Disappointment

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I can't post links at the moment since I'm on a tablet, but they lied about several elements of Witcher 2 leading up to release (like length, as memory serves--I posted the link for slim way back). They also stated that they weren't going to be going after pirates based on IP addresses, which they prompty did in Germany since they basically allow for threatening letters that amount to shakedowns there. They stopped doing that when they got called out on it, but they said they weren't doing it at the same time they were engaging in it, so it wasn't an accidental thing so much as a full-fledged lie.

Best to not trust anyone. After all, it's not paranoia if everyone really is out to take advantage of you. I find it best to love everyone while recognizing them for the evil bastards they are.

EDIT: And CDPR is one of the best, even if they have occasional flings with untruths. You know how hard it is to mold public opinion to where even pirates shame other pirates into buying legit copies? You may not like the lies, but you have to respect how they've carved that good-guy image out of an industry made almost entirely of gamer/company resentment. It may occasionally be an abusive relationship, but it hurts so good.

Well goddamn me then. Thanks for telling me this, I haven't heard of this before, gonna read up more on it now.
 
If you do, please also read their statements AFTER then regarding DRM and piracy. 227 is painting a somewhat one-sided picture of the issue, and so do articles from the time, while the pitchforks were out. So did I, at the time.

I still believe they backed off for two reasons. One was undoubtably the backlash they received, including a fair number of their paying customers and the realisation that this didn't quite go with their brand image. But I firmly believe that the second reason was that because of that backlash, they looked more deeply into the claims that were being made by the troll concerned, and realised that those claims were false.

This was two years ago. Righthaven had already been publicised but Prenda Law still hadn't happened, and it was still common for people, and courts, to believe that Copyright Trolls were on the side of the good guys.
 
Also keep in mind that their is a difference between duplicitousness and flexibility. If you told a deliberate falsehood, you were lying. If you changed your mind, you weren't.

I change my mind on policies ALL THE TIME.

It's called business survival.
 

227

Forum veteran
227 is painting a somewhat one-sided picture of the issue, and so do articles from the time, while the pitchforks were out.
Hey, I thought I was being pretty fair, even going so far as to edit it at the end to tell people not to hold it against them too much. Maybe it wasn't perfectly balanced in its portrayal, but definitely pretty good for having written that on a six-inch keyboard connected to a touch screen tablet without spell check or the ability to find links without having all my text erased. Psh. Besides, everyone already knows the good stuff.

Also keep in mind that their is a difference between duplicitousness and flexibility. If you told a deliberate falsehood, you were lying. If you changed your mind, you weren't.
There?

Inner spelling Nazi aside, did you read that thread I linked to? You should—there's some pro-level baiting in there. Anyway, I worked out that they were going after pirates at the same time they were talking about not going after pirates, meaning it was deliberate falsehood. Giving them the benefit of the doubt is one thing, but let's not sweep stuff under the rug and pretend it never happened.

They're a cool company. Free stuff, fun employees, pantless Thursdays. I don't think it's that big of a deal that they have some skeletons in the closet, but it's important to remember stuff like that so that they know better than to try something like that again.
 
They're a cool company. Free stuff, fun employees, pantless Thursdays. I don't think it's that big of a deal that they have some skeletons in the closet, but it's important to remember stuff like that so that they know better than to try something like that again.


Ahahaah! "They know better than to try something like that again"? Sure. If it's a solid business decision to do that again, if it serves the shareholders, then they should do it again. They aren't an errant child - you didn't correct them.

As for your timing, I have made one decision literally while a different policy was taking place at the time, not informed my employees until after I'd informed the customer - while I was changing the policy. Was my employee lying at the time? Were they uninformed? Did one part of the executive structure decide or say one thing while another did something different? How would you know? Unless you were present at the point the execs said, or memoed "Yeah, let's lie to them", then it's pretty hard to tell.


I don't care at all if CDPR is a cool company - I care if they produce solid products worth the money I pay for them. Which they always have. Even if they -had- lied and you had something more than vague timeline reasoning, I still wouldn't be disappointed - complete honesty with your customers is not only not required, it's rarely a good idea.
 

227

Forum veteran
Ahahaah! "They know better than to try something like that again"? Sure. If it's a solid business decision to do that again, if it serves the shareholders, then they should do it again. They aren't an errant child - you didn't correct them.
I didn't, no, but the large group of people who lashed out at them did to the point where they issued an apology and stopped. Is that really so different than correcting an errant child?

As for your timing, I have made one decision literally while a different policy was taking place at the time, not informed my employees until after I'd informed the customer - while I was changing the policy. Was my employee lying at the time?
When did Marcin Iwinski become a low-level employee not "in the loop"?

I don't care at all if CDPR is a cool company - I care if they produce solid products worth the money I pay for them.
But you're not everyone, and the thing that causes pirates to shame other pirates into buying isn't the quality of the games. If that were the case, it would happen for far more developers than just CDPR.
 
I didn't, no, but the large group of people who lashed out at them did to the point where they issued an apology and stopped. Is that really so different than correcting an errant child?

Well, it shows they were sensitive to their market, but more than just children apologise as well. No matter how you slice it, after all, they did screw up by saying one thing and doing another - unless it worked out well for them. Which it didn't, of course.

When did Marcin Iwinski become a low-level employee not "in the loop"?

I don't know the circumstances. My employees aren't low-level - I have too few of them! They are unto gold! It was more a matter of communication and priorities with me - not sure what was up at CDPR. I'm not saying they weren't lying, just that there are other explanations. "You must be lying!" is such a jump-to accusation, and there are other explanations often, especially in business and especially while making statements to the media.

I'm not sure what causes people to stop pirating. Increased economic means? Age? Better packages in the legit games? Few pirates I've known would swap over to buying because someone caught CDPR lying, but who knows. Like the debate on gender in videogames, we have so little data on pirates and their motivations, change reasons, etc. I must say, I feel that, for instance a game like Watch Dogs, so disappointing to people here, would, if not justify piracy, certainly be a STRONG argument from the consumer side for a pre-purchase demo, or a "you can return it if it sucks" option as is common in so man other marketplaces.

It's funny how certain hobbies and media have such passionate fanbase. I mean, I know people that argue over Husquevarna vs Stihl chainsaws pretty passionately, or Dodge vs Ford, but they pale compared to the Nvidia/ AMD, Ubisoft-CDPR-EA-Bioware fans.

Is our disappointment related to an unhealthy value factor we assign to this leisure activity?
 

227

Forum veteran
"You must be lying!" is such a jump-to accusation, and there are other explanations often, especially in business and especially while making statements to the media.
Yeah, it was a bit of a gut reaction, and part of that was just me loving the conflict. That was the third thread in a row where huge chunks of time were me-versus-the-world, and I had developed a taste for blood and passive-aggressiveness by that point. Such good memories.

But those alternate explanations don't mean much when you're basically bragging to gaming journalists about how progressive your views on piracy are while doing the opposite of what you're claiming. That'd take a pretty serious breakdown in communication for any other explanation to be plausible, and they're way more careful with their public image and information than to let something like that slip by. Not really realistic given how hands-on Iwinski is with the series.

I mean, either he's hands-on or stalking one of the employees. Sliver of doubt means we can't rule anything out, right?

I'm not sure what causes people to stop pirating.
Large amounts of radiation?

There are things from 4chan and torrent comments that people found and posted occasionally where they'd say things like "CDPR are the broest of bros for giving all this extra content for free and being such a cool company." The way it looks, the answer is respect. Also death (technically), but otherwise respect.

Is our disappointment related to an unhealthy value factor we assign to this leisure activity?
EVERYTHING IS WORTHLESS AND NOTHING HAS VALUE, YOU FOOL; WE'RE ONLY TREADING WATER UNTIL DEATH'S ICY GRIP TAKES HOLD OF OUR ANKLE AND PULLS US DOWN INTO THE MURKY WATERS OF MORTALITY AND MEANINGLESSNESS

And I like bad games. Hate is fun. Healthy, too, according to a news report I saw recently. At least, I assume that's what it was saying; I stopped watching because the news is dumb and I hate it.
 
Has decadent western culture been blamed for this yet.... because its always decadent western cultures fault....
 
OK, fair enough.
Ahh, those were the days.

Man, no kidding. That and Dona's female variety thread had to be the worst in forum history. I'm ashamed of my posts...

OT: It's not all bad when CDPR is exerting a positive influence and indies are thriving. We also see a resurgence of mid tier studios like Larian, Egosoft, Klei, Rocksteady etc. Lots of good stuff happening, you just have to look for it. With EA, Ubisoft and Activision, I don't expect them to fully pull their heads out of their asses.
 
I cant tell you how disappointed I have been with game developers lately. There are so many scams like Watchdogs, BF4, COD Ghosts. I'm just sick and tired of them lieing and making shitty games. I hope Cyberpunk has a crew of people who are committed to making a great game.

This is all caused by them forcing multiplayer/online gaming into their games... They put so much work on online aspect of their games, they basically slack off on anything else..
 
Also, nothing of the above

You either do a good sp game or a good online game but the multiplayer game with thin single player subgenre got popular with quake 3. Everything else features casual modes for casuals. Which gives props to games like Souls ones where single player and multiplayer serve each other even though the rpg elements are there and one has to invest time in particular builds.
 
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And who has just sneaked in here without saying hello?
Hi @thewarsend .

Hi there.. I just didn't know what to say.. So i wanted to say what i already know.. Does that make sense? :D

I'm free today and i will be back again tomorrow.. It is much like prison, but i get to drive a ship every now and then.. Which is quite awesome.. It is like i spin the helm and ship turns.. Really.. :D It looks like this one but it is much bigger, good thing i'm a very tall person:



There are many many many things that are not so fun though.. I never get any sleep.. Ever.. Ship doesn't clean itself and there aren't many personnel on board, let me tell you that much.. (And i'm the new guy, which doesn't make things any easier..) And i have to play this every single day:



For now, I'm hoping that things will get much easier or at least better in a few months.. Only thing i know, i will be back, later rather than sooner, but i will be back.. :)
 
Did you get a tattoo with an anchor on your shoulder

and /or parrot or eyepatch?

Unfortunately, such things is not permitted, but i may, eventually.. Only tattoo that is.. Something like this:




And maybe a parrot.. But no eyepatches..




Sigh.. I always wanted to be on a ship, to sail and be free.. Live a pirates life.. Now I'm on a ship and i have never been less free in my entire life..
 
I can't speak for your navy but other then boredom I liked it aboard ship.
Nothing beats dawn/sunset in the middle of the ocean, and it's amazing how many stars you can see when you get a few hundred miles offshore so city lights (even from 30 miles away) aren't washing them out.
 
I can't speak for your navy but other then boredom I liked it aboard ship.
Nothing beats dawn/sunset in the middle of the ocean, and it's amazing how many stars you can see when you get a few hundred miles offshore so city lights (even from 30 miles away) aren't washing them out.

My navy sucks.. Along with everything else.. I'm usually so tired that any beauty that can be seen around me is lost to me.. Also our military in general have very few female personnel.. VERY FEW.. (And those are not soldiers, they are high ranking officers, like medical officers and things like that.) The reason why I'm mentioning this is that, i realized whenever there aren't many females around, people seem to forget all about things like manners and kindness and such.. I thought i should mention that.. It is very upsetting.. Especially for a person who is as kind as me.. (While I'm capable of anything, normally I'm very calm and kind, as my previous job required it..)

There are many rules that makes no sense whatsoever.. We are forbidden to use cellphones, computers and many other electronic devices while on the ship.. We need to ask permission to leave the ship every single time.. (For instance, to use a pay phone) Sometimes a colonel will come to review the ships condition and they will outright torture us.. I'm really hoping that things will get better soon..
 
More then any other service a Navy REALLY has to stress teamwork and looking out for each other. Ships are very dangerous places by virtue of the machinery and many tasks necessary to keep them operational. Many of the rules exist for the sake of safety. Also, most Naval Services are very big on tradition, much of which dates back to the age of sail. While extremely outdated they do create a feeling of comradery with between sailors, you share a unique "culture" with them and are part of a select and highly skilled group. A good many naval traditions are internationally recognized and create a kinship with other sailors from anywhere in the world. Even in wartime most sailors look out for each other because the sea has no mercy.
So yeah, a good many of the rules, as ridiculous as some may seem, do have a purpose. Talk to any old Chief Petty Officer (or the equivalent in your Navy) sometime, and while he may chuckle a bit I assure you he'll remember that at one time it all seemed just as stupid to him and he'll explain "why" things are done the way they are.
And believe me if you think the petty rules are bad aboard a surface vessel talk to a submarine sailor sometime.
And if you think the normal traditions are ridiculous just hope you never cross the International Date Line or Equator. While I can't be 100% certain I'd bet your navy has a "ceremony" you'll remember for the rest of your life!

As to the cell phones and computers I can think of two very good reasons for restricting their use aboard ship.
1) Security - While no doubt 99.99% of your shipmates are loyal it only takes one to pass along info about munitions aboard, sailing schedules, or missions.
2) More importantly, electronic interference. Modern ships have more sophisticated and extensive electronics than anything else, except aircraft, in a confined space. The last thing anyone aboard needs is a random electronic signal from a cell phone or computer throwing off the navigational guidance equipment and causing the ship to run aground because the equipment said you were one place and you were really in another.
 
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