A simple thank you
I wasn't entirely sure where to put this, but it's something that I've been meaning to do for a while now. As I'm officially on holiday vacation and have a lot of free time at the moment, I wanted to drop by and say something that I've been meaning to for a while.
Thank you, sincerely, to everybody and everyone involved with creating The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I'm not a young gamer. I'm 36 years old and have been playing video games for a lot of years now. For a very long time, Planescape: Torment was my favorite game of all-time. CDPR changed that this year with their release of Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
As a longtime gamer, I understand that developers have to make money in order to continue to exist and make more games. I also can definitely tell the difference between a game where that's all that matters and one where it's a labor of love for those involved as well. This game fell into the latter category and gave me hundreds of hours of enjoyment this year. (Currently 325 hours and 25 minutes to be precise on the GoG account I share with my wife under the name ChiliDragon)
I could stop here and leave my thanks general in nature, but I wanted to call out a few things specifically that I am grateful for before I call it a post.
1. Thank you for not only releasing an extremely well polished game but continuing to improve it post-release. The level of polish on even the unpatched PC version of Witcher 3 given the game's size and scale was amazing. That CDPR did not rest on those laurels and continued to patch and improve on the release state for months afterwards despite not really needing to that badly IMO borders on being truly exceptional.
2. Thank you for continuing to listen and work on what few areas of the game were considered just a touch disappointing. For example, as someone who hasn't read many of the books this series is based upon, on my first playthrough of Witcher 3 I found Yennefer to not at all be an attractive romance option compared to Triss. Her coming in only in the third and last game of the series put at an even further disadvantage to individuals like myself who have only experienced the setting through the games. CDPR listened to it's fans and expanded on this area where, again, it didn't really need to.
3. Thank you for caring enough about the side quests in your world to make them truly interesting and fun to play content, and not simply filler. I admit that when I heard that Witcher 3 was going to be an open world game, I assumed it would be filled with time wasting filler. I was wrong. And I'm glad that I was.
4. Thank you for continuing to allow mod support for your games. There is some fantastic user created content out there and it allows for me to customize a few things that I personally prefer that I can understand that others might not. (Such as allowing oils to last a little longer so I don't have to apply them so often.)
5. Thank you for how you handled your DLC. The Hearts of Stone expansion was amazing. While it didn't really tie into the main storyline as much as I might have liked and felt a bit like a separate "Tales from Geralt's Wanderings", it nevertheless told an amazing story and was worth every penny and more. Similarly, while I know that some of the ongoing free DLC was likely also an attempt to get people to keep and not sell their copy of the game to the used game market, generate goodwill, and incentivize players to keep playing so that they'd be more likely to buy the expansions, it was still great content and a nice little bit of spice to add to an already fantastic meal.
6 Thank you for delaying the game several times. I know that gamers can get impatient and frustrated with delays, but the game clearly benefited and it shows. This matters in an age where a lot of games have set budgets and are shoved out the door whether they are ready or not when the deadline comes along or the budget runs out.
7. Thank you for actually finishing the story, and finishing it in a way that felt right and appropriate. So many developers have no intention of ever wrapping up a story of a successful franchise. (Hey Ubisoft!) or they also make grand promises of how your choices will be impactful and finish the story badly. (Hello Bioware!) But Witcher 3 brought resolution and closure. With how great the game was, CDPR could have left loose threads and immediately moved onto Witcher 4. But you didn't. You finished the story in a way that is satisfying and makes the player feel a sense of accomplishment. I cannot describe how much more likely I am to buy Cyberpunk 2077 as a result.
8. Most of all, thank you for how important you considered the writing of your game to be. For me personally, good narrative and character development are essential to a truly great game. Having excellent gameplay is also important, but to truly get invested in what's going on is a special gift that not all games deliver. I cared what happened to many of the characters in this game. Little things like the drinking scene between Geralt, Eskel and Lambert can make the difference between a very good game and an all-time masterpiece and CDPR took the extra time and effort so often in this game.
I could definitely continue to go on, but I suspect that I've made my point.
I'm a very grateful fan and my sincerest appreciation is all that I can really give back aside from Limited Edition preorders of your next game whenever it becomes available, which I will certainly be doing.
