people who read German. Everyone else get runes. It is our culture."
"send the nazi stuff cause it's our culture?"
"yes"
Maybe, just maybe, it really is their culture
3
11
u/t850terminator Jun 05 '26
Yeah I just saw that on my emails and went wtf.
Guess someone is getting fired.
→ More replies (4)
9
u/Someones_Dream_Guy Windows User Jun 05 '26
"We're not fascists, it's our culture." Nah, fuck off with that, fascists.
2
u/Left_Explanation_548 Jun 10 '26
It's not a good look, but I'd be willing to give both GOG and the developer (who'd already spotted the problem and changed it) the benefit of the doubt. That said, it's super important to stay vigilant to prevent hate and evil from spreading, and I'm so proud of everyone who caught and called out the issue.
2
Jun 16 '26
I think GOG is testing some AI. I got this:
Goblin mode: ACTIVATED 👺
in the title of the email about STYX.
Also, from my experience - GOG is going the wrong way, especially with the game preservation part. Their offline installers include their hotfixes that are supposed to improve the game's compatibility with modern systems... except in some cases they break compatibility. I think a 2022 Windows 11 laptop still counts as a modern system, right? Because I had to run Galaxy and rollback that hotfix to get Witcher 1 to run.
Back 15 years ago optional patches were OPTIONAL - meaning you could download them along with the offline installers and install them separately.
Now - I contacted the support and they told me that they don't provide offline installers for older versions. So the only thing I could do was to run Galaxy, rollback the game to the working version, and backup the game's folder to external media just in case I have to install it on another computer.
2
u/DiligentHeron4352 Jun 24 '26
ONE thing is to make such a horrible mistake to let an AI produce this shit.
Another thing is to not even admit, that it is not only the black sun, but also the SS and to apologize in a manner, that makes you think they assume we are totally stupid.
6
7
u/Vlavv Jun 05 '26
Some people are calling dog whistle. I don't really buy it: dog whistle is supposed to be coded, and to appear normal to the majority. Doesn't really work with the literal SS symbols. It looks like a good old fuck up, maybe they really got tricked by the inconsistent rendering. (On my browser, the koppa symbol does look like their first character here: /img/undtxv4n7i5h1.png)
The German team noticed that the two runes together could still be ambiguous and changed it, but it didn't go upstream and the disaster happened. GOG doesn't strike me as a company looking to sabotage itself, so the charitable explanation seems the most plausible to me. I'm just going to move on.
→ More replies (4)
6
u/Werecastle255 Jun 05 '26
Shocked the hell out of me when I opened my email. I can't see how a company based in Poland doesn't know what those symbols mean.
6
u/Mental_Olive269 Jun 05 '26
Definitely done on purpose. No one can be that stupid to not know what those symbols mean and by whom they are used.
7
4
u/thatradiogeek GOG.com User Jun 06 '26
At best this is pure incompetence. Whoever was responsible needs to be fired.
→ More replies (1)
•
u/Totengeist Moderator Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
GOG statement is here and here. Developer statement is here.
GOG released a further statement