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Interview The Witcher 2 Interview with Tomasz Gop

Jaedar

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VentilatorOfDoom said:
made said:
Baron said:
What a uniquely embarrassing interview, belligerent to the developer, classy. So, the Codex actually found a developer who would still talk to them and they were complete dicks to them? :thumbsup;
Obviously, VoD had to make up for sucking true underground developer Larian's cock, so he conjured up all his biting wit for this interview. It's the kind of questions the Codex would like to throw at Bioware, but since they'd just laugh it off, CDPR has to substitute.

Except I was berated for being too hostile/belligerent in the Larian interview too. Seems like some retards here will always interprete it as hostility or belligerence when some critique comes up. Let's hope the developers understand that there's no hostility involved on my part.
I like the codex style of interviews. Where regular interviews is a candy shop for the deceloper to pick and choose how he or she wants to hype the game a codex interview is like navigating a minefield except the mines are made of mocking. Much more interesting to read.
 

made

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Well, Divinity 2 combat had one property that kind of stood out in a positive manner...
Another rather nifty idea in Divinity 2 was the mindreading...
An area where Divinity 2 excelled, exactly like DD before...

And that interview isn't littered with witty remarks. It's obviously very different in tone compared to the CDPR interview.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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Baron said:
The Witcher inventory system was a little clumsy, but appropriately limited; it certainly wasn't bad (I played the enhanced edition). I know I was still walking around with 2 swords, a club and a woodaxe. I didn't feel 'vulnerable' or underequipped for the mean streets of Vizima. TW's strength was that you WERE always struggling for coin, which fit the character and gameworld perfectly. You still pursued the enjoyable mini-games of gambling and pummelling drunks to earn extra coin, and used it to buy the odd trinket (drowner bracelet). I used my spare coin for books, being the academic kind of scarred albino who was genuinely interested in the gameworld lore (as opposed to Dragon Age's which left me in a deep coma I was unable to be woken from. Fucking Tranquils wrote that game.) The Witcher's economy was the best I'd ever seen, given it was the only game I could recall where I couldn't have purchased the nation I was traversing midway through the game.
Certainly a valid view. I don't agree with everything but it would have been cool if Tom Gop would have replied in a similar manner instead of just
You’ll have way more space in inventory. You will be able to carry more weapons, and you will be able to sell them, yes. Oh, and there’s never been any hidden agenda behind it, of course! ;)))
The interview would have been more interesting that way. You know, it's his right to dispute my views. That's why I explained my position on a subject before asking whether they have made improvements regarding this subject - to give him something to work with.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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made said:
Well, Divinity 2 combat had one property that kind of stood out in a positive manner...
Another rather nifty idea in Divinity 2 was the mindreading...
An area where Divinity 2 excelled, exactly like DD before...

And that interview isn't littered with witty remarks. It's obviously very different in tone compared to the CDPR interview.

I liked the alchemy system in TW. It wasn't really necessary to delve into it too deeply because the game wasn't that hard, but it was fun to tinker around with anyways.

I understand, only when I assure them before and after each question how much i LOVED their game is it a proper professional interview. Otherwise it's belligerence.
 

made

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VentilatorOfDoom said:
I understand, only when I assure them before and after each question how much i LOVED their game is it a proper professional interview.
I'm just pointing out an - obvious to me - difference in tone between the two interviews.

Then again, I also thought the " It’s a well known fact that RPGs are about killing all hostiles and then selling their loot to buy even better loot" line was dripping with irony, but it seems you were actually serious about that, so what do I know.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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made said:
I'm just pointing out an - obvious to me - difference in tone between the two interviews.
OK, if there's a difference in tone (something I didn't shoot for) then I suppose it must be a subconscious thing.
On the other hand the tone in the Larian interview was *allegedly* too hostile as well, so I prefer to call bullshit on all of this, unless you can show me the questions that were aimed at *being hostile for no reason* instead of asking for details about a topic.

made said:
Then again, I also thought the " It’s a well known fact that RPGs are about killing all hostiles and then selling their loot to buy even better loot" line was dripping with irony, but it seems you were actually serious about that, so what do I know.
I wasn't serious, it was rather meant to be a joke.
 

BelisariuS.F

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VentilatorOfDoom said:
made said:
Then again, I also thought the " It’s a well known fact that RPGs are about killing all hostiles and then selling their loot to buy even better loot" line was dripping with irony, but it seems you were actually serious about that, so what do I know.
I wasn't serious, it was rather meant to be a joke.

You should be careful about giving developers weird ideas, even for a joke. They may take it seriously...
 

DraQ

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BelisariuS.F said:
DraQ said:
So, I'm not up to date:

What's with this dragon fighting thing? Geralt going dragonslayer would be massively out of character and massive decline? I suppose there will be some unexpected (from the typical fantasy PoV) options here like there were in the vampiric brothel quest, is there any info?

What we currently know:
- there is sequence in the prologue (during a castle siege) where a dragon is chasing Geralt;
- it ends with Geralt stabbing the dragon in the face;
- if you enable QTEs you will be mashing buttons;
- if you disable QTEs you will be watching a cutscene.
I assume the dragon is not killed? Because knowing the first game and the books it just reeks of a plot hook of sorts, and I would be surprised and disappointed if you didn't meet the dragon later on and not necessarily on antagonistic grounds.
 

el Supremo

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DraQ said:
I assume the dragon is not killed? Because knowing the first game and the books it just reeks of a plot hook of sorts, and I would be surprised and disappointed if you didn't meet the dragon later on and not necessarily on antagonistic grounds.
I don't see why killing a dragon would be such a big deal. I mean, I have recently read relevant short story, and while Geralt is quite adamant about his refusal to hunt dragons; just like he would not hunt humans, elves, or whatever; at one moment, when certain dragon came looking for troubles, Geralt finally lost his patience and was about to fight it. Even Dandelion asked him to not kill this pretty dragon, just kick it's ass. Sure, then something else happend, but still... As I take it, Geralt just wont not kill dragon for a reward.
 

DraQ

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Gordon Freeman said:
DraQ said:
I assume the dragon is not killed? Because knowing the first game and the books it just reeks of a plot hook of sorts, and I would be surprised and disappointed if you didn't meet the dragon later on and not necessarily on antagonistic grounds.
I don't see why killing a dragon would be such a big deal. I mean, I have recently read relevant short story, and while Geralt is quite adamant about his refusal to hunt dragons; just like he would not hunt humans, elves, or whatever; at one moment, when certain dragon came looking for troubles, Geralt finally lost his patience and was about to fight it. Even Dandelion asked him to not kill this pretty dragon, just kick it's ass. Sure, then something else happend, but still... As I take it, Geralt just wont not kill dragon for a reward.
Sure, it's self defense in such case but still something would not click from the story, not Geralt's side of the game.

I fully expect dragons to make appearance in the game as characters, not antagonists - at least not obligatory antagonists. Maybe Geralt will get to meet certain friend of his.
 
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I think it wasn't hostile enough. Tom got rid of the turn based feel, and even the pause is now no longer a pause, we don't know if the 16 endings build up during the game, or we all just see the same story and then BAM! "Your play resulted in ending #12 watch cutscene #12 to see what happened as a result". Also, no bum sex - need urgent petition.

Seriously though, good one VoD, pity he didn't get back to you on the follow up points. Can you now do Laidlaw and ask him Codex questions? Pretty please?
 

BelisariuS.F

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Befuddled Halfling said:
I think it wasn't hostile enough. Tom got rid of the turn based feel, and even the pause is now no longer a pause, we don't know if the 16 endings build up during the game, or we all just see the same story and then BAM! "Your play resulted in ending #12 watch cutscene #12 to see what happened as a result".

We know that there are two versions of the second act (different sets of main quests and different places to explore), two versions of the third act, eight epilogues each with two endings.
 

J_C

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Befuddled Halfling said:
Can you now do Laidlaw and ask him Codex questions? Pretty please?
It would be so great, unfortunately it's not gonna happen. Bioware is afraid of us. :smug:
 

Metro

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Nice work. First meaningful Witcher 2 interview I've seen. I'm far less optimistic about the character system now.

made said:
I'm just pointing out an - obvious to me - difference in tone between the two interviews.

That's because you're an unabashed Witcher fanboy.
 

Mrowak

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GarfunkeL said:
Good interview VOD. It's a sad state of gaming journalism that an interview not filled with sloppy blowjob sounds is now declared to be "hostile".

Sorry, but no. I don't think it was a good interview to be perfectly honest. You see, there are blowjobs in so called gaming journalism. We hate them all - not only because they are pathetic, but also much because they obscure the information we want to receive. The questions they asks are very biased in favour of the interviewee, they enquire about things the dev will have ready answer for, hence all the slurping, derping and idiocy.

I think Ventilator went to the other side of the spectrum completely. It seems to me his questions are quite spot on, but the tone of enquiry is embarassingly hostile - biased against the interviewee. It appears as if the interviewer wanted to corner his interlocutor and gut the truth out of him. It is very sensational, aimed to please the audience. It may be very effective... in tabloid press, or Fox News - not in prestigious magazine.

Let us analyze this specimen:

I suppose there will be a lot of combat in The Witcher 2, so let's talk about the combat system. In The Witcher it was all about clicking every X seconds to chain attacks into combos. That wasn't too exciting but at the very least it didn't require mad mouse & keyboard skills. Now I've read that with The Witcher 2 you're going the button-mashing route. Is that true? So, how do I have to imagine combat in The Witcher 2 - maybe in comparison to some other game it draws inspiration from - and what changes have been made?

1)
In The Witcher it was all about clicking every X seconds to chain attacks into combos.

Was it really all about clicking every X seconds to chain attacks into combos? For each and every encounter? And even if it was like that do you think the dev will share this sentiment? Maybe he thought that positioning was also important. Maybe the spells were also of use? Ventilator generalised, about it - certainly showed that he played the game, but also that he considered other features as unimportant off the bat, without even mentioning them. Not only that you suggest just like that that the whole idea of clicking every X seconds was not only bad - it was retarded. Again, even if you feel that way, the dev who was himself invested in the project is unlikely to share your view. To him it was simple, to Ventilator simplistic. With his tone Ventilator is sending him the message 'you were idiots if you thought for a moment it was good idea.'

That one sentence could have been saved by saying In The Witcher the combat was mostly/mainly about clicking in set intervals to chain attacks into combos. The sentence has now completely different air to it.

2)
That wasn't too exciting but at the very least it didn't require mad mouse & keyboard skills.

Just at the start of the sentence with his That wasn't too exciting, off the bat Ventilator's saying - In my view, that was bloody boring. Ventilator is the only speaker here. Nothing indicates that anyone shares his view. Immediately Ventilator reveals his bias against the subject in question. As a result he loses much of his credibility. He is not impartial anymore.

Alternatively, this sentence could also mean That wasn't too exciting - Everyone thought it was boring. In that case it is extreme overgeneralisation. The dev knows that there are people out there who liked the system in the first game. Consequently, the interviewer comes across as an ignorant.

Also, I don't like it here that the sentence implies that requiring mad mouse & keyboard skills is necessary a bad thing. This negative carries on to the two next sentences.

In contrast with the previous chunk, here a slight generalisation would have saved the grace:

There are those who argue that the system wasn't very exciting, but at least it did not require mad mouse & keyboard skills.

3)
Now I've read that with The Witcher 2 you're going the button-mashing route. Is that true?

From urban-dictionary

Urban dictionary said:
Button masher

1. A person who isn't perticularly good at video games, so they just mash random buttons on the controler, hoping that they do something right. A tactic that works best in fighting games.

2. A game which requires little more than mindless button mashing to win.

Button-mashing

The act of randomly and erratically pressing buttons (with barely a clue as to what is happening) when playing a game (esp. fighting game).

In this one sentence Ventilator lost whatever vestiges of impartiality and professionalism he had. Just like that he attributed very pejorative expression ESPECIALLY in the context of RPGs to a game that wasn't even released. How on earth, did he expect Gop to answer that question? Yes, we made the Witcher 2 a bloody mindless button-masher?? Of course, he went on to explain how the game is not as brainless as you expect it to be - EVEN if Twitcher 2 was a fighting game to begin with. But from the tone of entire query it seems like the interviewer has already made up his mind about what the combat will be.

So, how do I have to imagine combat in The Witcher 2 - maybe in comparison to some other game it draws inspiration from - and what changes have been made?

Did we really have to go through all that hate talk for this question to be asked? It is a good inquiry, I give you that. It is pretty spot on. But from all the implied hostility it seems Ventilator is not interested in the answer at all - at least not in the content. In effect the question fails to elicit meaningful response, other than the dev getting all defensive about the project he was invested in.

And that was only one query!

In conclusion, where this interview fails miserably at is the maintenance of unbiased, impartial voice. VentilatoofDoom strikes as being bent on ridiculing his speaker, or at least driving him into the state where he unwittingly might spit out some info about the game. The writer did not remove himself from the community of gamers to simply report about the product and its quality. Rather, he allowed for his personal views to influence the article.

It is painfully obvious that the interview was created with specific audience in mind - us Codexers - the uncompromising, merciless, cynical bastards, overpassionate about our favourite pastime. We love when our articles to be ironic, grimdark and edgy. Unfortunately, the dev didn't have to know that.

Also, precisely because the article is sensational, tailored towards us it can be accused of untrustworthiness not so much different than that from so called 'blow job' journalists.

I doubt we will get anyone from CDProjekt Red for an interview anytime soon. :/
 

mikaelis

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Mrowak said:
hurrr durrr

I think you and some of the others are behaving like some fucking primadonnas. I honestly don't know what you are on about. The interview was perfectly neutral in my book, as opposite to EVERY god damned interview/blowjob we have unfortune to read.
If I had to complain about something, is that some of the questions were already asked, so I don't see the point in asking them again. They were simply redundand.
If such a tone is going to cross CDRed employers, then they can go and fuck themselves. I don't want to read another rubbish interview for teenagers in MAH CODEX!

Someone should finally put this whole gaming clusterfuck of modern devs and "journalists" where they belong. Hurr :smug:
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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Dear Mrowak, bro. My first impulse was to just ignore your post because some things are best ignored. My second impulse was to ask you whether you're fucking nuts. Anyway, some explanatory notes:

The Witcher 2 you're going the button-mashing route. Is that true?
Is this hostile asking?Let's see:
Tom Gop said:
You can just mash your button and you will swipe through the combat if you want to.
What did we see? I just repeated something Tomek Gop already said himself earlier. In that sense the question "Is that true?" was actually redundant because I already knew it was true. But asking something redundant is just part of making conversation.

In The Witcher it was all about clicking every X seconds to chain attacks into combos.
Is too *hostile*, embarassibly hostile in fact, but
In The Witcher the combat was mostly/mainly about clicking in set intervals to chain attacks into combos.
would be ok? Don't be ridiculous.

That wasn't too exciting but at the very least it didn't require mad mouse & keyboard skills.
Just at the start of the sentence with his That wasn't too exciting, off the bat Ventilator's saying - In my view, that was bloody boring. Ventilator is the only speaker here. Nothing indicates that anyone shares his view. Immediately Ventilator reveals his bias against the subject in question. As a result he loses much of his credibility. He is not impartial anymore.
Also, I don't like it here that the sentence implies that requiring mad mouse & keyboard skills is necessary a bad thing. This negative carries on to the two next sentences.

1) Yes, click-click-click-click-click wasn't too exciting.
2) Yes, this is MY opinion, yes I was the only speaker there, no, I never claimed to speak for everyone or that everyone shares my view.
3) Yes, I don't want the necessity of mad mouse & keyboard skills in my RPG. Leave that for the action game crowd.

How on earth, did he expect Gop to answer that question?
But from all the implied hostility it seems Ventilator is not interested in the answer at all - at least not in the content.
This might come as a shock to you, but I expected him - since I asked for exactly that - to describe the changes they made to the combat system and the reasoning behind the changes.

So I explained my position toward the old combat system and then asked what changes have been made and why and from that you infer that I'm actually not interested in the answer?

In conclusion, where this interview fails miserably at is the maintenance of unbiased, impartial voice. VentilatoofDoom strikes as being bent on ridiculing his speaker, or at least driving him into the state where he unwittingly might spit out some info about the game. The writer did not remove himself from the community of gamers to simply report about the product and its quality. Rather, he allowed for his personal views to influence the article.
Show me an interview or review or another article that is not influenced by personal views. No one speaks for the nameless entity "community of gamers".
 

Baron

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Ahh The Codex, the last defender of gaming journalism, God Be Praised!

Actually, you can ask difficult questions VoD, absolutely; with your knowledge of games and superior Codex breeding, we would demand insightful probing questions. But, again, it was the tone. It was rude, unprofessional, butthurt. And this, mind you, to a Senior Producer of a game that made a true neutral albino whoremonger an inspiration to millions and scored Poland a seat on the Security Council. Why on earth wouldn't you be a little respectful? By what misconceived notion did you actually talk down to a Senior Producer of an internationally successful game who took the time to do your interview?

I picked out some lines where you were being a dick.
"Is stealth a viable approach to solve quests or does a stealth solution happen once or twice in the game as some sort of gimmick?" -- Dick
"That wasn't too exciting but at the very least it didn't require mad mouse & keyboard skills." -- Dick
"Now I've read that with The Witcher 2 you're going the button-mashing route." -- Dick
"It wasn't really necessary to delve into it too deeply because the game wasn't that hard, but it was fun to tinker around with anyways." -- Amadeus slight *
"Was there some problem with using potions during fights I’m not aware of?" -- Self important Dick
"Another detail that bothered me in The Witcher was the inventory. It’s a well known fact that RPGs are about killing all hostiles and then selling their loot to buy even better loot." -- Not really a dick, just wrong with some spasticity.
"That’s something one can easily improve upon one might think." -- A bit dick-ish of you
"You’re advertising The Witcher 2 as being less linear than the original, in what way is it more non-linear? There are no bite-sized chapters this time?" -- Can't you see you're being a dick here?

This site should be the premier online source for RPG discussion, it's sad to watch it work actively against its own usefulness. Congrats anyway on scoring the interview, maybe worth toning it down in the future, tis all. Look forward to skipping over your line by line denial. :salute:

*MOZART : I know your work well, Signore. Do you know I actually composed some variations on a melody of yours?
SALIERI : Really?
MOZART : Mio caro Adone.
SALIERI : Ah!
MOZART : A funny little tune, but it yielded some good things.
 

Canus

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It is really only when viewed in the context of gaming journalism as a whole that this interview comes across as rude and unprofessional. Considering gaming journalists often seem to think being professional and being a sycophant are perfectly interchangeable the lack of professionalism doesn't bother me.
I also don't particularly think the article comes across as rude, slightly brisk perhaps but no reasonable individual could be asked questions like that and leave an interview thinking the interviewer was a total cunt due to it.

It's a briskly worded, moderately informative interview. It is not a page of hate and bile spewed upon an unsuspecting innocent flailing wildly to extradite himself from VentilatorOfDoom's shadowy literary grasp.
 
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god damn you are a faggot baron
 

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