Yea, if this was the first questionable thing from them or the game, it would be a lot easier to downplay. When added to everything from, especially about trans issues, it looks horrible and specifically pandering to "woke/broke bigots".
CDPR: Cyberpunk 2077 "is not a political statement"
- Thread starter Persephone
- Start date
of course it's cowardly. but that's pretty much every big game developer. except for a few. they're so afraid of losing their sensitive core audience (g*mers)
the funny thing is in reality, all PR is good PR. People think TLOU2 is "divisive" because on the Internet it is. In real life no one cares. If the games good, it'll sell. idk why these companies are so spineless
They did cast light on LGBTQ+ rights, which are a real world event issue.
They did it by mocking the community.
yeah I can't stand it. How are you going to make a game that's based on the embodiment of the genre it's in (literally fucking coined the term), but try to sidestep all of the politics that the genre intrinsically deals with.
There is a giant Difference between preaching and having a clear Message. Leaving things up for the Player to interpret themselves how they view certain things is pretty toothless, that would mean you use no Subtext. It would also mean that the Story would have to stay neutral the entire time for this to actually work and i'm pretty sure it won't.Of course there is a nuance. This is in line with what Pondsmith and CDPR have been saying all this time.
Mike Pondsmith: "If you want to get somebody to see your point of view, don't preach"
At the fifth annual Retro Inspired Game Jam at James Cook University in Singapore, students and local game developers d…www.gamesindustry.biz
“It’s an RPG before it’s a shooter”: CD Projekt Red’s Patrick Mills on Cyberpunk 2077’s FPS perspective, political storytelling, and tabletop inspirations
Cyberpunk 2077 Quest Designer Patrick Mills discusses immersion, and what it’s like to work with the creator of its universewww.gamesradar.com
Just like Sasko said, Cyberpunk 2077 is first and foremost a piece of art and given what we've seen so far, it will not shy away from depicting the socio-economical and political facets of the dark future. But that doesn't mean it is a political thesis or a political statement in favour or against recent events. I'm pretty sure the game won't preach to you or tell you that A is bad and B is good. It will leave this to the player to interpret and decide for themselves.
Art makes a political Statement and then you either agree with that or don't, maybe you take something out of it, but interpret it differently. All of that is very possible, but for that to truly work the Art must have something to say and not just present the Audience some Concepts that they can then think deeper about if they would like that or not.
Idk how can you even make something that is political but doesn't offer a Statement at the same Time? There are so many things in Media that evoke some sort of emotional Response in the Audience, just by the use of Writing, Colour, framing of Scenes whatever. All of those things are used to make Statements.
https://www.gamesradar.com/its-an-r...tical-storytelling-and-tabletop-inspirations/
The PR is a mess but they have stated in the past it's going to be political.
The PR is a mess but they have stated in the past it's going to be political.
Yep. Geeks and Gamers or Tyrone Magnus can make a video about how awful and agenda filled TLOU2 is every single day and it won't actually matter ultimately.
No, it means you trust the player to be intelligent enough to deduct what is wrong with this world and why that is the case. The demo has a scene in which a corporate executive orders a police officer to break your legs and throw you in the river. That is already a strong message with heavy political undertones about what type of society this is without outright saying "police corruption and brutality is bad".
Yeah it feels like there is some serious issues with the left hand talking to the right.
This game is based on an RPG that merely used political tropes of the genre as window dressing. For all of his talk about it being "a warning", Pondsmith's Cyberpunk fully embodies its motto - "style over substance".
Cyberpunk 2.0 was shallow, flashy and plenty problematic, and it sounds like that's exactly what the video game is going to be.
Well your example to me is exactly making a political Statement, and it's not even subtle.
You said:
In the Scene you just described the Game is doing that no? Sure it doesn't literally tell you that, but other than super terrible Schlock what Media would be so direct when it wants to tell you it's Message? This is not a novel Concept, and in the Interview CDPR said Cyberpunk is not a political Statement, while it obviously is.
I'm also convinced that many Devs in the Team think so, and that it's just PR so that they can also please the Right Wing Gamer Bros, which obviously is a big (and ironic) problem in itself, considering that you make a CYBERPUNK Game.
Yes, Sasko said the game is not a political statement in regards to recent events and that he considers Cyberpunk 2077 to be a piece of art that stands on its own. That doesn't mean the game doesn't have any political messages that are relevant today, to the contrary.
DeepL translation said:
Man I was excited, but I don't know if I want to play a apolitical cyberpunk game. I guess they want to go the Ubisoft route of making games with political themes with none of the blowback. Even Bethesda isn't this tone death with the fallout series. If they want imitate Ubisoft than I will treat their games like Ubisoft games and only buy them at a deep discount or used.
The games content is somewhat moot because it has to be political by it's very nature and CDPR saying it's not is at best, as others have said in here cowardly and at worst willfully ignorant. The real problem isn't the games content (although some people have already had problems with it) it's that CDPR (or persons acting on their behalf) have at times intentionally acted like colossal fuckwits. That's why people here are angry.
They've had tonnes of opportunities to clarify but they continue to either fudge it or make it worse. People have said "but Poland" however in the election just held it was almost 50/50 with a conservative candidate and a much younger more progressive candidate, divided along urban and rural lines. I suspect that there are a bunch of gamergate assholes working there and the brass is either somewhat sympathetic or they can't afford a mutiny so close to launch so they are being cautious about how they approach it. But that's not OK. They need to stand up and take action.
What I have heard CDPR is very leftist company in how it's ran by Polish norms, and everyone knows it there.
Does it mean there isn't bigots in the ranks? Doubtful, they are everywhere. Still shouldn't be particularly welcoming and encouraging environment for that type of person.
I don't know what CDPR truly looks like on the inside inside, but that's not the problem. The game seems to be very deliberately trying to appease the chuds in its messaging and marketing.The capital-G gamers that get routinely mocked on r/gamingcirclejerk, the type that cry about politics in muh vidya, the angry joes and TheQuarterings of the world etc.
CDPR could be the most progressive gaming company out there, but that would not exonerate the messaging we're seeing with this game. And yes, a lot of of it has to do with how seemingly immature the online gaming community is, but if TLOUP2 sales are anything to go by, not caving to right-wing pressure doesn't mean your hyped AAA game will flop. In other words, "get woke go broke" was always an illogical assumption that championing progressive values leads to low financial return by incredibly-online people who are in no way representative of the larger market.
And as has been mentioned countless times, its bad enough the "no politics" angle gets peddled by publishers and developers for other genres of games, but its ten times worse when said game is set in the cyberpunk genre. If CDPR isn't brave enough to outright admit that their cyberpunk game will have political messages and leanings, we can only expect the game's politics (which will exist in spite of this no politics rhetoric) to be as equally toothless.
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Well that makes it doubly frustrating if it's the case. They seemed pretty tolerant of the Twitter account manager tho.
I do wonder if this game will have anything relevant to say about the genre. The more I see about this game, the more it's looking like a 'no'. Haven't read Edge's impressions yet in issue #348 though they seem very enamoured by it.
Fuck this milquetoast game. This will be the first game I was originally intending to buy that I will skip. Their messaging has been awkward and stumbling as fuck. They should have addressed matters properly instead of this sidestepping and walking on eggshells.
The only logical explanation is that they are not progressives, they are conciously Right Wing and are trying to express it in as soft a way as possible to save some face, but in doing so they are making themselves look just as bad as if they came out and just said it explicitly.
The only logical explanation is that they are not progressives, they are conciously Right Wing and are trying to express it in as soft a way as possible to save some face, but in doing so they are making themselves look just as bad as if they came out and just said it explicitly.
Since this is coming from the lead quest designer, that has me a bit concerned. It remains to be seen if it is actually apolitical, or if this is just cynical damage control so they can sell their cyberpunk game to shitheads that "don't want none o' dat commie stuff in mah vidja gaems".
Definitely want to see more previews and eventually reviews from people to see how Punk this CyberPUNK game really is.
Definitely want to see more previews and eventually reviews from people to see how Punk this CyberPUNK game really is.
It sounds like he said the game isn't giving a political message specifically in regards to the events that the interviewer ask about. Doesn't mean the game won't be political.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Ignoring Staff Post; Dismissive Commentary
I do not understand people getting mad about this. Surely wait to play the game to decide on its themes. Of course PR will say its apolitical, what are they supposed to say... don't buy this game if you are conservative?
Remember Poland is a conservative country with a conservative government, one who has previously given CDPR significant funding grants. They are in a different position to your typical American developer.
Now, if the game comes out and is actually transphobic or racist. Ok, sure I will get down with saying fuck CDPR. But we are not close to that.
Remember Poland is a conservative country with a conservative government, one who has previously given CDPR significant funding grants. They are in a different position to your typical American developer.
Now, if the game comes out and is actually transphobic or racist. Ok, sure I will get down with saying fuck CDPR. But we are not close to that.
I'm guessing they mean the politics won't be so obvious and in-your-face that even the sort of aimless, meandering consumer who says things like "keep politics out of my games!" would recognize them.
Which is fair, you basically have to shout "RONALD REAGAN WAS THE DEVIL!" at the top of your lungs to get those sorts to realize there may be something inherently political in their media. They're going to wade into a scene about how the self-employed prostitutes are safer and happier than they ever were when fully criminalized and run by gangs and just say, "Oh, cool. There's a gang for whores!"
Which is fair, you basically have to shout "RONALD REAGAN WAS THE DEVIL!" at the top of your lungs to get those sorts to realize there may be something inherently political in their media. They're going to wade into a scene about how the self-employed prostitutes are safer and happier than they ever were when fully criminalized and run by gangs and just say, "Oh, cool. There's a gang for whores!"
User Banned (2 Weeks): Ignoring Staff Post; Dismissive Commentary
I don't know, doesn't sound like that to me. But we'll have to wait and see if he has something bad to say about the game sometime after it releases.
Also, this.
Council of Europe 'alarmed' at Poland's plans to leave domestic violence treaty
Rights body condemns move to withdraw from treaty aimed at stopping violence against women
www.theguardian.com
Poland is that kind of place, yeah...
It's remembering that they're based in a country that's actively hostile toward LGBTQ+ people that gives me little reason, alongside their past faults, to give leeway when they talk of reflecting people's various "political sympathies" in a game that has transphobic elements.
They reiterate pronouns being tied to pitch of voice in this article and the latest trailer from a few weeks back still had the poster emblazoned on the side of buildings.
I was talking to some friends about this stuff and one went "It's all because of those BLM idiots", I was like "Huh? Why are they idiots?", he went on about the destruction of things and how it all happened because "one fool was killed". Needless to say, I don't plan to speak to this person ever again even if we happen to see each other in a meeting or party in the future.
Don't have to wait for it to be in the game either. The poster they say is supposed to represent how fucked up large companies are in fetishizing minorities to promote their products, was literally used in their offline live venues to promote their product.
Said it before but when people start having to count the instances of transphobia from a company on two hands and you still don't understand why they're irritated, then you're simply not bothering to.
Said it before but when people start having to count the instances of transphobia from a company on two hands and you still don't understand why they're irritated, then you're simply not bothering to.
These last 4 years at least have made things easy for people to be able to cut ones out that are toxic.
So, we're talking about a company who has fucked up multiple times regarding trans issues which includes content shown in the game, is based in a country that is incredibly hostile towards LGBTQ+ people and we are supposed to just handwave this and not voice out concerns and wait for the game to come out? Sorry but no.
Stop dismissing us., seriously.
Yea, some people are acting like this is their first questionable thing out of them.
It's not even like any of their previous games have good representation of minorities either so I'm not exactly sure what to give them the benefit of the doubt about, they have no history of earning it, and that's ignoring all the stuff that came out for the PR for this game alone.