Article by Kevin Parrish.
 
Tom's Games talks with newly appointed CD Projekt Vice President Tom Ohle about new updates for the company's critically acclaimed fantasy RPG The Witcher, as well as game piracy, violence and the PC gaming market.
 
http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2008/0 [...] interview/

Great interview, keep up the good work Kevin and Tom's.
 
Next I'd like to read about a person working for a publisher or developer that really believes in DRM and why it should work and why publishers are still going for that.

Man was that a refreshing interview! Someone who isnt crying "its the pirating!!!" But someone and some company saying bring out the best games, make em good, and people will buy em. Now thats just a fact. The lower denomination doesnt always win, not when using higher thought/class. WTG.

Good stuff.
 
I can't wait for the big Witcher update. They're fixing pretty much everything that caused me to stop playing the first time through

Tom Ohle has a very refreshing attitude on both piracy and children playing video games.  I think the industry would benefit greatly from having more people like this fella.

Everything I read from people who have been a part of Stardock seem to have a very intelligent take on piracy.
 
He does mention a pretty sad fact about big budget games and the multiplatform requirement though.  It's unfortunate that you can't have a big budget and spend all of the money making an exceptional game for one system.  Instead you've got to divert the money to making a good game on all platforms to recoup your money.

 
you stopped playing the witcher, heresy i tell you.

  Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but when I heard about the big update I decided to wait it out. It's long (at least with me playing it ) so I doubt I'll make it through more than once.

I have about 60+ hours into it and I stopped as well, I will replay it when the big update is released. Really good game and Tom Ohle really hit the nail on the head on the topics of piracy, copy protection and parenting. I look forward to more projects from Red Studio and CD Projekt

First off, The Witcher is an awesome game that really mixed things up for RPGs.  I loved it, but definitely a cult following rather than mass market right now because of it's late/limited release in the US and being a new franchise (since they sound like they intend to continue adding onto the game 'series').  Every game claims to be new, unique and innovative when it comes to game play as well as things like "easy to learn, difficult to master" but The Witcher actually met it's claims of being different than what we've played before in RPGs.
 
I really like Tom Ohle's perspective on piracy - it very much is in tune with my thoughts on the subject as well.  The fact he recognizes that there are different types of pirates and that not all of them would have purchased the game if they had no alternative is great.   This is an important step to take when combating piracy and also setting budgets and expected sales goals.  Further, he recognizes right now that copy protection honestly just doesn't hold up so the most important thing you can do to protect and sale you game is to make a good one.  Tom Ohle sounds like the real deal - a gamer and developer that has a passion for what he does and not some corporate money monger that only sees dollar figures.  This makes me want to support him and his company even more!  I wasn't intending to buy a 2nd copy of The Witcher on re-release as at least from what I understand, I can get a content patch from them with all of the same, but now I kinda want to.  Perhaps it'll come with some collector's edition style item that will seal the deal for me.

The thing that pisses me off the most is having to have the disc in the drive to play. Not because I'm too lazy to put the disc in, but because sometimes even when I have the disc in a game will tell me that I need to insert a "valid" disc. And yes, these are the original DVDs, not copies. What, is Gamestop selling invalid DVDs now?  
 
Also, even when the the disc is recognized properly it can take well over 20 seconds to do so. F*cking SecuROM

I'll just wait until the update and then find a DVD crack.  Until then, I'll just play it when I run across the disk, since nothing stays in the tray for long and it all ends up in one pile or another.