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CDPR dev declines responding to Vampire 2’s progressive stance, Discord mod “Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.”

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BAD

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Oct 25, 2017
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They'll know who I am once I post this here so I'll update you guys if they ban me from the server for sharing this exchange:

This exchange occurred in the Official CDPR CyberPunk 2077 Discord. Some of you may think it's whatever but I thought the way this topic slid by was disappointing. Does every dev need to make comments on their stances? No - But once asked directly? Should they be willing to take a stance? I think so.

Apolitical stances are a defense of the status quo and they're far more tiring than the small effort to be progressive.

Let's talk CD Projekt history-

We know they issued no apology and fired the guy who did the GoG transphobic joke, and it went down allegedly like this (https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...projekt-employee-and-the-spectre-of-gamergate):
On 22nd October, Polish game seller GOG - a part of CD Projekt - found itself in trouble again on Twitter. It had insensitively appropriated the trans civil rights hashtag WontBeErased. "Classic PC games #WontBeErased on our watch," it tweeted. "Yeah, how's that for some use of hashtags?"

GOG quickly deleted the tweet but not before the internet noticed, and a stink was kicked up. Not only was it a problem on its own, but it was the third problematic tweet in a handful of months from inside CD Projekt. Once is a mistake; three times?

A day after the #WontBeErased tweet, a response appeared, but it wasn't an apology. "Yesterday, we posted a tweet containing a trending hashtag as a pun," it said. "The tweet was neither intended as a malicious attack, nor as a comment to the ongoing social debate. GOG should focus only on games. We acknowledge that and we commit to it."

It didn't go down well, as Sean Halliday knew it wouldn't. The tweet had been his fault and he'd drafted his own apology as soon as the shitstorm had appeared. He's still got the draft, he tells me over Discord, and he shares it with me.

"A tweet was posted that included the hashtag 'WontBeErased'," it began. "The context of the hashtag was missed, which was a huge oversight on my behalf. After coming to understand the hashtag, and the importance of what it represents, the tweet was promptly deleted. Please allow me to apologise profusely for the offence the tweet caused. This was not the intention of the tweet by any means, nor was there any ill will intended.

"I empathise and strongly support LGBTQ folk from all walks of life. Video games are for everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexauilty, ability or religion. It's a mistake that has cost me an incredible amount. Everyone has the right to exist and live, it was a shameful mistake to make light of this. I will do better."

"All I can remember was the manager sat there and went, 'We're parting ways with you.'" -Sean Halliday

But Halliday wasn't allowed to use his tweet. He tried repeatedly but his manager said no. "We are not apologising for this," Halliday was apparently told, and his manager wrote the GOG response instead - minutes after he fired Halliday.
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That wasn't the only bad tweet from GoG - they also tweeted a GamerGate supporting meme.

And do recall, CyberPunk 2077's account tweeted a joke about trans issues as well - and we have no idea what the consequence was for them to correct it internally so that person may still be on the team unless we know otherwise for that account now (https://kotaku.com/cyberpunk-2077-tweets-transphobic-joke-studio-apologiz-1828502562):
"Sorry to all those offended by one of the responses sent out from our account earlier," a tweet on the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account said. "Harming anyone was never our intention."

CD Projekt Red did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

By itself, this is just a PR faux-pas, but this is not the first time a CD Projekt Red-related Twitter account has posted questionable content. Last July, the official Twitter account for GOG, the game storefront owned by CD Projekt, tweeted an animated GIF from Postal 2: Paradise Lost depicting the main character urinating on a tombstone marked Games Journalism. The date on the tombstone, August 28th, 2014, was a reference to GamerGate. The tweet was later deleted.
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Maybe we got off on the wrong foot 3 times, CD Projekt.

But then we get some 2018 CyberPunk 2077 info and there's troubling screenshots and depictions of minorities. They're from a womanizing street gang, they're a criminal technician in your ear, they're stereotypical convenience store owners and taxi drivers.

This screenshot has come up many times as stereotypical:
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So the discussion arises in their discord:

Anyway, first the comment posted there - then the dev response is in red, and the mods are the blue user and the purple user.
bWY24aH.jpg

bs8qzr4.jpg
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vestan

vestan

#REFANTAZIO SWEEP
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Dec 28, 2017
24,847
CDPR is and continues to be trash

That Discord response is weak.
 
Musubi

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
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23,908
Its not just their social media person that's garbage. But CDPR will get a pass from so many people for this because of Cyberpunk.
 
Doc Kelso

Doc Kelso

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Oct 25, 2017
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No_Style said:
How do they keep shooting themselves in the foot?
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It's shockingly easy when you've never had to deal with the consequences of saying something shitty. The thing is, this is one of those things that could be an unconscious bias; They just did what came to mind when they made the taxi driver. I can see how that'd sneak in without anyone really thinking twice. But it's also one of those things that you should go, "Oh shit, my bad. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll fix it." When it is pointed out. Such a simple thing to do but CDPR keeps suckin'.
 
Sign My Guestbook!

Sign My Guestbook!

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May 26, 2018
24,217
This just keeps happening, huh?

I guess that's their internal culture.

edit: Maybe... apparently this mod is unpaid, doesn't really work for CDPR
 
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Titik

Titik

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Oct 25, 2017
7,490
I will always bring this up in any and all CDPR threads. This is a company wide culture at this point.

If you buy thier games, you are supporting a company that gleefully profits off of the marginalization of oppressed minorities. Full stop.
 
Grexeno

Grexeno

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No_Style said:
How do they keep shooting themselves in the foot?
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CDPR is a Polish company. Poland is a country currently governed by a far-right basically fascist party. The type of party that is very popular with white men. White men are overrepresented in game companies.

I would say connect the dots but it's literally like two dots.
 
JCG

JCG

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Oct 25, 2017
2,553
It's not promising and calling attention to this is fair, but I don't think throwaway discord comments are going to give us an accurate representation of the game, for better or for worse. It does serve to show that the person who said this doesn't care as much about the harm inflicted by stereotypes as they probably should.
 
Lunaray

Lunaray

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Oct 27, 2017
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They really have foot-in-mouth syndrome. Even if they don't actually care about diversity and inclusion issues (like I suspect most game companies), it's really not that hard to offer corporate platitudes and not come across as trash every few months.
 
Rodjer

Rodjer

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That's a discord mod not a developer.
There are CDPR PR people in the discord, show them these screens and they will probably act
 

Deleted member 1185

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Titik said:
I will always bring this up in any and all CDPR threads. This is a company wide culture at this point.

If you buy thier games, you are supporting a company that gleefully profits off of the marginalization of oppressed minorities. Full stop.
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It sucks. Just the other day there was a thread about distribution plans for selling CP2077 and people were calling them things like "GOAT" and "the best"

I dont wanna police what people buy but we should not give these guys a pass. Call them on their shit until they fix it
 
OP
OP

BAD

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Oct 25, 2017
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JCG said:
It's not promising and calling attention to this is fair, but I don't think throwaway discord comments are going to give us an accurate representation of the game, for better or for worse. It does serve to show that the person who said this doesn't care as much about the harm inflicted by stereotypes as they probably should.
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Yes, certainly possibly the game itself may have good representation. But their PR is aiming for apolitical.
 
Zornack

Zornack

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Oct 29, 2017
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Thread title seems inaccurate. The dev didn't decline to comment on vamp 2's progressive stance.
 
Mik2121

Mik2121

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I'm a bit lost? So this person isn't even an employee of CDPR yet we are talking about them as the ones in charge of this?

And some people might want to be apolitical because of all the shit that giving an opinion online involves. You can't expect a company to give their stance just because you asked them, that's not how things work.
 
Atisha

Atisha

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Nov 28, 2017
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I'll remember that

You say CDPR and the first things that pop in my head are not gaming related.
 
Meg Cherry

Meg Cherry

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Oct 25, 2017
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I'm not entirely following the logic of people in this thread saying the Discord messages are indicative of CDPR company culture - when this seems to be a post made by a community mod, not a CDPR employee.

I think it's extremely likely that there's some questionable decisions being made at the company, but this seems like an odd example to point to as evidence of that. If anything, it proves that they've got an annoying fanbase with heavy alt-right overlap - which he kind of already knew about.
 
Khanimus

Khanimus

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Oct 25, 2017
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Mik2121 said:
I'm a bit lost? So this person isn't even an employee of CDPR yet we are talking about them as the ones in charge of this?

And some people might want to be apolitical because of all the shit that giving an opinion online involves. You can't expect a company to give their stance just because you asked them, that's not how things work.
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"We want to treat marginalized groups with respect, and fuck Nazis" shouldn't be a difficult thing to say.
 
BernardoOne

BernardoOne

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Oct 25, 2017
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tfw when you make a game called Cyberpunk but all you know about Cyberpunk is that there are neat neon lights on it
 
ckareset

ckareset

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I think you are reaching a bit trying to tie the mod to the company. Mods say dumb shit all the time even on here

Anyways, it's a wait and see. For all we know the cab drivers and store owners could be diverse
 
eonden

eonden

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Oct 25, 2017
17,161
Pure Yikes


Well, I guess Paradox Interactive is actually one of the most progressive Publishers despite publishing them Grand Strategy games. Who would have known.
 
Kongroo

Kongroo

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Oct 31, 2017
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Ottawa, Ontario, CA
I was expecting something more after reading the thread title. This is a whole lot of nothing. A random dev doesn't answer your question on discord.

I get why they were called out for the other stuff. This is just reaching imo.
 

rras1994

Member
Nov 4, 2017
5,757
Rodjer said:
The one in red said nothing wrong.
The last comment is problematic tho
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When someone asks a dev about their concern about being able to represent minorities appropriately, especially when said company has had issues with offensive statements and little representation in the past, the correct response is not just - "our game world is brutal".
 
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