I was very moved by the story of Witcher 3, and I loved Geralt. To me W3 story was about the personification of chaos and entropy, and The Wild Hunt was a negative manifestation of the fight against time moving everything forward into a state of non existence and decay. At its very root, Ciri was a messiah like figure, who had the power to do something at a point in time that was so far or long away from the people she cared about and was motivated by. Her actions or self sacrifice transcended space and time and was a selfless act that benefited people who would never know of her and that she would never know. It was very hard to let Geralt and Ciri go after Witcher 3. However the whole point of the story (to me) is at its root, its about the actions of people who are healthily or unhealthily coping with the unstoppable passage of time.
I know at first glance it might sound over dramatic, but stories have been one of the most important parts of human culture, society, and life, In many cultures, stories WERE more important than anything else, and the people who could tell them were some of the most important people. Like Homer, Herodotus, Plato, and the countless other ancient figures that we only know about because they told stories, and that we only know about their ancient world and history from their stories. This is a sentiment I rightfully thought the executives and founders at CDPR understood. We had years of marketing and statements from high level CDPR staff promising another great narrative with the same quality, if not better, than The Witcher 3 narrative. This is was kept me on the hook for nearly half of a decade.
Here we are now. Not only is this narrative nowhere near the quality and depth of The Witcher 3, it is not even a good story if you judge it and compare it only to itself. It is such a demoralizing slap in the face, to see the lack of creativity, and all of the missed opportunities to tell something meaningful. Every character is flat and static, V only is driven by his own vanity. The times that V can question his ethics or stand for something, he doesn't. The times you choose to do something good or bad as V, its soulless and arbitrary. We are literally living in a world where corporations are now monopolizing what is true and factual, and what opinions are acceptable. Every single day in our real lives, we question what is actually real and happening, and the difference in our own worldviews and lives are irreconcilable from news station to corporate press releases and official government statements. Every day for most citizens of the first world is a struggle to figure what is real, the only people who don't go through this are the ones who are not conscientious. But I am conscientious about everything, I question everything and demand meaningful justification and coherency from the institutions that claim that is their function. This is why I supported and loved CDPR over the years. They took every chance they could to state that they held similar values to me.
Am I assigning too much meaning to something and do I have unrealistic expectations from storytellers? It would seem that in the year 2020 I do. Did CDPR do anything to make me have a realistic expectation of what this product should be? No, they lead me on and reinforced my expectations, that we would get a world and narrative giving us a chance to thematically challenge, fight back, or accept the most negative aspects of our current society that have gone unchecked. We didn't get anything close to that. Despite the years of promises, the statements of CDPR that story and RPG elements come before anything else with this title, we have nothing. We takeaway from this narrative that big corporations are bad...
This is a common trend in modern day entertainment. Its not that I can't let go of previous characters or stories that moved me in the past, I am struggling to let go of the continuation of meaningful storytelling that leaves you with a message or multiple messages. The entertainment industry is no longer trying to tell a story they care about, or give a narrative and platform to explore their values. These companies no longer have values, and people or institutions lacking their own morals and values are unable to tell a meaningful story. CDPR framed itself for years as one of the last entertainment companies that stood for telling these types of stories that at their core have a universal theme. The times that a universal theme wasn't taking the main stage in The Witcher series, you were giving the option to chose your side or stance.
If you are here reading this, I am guessing you probably agree with most of what I said or have the same position that I do. CDPR has alienated people like us, the ones they said they cared the most about--PC gamers who loved RPGs that tell an impactful story. CDPR adopted us after Bioware alienated us in the early 2010s. It now seems it is CDPR's turn to alienate us like Bioware did almost a decade ago. I guess we will see which company promises to serve us as a target audience next. I have lost all all faith though now that anyone will actually deliver.
I know at first glance it might sound over dramatic, but stories have been one of the most important parts of human culture, society, and life, In many cultures, stories WERE more important than anything else, and the people who could tell them were some of the most important people. Like Homer, Herodotus, Plato, and the countless other ancient figures that we only know about because they told stories, and that we only know about their ancient world and history from their stories. This is a sentiment I rightfully thought the executives and founders at CDPR understood. We had years of marketing and statements from high level CDPR staff promising another great narrative with the same quality, if not better, than The Witcher 3 narrative. This is was kept me on the hook for nearly half of a decade.
Here we are now. Not only is this narrative nowhere near the quality and depth of The Witcher 3, it is not even a good story if you judge it and compare it only to itself. It is such a demoralizing slap in the face, to see the lack of creativity, and all of the missed opportunities to tell something meaningful. Every character is flat and static, V only is driven by his own vanity. The times that V can question his ethics or stand for something, he doesn't. The times you choose to do something good or bad as V, its soulless and arbitrary. We are literally living in a world where corporations are now monopolizing what is true and factual, and what opinions are acceptable. Every single day in our real lives, we question what is actually real and happening, and the difference in our own worldviews and lives are irreconcilable from news station to corporate press releases and official government statements. Every day for most citizens of the first world is a struggle to figure what is real, the only people who don't go through this are the ones who are not conscientious. But I am conscientious about everything, I question everything and demand meaningful justification and coherency from the institutions that claim that is their function. This is why I supported and loved CDPR over the years. They took every chance they could to state that they held similar values to me.
Am I assigning too much meaning to something and do I have unrealistic expectations from storytellers? It would seem that in the year 2020 I do. Did CDPR do anything to make me have a realistic expectation of what this product should be? No, they lead me on and reinforced my expectations, that we would get a world and narrative giving us a chance to thematically challenge, fight back, or accept the most negative aspects of our current society that have gone unchecked. We didn't get anything close to that. Despite the years of promises, the statements of CDPR that story and RPG elements come before anything else with this title, we have nothing. We takeaway from this narrative that big corporations are bad...
This is a common trend in modern day entertainment. Its not that I can't let go of previous characters or stories that moved me in the past, I am struggling to let go of the continuation of meaningful storytelling that leaves you with a message or multiple messages. The entertainment industry is no longer trying to tell a story they care about, or give a narrative and platform to explore their values. These companies no longer have values, and people or institutions lacking their own morals and values are unable to tell a meaningful story. CDPR framed itself for years as one of the last entertainment companies that stood for telling these types of stories that at their core have a universal theme. The times that a universal theme wasn't taking the main stage in The Witcher series, you were giving the option to chose your side or stance.
If you are here reading this, I am guessing you probably agree with most of what I said or have the same position that I do. CDPR has alienated people like us, the ones they said they cared the most about--PC gamers who loved RPGs that tell an impactful story. CDPR adopted us after Bioware alienated us in the early 2010s. It now seems it is CDPR's turn to alienate us like Bioware did almost a decade ago. I guess we will see which company promises to serve us as a target audience next. I have lost all all faith though now that anyone will actually deliver.
