Gwent - Gaming With Elves, Nilfgaardians & Things

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Gwent - Gaming With Elves, Nilfgaardians & Things

  • Yes, I enjoy resting in a medieval setting, keep it authentic for Wiedźmin, knaves & fools, please.

    Votes: 138 82.1%
  • No, I want all the bells & whistles of a modern cardgame, Witcher: The Huntering, please.

    Votes: 20 11.9%
  • Don't Care, not in the books - won't be touching your damn cards anyway, boooos, hisssses.

    Votes: 10 6.0%

  • Total voters
    168
@Aes Sídhe

Seems like your thread sparked some recent discussion since the latest videos, friend. :happy:

Didn't we discuss Gwent and including in-game characters and how this could be immersion breaking?

Yeah, Ves was mentioned previously, and indeed, not many ought to know of her, let alone have her on a playing card. She is a spy/commando of Roche's. Temerian intelligence. Many of the characters depicted are indeed famous, but I do wonder what kind of explanation the devs offer to player(and Geralt) for taking up this game and why game creator knows this much of shady intelligence characters.

What if Loredo had been a Gwent player in Witcher 2? See where I'm going with this?

While I will miss to roll the dice, many of us will, I am really curious how devs will sell/explain this in the game.

Game looks nice though!

EDIT: Ah, we did discuss cards being 'modern' as well.
 
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This is a deal breaker for me, especially after I got hyped about videos where they say how much focus they put on immersion. Yea, way to consult a herbologist for authentic plants but then put completely immersion breaking modern card game in there
 
Don't you think that this card design doesn't really fit into game universe?

That picture isn't as bad as it could be, but maybe once animations start up it will be !

Sorry REDs, but one look at onscreen gwent even in my browser makes me not want to play it, and certainly not while in Witcherworlds Inns. Nope, you've lost me on this one, and thats even before the nonsensical addition of a character like Ves.

(note: not a deal breaker for me & TW3, but a big disappointment.)

Ves ... I am really curious how devs will sell/explain this in the game.

You and me both brother. Of course, theres always the chance that screenie is from the Xbox... would MS insist on matching the cards, ya think? Maybe the PC version is different, the PS optional, and i'll win the lottery tomorrow because I'm clearly hopelessly optimistic. ;)
 
I agree. When I saw those cards, I just couldn't take them seriously. I doubt I'll even bother with the things. The art is very fine, but the entire design looks far too modern, and I'm disappointed by that.
 
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That picture isn't as bad as it could be, but maybe once animations start up it will be !

Sorry REDs, but one look at onscreen gwent even in my browser makes me not want to play it, and certainly not while in Witcherworlds Inns. Nope, you've lost me on this one, and thats even before the nonsensical addition of a character like Ves.

(note: not a deal breaker for me & TW3, but a big disappointment.)



(...)

Exactly.
Honestly, I thought I was the only one with which that Ves card didn't sit well. How would her character have risen to such popularity she would be featured in a card game played across the Northern Kingdoms? I then thought maybe there's lore, some backstory I'm oblivious to that reconciles the two seemingly incoherent facts. I ask, is there?

Regrading the design, it's not that I find it unpleasant, but I would agree it feels too stylized, verging on the modern. The font, the numerals in particular, is completgely inappropriate for an in-game asset. I also think cards that get played often and passed around, cards that also get to travel, well they should be worn, not immaculate. Anyway, everyone who's tried the game has been praising it so I'm quite optimistic about the mechanics. But that Ves card, it did make me cringe.

Addendum:




1. The font - numerals in particular - is completely inappropriate for an in-game asset. Sans serif type around the 13th Century? I'm sorry, but not credible. Contrast that font with other instances of in-game type such as posts, flyers and road signs.
2. Cards should be worn. They get played and passed around a lot and supposedly they also get to travel. Yet they look immaculate, in mint condition.
3. Regarding the illustrations. They all look distinctively post-medieval even somewhat post-renascentist, namely the framing and perspective . I realise there's not a perfect historical match between the WItcher world and ours, and that paintings and illustrations featuring proper perspective have already appeared in the game, but even so, these strike me as almost contemporary. I will stand corrected but for now I see a world of a difference between these illustrations and this:



15th century illustration
 
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I ask, is there?

Not as far as we know, yet. Of course there could be, we talked before in this thread how characters - alive or dead - could be memorialised / immortalised on the commonly used playing cards of a society, theres no problem with Metz for instance, but as Bellator pointed out perfectly Ves should not be a renowned personage, unless something major has happened involving her. I wonder if her card could easily be taken up by a Blue Stripes Suicide Squad or something.

Regrading the design, it's not that I find it unpleasant, but I would agree it feels too stylized, verging on the modern. The font, the numerals in particular, is completgely inappropriate for an in-game asset. I also think cards that get played often and passed around, cards that also get to travel, well they should be worn, not immaculate. Anyway, everyone who's tried the game has been praising it so I'm quite optimistic about the mechanics. But that Ves card, it did make me cringe.

Thats fair enough, each to their own, and I wish the minigame the best of luck, but its the authenticity issue well covered in this thread already thats the crunch for me, I simply cannot imagine ever wanting to view those cards while I am Geralt.
 
I still can't fathom why they thought that cards like these would suddenly replace dice within the story-world -- perhaps the developers got a bit too caught up in their own invention, here.
 
"I am Geralt" sounds a bit like "I am Grooot"

Flights of fancy... we all have them, problem is when we share them we can look pretty stupid ;)
 
1. The font - numerals in particular - is completely inappropriate for an in-game asset. Sans serif type around the 13th Century? I'm sorry, but not credible.Contrast that font with other instances of in-game type such as in posts, flyers or road signs.
2. Cards should be worn. They get played and passed around a lot and supposedly they also get to travel. Yet they look immaculate, in mint condition.
3. Regarding the illustrations. They all look distinctively post-medieval and post-renascentist, namely the framing and perspective . I realise there's not a perfect historical match between the WItcher world and ours, and that paintings and illustrations featuring proper perspective have already appeared in the game, but even so, these strike me as almost contemporary. I will stand corrected but for now I see a world of a difference between the cards and this:

You do realise you are talking about a game with dimension hoping elves, unicorns and genetically modified mutants who hunt monsters from other worlds?
 
Addendum:
All valid points, and if I may say so, uncharacteristically forgiving of the perfect circles & bottom bevel ;)

I just know if I were to walk into The Hairy Bear I may as well order a bucket of water over my face as play with those cards, for me I can predict the same result.
 
Not happy with card design, tbh...

What the hell happened to Keira Metz? She is living in some swamp now? And makes aphrodisiacs for peasants?

But I can live with this - as long as they bring dice poker back :)
 
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Unfortunately it seems too late to change at this point. I hope this could be a point that mods could deliver on - making more lore friendly cards with a different style like people imagined. Like when I first heard about the cards, I imagined they would be more like the style already illustrated or perhaps something like the posters from TW2.
 
Well, it's unlikely the minigame can be directly modded in the redkit itself, but the cards would be nice and standardised enough that if they're not packed in some uncooperative data format should be asset swappable. Best we can hope for I think, bar a different skin for gwent as one of the 16 DLC.
 
Well, it's unlikely the minigame can be directly modded in the redkit itself, but the cards would be nice and standardised enough that if they're not packed in some uncooperative data format should be asset swappable. Best we can hope for I think, bar a different skin for gwent as one of the 16 DLC.

Yeah, I basically mean just a swap of the graphical assets and content of the cards, not the game mechanics of Gwent or something. Same game with different visuals.

I'd like a "monster Gwent" for example, in which there are monsters shown on the card and no soldiers, sorcerers and people from the games. Would fit a lot more to the world imo without breaking the fourth wall. And they cards should look "worn" and "used" like cards people play with a lot and keep with them while travelling. They should also feature an art style that represent a hand-made nature which means drawn pictures and fonts that look like they were manually written instead of made by 21th century real-world photoshop... ;)
 
Yeah, I basically mean just a swap of the graphical assets and content of the cards, not the game mechanics of Gwent or something. Same game with different visuals.

I'd like a "monster Gwent" for example, in which there are monsters shown on the card and no soldiers, sorcerers and people from the games. Would fit a lot more to the world imo without breaking the fourth wall. And they cards should look "worn" and "used" like cards people play with a lot and keep with them while travelling. They should also feature an art style that represent a hand-made nature which means drawn pictures and fonts that look like they were manually written instead of made by 21th century real-world photoshop... ;)

You know what?! «Monster Gwent» is a spectacular idea!

It would get rid of the potential embarrassment and inconsistency of NPCs dealing cards with whose factions they have no allegiance, or are in fact antagonists in in-game real life. Everybody would get a clean slate and would be free to pick and choose at will. And the idea of local decks would make perfect sense since monsters are indeed specific to certain regions. Plus, it's not like folks are not familiar with these creatures, unlike Ves. Lastly, it's a common trope in folklore, that what people dread the most makes its way into popular tales and songs. Featuring monsters in a card game seems an entirely natural way to help folks deal with the permanent dread of stumbling upon them. These cards could have titbits of info regarding monster habits, traits, best tactics to defeat them, etc. In fact the complete set could be the bestiary itself!

This is such a freaking great idea! One of the best ever to surface on these forums! Just skyrocketed into my #1 request for free DLC or for an overhaul to be released alongside one of the expansions.

Kudos @Scholdarr.452!
Gwent 2.0
Smashing idea!



Would Ves be a No Man’s Land monster?
Man, that's sexist! :lol:

That doesn't per se address the problems. They persist.
But thanks for pointing that out.

Yeah, but I meant a "monsters only" version. ;)

(...)

Exactly.
 
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No issue here.
As long as the information on the card is clean, visible and easy to read i don't care what sort of art style is used.
 
Yeah, I basically mean just a swap of the graphical assets and content of the cards, not the game mechanics of Gwent or something. Same game with different visuals.

I'd like a "monster Gwent" for example, in which there are monsters shown on the card and no soldiers, sorcerers and people from the games. Would fit a lot more to the world imo without breaking the fourth wall. And they cards should look "worn" and "used" like cards people play with a lot and keep with them while travelling. They should also feature an art style that represent a hand-made nature which means drawn pictures and fonts that look like they were manually written instead of made by 21th century real-world photoshop... ;)
Really liking this idea. I was disappointed to see the Gwent design. A card game always felt a bit more anachronistic than usual, even for TW, but I didn't (and don't) mind, as long as it's fun. Those journalists that mentioned it enjoyed it. Hearing "card game" takes me back to Pazaak, which even with how incredibly simple it was, it still proved a lot of fun to me. So naturally something more developed will be too. But the design just seems so out of place, and unexpected from CDPR. The current design seems like they're going out of their way to break the 4th wall, as if these are cards taken straight out of a modern toy store.

I went "wait, what?" when I saw Ves. It just seems so unusual for her to appear on a card game that's wide spread not limited to Temeria. I can understand monarchs and units such as the blue stripes, but individual, lesser known characters? Even if it were only in Temeria it would have seemed odd to me. It's a special unit. It's not intuitive to me that the members are well known. It was even said in TW2 that Roche occasionally used Ves for special missions thanks to her beauty. I'm pretty sure that means some sort of seduction of their targets. I imagine it's kinda hard operating like that if your anonymity is completely compromised and it's known throughout the Northern Kingdoms thanks to a card game that you're part of a special forces unit.

There's another advantage to having monsters and make the drawings seem more, I dunno, hand-made for mass production instead of photoshopped - it can emphasize the difference between how legends and people perceive the monsters, and how they are when you actually meet them in the game. There are some places in the books where people describe to Geralt monsters in a way that he knows just isn't true, because they like exaggerating things and channeling their fear into their tales. And really, you don't need to read the books to know people do that. If cards used monsters it could have been another way for that in-world discrepancy between the tales and the truth, and to show the wide-spread ignorance. That isn't limited only to monsters though, it can also be the case with how the monarchs are drawn. Most people don't know how they look. Ves and Stennis are just flat out the TW2 models.

It's a shame. Gwent had the potential to tell a lot about the world just by its design and the cards themselves. Missed opportunity.
 
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