4 ms·

I hope CD Project Red devs are reading HN today. I want them to hear: if you feel that the whole world is against you - it's not true. Many people are silently

I hope CD Project Red devs are reading HN today. I want them to hear: if you feel that the whole world is against you - it's not true. Many people are silently enjoying the game and you will not hear as much from them as from the whiners exactly because of this - they have nothing to whine about. For me, this game already took the place in my personal Hall of Fame: next to Oblivion, Red Dead Redemption 2, and GTA SA. Thank you! And you should know: you’ve proved that you are professionals. Don't let your managers make you answer for their promises. Don't feel guilty, you should be proud actually.

pier25 6y ago
The main issue is not that people aren't enjoying the game, but that CDPR outright lied with their marketing videos.
- EugeneOZ 6y ago
  I still don't think that marketing videos is the developers’ fault.
  - pier25 6y ago
    CDPR didn't produce and publish those videos?
    - dharmab 6y ago
      CDPR is made up of developers, artists, QA staff, managers, marketers, a board of executives and other roles. Journalism reports and publicly available call transcripts are painting a picture of internal conflict between the creators and leadership. In this context, “developers” means the creative roles within CDPR.
  - deadbunny 6y ago
    Developers as in the people writing code? Sure. Developers as in the company developing the game? Absolutely.
    - EugeneOZ 6y ago
      Is it HN? Developers as fucking developers, who are writing the code.
  - monocasa 6y ago
    That's how the gaming industry works, and has at least since the 90s. The PlayStaion 2's CPU was called the "Emotion Engine" supposedly because it had the power to emulate the human mind. Don't listen to any direct marketing, and certainly not from the games industry.
    - willis936 6y ago
      There’s a special brand of “clearly bullshit” marketing. The CP2077 marketing campaign was properly deceptive. Features were stated matter-of-factly and we all technically feasible. I bought CP2077 after watching this video. I returned it the next morning. https://youtu.be/BO8lX3hDU30 https://youtu.be/BO8lX3hDU30 There was similar backlash with Fable 1. Peter Molyneux talked a big game and didn’t deliver. I’d argue that Fable 1 at least made a genuine significant effort to have “actions affect the game”. Mechanics changed from behavior. That was considered a AAA disappointment in 2004. Now I long for the quality and depth in 16 year old AAA disappointments.
      - monocasa 6y ago
        There was similar backlash against every open world game, particularly RPGs. Skyrim and GTA for instance were just as bad with the progression breaking bugs on launch. Part of me wonders if that's why both those companies seem more focused on releasing the same games with their decade or so of bug fixes rather than take another stab at the PR gauntlet of managing expectations of an open world game. The crashing bugs in the low end consoles is unacceptable (and Sony and Microsoft are just as much to blame. You shouldn't be able to pass TCRs with crashing bugs, so they knew what was coming and allowed it anyway), but the progression bugs on launch like this is par for the course for the past couple decades of gaming.
        willis936 6y ago
        I don’t remember a similar backlash against Assassin’s Creed (specifically: lying about features). I don’t remember any hype for that game, but it delivered fun, new gameplay. I do remember the launch version of AC being rather buggy. Perhaps that was a signal of things to come.

pier25 6y ago

The main issue is not that people aren't enjoying the game, but that CDPR outright lied with their marketing videos.

EugeneOZ 6y ago
I still don't think that marketing videos is the developers’ fault.
- pier25 6y ago
  CDPR didn't produce and publish those videos?
  - dharmab 6y ago
    CDPR is made up of developers, artists, QA staff, managers, marketers, a board of executives and other roles. Journalism reports and publicly available call transcripts are painting a picture of internal conflict between the creators and leadership. In this context, “developers” means the creative roles within CDPR.
- deadbunny 6y ago
  Developers as in the people writing code? Sure. Developers as in the company developing the game? Absolutely.
  - EugeneOZ 6y ago
    Is it HN? Developers as fucking developers, who are writing the code.
- monocasa 6y ago
  That's how the gaming industry works, and has at least since the 90s. The PlayStaion 2's CPU was called the "Emotion Engine" supposedly because it had the power to emulate the human mind. Don't listen to any direct marketing, and certainly not from the games industry.
  - willis936 6y ago
    There’s a special brand of “clearly bullshit” marketing. The CP2077 marketing campaign was properly deceptive. Features were stated matter-of-factly and we all technically feasible. I bought CP2077 after watching this video. I returned it the next morning. https://youtu.be/BO8lX3hDU30 https://youtu.be/BO8lX3hDU30 There was similar backlash with Fable 1. Peter Molyneux talked a big game and didn’t deliver. I’d argue that Fable 1 at least made a genuine significant effort to have “actions affect the game”. Mechanics changed from behavior. That was considered a AAA disappointment in 2004. Now I long for the quality and depth in 16 year old AAA disappointments.
    - monocasa 6y ago
      There was similar backlash against every open world game, particularly RPGs. Skyrim and GTA for instance were just as bad with the progression breaking bugs on launch. Part of me wonders if that's why both those companies seem more focused on releasing the same games with their decade or so of bug fixes rather than take another stab at the PR gauntlet of managing expectations of an open world game. The crashing bugs in the low end consoles is unacceptable (and Sony and Microsoft are just as much to blame. You shouldn't be able to pass TCRs with crashing bugs, so they knew what was coming and allowed it anyway), but the progression bugs on launch like this is par for the course for the past couple decades of gaming.
      - willis936 6y ago
        I don’t remember a similar backlash against Assassin’s Creed (specifically: lying about features). I don’t remember any hype for that game, but it delivered fun, new gameplay. I do remember the launch version of AC being rather buggy. Perhaps that was a signal of things to come.