Should the Community continue to trust CDPR?

[Jezaboom2]

Should the Community continue to trust CDPR?

Should the community continue to trust CDPR?

One of the fundamental factors for a company’s long term success over the internet is a community’s underlying trust of that company.

CDPR is currently trying to establish Gwent as a legitimate esport, with significant cash prizes, which requires a lot of grinding and a significant number of underlying kegs for a participant to be a successful qualifier. Their recent update has completely undermined the legitimacy of their competition.

If instead of Gwent we were talking about football and if 3 quarters of the way into the game the rules were changed… both players and fans would be outraged… Well that is exactly what CDPR has done with Gwent, as their MidWinter update is literally a rule changer, which has been introduced just prior to season end.

CDPR through assigning a card’s attributes effectively establishes the rules of how a game of Gwent is played. CDPR has significantly changed the rules… after their competition started, but prior to the season finishing. CDPR has combined this by offering a significant advantage (whilst their competition is still running) to any competitor who purchases a holiday keg pack.

Often we take for granted that the laws and values of the country in which we live in, automatically applies over the internet, sadly they don’t. As a reminder to everyone in this community… CDPR operates out of Poland, a country which currently is at odds with the EU for their ruling party’s undermining of their judicial system by bringing their courts under political control.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/poland-...-under-political-control-20171220-h08a94.html

As a generalization one can often gain insights into the underlying society and values of a country through those they have elected to represent them. CDPR’s behavior indicates that like their country's political leaders, the rules can, and will be changed to suit and benefit themselves.

Myself I live in Australia, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) confirmed loot boxes (kegs) — where players use real money or currency earned in the game to purchase packs of random in-game rewards — were considered gambling under current legislation, but were hard to regulate.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/ga...-gambling-regulator-says-20171122-gzr3ek.html

When it comes to competition Gwent, CDPR is effectively the financial beneficiary of all loot boxes (Keg purchases)… and CDPR through its actions has demonstrated that they will change the competition rules before it is completed.

Hmm, which Gwent character says… “Uh, oh here comes trouble”?

Any regular Gwent player would recognize that prior to the update, keg contents were increasingly awarding spares… effectively giving very little incentive for someone to spend actual money to purchase kegs.

Only a naïve fanboi would defend CDPR’s timing of their Midwinter update and dismiss CDPR’s efforts as a blatant cash grab focused on gaining extra sales over the Christmas period.

What has compounded this problem is prior to the update lots of hype was generated about the new cards, but there was no information at all given about the impending changes to existing cards, of which there were many significant changes. Post update many of these changes weren’t properly documented and many, many players found that their existing decks had become useless.

Due to the timing of this being just before season end, and combined with a special offer… to myself this seems as though this was intentional, to try to force the players who take the competition seriously… who day after day for the past 6 weeks have been devoting significant periods of time in their daily matches… to buy a holiday keg pack, if they want to still remain viable contenders in the competition. This I consider to be a blatant abuse of all players trust.

CDPR has used a Troll… Shupe… to present this offer to us. The irony hasn’t been lost on myself… a game played over the internet…whereby on the actual internet, trolls to be successful, try to win the trust of their victims by baiting them.

If anyone from CDPR is reading this what is done, is done… I am not asking you to defend your company’s behavior… however, I invite you to respond to these questions

1. These concerns which I have raised with regards to changing the rules during a current competition, how they will be handled in the future?
2. As CDPR operates out of Poland and your government has been undermining the rule of law to suit itself, CDPR’s recent changes could be perceived by your international customers as following the same path of your government, through your company’s recent behavior, why should we continue to trust you?

To those in the community… I ask:

1. How has the timing of this game changing update… after the competition started, but before season ended… affected your trust of CDPR?
2. If you decide not to buy a holiday keg pack will the game changes affect your place in the competition?
3. Do you consider CDPR’s behavior to be ethical?

 

[Guest 4226291]

Agreed honestly. Especially with how bad the patch is received and despite all the negative feedback won’t do anything about it, it’s kind of miserable.

 

[TheShift]

It's a video game made for enjoyment
they need to make money to stay a float and to keep making this game the best it can be.. with that means testing out different types of stuff.

don't forget this is still in open beta and not a complete and finished product

I think your going to far with your assumptions

 

[Makhil]

The user agreement is clear enough:

• «the beta software will be provided 'as is' without any additional promises from us or any liability on us if the software isn't complete or doesn't work fully or causes issues. After all, that's the point of us giving you beta access: you get beta access to something new, but you recognise that it won't be complete yet.»

I've done a few Beta for other games, it's always the same. You know you're here to track bugs, give feedback and make suggestions... but you can't help it, at some point you're caught into the game.
You start playing for real, elaborating strategies, caring about your score and rankings... then Beta strikes back with drastic changes you weren't expecting.
That often leads to the same feeling: frustration.
If one is not ready to deal with it, then beta is not for him and he should patiently wait for the game official release.

 

[StrykerxS77x]

I wouldn't call anything they are doing unethical but I would argue that much of what they have done recently makes their product look bad and makes the community question their decision making and direction for the game.

I hope to regain confidence in their development for this game.

 

[Kingoko]

Yup you go too far. And actually small changes : buffs and nerfs i would like to see every week to change meta just a bit every season so that after 1 weel till the end every1 play like 3 same decks over and over.

 

[Alexandr.Gabriel]

Stop this .. madness and calm yourself.

 

[Guest 4021160]

OP is right by all means. Its not ethical, but only relevant if a game is outside Beta. Also i don't appreciate OP views towards Poland. Its borderline chauvinistic. And none of his business really.
Both articles from the same website so I suppose OPs claims was heavily researched. Good job. By the way the related article suggests "Trump could actually make democracy great again".

 

[OG.laloquaint]

Think you're way over your head honestly.

 

[oOxhaosOo]

While i realy dont like mutch on this patch and realy hate the new colour design, you are going to far and this isnt a reason to mistrust CDPR.

This is a Beta game and they change things and try things to make this a better game, sure it would be nice to have options to choose for something but this game is still in development.

I am unhappy with this cartoon look this forced funny stuff but thats no reason to mistrust them, they could waited with the changes to january and get more money out of christmas but they did not to that and thats good reason to trust them that they not just intrested in your money.

 

[Jezaboom2]

It's a video game made for enjoyment
they need to make money to stay a float and to keep making this game the best it can be.. with that means testing out different types of stuff.

don't forget this is still in open beta and not a complete and finished product

I think your going to far with your assumptions

I'm fully aware that it is also a beta release, they are also running a competition with significant prize money... so as to try and establish this game as a legitimate esport, however by changing the rules before the season has ended this is an issue which erodes trust.

CDRP had choices on the timing of this update and also choices as to when the season would finish. It wasn't like they woke up one day and said hey lets introduce significant game changes today, it would of been pre-planned. As a part of the planning process, if they really wanted to cash in on Christmas, without damaging their reputation they could of decided to have a 6 week season, instead of 2 months. Waited until the season ended, and still introduce the midwinter update when they did. If it was a game of professional league football, then there would be a huge outcry, if the rules were changed before the game had finished.

I don't know which country you are in, in Australia, under legislation this constitutes gambling (refer to the link I provided). This is not an assumption, but is a matter of fact, some players have spent a lot of time and money so as to compete in this competition.

 

[Pruny]

This meta is Unbearable again, they should keep ptr open a week and fix stuff.
hate the loading screen, the speed in game,the small card on board.

 

[Guest 4021160]

I don't know which country you are in, in Australia, under legislation this constitutes gambling (refer to the link I provided). This is not an assumption, but is a matter of fact, some players have spent a lot of time and money so as to compete in this competition.

In Australia this in Australia that. Go catch a friendly spider. You referral link is from fake news website.

 

[StrykerxS77x]

I'm fully aware that it is also a beta release, they are also running a competition with significant prize money... so as to try and establish this game as a legitimate esport, however by changing the rules before the season has ended this is an issue which erodes trust.

CDRP had choices on the timing of this update and also choices as to when the season would finish. It wasn't like they woke up one day and said hey lets introduce significant game changes today, it would of been pre-planned. As a part of the planning process, if they really wanted to cash in on Christmas, without damaging their reputation they could of decided to have a 6 week season, instead of 2 months. Waited until the season ended, and still introduce the midwinter update when they did. If it was a game of professional league football, then there would be a huge outcry, if the rules were changed before the game had finished.

I don't know which country you are in, in Australia, under legislation this constitutes gambling (refer to the link I provided). This is not an assumption, but is a matter of fact, some players have spent a lot of time and money so as to compete in this competition.

Just to play devils advocate didn't the new patch have nothing to do with the prize money you mentioned? That whole tournament was over before the patch dropped so doesn't that mean the patch has no effect on earning any kind of prize?

 

[Archpriest]

What did I just read? One of the most clumsily, far fetched, badly slapped together pieces of drivel lately, that's what. Nothing of what is being presented to us has any form of proof. Just several logical fallacies and false assumptions...

On the other side is the history of CDPR delivering each and every time prior this.

Hmm, what should I trust more..?

 

[Gwentlique]

While it's perfectly fine to express legitimate concerns about the direction of game development, I think your point gets lost once your rant turns to politics, something that has quite literally no bearing on this game.

Personally I haven't played the new patch enough to conclusively say whether it's an improvement or not, but I do appreciate some of the issues that CDPR have been trying to address. The new UI is perhaps not as shiny looking as the old one, but as you point out the ambition is for this game to be an e-sport and for that it also has to be spectator friendly. The scrolling UI simply didn't work well for people watching Gwent games on a stream.

As to changing the rules mid-season, this happens in most e-sports as patches are released. LoL is arguably one of the world's biggest e-sports right now, and they have patches with balance changes and QoL improvements throughout a season. It is considered part of the players' job description to be able to adapt to such changes, and adaptability in the face of a shifting meta is the hallmark of some of the greatest teams in the league.

Gwent is reaching a more mature stage, and it is perfectly natural that a portion of the long-time player base will end up fatigued with the game. My advice is to take a break and play something else for a while, because writing yourself into a frenzy on the forums and complaining about every little change that comes along will only serve to sour your experience with what is arguably one of the best card games out there at the moment.

 

[Khreygond]

Gone too far if you ask me as well. The patch is bad yes. But just because it hasn't been fixed within 3 days ever since it was launched, especially considering it is almost the holidays, does not warrant a breach of trust. We have voiced our feedback and if the fact they answer to every single support ticket ever is not enough for you then honestly you might as well never trust them. Burza has also made a statement telling us that they are listening. We've voiced our feedback in every possible way, some going so far as to hate them. Now we need to wait. I am good with waiting. For me trust will only be broken by a massive change in communication.

 

[devivre]

While I understand that not everyone likes the timing of the latest patch and certain changes, I agree with most comments here, who do not share the OP's opinion.

Just remember to keep the discussion here as friendly as possible, thank you.

 

[Vaishar]

So far they delivered on most of the promises. So i still trust them.

People got vocal over the qualifiers they changed the rules , people got vocal about drops they changed the rules , people got vocal about cards and builds they changed them ( weather for example etc.)

Right now it's a matter of timing. The patch got released just after a massively successful event and just before the hollidays so not much time for answering every concern.

It's still the most casual friendly out there for now. Plus the communication is the best i have seen in ages.

A good time to ask this question again is when the game looses it's beta status.

 

[Shadow-Stalker]

No. Simply because being a yes-man and plugging your ears because they are your favourite company, regardless that they have made mistake after mistake— is how you end up being destiny 2.

The developers behind gwent have been on a slippery slope for the last few patches. (I openely predicted this path and stopped playing competitively a while back.)

This patch is above and beyond negligent. It was even pushed forward to sell kegs before Christmas. NOTHING went right. Nothing was even thought about or tested properly.

Sure, the game is in beta, but the company is making profits off the game, they are encouraging competitive play and reward schemes for those who invest time into it. Once you get to that stage then your game is basically a fully released game and should be treated similarly.