CDPR vet reflects on a classic RPG problem: The stats-over-fashion "clown meta" in Cyberpunk 2077, which lots of players hated but almost nobody knew how to fix

Jul. 19, 2024

It had to exist

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The developer-player relationship can sometimes have a parental quality to it, with fans being prone to tantrums without knowing what would soothe them. At least, that’s been the experience for one Cyberpunk 2077 developer, who says fans are good at identifying problems, but not solutions - especially when it pertains to something he calls the game’s “clown meta.”

“Players, in most cases, can quite well say ‘what I don’t like’ […], but they often won’t be able to tell you exactly how to fix it,” saidCD Projekt Redassociate game director Pawel Sasko ona recent episodeof Flow Games, a Brazilian podcast. “Great example, I think, it’s the one that always makes me laugh: the clown fiesta in Cyberpunk 2077. You know, the clown meta.

“Because of the fact that clothing had armor assigned to it, then, suddenly, you run around with, like, pink boots and a bra, and high heels in a cowboy hat, because that has the biggest armor,” Sasko continued. “That simple decision to tie up the armor with the clothing […] led to the creation of the clown meta, that everyone looked like…just, ridiculous.”

“People kept saying that […] they want to wear what they want to wear. For me, that’s an actual problem. But, then, the solutions that players were bringing up were really varied,” Sasko said. So, in addressing concerns, Sasko said he focused on what players wanted to change rather than how they preferred to change it.

“I would say probably 80 percent, maybe more [of Cyberpunk 2077 updates] were literally coming from players' feedback,” Sasko said. “It’s very hard to defend the opinion that developers don’t look at players' feedback in the case of Cyberpunk.”

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Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.

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