Anyone else think it's 'absurd' to ask for other people's credentials, then belittle them and/or their opinions (even passive aggressively) for not having a degree or work experience, yet provide no credentials of their own while doing so?
For the record, since apparently we cannot have an opinion without first providing some sort of citation to prove our bona fides...
- First computer programming classes taken in 1980. (Freshman year in High School.)
- Took CS classes in college.
- Helped design and build some of Amazon's first affiliate websites in the early 90's, including my own.
- Provided the concept for, designed, built and ran the RPG forums for Delphi in the 90's and early 2K's, and was a paid SysOp/Forum Manager for the duration.
- Was part of a team (One of many such teams) that helped implement and test connectivity between individual online services, which led to what you now take for granted as the 'internet' today.
- Consulted on and tested several private BBS platforms in the mid to late 90's.
- Paid tester for several commercial titles, not all of them games.
- Alpha and Beta tester for most of the major AAA MMORPG's released over the last 18 years, with a scattering of other genres thrown in for variety.
- (That's not everything, but should be enough.)
Now that we've gotten that out of the way....
There are a lot of legitimate complaints about CP2077's failings and how it's release was handled. There are probably an equal amount of ridiculously entitled rants that are fueled more by rage than they are reason at this point. There's also a fair amount of white knighting going on that only serves to muddy the waters even more.
This isn't the first time a game launch has been botched. It's not even the first time one has been botched badly. It's also not going to be the last, it's simply the one everyone is bandwagoning at present. It's low hanging fruit, and there's little else to distract people from it, so it's getting a lot of attention. If there's one thing the media and gamers both can't resist, it's kicking someone when they're down.
And there's been a fair amount of kicking going on.
I'm not especially worried about CDPR taking the rants seriously and making things worse by compounding mistakes. Most of the time, the developers (Not just CDPR) know what's possible, and they know the difference between reasonable criticism and fanatical butthurt. I have no doubt that CDPR's dev team is VERY aware of what's broken and needs fixing. The fact that they've gone so far as to call out management on the state of the game's launch tells me that much.
I'm just as disappointed as most of the rest of you. I know what the trailers and the PR and the hype train sold us on, and I know what we got. The two are not one and the same. I also know that the dev team wasn't responsible for the bait and switch, that falls squarely on the suits, starting with the Board of Directors and continuing down the hill to the PR team who fed the hype, knowing it was smoke and mirrors.
Is the dev team 100% blameless in all of this? Not at all. But neither are they 100% responsible for the train wreck.
I've made my share of snarky remarks about bugs and other mistakes, but I've also put in close to 80 hours exploring everything I can find to do in the game. I'm definitely not one of those folks that refunded the game almost immediately but still spends his time on the forums mining salt. On the whole, despite the bugs and other issues, I've found it to be an interesting experience. I'm definitely looking forward to completing the game. I'm also looking forward to various bug fixes, content updates and other improvements.
I'm not giving the devs or CDPR a pass on this, they've certainly made a mess of things. At the same time, I'm not going to be completely unreasonable and hold their feet to the flames either. I've spent enough time in the industry to know mistakes were made, and to even identify a number of them. I've also spent enough time in the industry to know that I don't know everything.
TLDR: By all means, hold them accountable. But perhaps we can hold off on building the gallows just yet, hmm?