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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)

#471

Post by trymas »

kkarpkkarp wrote: post #446
trymas wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> under labour law you take home €5.7k per month - running a company you take home €7k per month I dunno about Poland, but where I live this type of employment has some caveats: - You need save for your time off (holidays) yourself. - You save on social security taxes, but it means your salary is not compensated by it when you are ill (or your kids are ill and you need to take care of them), thus you need to save for…

> Also it may be illegal, i.e. if you are employed like a full time employee - you cannot work as an independent consultant/contractor. Though AFAIK this definition of "like a full time employee" is not very strict. Polish here. It is like you described but a) not many people know about this (sometimes I surprise some guys telling them their employment form - independent contractor for one company where you are actua…

> b) I've never heard of someone being caught practicing this

Yup. Me too.

It's not as bad with design/IT agencies anymore, but I know that lawyer agencies are still notorious for this. Big-ish lawyer agencies with dozens of lawyers have no employees, everyone is a "partner" (or whatever the term is).

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

#472

Post by freeflight »

esyir wrote: post #435
freeflight wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'd say that it feels like someone in the media has an axe to grind here. CDPR's policies seem like above average for the admittedly dismal field of game development, but they're drawing particular flack, especially when other companies with worse treatment conditions (naughty dog) instead get lionized.

> I'd say that it feels like someone in the media has an axe to grind here.

Most definitely when looking at some of the not so technical complaints, like about "representation" or how the studio is allegedly all kinds of phobic and the general tone not being PC enough.

Particularly cynical to complain about the commodification of trans-people, in a setting where even peoples memories and individual body-party are just another commodity. When that's very big part of that dystopian worlds settings, always has been, and not some specific dig against trans people.

Makes me wonder how much of that is simply a pile-on effect from the general situation in Poland with LGTBQ+ issues and CDPR getting drawn into that as some kind of scapegoat.

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

#473

Post by drops »

mike_d wrote: post #349
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not seeing the issues because you're not playing the affected versions. Notice how all of the positive anecdotes are coming from PC players? IGN went so far as to split their Cyberpunk 2077 review into two separate reviews: One for consoles, and one for PC. Quote from the console review: > The Xbox One/PS4 version is nearly unrecognizable compared to the PC version. The PC version scored 9/10 and the console v…

> The PC version scored 9/10 and the console version scored 4/10. CD Projekt games historically have been PC with console ports after launch. They probably would have done the same here if not being pushed to be a launch title for "next gen" consoles. I think Sony/Microsoft are just as much to blame. They also had to QA the game and sign off on it.

As someone working in the game industry and had to deal with the MS and Sony, I’ve experienced myself how strict they can be when it comes to QA, especially in things related to stability and performance. For a less hyped-up project, a single crash during a walkthrough (or an FPS dipping too low) could result in the game not being able to get released on an affected platform until it was fixed.

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

#474

Post by gambiting »

kkarpkkarp wrote: post #446
trymas wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> under labour law you take home €5.7k per month - running a company you take home €7k per month I dunno about Poland, but where I live this type of employment has some caveats: - You need save for your time off (holidays) yourself. - You save on social security taxes, but it means your salary is not compensated by it when you are ill (or your kids are ill and you need to take care of them), thus you need to save for…

> Also it may be illegal, i.e. if you are employed like a full time employee - you cannot work as an independent consultant/contractor. Though AFAIK this definition of "like a full time employee" is not very strict. Polish here. It is like you described but a) not many people know about this (sometimes I surprise some guys telling them their employment form - independent contractor for one company where you are actua…

I'm also Polish, I know quite a few people in IT who used to do exactly that, but this year they all had to stop or figure out some workarounds, because the Polish tax office has started asking for proof that their company is actually working with more than one client. If they only have a single client in a year then they have to convert to full time employment. So yes, people are absolutely getting caught by this.

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

#475

Post by jwiley »

willis936 wrote: post #285
jwiley wrote: post #178

CD Project forced their employees to crunch to get a game out, missed deadlines, and shipped a game that is buggy on some definition of last-gen hardware. Assuming all that is true: how is this news? This essentially describes every ambitious, genre defining game for the last 35 years. As someone who tearfully tried to play Doom on a 286, I have some sympathy but the level of outrage is hard for me to understand. In…

> This essentially describes every ambitious, genre defining game for the last 35 years. This is news because the quoted statement is false. In fact, the opposite is true. Every genre defining game of the past 35 years has had a genre defining gold print. CP2077 is a dumpster fire. It will never be considered a great because of its launch.

I assume you’ve actually played the game on a console, and experienced game breaking bugs? Or maybe you subjectively consider the quality to not match your well thought out expectations previous to purchasing it? Can you please expand on your personal experiences with the game that led you to the dumpster fire conclusion?

I’m also curious about your statement that every genre defining game has had a genre defining gold print. Can you point to one or more similar games that launched flawlessly across all platforms, on time, without negative reviews?

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

#476

Post by oliwarner »

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…

That seems far more like being paid for the windfall of hard work than most (eg) executive bonus schemes, where you're disproportionately rewarded for the work of others.

But no, they should absolutely also pay overtime.

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

#477

Post by djeiasbsbo »

_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…

My assumption is that all of this doesn't matter when the share holders and investors pressure the company... it's not an easy to decision whether to delay the product again, especially when there is already a negative public reaction to the multiple delays.

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

#478

Post by gambiting »

to11mtm wrote: post #319
illuminati1911 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not familiar with Polish labour law, but it could be that in Poland like in many other European countries concepts such as "denying overtime" are inherently illegal.

> I'm not familiar with Polish labour law, but it could be that in Poland like in many other European countries concepts such as "denying overtime" are inherently illegal. Which explains why so many Ubisoft games are made in Canada...

No, the reason why so many Ubisoft games are made in Canada(and other studios as well, take a walk around central montreal, there's tonnes of games studios there) is that the Canadian government is giving out massive subsidies to the game industry to grow it there(last I've heard it's literally half of every salary - an absolutely ridiculous amount of money). If you compare the cost of having an employee in Canada to most other places, Canada works out pretty cheap, and it's an attractive place to move to and live in, without the ridiculousness of the American immigration.

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

#479

Post by Kiro »

friendlybus wrote: post #463
Kiro wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying No Man's Sky is a bad game? It's the greatest comeback the gaming world has ever seen. I've clocked hundreds of hours by now. Absolutely amazing game.

When it came out it was a pointless and mostly buggy grind-a-thon. Some played it to 'chill out and relax' and could have argued the $/hr was a positive ratio when 99.95% of people did not share that experience. I haven't played it since launch, it made for a good internet historian video!

Ah, I misunderstood. Sorry!

I agree. I played it a few hours on launch at a friend's place and it was completely underwhelming.

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

#480

Post by dclowd9901 »

climb_stealth wrote: post #468
blub wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm playing on a PS4 slim and the game is fine, I really don't understand all the negativity (v 1.0.4). I had 2-3 crashes and saw some bugs like objects hanging in the air or the weapon not being visible. Performance is fine. Bought the game a couple of days after launch and after reading the reports about horrible performance while downloading, I disabled everything under graphics, but then after a crash it reset it…

I find it interesting but maybe not entirely surprising that games can actually crash on consoles. It still surprises me when it happens on my Nintendo Switch. Though my last console experience before that was on a Nintendo 64 and I don't think any game ever crashed on it.

I’m kind of dumbstruck you brought up the switch. I have never — and I am not exaggerating — never had a game freeze on me on a Nintendo system, save for a busted ass cart on a 30 year old NES.

Especially lately, I feel as though Nintendo is the only brand who actually cares to provide that “just works” console experience.

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