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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 do it at all." Deleted. Literally no controversy.


Instead... here we are.

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.

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.

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.

Tell me then, why would they not show those symbols to Germans?

Tell me then, why would they use 2 side by side. And why not show those symbols to Germans?

I did not know this, i assumed it was stolen like the swastika and others.
This honestly makes GOGs fuckup even more egregious.

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.

This has to be satire. You're doing satire, right?

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.