CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand • Hacker News Board

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#191

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 3:14 PM UTC

bmn__ wrote: post #179

dirkc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read up on Jonathan Blow [1], sounds like you might like his philosophy. The short of it is that he believes time is valuable and should be respected. I also love Braid, a game he made. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow#Philosophy_and_v...

> he believes time is valuable and should be respected That's what he says , but not what he does . https://youtu.be/KZokQov_aH0 Haven't experienced a bigger author disconnect in gaming in the decade.

I'm not going to watch a 40 minute video to try and work out what your argument is.

You could have at least picked out some particular puzzles like the backwards-moving-cloud puzzle piece in Braid or the Eclipse Film puzzle in The Witness. Those are tiny optional side-puzzles to games which otherwise very much do not waste your time. My interpretation is they are Jon's way of critiquing completionism.

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#192

Post by scott_w » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

adnzzzzZ wrote: post #150

TeMPOraL wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I disagree with your take. I've played a lot of videogames in my life, plenty of them feeling "more dumb and low brow". For instance, as a kid, I've spent some ridiculous amount of hours playing Unreal Tournament (and to the lesser degree, Quake 3 Arena) - some of it with friends in an Internet cafe, but a lot in single-player mode too. I'd consider these two games to be pretty addictive for their time. But they…

Well, I still disagree. I've also played lots of games in my life so I also think I know what I'm talking about. You view roguelikes and roguelites as positively addicting because of your personality and the fact that those games test for the traits you care about, not because they're objectively better than other games that focus on another trait. You probably don't view MMORPGs where the entire point of the game is…

MMORPGs are only seen as an issue to the degree they cause harm. It’s nothing to do with being “low brow” but entirely down to the subscription model. Keep the customer logging in to keep the subscription revenue rolling.

If this is done by being fun and enjoyable, and the developer doesn’t cross the line into preying on addictive behaviour, no problem.

If the developer implements mechanics that are designed to “hook” the player to the detriment of the enjoyment and their health, then we have a problem.

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#193

Post by Melting_Harps » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

ehnto wrote: post #166

Netcob wrote: post #52

Reading the replies there tells me I did the right thing when I decided against a career in game development over a decade ago. It looks like a constant war between developers and gamers now. Developers are investing a lot of time into making their games literally addictive in the worst way possible, and not even remotely by making it fun - it's all about overpriced DLC, gambling and weird reward systems. Which has r…

Gamers are the most toxic community I have ever encountered. Nothing but parroted vitriol and entitlement. I don't even look online anymore, I just play the games and make my own opinions.

> Gamers are the most toxic community I have ever encountered. Nothing but parroted vitriol and entitlement. I don't even look online anymore, I just play the games and make my own opinions.

Sadly, this is kind of the one part that I blame CDprojectRed for even though I think they delivered an awesome product, albeit super buggy and limited one; they built the hype up so much and pushed the narrative of an immersive in depth World on e day 1 with tons of layers in the storyline and took years to develop. Had they just been honest to pre-buyers and say,'listen, please understand we wanted all these features on launch, but they're just not on day 1, so this will be released as a beta with limited features and bug fixes to come. If anyone wants a full refund we will accommodate it.' Which they eventually were forced to do for physical copies, and then gave Sony a black eye by forcing them to issue refunds from the PS+ store etc..

The Watchdogs team did that, and they also delayed their launch date to October despite it being Q1 2020 with almost no backlash because they were open about it and the price of the digital version then physical copies reflected that set of circumstances, the media didn't even bother commenting on it either despite Online play not being available to this day.

Also, this shows just how sad most gamers lives really are, between paying twitch players and spending every waking hour either playing or commenting on video games on social media one can easily see they don't have much or any real social life.

It's actually really sad, and makes me think about that part of the anime 'Welcome to the NHK' about NEETism and the prevalence of dropping out of Society and creating your own virtual existence Online to fill the void.

It's sad because I was also a gamer up until Sophomore year of university when I just got way too busy going FT and Summer classes and running a business, preparing/repairing my car and going to and training for real motorsports events/weekends and being in even casual relationships--there was simply no time to put in the 5+ hours on Gran Tursimo to refine my lines at Fuji, Suzuka, Laguna Seca or the Nordschleife like I could when I was in HS.

Sadly, for me Nismo's GT academy would later prove it to be a proper outlet and use of my time had I continued as they picked drivers for their lineup in GT racing series from the challenges Online, but by then the eventual financial crash of 2008 crisis was already setting things into motion (early 2007ish) so I couldn't be bothered and I needed to graduate ASAP.

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#194

Post by seanwilson » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 3:40 PM UTC

adnzzzzZ wrote: post #139

seanwilson wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a better word to use than "addictive" to describe the brainy one over the unethical one?

If there is one it shouldn't be used. Both types of games are addicting in fundamentally the same way. The only thing that differs is the main trait which each game is using as its primary host. The "unethical" type of game is as unethical as the other, which means they're either both very unethical or both very not unethical, depending on how you want to look at it.

Addictive for games can just be shorthand for "you want to play it again and again". I don't see anything wrong with it when there isn't a more appropriate shorthand to use, except when used with games that are designed to make you pay more and more to play.

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#195

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

flohofwoe wrote: post #50

bspammer wrote: post #22

I know it’s unethical, but I’m kinda excited for the source release. When was the last time we saw the source for a AAA game?

You'll probably be quite disappointed, because it's most likely the same mess as any other multi-million-line codebase ;) IMHO frame rendering analyses like this: http://www.adriancourreges.com/projects/ ...or working through GDC presentations, blog posts and whitepapers from those companies is more helpful to understand their technology. (edit: better link)

[deleted]

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#196

Post by Melting_Harps » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

torgian wrote: post #101

Sucks. I liked cyberpunk, if only because of the story. I like games with decent - excellent stories. Sure, I wish cyberpunk could’ve been even better but it was enjoyable. It’s hard to find games with good stories and lore nowadays, I think.

> I liked cyberpunk, if only because of the story. I like games with decent - excellent stories. Sure, I wish cyberpunk could’ve been even better but it was enjoyable.

Same, I'm glad I opted out of the pre-buy despite having looked forward to the game for the better part of a decade now, I'm a massive fan of genre and heard about it early on and fan boyed about the art renders from back in the day despite having given up on gaming years before.

But, I stopped watching the youtube videos after a few missions and now I'm waiting until they get things sorted and the features they promised as well as some others that will only be possible for Online play--there was talk about it including space exploration as the launch site is not currently accessible but looks likely to be as things develop with time.

Anyhow, I'm just glad they didn't use Bitcoin ransomware, and I hope they got their backup/image settings on before this hack.

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#197

Post by Melting_Harps » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

dvdkon wrote: post #47

bspammer wrote: post #22

I know it’s unethical, but I’m kinda excited for the source release. When was the last time we saw the source for a AAA game?

The source code for Watch Dogs: Legion leaked just a few months back.

> The source code for Watch Dogs: Legion leaked just a few months back.

Watch Dogs will forever be in Cyberpunks shadow, literately everything that has happened with Cyberpunk has happened to Legion with no one, including those that bought and played the game (myself included, though I didn't buy it and actually got paid to play it), cares about it and just goes on about their life.

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#198

Post by detaro » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

PurpleFoxy wrote: post #60

themacguffinman wrote: post #42

Do companies ever give into straightforward extortion like this? It doesn't seem like it would ever make sense for a company to pay the ransom. Do hackers like these have some kind of smart play that I'm missing?

Usually they are betting on the company not having any backups in which case they usually do pay the ransom to restore their data.

Nowadays it's usually also a threat to publish company secrets if they don't pay. You can restore your system from backup, but you can't unsteal data with a backup.

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#199

Post by detaro » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 4:01 PM UTC

mm983 wrote: post #167

i'm really sorry for the devs. imaging spending a few years on developing an engine and game, just for all your competitors to get it for free

What would competitors do with it? Touching it is a massive legal risk, and most of the work in a game is in things they can't use.

Re: CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

#200

Post by User23 » Tue, Feb 09, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

me_me_me wrote: post #187

bathtub365 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They absolutely support their practices by doing business with them. Not only did they list their game for sale on their store, they took their money (earned via those business practices) to give them the exclusive right to sell the game on their store for a period of time. This has the goal of driving even more customers to Epic. They don’t do these deals out of benevolence.

Have you bought a Nestle product? Is so you support child slavery. By your logic: > You absolutely support their practices by doing business with them. Life is not black and white.

> Have you bought a Nestle product? Is so you support child slavery.

If Nestle is engaging in child slavery and you buy their products then yes you obviously are supporting child slavery through indirect material cooperation. Behaving morally isn't easy, which is why it's so rare.