New Narrative Opportunities: Guest Authors/"Premium"-Mods

[KeldornOfLatria]

Thinking about Cyberpunk 2077 and about CDPR always pushing the boundaries of what video games can achieve as a narrative medium I had an idea that I hope maybe someone from CDPR reads and thinks about it:
Imagine having a new hybrid form of story expansion/quest DLC/mod, where guest authors are invited to work on a short story, that can be played in Night City, not necessarily from V's perspective. For example, as a start, Mike Pondsmith could write a short story that will be sold as DLC, then other Cyberpunk-authors could be asked. There could be a competition where fans can write stories, submit them, vote on them and the best one or three will be worked at as future DLC.

It would be more like table-top, creating new narratives, keeping the game fresh, being maybe more experimental. Just imagine – I don't know – a DLC where you are an Art Dealer for the top 50 richest people in Night City. That could be cool, fans creating digital works of art for the game etc. It would be like premium, CDPR-certified mods, that could also jumpstart careers in videogames.

I guess, it's hard to make such products in a short time, but maybe the engine is easy to use for modders. What do you all think?

 

[fridgeband]

Thinking about Cyberpunk 2077 and about CDPR always pushing the boundaries of what video games can achieve as a narrative medium I had an idea that I hope maybe someone from CDPR reads and thinks about it:
Imagine having a new hybrid form of story expansion/quest DLC/mod, where guest authors are invited to work on a short story, that can be played in Night City, not necessarily from V's perspective. For example, as a start, Mike Pondsmith could write a short story that will be sold as DLC, then other Cyberpunk-authors could be asked. There could be a competition where fans can write stories, submit them, vote on them and the best one or three will be worked at as future DLC.

It would be more like table-top, creating new narratives, keeping the game fresh, being maybe more experimental. Just imagine – I don't know – a DLC where you are an Art Dealer for the top 50 richest people in Night City. That could be cool, fans creating digital works of art for the game etc. It would be like premium, CDPR-certified mods, that could also jumpstart careers in videogames.

I guess, it's hard to make such products in a short time, but maybe the engine is easy to use for modders. What do you all think?

I think it's a really cool idea, but I rather that there be more V centered content personally
Edit: I guess my concern is where CDPR puts their attention. I worry if they make a bunch of DLC stories that aren't related to V, I could see other things maybe get less attention and it would make me sad. But with good modding support, we could all win, and then win some more!

 

[0248991]

Hey, cool idea.
Though if the stories were paid they would probably need to be fully voiced and dubbed, polished, playtested, and everything and it may be just too much of work.

On the other hand, it could enrich and blend different views on cyberpunk as a genre. From the business view, these would probably be shorter and cheaper than the official 20+ hours DLCs and could bring more attention eventually

 

[fridgeband]

Hey, cool idea.
Though if the stories were paid they would probably need to be fully voiced and dubbed, polished, playtested, and everything and it may be just too much of work.

On the other hand, it could enrich and blend different views on cyberpunk as a genre. From the business view, these would probably be shorter and cheaper than the official 20+ hours DLCs and could bring more attention eventually

If we get a very good mod toolkit, some modders may actually make this happen all on their own. Cyberpunk2077 is on its way to be more popular than Skyrim + Minecraft COMBINED! That popularity combined with an excellent mod toolkit is almost a total guarantee that a huge amount of mods will be made for the game, of various types, likely including KeldornOfLatria's idea! Hopefully a few star wars themed mods as well. And a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure mod that turns the Kereznikov time dilation ability into "ZA WARUDO!"

 

[doktor_fleck]

If CDPR starts to sell "short stories" as DLC's then you will not be able to even imagine the amount of butthurt from the "community" - everyone will be screaming that "CDPR is a new EA" and worse.

 

[fridgeband]

If CDPR starts to sell "short stories" as DLC's then you will not be able to even imagine the amount of butthurt from the "community" - everyone will be screaming that "CDPR is a new EA" and worse.

I highly doubt that CDPR will ever choose to release DLC's in the style of paradox interactive or ea lol

 

[KakitaTatsumaru]

For example, as a start, Mike Pondsmith could write a short story that will be sold as DLC

EDIT for Dr. Fleck: "CDPR is a new EA"

 

[KeldornOfLatria]

If CDPR starts to sell "short stories" as DLC's then you will not be able to even imagine the amount of butthurt from the "community" - everyone will be screaming that "CDPR is a new EA" and worse.

I trust them to make it reasonably priced, if it is fully dubbed etc. Just imagine a short story-DLC where you play as a Media character uncovering a scandal at Arasaka, written by Pondsmith, that takes about 2-3 hours, with different story outcomes maybe 3-5. I would pay 5-10$ for that.

But yeah, as most of you say: A great devkit for modders would make this whole idea waaaay better.

 

[fridgeband]

EDIT for Dr. Fleck: "CDPR is a new EA"

Hey
I think they meant that they are worried that other people might think that, not that Dr.Fleck thinks this. Just saying.

 

[doktor_fleck]

I trust them to make it reasonably priced, if it is fully dubbed etc. Just imagine a short story-DLC where you play as a Media character uncovering a scandal at Arasaka, written by Pondsmith, that takes about 2-3 hours, with different story outcomes maybe 3-5. I would pay 5-10$ for that.

But yeah, as most of you say: A great devkit for modders would make this whole idea waaaay better.

It's the internet we are talking about. There is no "reasonable priced" when we are speaking about selling DLC's. I mean look - people till this day are going crazy about "cut content" and how CDPR "lied" to them. When they start selling DLC's, no matter how good and cheap they will be - people will go for tar and pitchfork.

 

[fridgeband]

I trust them to make it reasonably priced, if it is fully dubbed etc. Just imagine a short story-DLC where you play as a Media character uncovering a scandal at Arasaka, written by Pondsmith, that takes about 2-3 hours, with different story outcomes maybe 3-5. I would pay 5-10$ for that.

But yeah, as most of you say: A great devkit for modders would make this whole idea waaaay better.

Imagine how big the modding community would get? We would probably reach a point where modders would be calling up Mike Pondsmith and asking him for ideas for mods, and I could imagine him giving them ideas and I could imagine them making those ideas come true. Even more so, I could imagine modders inviting Mike Pondsmith on all sorts of wild mod-making adventures together. Haha, I could totally see that happening. It would be so cool.

It's the internet we are talking about. There is no "reasonable priced" when we are speaking about selling DLC's. I mean look - people till this day are going crazy about "cut content" and how CDPR "lied" to them. When they start selling DLC's, no matter how good and cheap they will be - people will go for tar and pitchfork.

If it's anything like how they handled Witcher 3 DLC, I am not worried at all.

 

[KakitaTatsumaru]

I trust them to make it reasonably priced, if it is fully dubbed etc. Just imagine a short story-DLC where you play as a Media character uncovering a scandal at Arasaka, written by Pondsmith, that takes about 2-3 hours, with different story outcomes maybe 3-5. I would pay 5-10$ for that.

That's a third of what I usually spend for a AAA game...
A whole AAA game. (DLCs included)

 

[HellKnightX88]

No, that sounds horrible. It would create the kind of content that made me hate the modern DLC approach in most games: short disconnected pieces of content that you just blitz through in a couple of hours. Like some of those shitty pre-order bonuses in Ubisoft games that includes one inconsequential quests/mission.

And then there's also issues like narrative tone inconsistencies or writing style changes which can feel jarring.

Cyberpunk2077 is on its way to be more popular than Skyrim + Minecraft COMBINED!

To put it nicely, you're being extremely optimstic. Minecraft is the most popular game in the world. Yes, even more than something like Fortnite.

Not to mention Minecraft and BGS' games are a lot more mod friendly and their modding communities being considerably larger. Minecraft has been around since 2009 and modding for BGS' NetImmerse/GameBryo/Creation Engine games was started all the way back in 2002 with Morrowind.

Don't get me wrong, people have made some beautiful things for TW3, I'm not bashing the modding community. But there's a long way to go for it to reach the heights of something like Skyrim in terms of modding and that's not just on the community itself but also largely on CDPR and their support for modding with proper tools and documentation.

 

[Spockprime]

Oh please no, not premium mods. Bethesda nearly killed the mod scene for FO4 and Skyrim when it introduced its own premium mod system, because they changed the base executable file every time they released one of their premium mods for sale. The whole system was a joke in the first place, because the Bethesda-sponsored mods were almost universally inferior versions of other mods that were already available.

A robust toolkit is the best possible thing that could happen to the game. But please no premium mods.

 

[Tree_Fox]

What’s the point of role playing as V if we aren’t going to play as V in future content?

keep content focused on V.

 

[fridgeband]

No, that sounds horrible. It would create the kind of content that made me hate the modern DLC approach in most games: short disconnected pieces of content that you just blitz through in a couple of hours. Like some of those shitty pre-order bonuses in Ubisoft games that includes one inconsequential quests/mission.
And then there's also issues like narrative tone inconsistencies or writing style changes which can feel jarring.
To put it nicely, you're being extremely optimstic. Minecraft is the most popular game in the world. Yes, even more than something like Fortnite.

Not to mention Minecraft and BGS' games are a lot more mod friendly and their modding communities being considerably larger. Minecraft has been around since 2009 and modding for BGS' NetImmerse/GameBryo/Creation Engine games was started all the way back in 2002 with Morrowind.

Don't get me wrong, people have made some beautiful things for TW3, I'm not bashing the modding community. But there's a long way to go for it to reach the heights of something like Skyrim in terms of modding and that's not just on the community itself but also largely on CDPR and their support for modding with proper tools and documentation.

Honestly I disagree. I'm not being optimistic because I'm being realistic. I really think everyone is going to see what I see in Cyberpunk2077 eventually. I'm just waiting for that big moment where everyone is like "Wait hold on... this is actually really good..." and it takes that top spot for most popular game in the entire world. This is one of the biggest reasons why a very good mod toolkit needs to exist for the inevitable popularity of this game. The lack of a mod toolkit will likely be one of the largest missed opportunities in gaming history.

Oh please no, not premium mods. Bethesda nearly killed the mod scene for FO4 and Skyrim when it introduced its own premium mod system, because they changed the base executable file every time they released one of their premium mods for sale. The whole system was a joke in the first place, because the Bethesda-sponsored mods were almost universally inferior versions of other mods that were already available.

A robust toolkit is the best possible thing that could happen to the game. But please no premium mods.

What’s the point of role playing as V if we aren’t going to play as V in future content?

keep content focused on V.

I totally agree.

 

[KakitaTatsumaru]

Personally, the DLCs I wish they made was they adding the missing roles as other Lifepath.

 

[parasite_avi]

That's really amazing, I think! Not to mention the gravity and dispute the idea has already generated!

What I think is the best part about it is the jumpstart to someone's career you've mentioned. Writing a masterpiece short story, a novella, a novel - whatever - is not going to be the same as writing a masterpiece quest for a video game. I think that would give people aspiring to work as writers for game developer companies a great opportunity to shine, or, at the very least, practice and have a tangible chance of putting their concept into a game.

Think about the opportunities you get today as a someone who tries to design quests - there's way more to it than writing the quest itself.

 

[lelxrv]

I'd rather have the people working on a proper sequel instead. And they can certainly invite authors for additional quest design or simply writing stories that can later be turned into quests.

Otherwise it's just stalling the production team.

 

[fridgeband]

I'd rather have the people working on a proper sequel instead. And they can certainly invite authors for additional quest design or simply writing stories that can later be turned into quests.

Otherwise it's just stalling the production team.

I hope that there isn't a sequel for at least 15 years, I just want the single player game to be constantly improved. Then after CDPR has seen all that time, and watching all the mods that get made for the game, and all the DLC's (that CDPR made) and just having the learning experience of the massive lifespan of Cyberpunk2077 and all its content, only then do I finally want to see a sequel with hopefully amazing improvements upon the original, and the sequel also being a single player game. I want The sequel to escalate in every way, increased more powerful and scary technology, just everything escalated. I want it to escalate like the plot of a Japanese Anime, in terms of its energy and feel. (I don't like anything by shonen jump though, even though most of their concepts are amazing, I never enjoy the execution of those ideas, which I feel they always do wrong, just my opinion, and a clarification so everyone at least knows that I don't mean anime as in that way)