A senior developer from CD Projekt Red has stepped up to defend the gaming industry against what he describes as misleading comparison content — and the twist? The video in question was actually praising his own game. Patrick K. Mills, senior quest designer on Cyberpunk 2077, publicly called out a viral Twitter video that compared his title favorably against Bethesda's Starfield, labeling the content as "fake criticism" and warning that it is "actively harmful" to the way audiences engage with games as a medium.

The Video That Sparked the Debate

The video, originally posted by Twitter user doctorps4, placed Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 side by side, comparing a series of in-game interactions — think jumping off a tall building into water or pointing a gun at civilians. While it was clearly designed to highlight Cyberpunk 2077's technical and systemic depth over Starfield's, Mills was having none of it. Rather than basking in the flattery, he called the content out for what it is: cherry-picked moments stripped of context, designed to manufacture outrage rather than offer meaningful insight.

Mills took to Twitter to share the video himself, making his position crystal clear: "How times have changed. (Tbc this fake criticism is actively harmful to the way the audience interacts with the medium and I hate it, but it's very funny to see after how many hundreds of these were made to ridicule cp2077)."

The Irony Is Not Lost on Anyone 😅

The situation carries a heavy dose of irony that Mills himself acknowledged. When Cyberpunk 2077 launched in 2020, it was on the receiving end of this exact same treatment — comparison videos flooding the internet, pitting it against titles like GTA IV to highlight perceived shortcomings in crowd behavior, environmental interactivity, and NPC reactions. Now, the tables have turned, and Cyberpunk is being used as the stick to beat Starfield with.

The fact that Mills — someone who lived through years of that kind of targeted criticism aimed at his own work — refused to enjoy the schadenfreude says a great deal about his character and perspective. Instead of pointing fingers and saying "now you know how it feels," he chose to address the root of the problem.

'Useless Criticism' — Mills Breaks It Down

When a commenter attempted to defend the video by arguing that it was making a broader point about Starfield's ambitions around "unparalleled galaxy exploration," Mills wasn't buying it. His response was sharp and to the point: the video contains no commentary, no context, and no clear argument. It simply puts a handful of mechanics next to each other and lets the viewer draw whatever conclusion they like — which, in most cases online, tends to be the most inflammatory one possible.

Here's why Mills' critique holds water 🎯:

Issue	Why It Matters
No commentary or context	Viewers fill in the blanks with assumptions
Cherry-picked mechanics	Ignores each game's design intent and genre differences
No discernible argument	Makes the "criticism" impossible to engage with meaningfully
Designed for engagement, not insight	Fuels tribalism rather than genuine discussion

A Broader Problem for the Industry

Mills' stance reflects a growing concern among developers about how social media content shapes public perception of games. Viral comparison videos, reaction clips, and out-of-context footage can torpedo a title's reputation before most players have even had a chance to form their own opinions. Honestly, it's a bit exhausting — gamers deserve better discourse than a 60-second montage with no explanation.

Both Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield are massive, ambitious open-world titles that made different creative decisions. Comparing whether one game lets you splash more realistically into water doesn't illuminate those decisions — it just gives people something to argue about in comment sections.

What Mills Gets Right

What makes Mills' response particularly noteworthy is its consistency. He isn't defending Starfield because he loves the game or has a stake in Bethesda's success. He's defending a principle: that games deserve to be judged on their own merits, with thoughtful criticism that acknowledges design intent, scope, and context. The same standard he would have wanted applied to Cyberpunk 2077 during its rocky early days, he's now applying to a competitor.

In an era where outrage clicks and console wars still dominate gaming discourse, that kind of measured, principled stance is — to put it simply — refreshing. The industry has enough real conversations worth having. Fake criticism, as Mills rightly points out, just gets in the way.