How do you play Geralt? True to the canon or true to yourself?

[Scholdarr]

How do you play Geralt? True to the canon or true to yourself?

When I play the Witcher games I always play Geralt in a way that I think my decisions are as close as possible to what the Geralt we know from Sapkowski's books would possibly do. I try to stay true to the canon.

How are you going to play the White Wolf in Witcher 3?
Will you make your very own decisions based on your own set of rules and principles or will you try to maintain Geralt's character and attitude from the literary basis?
Do you think it's important that CDPR creates quests and dialogues in a way that at least one option always seems to give us the possibility to play Geralt instead of ourselves (or a role we created which is not the literary Geralt)?

 

[Kinley]

I plan to do both eventually. But my first playthrough will always be a Geralt that is closest to his form in the books.

 

[Vincentdante]

Usually true to myself. In my opinion CDPR are very good at making a set of decisions and outcomes which you can believe Geralt could potentially choose to go either way, most of the time.

 

[Cs__sz__r]

I'll do three playthroughs. My third will be as true to Geralt as can be, though I agree with above posters that they do good to make Geralt-esque choices on bothe sides.

Playing *as* Geralt is a real pain in the ass sometimes, having to think hard on what he would do in some not so obvious choices.

 

[Scholdarr]

Usually true to myself. In my opinion CDPR are very good at making a set of decisions and outcomes which you can believe Geralt could potentially choose to go either way, most of the time.

Agreed.

But I also think that this approach is a double-edged sword. In many decisions in TW2 I personally felt that none of the options really fits to what the literary Geralt would do. It's a hot-wire act for a really huge fans of the books like me since you never feel completely satisfied and you also never really feel disappointed with much choices. I personally hope that CDPR will perhaps give us even more choices and options (A,B,C and D instead of A and B) with one really true to the canon/Geralt's characters/attitude.

 

[RedFire01]

Even on my first playthrough of the Witcher 1 and 2, before i read the books, i tried to stay as close to Geralt as possible. I guess CDPR gave a good impression to me on who Geralt was because i did pretty much every decision like what Geralt would do from the books.

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

I do both, but in the same playthrough.

I realized a while ago that my own choices are often in line with what Geralt would do.

 

[Geraltie-Poo]

I try hard to do both at once. However, as said above, lots of potential choices are set up to make it usually feel like Geralt is still Geralt, which is awesome.

 

[Sibladosi]

I try to play true to myself on the very first playtrough. Eventualy I do try do play Geralt like his literary caracter. But yeah, multiples playtrough usualy gives you this oportunity, but since geralt lost his memory in TW1, I don't think that he would act exatualy as he once was. And his new experience withouth his memory could be enough to change his future decisions, mening the Geralt we play is not entierly the same as the Geralt in the book, even if they are the same person! This is one of the things that I find so perfect in the games of the Witcher's universe, even if you do the game completly diferent from Geralt's original self, it is still Geralt. The setup that they created allow this "multiple persnalitys" whitout losing "truthiness" (not sure if it is the best word to use here =P) to the story!:hatsoff:

 

[Garrison72]

The one thing the Witcher series does that no other RPG can do: It demands I play as myself.

 

[Sardukhar]

The one thing the Witcher series does that no other RPG can do: It demands I play as myself.

HOW is this the case?

Unless you're a chemically-augmented supersoldier with an over-sex-drive? Makes poor choices in women and then makes it worse? Almost always fails to complicate the hell out of things? Kills waaay too easily? Fails to keep his head down and get through the day, maybe protect and raise his foster daughter somewhere safe-ish? Risks life and limb daily for some realllly silly reasons...and crappy pay.

I mean, I get the whole immersed-in-plot-of-real-consequences shtick. I get the whole this-world-feels-real thing. Sure.

Point is, I'm obviously not me when I play. Reaaaaly obviously. It's not my history, my setting, my choice of friends, my moral choices in the past as evinced in the present. I play as Geralt because, frankly, he's made so many crappy choices I HAVE to play as him. I try to imbue him with what I think a man who has learned would do and make better choices, but, yeah, he's not me. Noooo way.

 

[Garrison72]

HOW is this the case?

Unless you're a chemically-augmented supersoldier with an over-sex-drive?

I mean, I get the whole immersed-in-plot-of-real-consequences shtick. I get the whole this-world-feels-real thing.

Hm. Actually I do get..NEVER MIND.

Point is, I'm obviously not me when I play. Reaaaaly obviously. It's not my history, my setting, my choice of friends, my moral choices in the past as evinced in the present. I play as Geralt because, frankly, he's made so many crappy choices I HAVE to play as him. I try to imbue him with what I think a man who has learned would do and make better choices, but, yeah, he's not me. Noooo way.

Simple. The moral dilemmas cut too close to home for me. I can let loose in Fallout 3, in Dragon Age, in Mass Effect. But The Witcher compels me to act like I really would. I don't role play, I guess. I feel Like I'm already Geralt.

Maybe that sounds creepy...

 

[Sardukhar]

Simple. The moral dilemmas cut too close to home for me. I can let loose in Fallout 3, in Dragon Age, in Mass Effect. But The Witcher compels me to act like I really would. I don't role play, I guess. I feel Like I'm already Geralt.

Maybe that sounds creepy...

Yes.

Yes it does. Also...you don't, ah, live anywhere near me, do you? <check>

Oh, good. MANY miles away. I have been there, weirdly enough. Your beef jerky selection is AMAZING.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

I don't think any choice CDPR offered thus far in both TW1 and TW2 felt as completely non-canonical, something that a real, book Geralt would never have done. All choices, I hope, will be well-reasoned, and all will be canonical. In RL we also wrestle with multiple choices all the time, and whatever option we pick, it is ours (if you believe in free will, that is). You can't say that when you deliberate, for example, what school to attend, there is only one choice that is truly yours. The same with Geralt, whatever path he picks, is his, and whatever he did not pick, is his as well, because he could have picked it.

 

[Lurtz_Of_Orthanc]

I appreciate that the Witcher canon exists, but that doesn't mean I give a crap about who Geralt was before the opening cutscene of Witcher 1. These are games that offer moral choices and all the fun for me is getting to make those choices and come down hard doing what I feel is right, and enforcing that with a sharp word or a sharp blade, whichever is more appropriate and whichever I'm more in the mood for. Neutrality bores me to tears, and I've never played a neutral Geralt. The Witcher Order is long over, and I feel no loyalty to its code. Geralt's world is a dark and nasty place, but by circumstance, I'm playing a man with just enough superhuman abilities to edge out opponents time and time again. From the Kings to the Beggars, pretty much everyone is looking to scam, cheat, and exploit the world, and my Geralt is just the man to ruin their plans.

Daenerys Targaryen is a foolish girl with much to learn. But her quote applies directly to how I always play my Witcher. When my Geralt approaches a situation, if things go badly, the ultimatum will always be thus: "They have a choice: They can live in my new world or they can die in their old one."

 

[Ifrit30]

Well I always play a mixture of both first, as I compare how the character (in other games as well) would really act according to the situation and how it would differ to my own, then I do take the choice which seems more appropriate to the current scene and canon/lore or choices which wouldn't at least would hurt if it differs from the canon/lore (I mean stuff like Geralt wouldn't kill an innocent walking by just out of nowhere).

When I completed the game and replay it, I do other playthroughs with different choices (if the game offers it).

 

[GuyNwah]

I play "what would Marlowe do" (or Sam Spade, or the Continental Op, or Macreedy). To me, Geralt is a Chandler or Hammett hero, the man of the mean streets who must take care not to lose what humanity he has to them.

...down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.... He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him....

The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in.

[Raymond Chandler, "The Simple Art of Murder"]

 

[StaGiors]

@Guy N'wah

This is what I feel "canon" Geralt stands for. He is not so much about neutrality, at least not now, after all he has been through. He is more about trying to be the "best" Geralt he thinks he could possibly be, in every single situation in his life. That is how I will play the game I guess. Very close to slimgrin's approach. When I play the witcher games, I get lost in the world. I am not me anymore, I am Geralt. I try to act as Geralt would, taking into account the emotions he is having, and how he would react to such emotions (of course subconsciously projecting my own character through that, as my version of "canon" Geralt, can't be the same as Sapkowski's vision). But that is pretty much it. I couldn't be me in a world such as the Witcher's world. I do not even know if I would survive in such a world. So I "become" Geralt, isn't that the goal of RPG's anyway?

 

[wichat]

I plan to do both eventually. But my first playthrough will always be a Geralt that is closest to his form in the books.

Same here. To me, the challenge of the game is make choices that are not based on me (playing true to myself is the easier solution to me), but on a third person and try to understand what he/she acts this way. I know what I want, don't think about most of desicions, but being Geralt or another defined character, I have to make an exercise of empathy, and so discover some reactions that I've never expected cause "no my" desicions and make enjoy more of the game and the story.

After that, I'll play more playthroughs just to enjoy the feeling that I "am" in this world and looking under every little rock for personal surprises when I'm not Geralt

 

[Vigilance.492]

I played TW1/2 before reading the books & I made some pretty stupid mistakes, but I think for my first run of TW3 I'm going to try to keep that tradition of playing "blind". Obviously I have prior knowledge now that might make me tend to lean towards some choices over others, but for the most part I'm going to attempt to just make decisions based on what I feel is right & not choose something purely because it's what "book Geralt would do".

Then for another playthrough after I'll go full book.

Like currently after seeing the Yen & Triss models I can already feel that it's going to be a damn hard choice between them. So if Triss is very well written & I think that she's honestly got the more enjoyable personality in the game, I'm going to pick her. I'm not just going to charge in with a "I MUST PICK YENNEFER" mind simply because that's what the books tell me is "right".