First of all, welcome to the GOG Community! We hope you thoroughly enjoy your experience and benefit from everything GOG has to offer. Before diving in (or if you feel a refresher is needed), please take a moment to read through our rules of conduct, which apply universally to all GOG services.
Within the GOG Community, we strive to create a safe online space for holding civil, lively discussions. Please refrain from posting or uploading any sort of content solely to provoke or upset other users. While diverse opinions, including negative comments or minority views, are welcome, members of the Community are expected to support their stances without using offensive language or resorting to name-calling.
By using GOG you are agreeing to adhere to the rules outlined below and the terms set forth in the GOG User Agreement, available here.
1. GENERAL RULES
1.1. GOG Code of Conduct applies to all of your conduct as a GOG user, in particular
to all of the User Generated Content you send to GOG such as posts on our
forums, the reviews, and the content you post via your profile (like your profile
picture or status updates).
1.2. Always treat others with kindness and respect, even if you don’t agree with
them.
1.3. Stay on topic, don’t intentionally derail the discussion, don’t troll, and don’t
spam.
1.4. Use appropriate language, and refrain from using swear words.
1.5. Do not insult or offend others.
2. WE DON’T TOLERATE:
2.1. Posting content that is illegal or engaging in illegal activities;
2.2. Encouragement or promoting real-world violence, hate speech, intimidation,
harassment, sexual, racial, or ethnic slurs, and discrimination;
2.3. Any kind of exploitation of minors;
2.4. Posting your own as well as other people’s personally identifiable information
(i.e. name, address, email, phone number, place of work, etc.);
2.5. Posting links to phishing sites, malware, or spyware;
2.6. Impersonating GOG staff, forum moderators or other users;
2.7. Spamming, bashing, flaming or trolling;
2.8. Any kind of encouragement towards self-harm, taking drugs or drinking alcohol;
2.9. Creating multiple accounts (f.ex. for ban evasion);
2.10. Re-posting closed, modified or deleted content;
2.11. Spreading misinformation, f.ex. by posting something that is knowingly false;
2.12. Forum thread bumping, hijacking or posting comments that are unrelated to the
original topic and make it difficult for others to follow the discussion;
2.13. Posting pornography, inappropriate or offensive content, warez, unreleased
game content, and NSFW content;
2.14. Linking to cracks, key generators, pirated content and promoting piracy overall,
or engaging in piracy in relation to GOG content;
2.15. Posting game spoilers - unless you clearly note that this is what your post is
about at the top of it;
2.16. Threats of violence, harassment or privacy breach – even as a joke;
2.17. Using a third party’s intellectual property (f.ex. full or partial scans of articles,
books, full transcriptions of articles, etc.) unless you have a right to do so;
2.18. Gambling and selling (including real-life or in-game trading), advertising,
referrals, links to other stores, auctioning or engaging in any other commercial
activities – unless specifically permitted by GOG;
2.19. Use of language that is abusive, vulgar, hateful, defamatory, obscene, profane,
threatening, privacy-invasive, or law-violating;
2.20. Bypassing word or content filters;
2.21. Encouraging anyone to break these rules or any laws;
2.22. Political discussions not directly related to a specific video game;
2.23. Cheating, disrupting or damaging GOG services or other GOG users’ devices
and encouraging or threatening to do so;
2.24. Harassing other GOG users via direct messaging system (f. ex. spamming,
abusive or hateful messages, sending NSFW content, threats).
While the examples above are not comprehensive, they should give you an idea of what is not
acceptable.
3. HOW WE MODERATE:
3.1. If you see a person breaking the rules, don’t attempt to moderate – let GOG
Staff or GOG Community Moderators know and ignore the post(s), threads, etc.
3.2. Violations of our rules may be met with:
3.2.1. demotion or removal of the content,
3.2.2. a written warning, or
3.2.3. a temporary or permanent ban from using some or all of GOG services,
according to the table below:
Type of violation | Our Action |
Minor violation (f. ex. thread bumping; spamming; trolling) | Written warning and demotion or removal of the violating content |
Recurring minor violations after receiving a written warning, or a major violation (f. ex. promoting piracy; selling) | Temporary ban from the forum or other GOG service(s) or features (up to a month) and removal of the violating content. In some cases a major violation may outright be met with a permanent ban from the forum or other GOG service(s) or features or even a temporal or permanent GOG account ban (f.ex. in case of threatening others) |
Recurring violation after receiving a temporary ban | Permanent ban from GOG service(s) or features or a permanent GOG account ban and removal of the violating content |
Violation of the law (f. ex. threats of violence; harassment; illicit usage of intellectual property) | Temporary (up to 3 months) or permanent ban from the forum or other GOG services or features, a temporary (up to 3 months) or a permanent GOG account ban, notification of the authorities and removal of the violating content |
Whether violation is minor or major depends mainly on the context and intensity. For example: using vulgar language in threads may be treated as a minor violation but when used in a derogatory manner against a person or a group of people it will be treated as a major violation.
3.3. Please mind that in the most severe cases, your whole GOG account may be
banned. If your GOG account is banned, you may lose all rights to games you
have in your library, any GOG Wallet balances and other items that you may
have purchased or claimed.
3.4. We will inform you about any moderation of your content or restrictions of
your account via a message to you, and provide you with a statement of reason
for our decision. We will also let you know how to reach us if you do not agree
with the action taken that involves you or want us to re-evaluate the situation.
3.5. All decisions with regards to moderation and user warnings are made by GOG
staff or GOG Community Moderators. You will be able to appeal from our
decision.
3.6. Constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome, provided they are directed
to the GOG staff or moderators and not disputed within the forum itself.
Official communication with any member of GOG staff should be considered as
valid as correspondence with all moderating authorities. Abusive and/or
aggressive attitude towards GOG staff or GOG Community Moderators may
constitute grounds for further penalties.
3.7. We don’t warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any posts
published on the forums, though spreading misinformation may be met with
moderation.
4. MODERATION PROCEDURE:
4.1. More information on how moderation flow looks like in GOG can be found in GOG can be found in the Infringing Content and Copyright Policy. Crucial points are:
a) you will be informed about every moderation applied to the content you posted,
b) you can report violating content via this form,
c) you will be informed about the course of action taken in relation to the content you’ve reported,
d) every moderation decision you receive will be accompanied by a statement of reasons and information on how you can ask for a re-evaluation (you will have 6 months to do it).
These rules are subject to change at any time, but we will inform you via the forum when they do.
In case you have questions, feel free to contact us via this contact form.