Analysis: With Witcher 3 CDPR no longer treat the players like adults [SPOILERS]

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I've played 1 and 2 but doesn't really matter because 3 is all about urgency and finding Ciri. I'm just trying to view the situation logically and practically. Just like how it wouldn't make sense for Geralt to help Roche with Ves or help Lambert with his personal matters. Geralt is always one to help his friends, but the urgency of Ciri and the Wild Hunt on her trail doesn't leave much room for a lot of the side stuff and I can't see how Geralt would be able to make time for those side things when he has a vital priority in finding Ciri.

There is no urgency when he stops to do solve 16565454113215 monster contracts. If the urgency was so big, there won't be spaces for anything else except for Ciri
 
I've played 1 and 2 but doesn't really matter because 3 is all about urgency and finding Ciri. I'm just trying to view the situation logically and practically. Just like how it wouldn't make sense for Geralt to help Roche with Ves or help Lambert with his personal matters. Geralt is always one to help his friends, but the urgency of Ciri and the Wild Hunt on her trail doesn't leave much room for a lot of the side stuff and I can't see how Geralt would be able to make time for those side things when he has a vital priority in finding Ciri.
So he has time to raise a toast for Temeria but not enough time to save his friends?
 
There is no urgency when he stops to do solve 16565454113215 monster contracts. If the urgency was so big, there won't be spaces for anything else except for Ciri

That is completely irrelevant and doesn't make any sense. The game allows you to choose how to play which means you can choose to ignore everything outside of the main story including those contracts which you aren't forced to do. In the most practical and realistic storyline, Geralt would turn down monster contracts if his goal was to find Ciri as quick as possible. He'd only take those contracts if he needed money, money which he'd use to help him get to Ciri. The player can choose to play like this if they wish to.


So he has time to raise a toast for Temeria but not enough time to save his friends?

When does he actually do this? I remember being able to turn down every drinking opportunity. Regardless taking a few minutes to drink something isn't even remotely comparable to the daunting task of assassinating a king which takes many days of planning or taking a multiple day long trip to skellige and then more days traveling back to Novigrad just so Lambert can taste sweet revenge. The comparison has no proper logic behind it.
 
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That is completely irrelevant and doesn't make any sense. The game allows you to choose how to play which means you can choose to ignore everything outside of the main story including those contracts which you aren't forced to do. In the most practical and realistic storyline,

Precisely. That's why I think you are wrong. Almost every aspect of TW3 it's optional (except for the main quest), so it's perfectly plausible to create a interesting political plot (no just one shitty quest) as long it is optional. This way, if you think Ciri should be the first thing, left behing these kind of missions, if you don't think that, do it. It's nonsense to argue that, because Ciri it's so important, there is no room for anything else. Especially in the middle of a war
 
Precisely. That's why I think you are wrong. Almost every aspect of TW3 it's optional (except for the main quest), so it's perfectly plausible to create a interesting political plot (no just one shitty quest) as long it is optional. This way, if you think Ciri should be the first thing, left behing these kind of missions, if you don't think that, do it. It's nonsense to argue that, because Ciri it's so important, there is no room for anything else. Especially in the middle of a war

Think I'm wrong about what? I'm not saying there should be no side quests and no optional political storylines. Just stating that the most realistic storyline would ignore them which is why it makes sense to have the option to skip them. There are dozens of side quests for those who wish to experience them including one with a big political focus. Whether or not it's good enough is an opinion but it is there.
 
Geralt is always one to help his friends, but the urgency of Ciri and the Wild Hunt on her trail doesn't leave much room for a lot of the side stuff and I can't see how Geralt would be able to make time for those side things when he has a vital priority in finding Ciri.
Because if those side quests weren't there the game would be a lot shorter and you wouldn't do anything besides trying to find Ciri. Half the content would have to be cut from the game, Witcher contracts and scavenger hunts included.
 
Because if those side quests weren't there the game would be a lot shorter and you wouldn't do anything besides trying to find Ciri. Half the content would have to be cut from the game, Witcher contracts and scavenger hunts included.

Not to mention the game has only 2 endings without secondary quests:
Ciri witcher or dead
Geralt lonely
Radovid lives, Nilfgaard loses the war
Svanrige rules Skellige
But making sure that the few side quests that affect the endings are well made would not have required an unreasonable amount of resources.
 
Because if those side quests weren't there the game would be a lot shorter and you wouldn't do anything besides trying to find Ciri. Half the content would have to be cut from the game, Witcher contracts and scavenger hunts included.

But here we come to another problem: the choice of the main quest. It was not obligatory for writers to make the main quest to be the search for Cirilla. The plot could have been something that doesn't require permanent urgency. Just take a look at HoS. It has a perfect main quest, which doesn't require urgency but important enough to make sure Geralt has to be motivated to finish it.
 
But here we come to another problem: the choice of the main quest. It was not obligatory for writers to make the main quest to be the search for Cirilla. The plot could have been something that doesn't require permanent urgency. Just take a look at HoS. It has a perfect main quest, which doesn't require urgency but important enough to make sure Geralt has to be motivated to finish it.
Sure, they could have done something else for the main quest. But I never felt really rushed when it came to the main quest - sure, the game kept telling me "Go talk to Avalla'ch now that you're ready" or "Go to the Island of Mists". That was stressful but not because I felt the urgency to follow the main quest but because I didn't want the story to end. So I dragged it out by doing side quests (most of them were really good, some I could have done without), scavenger hunts, question marks etc. I progressed the main story when I felt ready and not when the game told me to. That sense of urgency the game tried to create just didn't get a hold on me :)
 
the game kept telling me "Go talk to Avalla'ch now that you're ready" or "Go to the Island of Mists"

Actually, the "Go to the Island of Mists" quest was not urging you to rush there, because Avallac'h tells Geralt that as long as Ciri is on the island of Mists she's safe.
 
I disagree with a lot of the main post because it relies on a lot of assumptions about the "canonical" timeline. I also wrote an extensive essay on the politics of the Witcher 3.

Also, if he's ever read the books then he'll know the Witcherverse has complete horrible monsters.

They're as common as the morally ambiguous.
 
Cannot agree more with the OP. They messed a lot of stuff up that was in the first two games. In TW1 you could meet someone on the side of the road and give them a piece of candy and then bang them you could also drink with your friends and get piss drunk. sometimes even with strangers as well. in TW2 the sex scenes were different and not the same thing everytime and got awfully close to being hardcore and I believe they even showed vag if i'm not mistaken. it's like you said they just simply treated us like children in this game. another thing is why wouldn't we see other people having sex too like in the brothel's I mean? they really don't even feel like brothel like what an actual real world brothel would be like. and why in the hell did they have to dumb down the politics? that was the absolute worst part of it all. horrible, and TW2 story was just left hanging(if you sided with scoa'tael last 2 games). they jump ahead 6 months at the beginning of this game even though that is inconsistent with TW2, at the end of TW2 Sile tells you exactly where to go, but for some reason Geralt waited 6 months to finally head south to look for Yen? what was that reason? and we missed the best part(most adult part and most brutal part of war) of the nilfgaard invasion where the actual war was going on, instead the only 'war' we see is a couple battlefields of dead bodies and soldiers standing around all over velen and novigrad doing absolutely nothing. TW3 should've picked up right where TW2 left off it would've been way better and way more logical and consistent.

it's clear this game was made for mainstream, easily entertained kids. marketed towards them. but I have a feeling that was the goal all along with this one since teenagers are the main consumers of video games, it's looking a bit like a cash grab.
 
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Cannot agree more with the OP. They messed a lot of stuff up that was in the first two games. In TW1 you could meet someone on the side of the road and give them a piece of candy and then bang them you could also drink with your friends and get piss drunk. sometimes even with strangers as well. in TW2 the sex scenes were different and not the same thing everytime and got awfully close to being hardcore and I believe they even showed vag if i'm not mistaken. it's like you said they just simply treated us like children in this game. another thing is why wouldn't we see other people having sex too like in the brothel's I mean? they really don't even feel like brothel like what an actual real world brothel would be like. and why in the hell did they have to dumb down the politics? that was the absolute worst part of it all. horrible, and TW2 story was just left hanging(if you sided with scoa'tael last 2 games). they jump ahead 6 months at the beginning of this game even though that is inconsistent with TW2, at the end of TW2 Sile tells you exactly where to go, but for some reason Geralt waited 6 months to finally head south to look for Yen? what was that reason? and we missed the best part(most adult part and most brutal part of war) of the nilfgaard invasion where the actual war was going on, instead the only 'war' we see is a couple battlefields of dead bodies and soldiers standing around all over velen and novigrad doing absolutely nothing. TW3 should've picked up right where TW2 left off it would've been way better and way more logical and consistent.

it's clear this game was made for mainstream, easily entertained kids. marketed towards them. but I have a feeling that was the goal all along with this one since teenagers are the main consumers of video games, it's looking a bit like a cash grab.

lol you are blowing things out of proportion. If anything TW1 was the childish game, there were a ridiculous amounts of flings for Geralt that made no sense and how is having sex with random strangers after giving them candy adult and mature?

We never saw other people having sex in the other two games either, its not needed.

I do agree with you about the Scoiatel, shame they were shafted. But apart from that, no just no
 
lol you are blowing things out of proportion. If anything TW1 was the childish game, there were a ridiculous amounts of flings for Geralt that made no sense and how is having sex with random strangers after giving them candy adult and mature?

We never saw other people having sex in the other two games either, its not needed.

I do agree with you about the Scoiatel, shame they were shafted. But apart from that, no just no

I am more upset about the scoa'tael thing to be honest and the war and politics being overlooked and lack of TW2 continuity and jumping ahead 6 months and missing a bunch of stuff there. the whole finding someone and giving them a piece of candy like in tw1, ok fine take that out, but then again it's suppose to be an RPG and you don't have to do them in TW1, I think those encounters should clearly be more complex. And I really don't care as much about the amount of sexual encounters Geralt had(although the size of this game Gealt should of had a few more) as I do the quality, the sex scenes were just simply a step back not just casual hooker sex but also other scenes, for example the sex scene in the elven bathhouse with triss was done well imo in tw2, the lighthouse in tw3 was a step backwards.

And 'no just no' to the brothel actually feeling like an actual real-life brothel? you're very clever.
 
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Actually, the "Go to the Island of Mists" quest was not urging you to rush there, because Avallac'h tells Geralt that as long as Ciri is on the island of Mists she's safe.

Well, actually it is quite the opposite. Avalac'h tells him - ...she's not safe... the Hunt has not found the isle as yet.. [but] 'tis only a matter of time... hurry, hurry... Even Yennefer tells him to come back quickly. The game itself and the quest design does not "urge" you to hurry though, but that's the general problem of the open-world games in my opinion, not just The Witcher 3.

As for the sex scenes, they are done really, really poorly the way I see it. I mean, that whole thing with our playboy Geralt collecting those silly sex cards in The Witcher was ridiculous. Sex in all 3 games does not have any value whatsoever and is utterly meaningless. In my opinion, the majority of sex scenes are there just for the sake of it. And the brothels.. well, I have yet to enter a brothel in both TW2 and TW3, and I probably never will. What's the point? Besides, those unnatural and forced moans are way too off-putting, for me at least. It wasn't handled well at all.

The politics... I personally don't miss it much, but I wouldn't mind it either. I think the main problem here is the inconsistency between the games. There wasn't a plan for a full-fledged story encompassing all the games, so they had to sacrifice things along the way. But again, if the players are importing saves then those imports should involve some consequences and be of some importance. However, those consequences are not really important at all. And this is, again, because they had to adjust the basis for each of the games for the purpose of the story. There probably won't be any kind of massive changes here either.

"Sometimes you see games that claim they have mature storytelling when really it's adolescent storytelling. It's just tits..."

 
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