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.
"Many needs too calm down now is the time CDPR needs support from its fans"
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 could once 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. 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.
[...]
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 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! [...] That's just them following the guidelines really carefully!
And it's ALL a slippery slope. We know that! Because we hate 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 CDPR from taking the slippery slope down to join the kind of muck EA/Ubisoft/Blizzard are already swimming in! 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?
"Many needs too calm down now is the time CDPR needs support from its fans"
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 could once 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. 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.
[...]
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 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! [...] That's just them following the guidelines really carefully!
And it's ALL a slippery slope. We know that! Because we hate 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 CDPR from taking the slippery slope down to join the kind of muck EA/Ubisoft/Blizzard are already swimming in! 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?
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