It's okay not to be a fan of CDPR right now

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Already posted this in some other threads, but after all the effort I made self-reflecting and dealing with my own disappointment, might as well make it a thread...

I've been on these forums long enough to be a Forum Veteran, played through the entire Witcher series and its spin-offs and was really looking forward to Cyberpunk 2077. I defended Cyberpunk in many other gaming forums when there was backlash against the crunch, then the trans-trope things, then the delays. In many recent instances, I gave CDPR the benefit of the doubt, and imagined they were simply having a hard time / stumbling a bit and were good at the core.

So what's a fan? No, take a while and really think on it for a little.

Is it the description of myself that I posted above? Or is it simply anyone who is positive about CDPR no matter what they do?

No, I think that last one goes too far. If you really like a celebrity for instance - are a fan - and they suddenly turn out to be a horrid person, then you shouldn't be a fan anymore, right? Loyalty alone cannot define a fan, because otherwise you'd just be a fan-atic.
Likewise, if you're a fan of a company, for the things they appear to be, it's not unreasonable to let go of them, when they stop being the thing they once appeared to be.


After all the defending I did, and for all the love I once had of CDPR, I can be called a fan. But, I am not a fan-atic.

My fandom of CDPR, was conditioned on the understanding they were a company that placed their customers, and did the morally right thing, above profit.

And now look at them. They release a product that is so broken, that Playstation yanks them from their store, in a gesture that symbolizes that it should never have been sold for the money they earned. Sony for god's sake, looked after you more than CDPR did. Sony's statement was that THEY had quality expectations, and not that they carefully negotiated this. Microsoft has yet to follow suit.
Worse, they prevented reviewers from showing footage last-gen footage, as if to say that CDPR KNEW how bad it would be and they didn't want customers to know about it.
Even worse still, they're now tip-toeing to the Chinese government in pulling Devotion from GOG.

I was a fan of this company in the understanding that these things would never happen. That they'd never trick customers into buying broken products, would put profit before customer, and would do the morally right thing.
If they're not doing that anymore, then what am I? A fan, or a fanatic?


Now, I know how it goes. I HAVE defended CDPR. And the logic is this: Whatever goes wrong, isn't intended. They're a good company, who just so happened to do the wrong thing out of idealistic mistake and they'll correct it if you just hug them hard enough.

I can apply that here too: Them releasing too soon was just a mistake. All of it was just miscommunication. They THOUGHT the day 1 patch would fix everything, which is the reason they didn't allowed reviewers to see it. There's no deception! Just a small slip-up.
And maybe there really were thousands of Chinese gamers who didn't want devotion released. They're just listening to gamers and doing it for us!

But why wouldn't we also apply that to Blizzard, or EA, or Ubisoft?
Micro-transactions are just how companies survive. They need their fans to stick up for them. Releasing broken products is just miscommunication! They tried their best! And they don't ban streamers because of the Chinese Government! That's just them following the guidelines really carefully!
And it's ALL a slippery slope. We know that! Because we dislike THEM for it. If those good for nothing companies release one lootbox, or release one broken product, that's just them going down the path of being not-CDPR and doing it again!


You could argue that it's the amount of time in which CDPR has done bad things, compared to those other, lesser companies who've been doing that for years, but here's the catch: That's what those other, lesser companies tell themselves too.
Blizzard/EA/Ubisoft release broken, micro-transaction riddled products, and the only reason why they're getting away with that, is because of their fans. Which are not fans, but fan-atics. There's just this crowd of people who will stick by those companies no matter what. Or they don't care and simply come up with the same excuses as a fan. These companies get away with it BECAUSE of fans, who are not fans, but fanatics, and will forgive them no matter what, or just stop caring.


So what am I? And what are you? Are you a fan, or a fanatic? Do you care, or have you stopped?

People! It's OKAY to not be a fan if a company crosses a line! That doesn't make you less of a fan! Retracting your fandom and not being a fanatic, is how you prevent the company you love, from just being a company and taking the slippery slope down to join the kind of muck EA/Ubisoft/Blizzard are already swimming in!

This is more about your inner world, expectations and principles, then it is what CDPR did. You care! You have standards! You also care enough to apply those standards consistently! CDPR just had a wildly successful launch that already made them profit. They don't NEED your help or defense.
You're not a fan because of the company. You're a fan because of what the company stands, or stood for. Even if this entire mess is because of ill-judged mistake, this is not what we expect from CDPR.

I am a fan! I'm a fan of companies who release quality products, put customers above profits, and do the morally right thing. This is not CDPR right now and instead of lowering my own expectations down towards their new level like a fanatic, possibly allowing them to sink even lower with the weight of my everlasting forgiveness dragging them down, I'd rather wait until they clamber back up to the expectations of my fandom.

I'll be here. Where are you going?
 
I am so incredibly pissed with what they are doing to the nudity and promiscuity in the game. Honestly, its supposed to be there and they need to put it back as it was and should be. They are turning it into a kids game when the story is better than that and supports the use of it. They are mutilating the game!

When the themes are largely about what you commit to and how you pass, I just cannot believe that there isn't more in the romances and many more options.

The game could be absolutely astounding but CDPR's handling of it is appalling.
 
The forced nudity censorship is the one and only thing I am not a fan of CDPR and frankly I will not give that up. Its very immersion breaking, its hypocritical considering there is gore and other mature elements, and the fact it's a decision with zero explanation of why?

Other things are just feedback that for the game to evolve are needed, like some sort of barber shop for an example. Or have the ripperdoc allow you to change your body like skin and eye color.
Or bugs like male V's shoulders are all messed up with holes in them and there are grey patches at the neck. These are just bugs that can be fixed, given time.

But forced nude censorship decision coming from management that goes against the very fiber of the game of immersion and lore, and given zero reason as to why this was made, I just can't forget that.
 
Mass manufacturing and mass dismantling.Mass manufacturing and mass dismantling.Mass manufacturing and mass dismantling.Mass manufacturing and mass dismantling.
 
i will stay a fan untill i see what they do with big patches in January and February, if they deliver at least some features people are asking, then i will stay happy, if not then bye bye.
 
Why was nudity patched out?
My worry is that they are sterilizing nudity in the game against its original creative vision just to make it more marketable worldwide. (If so, that's a decision I adamantly disagree with.)

It was obviously initially intended in the release since it's in the character customization and there's even a censor toggle in the settings menu if you didn't care for it.

For many players it makes the game more immersive! Who showers in their underwear!? Is the city gritty or sterile? I don't mind too much either way, but make up your mind before you advertise towards gritty realism. It's false advertisement otherwise, and why many people are rightfully upset. It's also a frustratingly stupid look to spend time not fixing bugs to take out at game release an optional feature that's already in the game.
 

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Honestly nudity and such aren't required in the first place and don't define if a game is mature or not (but this is an opinion).
There's games that have 0 nudity but deal with the story and its gameplay in a mature way, and they turn out as games for a "mature" audience.

But again, boobs sell. And surprisingly specifically to that audience that wouldn't even be allowed to buy the game in the first place. (from a male standpoint, I'm sure females have their different opinion on this).
 
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