The Witcher on Netflix.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

14 hours ago, Ran said:

That's something else, and mostly the Hobbit, IIRC, I'm talking about this -- eighteen above-the-line actors LotR -- Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn, etc. -- all demanding bigger bonuses in light of the success of the films, including actors who did not have any proft-participation deals at all.

Sure. He's not a pleasant guy at all. Saw him at Eurocon and he comes off as an asshat. But even asshats should merit ethical compensation when their creation is an integral part of someone else's success.

 You're absolutely right. In my opinion, his books are fantastic, and they've brought me immense joy as I've read them, so I cannot truly begrudge him. I guess creators of great content are sometimes just miserable people. But he deserves his fair share. CDPR should accommodate him in a reasonable way--I do not believe his current demands are very reasonable. 

 

9 hours ago, Fez said:

 

CDPR is great for consumers; they aren't so great for their employees, who, reports say, work in a state of near-constant crunch throughout the development cycle. Which is absolutely an argument for them to get additional compensation (and/or better working conditions) and I think they have a much better ethical ground for demanding it; though I wouldn't be surprised if they don't out of fear just getting fired and replaced.

 I wish that weren't true (that they treated their developers that way). I want to believe they're just a great group of people, but I'm not arguing you're wrong--sadly.

[The Anti-Targ]

 

9 hours ago, Werthead said:

By most accounts they are a pretty decent company, but they were working on workload/deadline situations for The Witcher 3 which required the entire studio to go into crunch for about a year and a half, which is not great (that's like Telltale levels of insanity) and led to a lot of staff leaving.

Apparently the studio is now massively more financially secure, their new model is having a lot longer lead times for games of that scope whilst having smaller games and GoG ticking along in the background, and they've now got a lot more US and employees from other EU countries who are making sure things don't get that unpleasant again (though, with the best will in the world, some level of crunch always happens at the end of development, but TW3 took it to another level).

 

8 hours ago, briantw said:

I think you could say that about most video game companies.  The nature of the business seems to lead to terrible working conditions and too many hours.  

Unless you get to work for a company like Valve where you don't actually have to get anything done, of course.

I quite liked Jim Sterling's recent video about a lot of video game companies being shit places to work. And he specifically mentions CDPR, and the reason why despite TW (and TW3 specifically) being very good games that do right by consumers in so many ways, he chooses not to cite CDPR games as great games because he still maintains that CDPR treats its workers poorly.

I do hope CDPR has become a better workplace as Wert suggests. But companies change their spots at about the same rate as leopards. They just get better at making it look like their spots have changed. Maybe CDPR started out as ethical employers but circumstances temporarily turned them into bastards. But If the head(s) of CDPR started out as bastards, I'm not inclined to think they will have changed into nice guys. Wouldn't mind knowing how much of that $220 million profit got handed out as bonuses to the grunts who actually did all the work. Screw Sapowski getting $16 million. How about giving a couple of million to the devs, the QAs, and the digtal artists? 

[Derfel Cadarn]

Brian Sanderson is apparently considering giving CDPR the Mistborb game rights for free