CD Projekt RED - Won't Sent Letters to Game Pirates Anymore Interview @ PC Gamer

aries100

SasqWatch
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
2,147
Location
Denmark, Europe
PC Gamer has an interview with Agniezska Szostak, PR Specialist at CD Project RED. In it, she discusses why they sent letter to people who pirated Witcher 2. Here's a snip:
“Yeah, it was going on,” said Szóstak. “It was all about sending letters to people who we knew pirated [The Witcher 2], and say, ‘Hey, we know you have the pirated version of the game, and it would be nice if you could actually pay for it if you find the game good enough.’ “Although, once we started doing that, we got lots of feedback from the community—from gamers, and not even pirates, but actually legal gamers with a legal version of the game, saying, ‘You know what, guys? That’s not entirely right to do that.’ And they were like, ‘You’re saying that DRM is not such a great thing, and you try to give your games without it, but on the other hand, you’re doing something like that?
Here's another snip:
“I mean, we really do believe that it’s better to deliver high quality content and support gamers on several different levels. So, either releasing modding tools, or giving DLC for free, or doing huge updates which are like 10 gigs and give them out free. Instead of doing DRM, because that’s, frankly speaking, a pain in the ass for the users.”
More information.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,147
Location
Denmark, Europe
Amazing that anyone would complain about them sending letters to known pirates.
 
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
4,354
Location
Austin, TX
Pretty sure the outrage was less about them "asking" pirates for money and more about them sending out legal threats based on nothing more then ip adresses.
I could be wrong tho as it was a while ago and i am too lazy to look it up.
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2010
Messages
213
Wow, I didn't know this. I have no respect for their actions. This is really immature from their side, it leaves me the impression of weak whiny men that are frustrated beyond belief

PS: I'm glad I never bought a game from them.. I valued them at 15$ anyway.
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2008
Messages
1,169
Location
Ro
Pretty sure the outrage was less about them "asking" pirates for money and more about them sending out legal threats based on nothing more then ip adresses.
I could be wrong tho as it was a while ago and i am too lazy to look it up.

I vaguely remember that, and I was and am quite in favor of this approach. Game is DRM free and you still pirate? —> Asshole. Kick 'em hard, I say. But apparently people like Borcanu and many others think the Pirates are the good guys in this? Oh well.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,508
This is a great example of why I sometimes feel embarrased being part of the 'gaming community.'

It is so easy to sit around and spew off an opinion and even easier when you don't even have a 'horse in the race.'

For God's sake, what is wrong with them sending out a letter? If they ran a retail store filled with copies of Witcher 2 should they just stand there smiling as people walk in, take a copy of Witcher 2, and walk out without paying?

I wonder which gamer in the world who would spend their hard earned money while putting in years of their lives into making something they can sell who would then stand by and let anyone just steal it. The answer is zero.

But when you're a Monday morning quarterback with no horse in the game, it's easy to say stupid things. Foolish.

I really appreciate CDProjekt's stance on DRM Free titles. It is a big reason why I purchased both Witcher games (and their enhanced versions as well) even when their style of RPG is not really my cup of tea - I want to support them and maybe somewhere down the line they'll make a game more to my liking.

But I'd also have to say that I think they've gone overboard listening to the 'gaming community' and changing their policy to NOT confront known pirates due to the indignance of legitmate purchasers was a mistake - imho.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
Pretty sure the outrage was less about them "asking" pirates for money and more about them sending out legal threats based on nothing more then ip adresses.
I could be wrong tho as it was a while ago and i am too lazy to look it up.
They basically asked pirates to buy the game if they find it good enough. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't sound like a legal threat or anything that might bother or offend someone in any way. It sounds like one of those " we are super nice and understanding " CDPR policies, nothing more.
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Messages
210
Location
Iran
For the record, I own both games too and will purchase cyberpunk 2077. I'm a great fan of CDProjekt.
I just don't see the efficacy in this measure. It's not like the pirates will read the letter and contemplate whether they should buy or not. If they wanted to buy, they would already have.
What I think is smarter is the examples of games like Mother for nintendo or Batman: Arkham Asylum.
In Mother, right after beginning of the pirated copy there was a vague message like "Pirating games is a crime.. don't condone this kind of action."; then the entire game was normal but it would crash just before the final, climatic battle...
In Batman, the pirated copies had several gamebreaking, strategic points placed. For example, there was an area (batcave) in which you just couldn't get out via your grapple hook so they forced you stuck no matter what you did. As far as the dumb pirate knew, that was a glitch but in fact the retail copy was perfect.
If, by cheating, you somehow managed to get past that area (which was pretty much impossible) they implemented similar bugs like endless precipices, gliding not working etc in other places as well.

I found the solution extremely smart and interesting.
 
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
452
Location
Nosgoth
Wow, I didn't know this. I have no respect for their actions. This is really immature from their side, it leaves me the impression of weak whiny men that are frustrated beyond belief

PS: I'm glad I never bought a game from them.. I valued them at 15$ anyway.

I say this with a touch of Watch camaraderie, but take it down a notch
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
695
Location
Barva, Costa Rica
I vaguely remember that, and I was and am quite in favor of this approach. Game is DRM free and you still pirate? —> Asshole. Kick 'em hard, I say. But apparently people like Borcanu and many others think the Pirates are the good guys in this? Oh well.

Dont think anyone was defending pirating.
Did a little digging and when this started they claimed to have a 100% accurate way of tracking pirates but refused to say anything indepth about it.
I am assuming it was abit more involved then simply tracking easily forged ip adresses.
When Davenport Lyons took this same action with similar claims in 2008, they accused many innocent people of piracy by sending threatening letters. I am extremely sceptical of any supposed new method to track alleged pirates with 100% accuracy, and without knowing more about those methods or even the name of the company that developed them, it’s hard to know where to stand on CD Project RED doing the same thing.
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2010
Messages
213
I recall when this first hit the news and I also recall that it wasn't a nicely worded letter asking pirates to pretty please pay up, but rather a nasty legal document demanding that they pay something like €911.80. Why €911.80? Because.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/15/cd-projekt-threatening-alleged-pirates/

Not to mention how many innocent people get targeted by these sort of fiascoes.

But now CDP downplays it and tries to pretend they were all sweet and nice. What a bunch of hypocrites.
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2009
Messages
354
In Mother, right after beginning of the pirated copy there was a vague message like "Pirating games is a crime.. don't condone this kind of action."; then the entire game was normal but it would crash just before the final, climatic battle…
In Batman, the pirated copies had several gamebreaking, strategic points placed. For example, there was an area (batcave) in which you just couldn't get out via your grapple hook so they forced you stuck no matter what you did. As far as the dumb pirate knew, that was a glitch but in fact the retail copy was perfect.
If, by cheating, you somehow managed to get past that area (which was pretty much impossible) they implemented similar bugs like endless precipices, gliding not working etc in other places as well.

I found the solution extremely smart and interesting.
I read an interview with a game developer, I think it was about Titan Quest, where they also introduced this kind of anti-pirate game breaking points. Unfortunately, according to him, it backfired as many people started complaining on the internet about severe bugs giving the game bad publicity.

Wow, I didn't know this. I have no respect for their actions. This is really immature from their side, it leaves me the impression of weak whiny men that are frustrated beyond belief
Yeah, the undeniable level of maturity that you tend to show in all of your posts makes you appear to be a highly respectable individual worthy of becoming a role model that could teach CDPR a lesson or two in human behaviour.
 
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
613
Location
Madrid, Spain
Personally, if I could track down people that stole from me, I'd key the everloving crap outta their car(s), kidnap their pets, harass any children they might have, and cover their property in garbage. Then I'd call the police and tell them these home owners need to tend to their lawn!! You don't rationalize with criminals, you deal in terms that they'll recognize. What kinda fool in clown shoes would send them letters, lol. Not even harsh letters at that!!



-Carn
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,890
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
"Sending letters to pirates" is not the same thing as "grey-area legal monetary shakedown of children and the elderly"

What a bullshit way to present this article. These people were doing something SERIOUSLY wrong.

These guys are scum. GOG steals cracks from the warez scene rather than do their own work and CD Projekts games are misogynistic garbage. Their crooked mistreatment of "piracy" was really just the icing on the turd cake of these guys.
 
Joined
Sep 28, 2009
Messages
837
Personally, if I could track down people that stole from me, I'd key the everloving crap outta their car(s), kidnap their pets, harass any children they might have, and cover their property in garbage. Then I'd call the police and tell them these home owners need to tend to their lawn!! You don't rationalize with criminals, you deal in terms that they'll recognize. What kinda fool in clown shoes would send them letters, lol. Not even harsh letters at that!!



-Carn

You'd go after someones kids? You should be in fucking jail, sociopath
 
Joined
Sep 28, 2009
Messages
837
For the record, I own both games too and will purchase cyberpunk 2077. I'm a great fan of CDProjekt.
I just don't see the efficacy in this measure. It's not like the pirates will read the letter and contemplate whether they should buy or not. If they wanted to buy, they would already have.
What I think is smarter is the examples of games like Mother for nintendo or Batman: Arkham Asylum.
In Mother, right after beginning of the pirated copy there was a vague message like "Pirating games is a crime.. don't condone this kind of action."; then the entire game was normal but it would crash just before the final, climatic battle…
In Batman, the pirated copies had several gamebreaking, strategic points placed. For example, there was an area (batcave) in which you just couldn't get out via your grapple hook so they forced you stuck no matter what you did. As far as the dumb pirate knew, that was a glitch but in fact the retail copy was perfect.
If, by cheating, you somehow managed to get past that area (which was pretty much impossible) they implemented similar bugs like endless precipices, gliding not working etc in other places as well.

I found the solution extremely smart and interesting.

The problem with that approach is that the dumb pirate then goes online bashing the game for glitches and bugs and legitimate buyers think the game is a POS. That was one of the problems Titan Quest had. I remember one of the developers posting a rant about how pissed he was at the bad reviews people were putting up that were all based on intentional bugs to screw with the pirates. There was no indication that the bug was due to piracy and not poor programming. It was a DRM scheme that came back to bite them in the ass.

*edit - just saw Asdraguuhl said the same thing.
 
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
4,354
Location
Austin, TX
These guys are scum. GOG steals cracks from the warez scene rather than do their own work and CD Projekts games are misogynistic garbage. Their crooked mistreatment of "piracy" was really just the icing on the turd cake of these guys.

How can you steal something that is given away freely?
 
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
4,354
Location
Austin, TX
Harass their children by telling them that they've got thieves for parents. If that makes me a sociopath, I'll live with it, what I won't live with or tolerate are thieves. F'n parasites.


-Carn
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,890
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
Harass their children by telling them that they've got thieves for parents. If that makes me a sociopath, I'll live with it, what I won't live with or tolerate are thieves. F'n parasites.


-Carn

Going after someone's kids, even just to tell them their parents are thieves, is pretty much as low as you can get. If someone did that to my daughter, the police would likely have trouble putting their body back together. You don't mess with a person's children. Even the mob knows that.
 
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
4,354
Location
Austin, TX
Back
Top Bottom