Trend is to 'over-exploit' gamers, says Witcher dev - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Continually asking for money from gamers will drive publishers into the ground, claims The Witcher studio CD Projekt Red cofounder and joint CEO Marcin Iwinski. Speaking to Gamasutra in an extended interview, the executive explained publishers run the risk of losing business if current trends continue. "Sadly, I see the industry trending toward over-exploiting the gamer," he said. "And I think this will come back to the publishers that are doing that, and eventually, people will stop buying their stuff." Elsewhere in the interview, Iwinski opened up on its relationship with Atari, the company that handled publishing duties for the original PC-exclusive Witcher. "When we had that publishing deal, we went to the publisher, and said, 'So we have this idea where we make all this stuff, all this new content, and you don't pay anything for it, we give it away for free. How about that?' The publisher went all big-eyed and said, 'Whoa! Let's charge 10 dollars! 10 Euro!' But we believed that we would sell more units if we put it out for free." Iwinski turned out to be correct. He said releasing free DLC for the game created good will for CD Projekt Red and in turn led to a surge in sales for The Witcher 1's Enhanced Edition.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.gamespot.com/news/trend-is-to-over-exploit-gamers-says-witcher-dev-6387468[/url]

I'm not very familiar with them, but CD Projekt Red seem like really awesome guys from what I've seen. And they're making the Cyberpunk RPG so that all I need to love them.

Why does EA come to mind immediately after reading this?

[QUOTE=lemonskunk;36832615]Why does EA come to mind immediately after reading this?[/QUOTE]Because this flies in the face of EA's standard practices. The only time they want to release anything free is when they have to go in to damage control such as with Mass Effect 3.

The amount of tiny DLC addons for games nowadays is ridiculous. I am not buying a fucking giant dildo car decoration for $0.99. I would happily buy a pack of car decorations, new cars and campaign content for $10.00. By which I mean to say, if I'm going to buy DLC, I want it to be a fucking expansion pack and not useless shit that should already be in the game.

[QUOTE=lemonskunk;36832615]Why does EA come to mind immediately after reading this?[/QUOTE] Because the words "Exploit" and "gamers" were in the title.

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;36832648]Because this flies in the face of EA's standard practices. The only time they want to release anything free is when they have to go in to damage control such as with Mass Effect 3.[/QUOTE] >ignores the countless maps released completely for free dumbs, why? What I said is completely true and makes Bioware more respectable, in the way of DLC map packs than Activision and the rest of EA

Over-exploitation does kinda seem like an issue nowadays, though not only for gamers; I recall Activision didn't exactly treat its guys right at some point, probably before the Infinity Ward scandal. Stuff like overcharging for map-packs and monetising pay-to-win stuff ain't kosher; if it's gonna be microtransaction-based, make sure the transactions are actually "micro" and don't give other players an advantage. Dunno about boosts though; pay-to-get-stuff-faster is still different from pay-to-win, though it has a similar vibe of advantage-buying. But one thing I do know is this; map-packs can split a playerbase, which can be disastrous for games with a smaller population, and even big playerbases can suffer a little from division of the community. It also don't hurt to put products on sale neither. I mean, just goggle your googlers at the current Steam Sale; so many games getting sold, bringing in big bucks for those who put their games on sale. I'm not saying don't treat gaming like a business; all businesses need money, *insert deserving and esteemed game developer here* gotta eat, after all. What i'm saying is don't be too brutal and exploitative with your customers; I wouldn't stand for some skinny punk spitting in my onion rings, nor would I tolerate some little shit following me around with a tuba and only going away when I throw money at him. It's best to stay "human" and honest, rather than mutate into a machine or tolerate the publisher holding a gun at your head. Maintain a balance between treating your endeavours like a business AND an art form, and don't be too stubborn in regards to making changes, though make sure to stay firm in certain areas like a tactically-fortified banana.

[QUOTE=Clementine;36832852]>ignores the countless maps released completely for free[/QUOTE] You mean re-used assets?

I find that hard to believe because this stuff only got worse once the recession hit and somehow this luxury industry is rolling along just fine. Somehow consumers are stingy with everything except shitty overpriced game content.

Not like this is news, but it's good fairly mainstream developers are criticizing the behavior

[QUOTE=SpartanXC9;36832880]You mean re-used assets?[/QUOTE] So? They are still new maps released completely for free. Jesus christ so fucking stupid that idiots still fucking complain about shit even though its completely free and adds just plain MORE to the game, they even changed the ending for whiny bitches, and they did it for free, but people are still cunts. [editline]18th July 2012[/editline] Also holy shit, when Activision releases reused assets for actual money, people get up in arms, but when someone releases it for free...people still get mad? Fuck off, damn.

[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;36832904]I find that hard to believe because this stuff only got worse once the recession hit and somehow this luxury industry is rolling along just fine. Somehow consumers are stingy with everything except shitty overpriced game content.[/QUOTE] It's because it used to be that only "geeks" played videos games but now everybody does it, so all these new gamers don't have the foresight to be able to tell that they are being fucking ripped off. They just go out to the local walmart and fork out 60 bucks for the next installment of X milked franchise and spend an easy 50 bucks on dlcs. [editline]19th July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Clementine;36832852]>ignores the countless maps released completely for free dumbs, why? What I said is completely true and makes Bioware more respectable, in the way of DLC map packs than Activision and the rest of EA[/QUOTE] I didn't bother buying into ME3 because ME2 was a bit disappointing, but from what I gather that content was more damage control than anything.

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;36832569]I'm not very familiar with them, but CD Projekt Red seem like really awesome guys from what I've seen. And they're making the Cyberpunk RPG so that all I need to love them.[/QUOTE] I can't imagine a better thing. Rpg made by CD Projekt Red is incredible alone, but I'm sure they will nail the cyberpunk atmosphere

[QUOTE=Lick;36833005]I can't imagine a better thing. Rpg made by CD Projekt Red is incredible alone, but I'm sure they will nail the cyberpunk atmosphere[/QUOTE]Considering Mike Pondsmith, who created the original Cyberpunk tabletop game, is working with them on it, yeah I have no doubt in my mind.

They couldn't be any more right. Go CD Projekt.

[QUOTE=lemonskunk;36832615]Why does EA come to mind immediately after reading this?[/QUOTE] Somehow THQ came to mind, with Saints row 3.

[QUOTE=Black;36833067]Somehow THQ came to mind, with Saints row 3.[/QUOTE] That's somewhat excusable. THQ is in the shitter and need to leech any and all potential cash as possible. May not be forgivable, but it's totally understandable.

polskaaaa

[QUOTE=redBadger;36833101]That's somewhat excusable. THQ is in the shitter and need to leech any and all potential cash as possible. May not be forgivable, but it's totally understandable.[/QUOTE] Even so, their DLC isn't 15 bucks a pop.

[QUOTE=DireAvenger;36832658]The amount of tiny DLC addons for games nowadays is ridiculous. I am not buying a fucking giant dildo car decoration for $0.99. I would happily buy a pack of car decorations, new cars and campaign content for $10.00. By which I mean to say, if I'm going to buy DLC, I want it to be a fucking expansion pack and not useless shit that should already be in the game.[/QUOTE] If you think that's much then you obviously haven't heard [url=http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?page=shop.cart&func=cartAdd&product_id=301&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26]battlefront's idea of patching a game[/url]

[QUOTE=DireAvenger;36832658]The amount of tiny DLC addons for games nowadays is ridiculous. I am not buying a fucking giant dildo car decoration for $0.99. I would happily buy a pack of car decorations, new cars and campaign content for $10.00. By which I mean to say, if I'm going to buy DLC, I want it to be a fucking expansion pack and not useless shit that should already be in the game.[/QUOTE] This annoys me too. Take Total War for example. I love the Total War games, especially Empire and Medieval 2, but E:TW has 5 or 6 little DLCs for extra units. You can literally make a new unit for E:TW with ZERO modding experience in 5 minutes

[QUOTE=DireAvenger;36832658]The amount of tiny DLC addons for games nowadays is ridiculous. I am not buying a fucking giant dildo car decoration for $0.99. I would happily buy a pack of car decorations, new cars and campaign content for $10.00. By which I mean to say, if I'm going to buy DLC, I want it to be a fucking expansion pack and not useless shit that should already be in the game.[/QUOTE] Saints Row the Third is the perfect fucking example of this it's so damned annoying

Haha, even Runescape - Jagex is doing this stuff now.. Gaming is definitely dying.

Virtually everyone is doing it these days. Valve and the hat stores, ActivisionBlizzard and the DiabloIII real money auction house, EA and Battlefield3's premium service. Etc etc etc.

What happened to giant expansion packs? They just disappeared out of nowhere.

[QUOTE=Bumrang;36835462]What happened to giant expansion packs? They just disappeared out of nowhere.[/QUOTE] I think the last games to get actual "expansion packs" in the current console generation were all games by Bethesda.

[QUOTE=RichyZ;36835473]expansion packs are basically dlc of olden times remember sims 2 stuff packs and shit? seriously, go to walmart and tell me that shit isn't criminal[/QUOTE] Yeah but now DLC is for tiny useless shit, I'm talking about giant expansion packs that were pretty much a whole new game, like this one: [t]http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/5327/222041-soaked__large.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=rinoaff33;36835471]I think the last games to get actual "expansion packs" in the current console generation were all games by Bethesda.[/QUOTE] Borderlands 1 had some great DLC and it lasted for quite a while. Especially the General Knoxx DLC. They raised the cap level from 50 to 61, had 44 new missions, new enemies, NPC's, two new vehicles and loads of new weapons. It was worth it.

A shame only a few companies make DLC's still right. For example, Rockstargames or Bethesda.