CD Projekt RED Shows Fans Respect, and Fans Return The Favor

Inspired by the fact that some users on the /v/ board of 4chan attacked another user for pirating The Witcher 2 despite CD Projekt RED’s stance on DRM, Forbes’ Erik Kain penned a piece on the efforts of the Polish studio to build trust with gamers, and how these efforts are paying off so far. Here’s a snip:

Because all stories must come full-circle, I direct you back to my last piece, in which 4chan members do exactly this when another gamer tells them he pirated The Witcher 2. CD Projekt RED listened to their fans, didn’t blow them off with meaningless, empty PR, actually stopped the things they were doing that upset fans, and then asked those fans to give them the same level of respect.

And it worked. Sort of. Piracy of The Witcher 2 remains pretty high, but as Iwinski notes clamping down with DRM is hardly the answer.

(We have seen a lot of different protections, but there are only two ways you can go: Either you use light DRM, which is cracked in no time and is not a major pain for the end-user, or you go the hard way and try to super-protect the game,) Iwinski said in an interview last year.

(Yes, it is then hard to crack, but you start messing with the operation system, the game runs much slower and for a group of legal gamers it will not run at all. None of these solutions really work, so why not abandon it altogether?)

This is how it’s done people. Fans have responded to the trust given them by returning the favor. It’s a pretty remarkable story, especially given the context. The gaming industry isn’t exactly bursting with trust and good-will at the moment. Gamers and developers are far too often eyeing one another suspiciously or with downright hostility.