Why We Need More Game Developers Like CD Projekt RED

[Rob Williams]

Polish game developer CD Projekt RED this week released the long-awaited follow-up to The Witcher, called The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. There are a couple of interesting things about the game, but most of all, it happens to be a PC-only offering, and an RPG at that. On game consoles, single-player RPGs are not uncommon, but they certainly are on the PC. Even rarer? Good ones.

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[marfig]

To be fair the game that somewhat recently most impressed me on this issue was Dragon Age: Origins, which ran almost flawlessly across PC, PS, Xbox and MacOS on release day. Quite a feat.

But the folks at CD Projekt RED are no doubt excellent. I didn't like the first, and it's unlikely I'll buy the second. But I played the first and it would be unfair of me to not praise the technical quality of that game. Reading reviews of this second installment, I have no doubts they did it again and came out even better. Judging from player reactions it's also impossible not to agree with you that this team listens to players and responds to them with code.

But I want to make two notes:

1.
Two things annoyed me greatly about New Vegas. One was no doubt the horrid state that game shipped in; Inexcusable! But the other thing is that while players may have been making jokes about it, all but a few rare review websites were praising the game; some going as far as awarding it scores like 9/10 without making any mention to the game bugs! This press behavior isn't new, has been going for quite a while, and it's a veritable green light to these irresponsible companies. Which is also unfortunately met by big first week sales. Meaning the gaming market is not mature enough for consumers to start making decisions with their wallet that benefit them (a staple of the entertainment industry). So, while I wish the exact same as you, I'm not sure we will be getting more companies like CD Projekt RED, or less.

2.
The thought that developers should listen to gamers is sometimes what I fear, judging from what we sometimes watch being said on these developers forums. But the thing that worries me most about it is the "tyranny of the majority" and the effect that can have on certain types of games.

A quick personal example is Diablo III. I gave up trying to bring forth the worries I have about Single Player support in this upcoming game (one of my most anticipated titles in recent years). The multiplayer community is a vast vocal majority on Blizzard forums, while the SP (and offline) is just a ragtag bunch int there, that in no way actually represents the vast number of Diablo offline players. Result: despite early Blizzard promises, the fact is that they recently announced they would include features that are meant to discourage offline play (scroll towards the bottom until you see Bashiok blue post). No doubt also motivated by a certain level of corporate strategies, but that is only possible because of a forum majority not caring about this one bit.

 

[Doomsday]

i just hope its not infected with Consolitis! Cant wait to play it though!

 

[Rob Williams]

Two things annoyed me greatly about New Vegas. One was no doubt the horrid state that game shipped in; Inexcusable! But the other thing is that while players may have been making jokes about it, all but a few rare review websites were praising the game; some going as far as awarding it scores like 9/10 without making any mention to the game bugs! This press behavior isn't new, has been going for quite a while, and it's a veritable green light to these irresponsible companies. Which is also unfortunately met by big first week sales. Meaning the gaming market is not mature enough for consumers to start making decisions with their wallet that benefit them (a staple of the entertainment industry). So, while I wish the exact same as you, I'm not sure we will be getting more companies like CD Projekt RED, or less.

This to me is a major problem. Gamers are caught in a Catch 22, because even though we know that games should be shipping bug-free, no one wants to pass up on an "epic" game, and as such, we give the publishers our cash, and effectively say that there's no problem at all. With the case of New Vegas, the game happened to be a rare exception. While the bugs there couldn't be avoided, the game was so good, many gamers ended up just looking over them.

But still... games should not be shipped in that kind of state. But until gamers vote with their pocketbooks, it's just going to keep on happening. At least the developer there wasn't going to up and ignore the problems that existed, and did in fact fix them over time.

A quick personal example is Diablo III. I gave up trying to bring forth the worries I have about Single Player support in this upcoming game (one of my most anticipated titles in recent years). The multiplayer community is a vast vocal majority on Blizzard forums, while the SP (and offline) is just a ragtag bunch int there, that in no way actually represents the vast number of Diablo offline players. Result: despite early Blizzard promises, the fact is that they recently announced they would include features that are meant to discourage offline play (scroll towards the bottom until you see Bashiok blue post). No doubt also motivated by a certain level of corporate strategies, but that is only possible because of a forum majority not caring about this one bit.

That's an unfortunate problem as well. It kind of reminds me of Civilization V, where there are literally tons of players who rip the game up and down because it's not 1:1 with Civ IV. Of course, if the game was quite the same, that'd be kind of boring, but nonetheless people will whine up and down about it. At the same time though, Firaxis didn't ship with certain features that Civ IV did have, such as hotseat (where two players play on the same PC), so similar to your predicament, the minority didn't get heard early enough. It sucks, that's for sure.

i just hope its not infected with Consolitis! Cant wait to play it though!

I can't see it, how it's not even available for consoles at this time ;-)