Anonymous with 4chan defend developers of CDProjekt RED against pirates

    A rather strange event, according to Forbes magazine, happened on 4chan. Anonymus began to forcefully force the Polish developer studio CDProjekt RED, known for its series of role-playing games The Witcher, urging people not to download the game from torrent networks and file sharing, but to buy it and support the developers. What caused such love?

    CDProjekt RED is a small Polish studio that has only two major games in its portfolio - The Witcher on PC and The Witcher 2 on PC / Xbox 360. The games themselves are classic Action / RPGs, although they are fundamentally different from similar representatives of such a genre as Oblivion or Diablo - the game actively uses the moral choice of the player. Depending on the decisions of the player, the game world changes. Having made a certain decision, the player through the chapter will not be able to complete the quest, and the friends of the protagonist can turn away from him. Having said the wrong word to the interlocutor, the hero of the game may die, and depending on the decisions, entire kingdoms may disappear from the political map of the game world. Screenshot from The Witcher 2


    But the protection of anonymous is not caused by the quality of the game, but by the model of distribution of content that the developers preach. CEO Marcin Ivinsky said the company will not use DRM in its games and will not enter into agreements with publishers that require the introduction of DRM protection. Earlier, he said that the company will in no case prosecute those who downloaded their game illegally (a similar practice is used in Europe and the USA, where some users receive letters offering to pay the usual fine for illegally downloaded content in pre-trial order).
    Another aspect of support is the developer policy for distributing DLCs and add-ons, which is opposed to Bioware. Bioware is a well-known RPG development studio founded by people from the legendary Black Isle. Among the famous games of this company such titles as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights. But the problem of this studio is that many DLC (downloadable content) in the form of an additional ring or helmet in the inventory costs a lot of money (about $ 5 per ring up to 30-40 for quest lines). The Polish developer directly stated that all DLCs will be free, as additional items, as well as simple quests. In April of this year, they released the Witcher 2 version for the Xbox 360 console, which had additional quest lines, unlike the PC version, but PC game buyers received this additional content (about 10 GB) completely free of charge by a regular update via publisher or Steam. And for those who do not have a Steam account, the developeroffers a free DRM-free backup that eliminates the need to store a disk.

    And what is your opinion, as developers and consumers, how to distribute your games: with or without DRM? Should I charge for small DLCs that add new items or change the color of old ones? Should “boycott” products of DRM lovers?

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