GOG gave away 13 NSFW games banished by Steam
As a protest against the current censorship in the video game area, GOG wants to set an example with the “Freedom to Buy” campaign. As part of the campaign, 13 controversial games with partly moving censorship past are given away for a short time.
Protest campaign against digital censorship
The removal of adult games from Steam and other platforms recently caused indignation. Appropriate titles were deleted from the contingent on pressure from banking service providers. As a result, many gamers feel patronized and even organize mass protests against companies such as Visa and Mastercard. Gaming marketplace GOG has now launched a campaign in response to this development. Under the name “Freedom to Buy” are currently on the the associated website 13 controversial adult games. This wants to protest against the removal of corresponding titles and set a sign against censorship.
GOG is not only about the current deletions, but also about the fundamental problem that games do not disappear due to violations of the law, but because companies decide behind closed doors that certain content is inappropriate.
Lobby group exerts pressure
The trigger for the current controversy was a coordinated campaign by the Australian anti-pornography group Collective Shout in July. The organization successfully exerted pressure on large payment service providers such as Mastercard, Visa and PayPal, whereupon they checked their cooperation with platforms that sell adult content. This pressure ultimately led to Steam and other game providers away hundreds of adult games. The mass removal began on July 15, to which Valve initially made no official explanation. It was only on July 18 that the company confirmed that the deletions could be attributed to new rules for payment service providers. Other platforms such as ITCH.IO also introduced similar measures to meet the requirements of the payment service providers. Collective Shout had successfully put pressure on various companies in the past. Among other things, the group argues that sexualized content in games would contribute to the objectification of women and strengthen harmful stereotypes.
13 free games for a short time
GOG’s current gift campaign as part of the “Freedom to Buy” campaign only runs until August 4th at 2 a.m. So if you want to secure the games, you should hurry. The complete list of available titles looks like this:
- Leap of Love
- Being a dik – Season 1
- Leap of Faith
- Postal 2
- House party
- Huni pop
- Lust theory
- Agony + Agony Untrated
- Treasure of Nadia
- Summer’s Gone – Season 1
- Fetish Locator Week One
- Helping the Hotties
- Sapphire Safari
Title with a controversial story
The games on the list have almost all a moving censorship story. Postal 2, for example, one of the best-known examples, was completely banned in New Zealand in 2004 and removed from the German Steam version in 2016. The game of running with Scissors is notorious for its exaggerated violence and controversial satire, which deliberately breaks social taboos. Huniepop, a puzzle game with dating simulation elements, is one of the titles to stream Twitch on its platform. The popular game combines match-3 gameplay with explicit content and was also classified as problematic by many other platforms.
The game Agony originally received an “Adults only” assessment of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which is practically a ban on sales on consoles. The uncensored version contained in the GOG collection restores all the originally removed content. Note: Possibly due to the high demand, technical problems can occur in redeeming the free code for the games. Then only another attempt helps at a later date. Maybe it is also a region of the region. Some users report on social media that the redemption was successful using a VPN.
Maintaining old games as a core mission
GOG has been committed to the preservation of all kinds of games since its foundation. The platform, which originally started as “good old games”, ensures that older titles also work on current hardware. This philosophy also extends to non-controversy content.
