CDPR Cyberpunked 2022

 Fair warning: This one has politics. Avoid if that's a problem.

Now I ain't by any means the sort of person you'll see jumping up to be some sort of fanboy paragon, launching myself in front of arrows, in order to shield my beloved Cyberpunk 2077. I think you really just need to click on the hyperlink at the bottom with 'Cyberpunk 2077' in it (I think it's at the bottom. 1000 blogs and I've never actually checked my own blog page.) and there for free consumption are all of my many blogs on the very topic of Cyberpunk 2077 ranging from before the release to far after. (Hint: all the positive blogs date from before the game arrived.) I'm no fan. In fact, I'm probably what many inside the Reddit cloister for this game would call 'a hater'. But far from the loaded connotation of baseless hatred for hatred's sake which that moniker implies, my feeling really stems from a burning desire to love that game which is why I'm always ready and eager to give it a second chance. I don't believe in blind grudges; which is why I find this new Cyberpunk review bombing situation so curious.

It's curious because Cyberpunk recently put out it's triumphant 1.5 update, which is likely to represent the largest leap forward in features that this game is capable of now that it's launched and out in the public. Some people think it nudges the game over the edge into being worth the asking price, I respectfully disagree, but at no point did I think this would coincide with a sharp decline in Cyberpunk's Steam rating. What, I thought, are people not satisfied with the miniscule updates and improvement that characterise the Patch, because surely that's not worth a lambasting. But I supposed in error, for this was actually not at all related to the patch, but rather to a very important current world event that I hesitate to name. Yes, that current world event, I usually try to keep the none pixelated world out of this blog but sometimes fate forces my hand.

As of right now, Cyberpunk is sitting at a Mixed rating on Steam, which is rather galling since Steam did once wax about actively cutting down on organised Review bomb attempts that didn't reflect legitimate criticism on the state of the game, but who goes to Steam expecting them to keep their word, I guess... And according to those reporting on this, the reason relates directly to (Sorry, I'm going to have to mention it and talk about it) the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Because CDPR, Polish company that they are, have noticed how all this happening on their doorstep and thus have done what little they think they can to not feel helpless, I guess. They've publicly condemned the invasion and, in a much more substantive move, halted physical and GOG sales of their games going into Russia and Belarus. Which is both a small gesture and a huge deal at the same time.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a performance piece, but in loudly declaring their utmost damnation of these events it rings solidly. It's a dedication not to support the economy of Russia at this time, as well as a significant financial hit upon themselves due to the not insignificant cut of their profits which streamed in directly from Russia. (I'm not sure how Belarus stacks up.) It's also a heavy slap in the face to their recent earnest attempts to curry favour with their Russian fans, which we all witnessed during the lead-up to Cyberpunk's launch wherein the official CDPR Youtube put out several Russian-language only videos delving into the supreme effort going into making sure that the Russian translation of this game was going to have all the effort not to be half-assed. They did nothing of the sort for the other full-support localisation languages they were building the game for, so it's clear whom they were performing for. But now all of that diplomacy has been lost, like tears in rain, and some people aren't taking the breakup very well.

As can be ascertained by the influx of angry Steam reviews that all seem aghast at the very idea of CDPR making a response of any kind. To be fair, I can understand being upset that you're having the game blocked from your country for reasons totally out of your responsibility, the majority of Russian people are totally innocent in this equation but they are being hit with these swinging sanctions because there's just no real way around that right now. But then there's a difference between being upset, and leaving a review for Cyberpunk 2077 which is just an ASCII middle finger. (Actually, I think I've seen a few of those; it might be a trend they're trying to start.) Unfortunately, just about every one of these reviews are written in another language, and I don't speak either of the languages in question, but Google Translate gives me the gist so we can get an idea what the uproar is about.

Here's a good one translated from Russian (remember these are Google Translate botch-jobs, we're going for the vibe.) "Whatever war you take, corporations always win, and ordinary people lose - Johnny Silverhand. You yourself became the one who was ridiculed, CDPR" Now this one is one of the more comprehensive ones, he's bemoaning the fact that he is suffering for no fault of his own, however it's still objectively moronic for his boiler point pull of 'corporations always win'. Which Corporation is exactly winning here, buddy? The one that just amputated 5% of their gross profit to make a statement? There's actually a fair bit of comments that are putting out Johnny Silverhand quotes like they're Joker quips, which is a tad cringey. The general vibe is frustration however, which I get; although I think it takes a special kind of 'wearing blinders' not to see the bigger picture of CDPR not wanting to support the economy of a civilian-targeting war machine. But I guess being allowed to play an above average RPG is more important than real-life mass murder, huh. (This is why I don't like to cover political topics- I get heated.)

The real interesting one's are the reviews from the other language presented. That's right, there are two major types of consumers railing against this ban. And the other country both isn't supposed to be using this version of Steam because they have their own, and isn't even suffering from a CDPR sales ban at all. That's right, there's Chinese reviews, baby! My favourites for this category are unerringly political, too much so for me to put on this blog and not feel dirty for doing so, therefore I'll just summarise; they're all really upset with CDPR taking a political stance and seem to have identical reactions. They are all, for some reason, sold into the Russian propaganda machine more than Russia's own citizens are! I mean sure, there's a few Russians out there who believe the easily fact-checked drivel out of the Kremlin, but it seems whole swathes of Chinese gamers swear by that, which I find to be supremely enlightening to the types of individual that the CCP government fosters. (I don't wanna just say gullible; but sometimes a spoon is just a spoon, ya know?) 

I guess the reason I wanted to make this blog is in order to touch upon a common refrain I'm hearing which I find hilarious. "Why are you getting political?" "Keep politics out of Cyberpunk." Now first of all, I'm a believer that the real world is always tied to fiction no matter how fantastical it is, and blindly pretending otherwise is never going to provide the full picture when it comes to detailed introspection, if you ever even bother to try. I had the same galled reaction when industry pundits were criticising Critical Role Season 3 for setting their campaign in a location based on a real world region, citing how all the best fantasy worlds are completely untethered from reality; which is just so egregiously wrong it's incredible a paid industry article author, not a free-lance contributor, wrote and got that published. But I understand there's something of a contention around that fact, bizarrely, so I'll approach more directly. What do you mean 'keep politics out of Cyberpunk'? The Cyberpunk genre is defined by it's political charge!

Cyberpunk, as a genre, depicts dystopian techno-futures characterised by systemic suppression of personal freedoms and expressions, typically by tyrannical and/or despotic ruling bodies that prioritize the selfish pursuit of wealth and luxury exclusively for the enjoyment of the elite minority. That, in broadstrokes, is literally every single Cyberpunk story ever told; and it's... just so political. You are fooling yourself if you don't see it. The anti-corporatism, anti-dictatorship, anti post-capitalism agenda- it's all political leanings all the way down and whether you choose to agree with that message or not doesn't matter, because the story of the genre doesn't care whether you ascribe to it's morals or not, it just is. While the 'keep politics out of X' debate more comprehensively means 'keep your half-assed armchair real-world commentary out of my entertainment', (Which I totally agree with, by the way) hearing that common misnomer paired with this particular breed of game just set me off.

Although even if we strip away the literal and address the real point struggling to be made here; CDPR added nothing into the Software for Cyberpunk that references the war, nor their opinions on it. This was totally outside of the dimensions of the gameworld, thus the point is moot. I think that's fair enough inspections to conclude that this Cyberpunk 2077 review bomb is largely disingenuous and largely led by the frustrated, who are being a bit unreasonable, and just the moronic, who couldn't make a coherent point to save their lives. So the sooner Steam could get around to cleaning the stable, the sooner I could move on from my favourite afternoon hobby of stalking Cyberpunk's 'recent reviews' page armed with my trusty Google Translate tab.