Really, though… why won’t we write about Cyberpunk 2077? If I were to give a quick and concise answer, I’d say it’s because they didn’t pay us. No doubt to some, this comes as a sufficient enough response, while to others, it might seem outright abhorrent.
And yet, the fact that no media outlet worth its salt should legitimately adopt a stance like the above probably still sounds less outrageous to many, considering most people have seemingly already accepted the unfortunate reality this industry finds itself in: that opinions are formed based on the amount of monetary compensation received. So why would the media, particularly online (read: funded via ad revenue) media be exempt from this?
Similarly, the fact that the media is supposed to function based on ethical principles, and that all journalistic coverage should presuppose a level of firm objectivity, has sadly been forgotten to such an extent that the only reaction one-sided think pieces published by political journals elicit from consumers is a resigned shrug. As such, it was only a matter of time before journalistic publications focused primarily on video games – and thus generally free from political commentary – would also dive head-first into a cesspool of corruption.
Forming objective opinions has lost its value, because the vast majority of people in the 21st century are not interested in reality – instead, they hunger only for opinions that conveniently support and justify their own personal views, and gauge the validity, or indeed, the “fake news-ness” of any given publication based on that metric.
There is no real exchange of thought – people don’t trade opinions; they do not confer with each other with the goal of personal enlightenment and betterment, nor do they attempt to convince their peers with a supply of reasonable, well-argued points. Instead, they feel content to wage all-out wars, with social media as their digital battlefield – a war in which their own existence and reason for being is at stake. They simply cannot allow themselves to lose.
And so, the above makes it impossible to hold an objective conversation – or even an argument – about what safety regulations should officially sanctioned medications meet in the so-called Year of the Vaccine, nor can we discuss how justifiable it is to point at the ongoing pandemic and its consequences as a legitimate reason for repeatedly delaying a video game. Especially in the case of a video game that was announced as early as 2012, with its first, hype-fueled teaser trailer debuting in the second week of 2013.
But far be it from us to delude ourselves into thinking that our opinion is what Cyberpunk 2077 or its sizable audience needs or wants. After all, the game’s developers have already given enough of a sneak peek to certain publications for the following image to be made:
It’s also worth asking why a company with a firm financial background and multiple revenue streams – that’s also the developer-publisher of the undeniably successful The Witcher franchise – feels the need to decorate its title with quotes like the ones pictured above, when the quality of the finished product alone should be more than sufficient in guaranteeing such praise. I do, nonetheless, understand that the launch was re-scheduled to December 10 because the game needed to be ready for the big holiday buying spree, and this was the last viable date that could serve such a purpose while still being in 2020.
One can also be quite sure that Cyberpunk 2077 will deliver the kind of gaming experience fans have awaited for years now, and that its developers will be praised to high heaven for it. Even though this success is, once again, in large part due to its marketing campaign, and not the product itself.
When GTOGG was founded, we believed we had heard enough skeptical remarks in regards to the freedom of the press; we hoped that clear, uncompromising voices would also be in demand as a response to the many lies and unjust voices that seem to fill this industry to the brim. The countless corruption scandals helped highlight the problems prevalent in gaming media, yet the already established trends have shown little sign of change – as a result, standing in front of the raging hurricane of the paid-off masses in order to supply audiences with objectivity seems now just as futile an undertaking as it was before. We would perhaps describe ourselves as a severely malnutritioned, semi-mute hermit living in the middle of a desert who, whenever he attempts to part his lips to speak, gets a fistful of sand blown into his mouth by the fierce winds – and whatever it is that he might’ve wanted to say ends up getting muted out by the noise.
We continue to believe that the media should play an objective role, and as such, we vehemently refuse any and all invitations to display sponsored content on the site. We believe the only way to maintain genuine freedom and integrity is to keep the site free of paid advertisements.
For us and our audience, true value lies in opposing the sponsorship-driven publication of untruths and biased opinions; instead, we try to reach our readers with an honest, uncorrupted voice.
We are well aware of the precarity of our existence in a world steeped in – and indeed built upon – deception and lies, but we also don’t want to be one of those “know the hand that feeds you” type of publications, either. We regret potentially offending people with our opinions, but we do view everyone with unbiased lens, even if we might end up starving to death as a result.
We believe there already exist more than plenty of sponsored media outlets that cover all the largest mainstream releases from AAA studios, and as such, we instead turn our focus toward the exceptional works of smaller, less-talked-about teams. (For more information on what games we cover and how we cover them, click here.)
And for those that find the moral content of my piece too complex or tedious to chew through, and instead desire a simpler narrative, allow me to offer a brief (albeit slightly oxymoronic, considering this is a gaming site) recommendation for the 2018 movie “An Elephant Sitting Still”. Shortly after the completion of the film, its writer-director committed suicide due to the ensuing controversy surrounding it.
