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CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

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Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#421

Post by meheleventyone »

CivBase wrote: post #212
munk-a wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CDPR sounds like a relatively progressively run game company tbh. A lot of game dev companies deny you overtime during the run up to a major release and massively layoff staff after releases. Up here in British Columbia all technical workers[1] are overtime exempt because EA ran roughshod over our labour laws a number of years ago and people are too afraid to change them for fear of driving off businesses. 1. Vaguely…

It's sad if that counts as "progressive" business practices in the games industry.

It really, really doesn’t IME. This is basically what the industry was like when I joined 15 years ago.

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#422

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

freeflight wrote: post #377
willis936 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes. You can see the global illumination ray traced lighting specular reflections off of the face of a T-posed one-line-of-dialog hooker.

The game looks way better than pre-release marketing footage [0], which gets zero recognition and only a bunch of hate. Meanwhile when Ubisoft releases yet another "Doesn't look anything like the marketing footage", usually also crunched into existence, people just shrug it off. In that context it's really weird how everybody seems to be dog-piling on CDPR right now for the most weird reasons, when otherwise they hav…

People want unicorns, they thought they were going to get a unicorn, and instead they got an old, beaten-down horse.

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#423

Post by jevgeni »

Pfhreak wrote: post #406
jevgeni wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cyberpunk never was cyber + punk.

It literally was explicitly that. Gibson and others started writing in this genre, which then took it's name from CYBERPUNK by Bruce Bethke a short story that was named to elicit a feeling of technology and punk attitudes. The common idiom high tech, low life is another way of describing the genre and also succinctly suggests that the genre is, in fact, cyber + punk. Happy to provide references, but a quick internet…

I know all that. You're just misusing the word "punk" as a free variable.

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#424

Post by djmips »

munk-a wrote: post #194
pavlov wrote: post #7

This company has probably the shittiest gamified bonus system that I've ever heard of: "CDPR leaders would hand out tokens every month to staffers who went above and beyond, and those tokens were supposed to be transferrable into bonuses if the game met “certain criteria, like critical acclaim and a timely release,” according to the report." [1] Get paid in "crunch mode experience points" handed out by middle manager…

CDPR sounds like a relatively progressively run game company tbh. A lot of game dev companies deny you overtime during the run up to a major release and massively layoff staff after releases. Up here in British Columbia all technical workers[1] are overtime exempt because EA ran roughshod over our labour laws a number of years ago and people are too afraid to change them for fear of driving off businesses. 1. Vaguely…

Indeed, when I worked at EA in BC we were promised comp time for working 'coverage' (overtime) and I even got into trouble for refusing to work on Labour Day! The comp time fizzled into nothing because they fired the Development Manager of our group on the DAY of shipping the game. He just disappeared along with all of his promises. I alone got paid for the overtime because I refused to work TFT (temporary full time - which they pressured me to do) and instead was a true contractor.

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#425

Post by zimpenfish »

blihp wrote: post #250
_cs2017_ wrote: post #27

Wasn't it obvious to anyone who play-tested on last-gen consoles that the game is nearly unplayable and so will receive horrendous reviews? Presumably CDPR employees are not afraid to convey such bad news to the management. So why did the management still decide to go ahead with the release this year? After reading this transcript, I didn't find the answer to these questions. "Underestimated the scale and complexity…

Don't think for a second that employees 'are not afraid to convey such bad news'. Between the massive years-long hype, delays and bad press about crunch time around the title, not to mention being the most lucrative time of year for a game release, it's very likely that management egos were fully engaged in this release. When that happens reality is no longer driving, or even on, the bus. There may have been one or t…

Not just game companies where this happens - I've worked at more than a few places in normal software development where management ego rather than cold hard reality drives the bus and yeah, speaking up is definitely a career limiting move.

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#426

Post by esyir »

munk-a wrote: post #194
pavlov wrote: post #7

This company has probably the shittiest gamified bonus system that I've ever heard of: "CDPR leaders would hand out tokens every month to staffers who went above and beyond, and those tokens were supposed to be transferrable into bonuses if the game met “certain criteria, like critical acclaim and a timely release,” according to the report." [1] Get paid in "crunch mode experience points" handed out by middle manager…

CDPR sounds like a relatively progressively run game company tbh. A lot of game dev companies deny you overtime during the run up to a major release and massively layoff staff after releases. Up here in British Columbia all technical workers[1] are overtime exempt because EA ran roughshod over our labour laws a number of years ago and people are too afraid to change them for fear of driving off businesses. 1. Vaguely…

I dunno, my impression is that for a game company, CDPR is fairly employee friendly. Of course that's relative to the rest of the gaming industry, which is a well-known employee welfare shithole.

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#427

Post by winrid »

cbozeman wrote: post #366
TheGuyWhoCodes wrote: post #42

Having played cyberpunk on PC it's mostly a fancy light show and not a lot of substance. You can't even customize anything past the creation screen, no car paint jobs no hair cuts and no body modification, no transmog system.. They tried to hide the console issues while reaffirming time and time again that current-gen console will be a first class citizen, that's an EA tactic not something that CDPR I thought I knew…

So fortunately I've never played any open-world game except for Skyrim, which just didn't really hold my interest... or maybe it was the fact I lost my save game due to a faulty SSD, I dunno. At any rate, I love this game. I love the story. I love Night City. I love the graphics. I won't lie and say I'm a huge Cyberpunk pen & paper fan; I'm not. I knew more about Shadowrun than Cyberpunk, and that was from the old SN…

Sure, maybe it will be a great game in six months.

But you don't buy a new car and say "in six months this is going to be a great car" - you have expectations when you put the money down...

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#428

Post by cbozeman »

shawnz wrote: post #380
cbozeman wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll probably be happy with your purchase. There's already a patch that fixes 600 bugs, and they're working on another patch that should be released by December 21st. Christmas Day should be a little shitty for your gift recipient, in that that they'll have to download a big fat patch, but hey, at least the game should work well. Assuming you got the PC / PS5 / Xbox Series X version. If you didn't... yikes.

Unfortunately PS4 (although at least they are running a PS4 Pro).

They estimate February, but honestly I'm thinking it'll be never.

The sad simple truth is that this game was never designed with current gen consoles in mind. It was always designed for PCs. When the now-current gen consoles were announced and specs got tossed around, CDPR realized they were basically mid-tier gaming PCs, so they would run the game fairly well.

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#429

Post by ivalm »

majormajor wrote: post #252
anonunivgrad wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any decent software employer in the US will have good insurance that basically guarantees your max out of pocket health expenses won’t exceed a few thousand dollars. That doesn’t really account for the difference.

Out of pocket maxes in the 10-20K range aren't that uncommon in the US. Even when I've seen places with plans where it's <5K, that's only for single workers, and it doubles with a partner or family.

And I’d rather have extra 100k and pay the 10k for health.

Re: CD Projekt Conference Call with the Management Board [pdf] (Dec 14)

#430

Post by Impossible »

pavlov wrote: post #7

This company has probably the shittiest gamified bonus system that I've ever heard of: "CDPR leaders would hand out tokens every month to staffers who went above and beyond, and those tokens were supposed to be transferrable into bonuses if the game met “certain criteria, like critical acclaim and a timely release,” according to the report." [1] Get paid in "crunch mode experience points" handed out by middle manager…

I worked for a game studio that did this. Tokens could be used for a raffle. It was kind of a silly thing though and wouldn't be considered compensation, there were normal bonuses and stock grants. It also (usually) wasn't tied to crunch. The tokens were handed out by peers
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