☢️ A Rant for Perpetuity: Let's talk about CD Projekt Red, Cyberpunk 2077, and gamers and videogame journalists whitewashing bullshit. -- [3/2] Highlighting my response to a comment, so that you better understand my mindset.

☢️ Is been a while since we done did a rant like this. You're welcome to ignore this post. I do these rants for perpetuity, a.k.a. for those who come after.

⏳ There are many things to talk about and much modding to do, but let me have this.

👹 CD Projekt Red can perpetually go !@#$ themselves, just like Electronic Arts, Activision/Blizzard, Ubisoft, and almost every other major game publisher in existence. I ain't here to kiss anyone's arse or make excuses for any billion-dollar companies with filthy stinkin' rich CEOs.

🎙️ Come touch me like I’m an ordinary man. Have a look in my eyes. Underneath my skin there is a violence. It's got a gun in its hand. -- My little "metaphorical hatchet" quip in the "All-in-One Live Event Rewards Unlocker" mod-post is a nod to Archive and their song "Hatchet", which is about a person in an abusive relationship normalizing their partner's abuse.

☆// ⋆ DON'T WHITEWASH CDPR AND CP2077:

Cyberpunk 2077 was probably my most anticipated game.

That teaser trailer introduced me to Archive [🌐], and I patiently waited for years for the game to "COMING: WHEN IT'S READY".

Back then, CD Projekt Red had a lot of goodwill with the gaming community due to their work on The Witcher franchise [🌐] and their "Good Old Games" (GOG) DRM-Free game distribution platform [🌐].

Did you watch the 48 minute gameplay reveal?

I did. It was (and still is) amazing, and everything I wanted from a cyberpunk-themed open-world experience:

• [🎬] Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay Reveal — 48-minute walkthrough

Only to then learn, after the hot mess of a game launch, that the 48 minute gameplay reveal was not at all indicative of any state the actual game was in at any point in time leading up to, and including the official release.

Only to then learn that the creative team was re-tasked from creating the actual game, to producing that piece of false marketing.

Only to then learn that CD Projekt Red, at every step of the way, in every single interview, LIED THROUGH THEIR FUCKING TEETH ABOUT LITERALLY EVERYTHING CONCERNING THE STATE OF THE GAME.

Only to then watch CD Projekt Red gaslight everyone who criticized the game on release, AFTER like a year of bug fixes and improvements brought it closer to what they advertised.

The game didn't release "WHEN IT'S READY", it released half-arsed, with open-world mechanics that we had in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Sure, I can acknowledge that now, Cyberpunk 2077 is/is closer to being "WHEN IT'S READY", but don't you dare pretend that it was what they advertised, on launch.

• [🎬] Open-World Games That Were Called ‘Mid’ Until Everyone Actually Played Them -- Yes, this stupid video by Game Rant did indeed trigger this rant, because I'm beyond tired of gamers and videogame journalists whitewashing bullshit.

Is not that the game released half-arsed, bruh...

IS THAT THEY INTENTIONALLY FUCKING LIED EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE SHAREHOLDERS, WHO EVEN SUED THEM FOR IT!

Please, for the sake of whatever you hold dear, have some fucking self respect.

You can love The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077, and CDPR for making those games a reality, without whitewashing their anti-consumer bullshit behavior.

I'ma add links later, 'cause unless CDPR paid to have all them articles and videos removed, they're still out there, in the aether.

☆// ⋆ I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT THIS RESPONSE, SO THAT YOU BETTER UNDERSTAND MY MINDSET TOWARDS CDPR:

"I missed the overhype and the lies and pretty much the entire game until something pushed me to look at some gameplay which convinced me to get the game. And I loved it. Still do."

I'm sure when I'm finally able to play it (I don't want to kill my aging 1050Ti trying to run it), that I will love it too.

It's like the only game of it's type in the Cyberpunk genre on the market. It's like The Sims, and Skyrim, and PAYDAY 2 (oh how I miss customizing guns in PAYDAY 2). All of these games are trash in some respect and have trash publishers, but they're still entertaining and I still love them.

Even if you got the game on launch and it worked for you and you enjoyed it, that's completely fine. Not being aware of the controversy is also completely fine.

None of that is what I take issue with.

But I do take issue with games journalism (who should be aware of all the nonsense I pointed out in this post), pretending none of this crap happened, and that CDPR didn't try to tick every "how can I be an anti-consumer !@#$ this time" box with CP2077.

--

"Sure, they lied apparently. But they turned it all around and it became one of the best games in that area. Not sure what to make of that."

Eh, is simple. They launched a game with the potential to define a genre (whether or not it actually does). They launched it in a less that stellar state, then fixed it. That's all.

There's L-L-L-LOADSAMONEY to be made with CP2077 from gamers like us who enjoy those types of games.

CDPR wasn't not going to fix it eventually.

Had they not done any of the other shit I highlighted in this post, and only released the game in a "less than stellar state", we wouldn't be here talking about this.

The only reason the state of the game on release is highlighted in my criticism, is because it was another slap in the face AFTER all the other shit they did during development.

When it comes to The Sims 4, I take a swipe at EAxis with every release because they've been releasing add-on DLC for over 10 years and still making the same stupid mistakes that they then have to fix in updates.

Tis a different dynamic with Sims than with games like CP2077.

Without the rest of the shit, my criticism of CP2077 would be "Yuh told me the game was coming when it's ready, and this the half-baked trash you released?" which would then turn into "Well yuh finally fixed the game. Now I'll consider playing it."

Instead they get, "YOU LIED THROUGH YOUR !@#$ING TEETH, THEN TRIED TO GASLIGHT ALL OF US WHO CRITICIZED YOU FOR IT. GO !@#$ THYSELF FOR ETERNITY, YOU LYING, ANTI-CONSUMER, PIECE OF !@#$!". 😹💀

Nothing they do will ever wash that stain off completely for me.

That's just the kinda person I am.

If The Witcher 4 releases in a proper state without the added bullshit that CP2077 had, it will at least show me that CDPR cares about the quality of their games again.

It won't wash the stain off, but I'll have no problem saying "the Witcher 4 is a good game and CDPR did a good job", the same way I can praise EAxis for releasing a good bugfix or a competent DLC while dragging them for all the incompetence everywhere else.

--

CP2077 will always be an open wound for me, and it's primarily because of the way CDPR behaved before and after launch.

The only time I ever want to be reminded about all the shit they did with CP2077 is when I finally sit down to play CP2077 and I'm enjoying all the character creation options, and I say to myself "I like dis game, but hear nah, CDPR can still go !@#$ themselves! Anti-consumer pieces of !@#$!"

Unfortunately, folks feel the need to "vindicate" their love for the game and often do so by downplaying the criticisms of those of us who either criticized the state of the game on launch, or took offense to CDPR's behavior, and that shit pisses me off something fierce.

Even when it's in ignorance (as in they didn't know about all this shit), it pisses me off something fierce.

I try not to take offense or hold grudges for "trivial" things, but that means that when I do take offense to something, I ain't gon' drop it anytime soon.

Case in point, CP2077 was released in 2020 and "fixed" by what, 2021/2022, with the big DLC releasing in 2023. Is been 5 years, and I still have the same "GO !@#$ THYSELF" energy towards CDPR today, as I did back in 2020.

☆// ⋆ TBC...?

Maybe.

I might expand this post to talk about Ubisoft's sexist Creative Lead making the excuse that we couldn't have female assassins back in the day because women are too hard to animate, or we can get into Blizzard's sexual harassment of their female employees which led to one young woman killing herself, or we can talk about Randy Pitchford from Gearbox Studios and his sexually explicit material featuring underaged girls.

Like I said at the top of this post, I ain't here to kiss anyone's arse or make excuses for any billion-dollar companies with filthy stinkin' rich CEOs.

Neither should you.

Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer (YouTube)