Game News New Witcher 3 "Killing Monsters" trailer (CD Projekt cannot into countdowns)

[Dantus12]

That's kind of petty, man.

Also, both the books and the games are set in a fantasy world with elves and dwarves, so complaining about "intrusive LOTR influence" is kind of silly.

Wasn't trying to be petty.

I'm a long time declared Witcher fanboy , still just the idea of comparing sword and sorcery to high fantasy, or Tolkien's elves with
Sapkowski's elves, particularly the Elle and even the Sedhe is somewhat strange.

Fantasy worlds don't have to be realistic, not even logical, maybe they can be at least plausible. The games did well with that, for now. Currently it feels overtaken by Bethesda and Biodrones.
I just want to finish Geralt's story and then they can turn the Universe in 90210 if they want, it's their IP.
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[Cool name]

This statement is so fucking stupid I don't even.

I'll take your word for it.

That sounds like an exceedingly poor piece of fiction and one with no reason to use Geralt as a character, but beyond your example, you are right.

I don't really read a lot of modern booksies so I know bleep about Geralt. It was kind of a random example. But, hey, if we can laugh it off and have fun with it when it comes to Cao Cao we can most certainly laught it off and have fun with it when it comes to Geralt, whomever he is.

 

[abnaxus]

Piękne. To się nazywa umieć zrobić grę! Geralt jak i głos Geralta jest tak idealnie dopasowany i zrobiony, że brak słów. CD Project to jedna z najlepszych firm tworząca gry na świecie, przynajmniej jak dla mnie! Pełen Szacun dla twórców i aktorów!

:

 

[Servo]

It's fiction, dude. Who gives a fuck about whether or not the lore is raped or the characters are changed? If someone's so invested in a work of fiction as to worry about this kind of shit they need a therapist and a bleeping life.

This statement is so fucking stupid I don't even.

I'll take your word for it.

MasPingon is right. This forum exists because people care about what you apparently think is silly bullshit.

'White Knight Geralt Who Saves The Innocent, Protects The Weak, And Has A Beard' is just as valid as, uhm, whomever the fuck Geralt is elsewhere.

That sounds like an exceedingly poor piece of fiction and one with no reason to use Geralt as a character, but beyond your example, you are right.

I don't really read a lot of modern booksies so I know bleep about Geralt. It was kind of a random example. But, hey, if we can laugh it off and have fun with it when it comes to Cao Cao we can most certainly laught it off and have fun with it when it comes to Geralt, whomever he is.

I don't think Grunker's point was that you need to have a better understanding of fiction. If CDPR wanted to make a game that's full of action and explosions and crap, and then turn the lead character into a sort of white knight, it's a wonder that they would try to imitate this particular story.

 

[tuluse]

If it's different enough and can stand on its own, why do you need the foundation? Why not make a game about some monster hunter - hardly a unique concept in RPGs.

I don't know if this applies specifically to the Witcher , but there are several reasons for wanting to make an adaptation to a work of art.

Amercan McGee's Alice could have worked as a story about a random girl in a mental ward, but it wouldn't have been the same.

Gene Wilder could have played any eccentric chocolatier, but playing Willy Wonka added to the movie.

Usually you want to make a point about the original work, or you want to play with people's expectations. In video game format, you could just want to create a space where the original fictional work can be explored with more agency from the consumer (like all the good Star Wars games).

We live in an age where licensed works mean either cheap cash-ins or franchise rape, so it's certainly easy to be cynical, but there are legitimate artistic reasons for wanting to use an existing fictional world and characters, and wanting to change them to a certain degree.

 

[Grunker]

If it's different enough and can stand on its own, why do you need the foundation? Why not make a game about some monster hunter - hardly a unique concept in RPGs.

I don't know if this applies specifically to the Witcher , but there are several reasons for wanting to make an adaptation to a work of art.

Amercan McGee's Alice could have worked as a story about a random girl in a mental ward, but it wouldn't have been the same.

Gene Wilder could have played any eccentric chocolatier, but playing Willy Wonka added to the movie.

Usually you want to make a point about the original work, or you want to play with people's expectations. In video game format, you could just want to create a space where the original fictional work can be explored with more agency from the consumer (like all the good Star Wars games).

And this, in no way, implies "staying true" to the continuity or "lore" of what you're adapting. Just to get that straight, since both me and Dantus12 brofisted you...

The "franchise rape" you speak of is only to the extend that adaptions are bad. What and how much they change about what they're adapting doesn't matter.

 

[Rake]

the idea of comparing sword and sorcery to high fantasy,

The Witcher stoped being S&S many books ago.(after the first to be frank) By the end it was straight epic fantasy.

 

[Cool name]

MasPingon is right. This forum exists because people care about what you apparently think is silly bullshit.

Last time I did check this was the RPG Codex, not the Pulp Fantasy Purist Codex. As in we play RPGs, games about numbers and dices and turning dudes into XP. I do a lot of P&P gaming both as a GM and a player, and my group routinely does horrible thingies to the orifices of all kinds of fiction. Being a Pulp Fantasy Purist is in no way related to playing RPGs. It is just related to being a hipster and a faux elitist creep who doesn't have anything more important to be anal about.

I don't think Grunker's point was that you need to have a better understanding of fiction. If CDPR wanted to make a game that's full of action and explosions and crap, and then turn the lead character into a sort of white knight, it's a wonder that they would try to imitate this particular story.

Because that's what people does with stories. They have been doing it for a couple thousands of years. People didn't use to get their knickers in a knot over it. Stories grow. Stories change. Stories become something else entirely. That's what stories do. Fanfic is pretty much older than literature itself so, like, get over it. Stories are vehicles, and stories are entertainment. They have no purpose beyond that. The storyteller does what he wants with the purpose of conveying the message he wants to convey and of being entertaining. The story has no reality beyond that. Who was Geralt? Geralt was whomever the bleep that potato dude wanted him to be to convey his messages and entertain, and Geralt is whomever CDProject wants him to be to convey their messages and entertain. King Arthur went through it. Faust went through it. Every single folk hero went through it. Lots of classical pieces of literature went through it. Fuck, Water Margin had a porn spin off written by some dude back in the 16xx. Dude. Water Margin. The educated elite did read it. No one died over it. Water Margin didn't stop existing, either.

Amusingly enough some dudes are watching that trailer and going 'OMFG! HERESY!' and others are going 'Hey, it actually fits the character!' *shrug* What is next? My interpretation of the character can beat your interpretation of the character?

 

[Servo]

MasPingon is right. This forum exists because people care about what you apparently think is silly bullshit.

Last time I did check this was the RPG Codex, not the Pulp Fantasy Purist Codex. As in we play RPGs, games about numbers and dices and turning dudes into XP.

I guess I should have said this thread exists because people care about what you apparently think is silly bullshit Either way, point taken.

I don't think Grunker's point was that you need to have a better understanding of fiction. If CDPR wanted to make a game that's full of action and explosions and crap, and then turn the lead character into a sort of white knight, it's a wonder that they would try to imitate this particular story.

Stop talking out of your ass, Servo.

Grunker Brofists this.

I must have misunderstood Grunker's point then. Again, my bad.

Because that's what people does with stories. They have been doing it for a couple thousands of years. People didn't use to get their knickers in a knot over it.

I've been getting my knickers in a knot for at least ~27 years now :

Anyways, I guess the take-away (for me at least) is some people really feel like the games should closely implement the books, and some people think those other people are stupid for feeling that way.

The "franchise rape" you speak of is only to the extend that adaptions are bad. What and how much they change about what they're adapting doesn't matter.

So, like, if the Lord of the Rings movies sucked, people would be upset at Peter Jackson for not sticking close enough to the books. But they were awesome, so people praised Peter Jackson for basically making a video translation of the original story.

I guess I feel like The Witcher kinda sucks so I'm more prone to say it should try harder to be like the books But I never read the books. Just going off of what others have said, they sound a little more interesting than the games.

 

[Grunker]

So, like, if the Lord of the Rings movies sucked, people would be upset at Peter Jackson for not sticking close enough to the books. But they were awesome, so people praised Peter Jackson for basically making a video translation of the original story.

What I am saying is if he made an adaption where the hobbits where all acid-trippin' ninjas in space and it was an awesome movie, who the fuck cares if it "lore rape"?

I guess I feel like The Witcher kinda sucks so I'm more prone to say it should try harder to be like the books

The writing in the books isn't that much better than the writing in the game, overall.

Sure, the gameplay sucks except for narrative reactivity, but that's another beast entirely.

 

[Servo]

So, like, if the Lord of the Rings movies sucked, people would be upset at Peter Jackson for not sticking close enough to the books. But they were awesome, so people praised Peter Jackson for basically making a video translation of the original story.

What I am saying is if he made an adaption where the hobbits where all acid-trippin' ninjas in space and it was an awesome movie, who the fuck cares if it "lore rape"?

That movie sounds pretty badass.

 

[Mrowak]

OK so the girl is supposed to be a cannibal. Hmm, yeah, I'll take your word for it, russkies!

Hey, she had a fair trial. She was duly sentenced and taken to be executed. Russky read her charges to her "murder of wounded, looting, cannibalism - sentenced to death by hanging or torment". And they carried out their sentence.

This is three blokes trying to do a good day's work to earn a living and they just get slaughtered by some random prick because he's a better swordsman and the women is attractive.

Where's the justice in that? Supposedly she's poor and desperate, just tyring to make a living. But then you're saying it's ok for a woman to kill, steal and eat human flesh if she's poor and desperate - but it's not ok for men to take a decent, honest job because they're poor and desperate too.

All this video does is reinforce sexist cultural stereotypes that men are evil and attractive women are innocent "damsel's in distress" that need to saved by sword wielding heroes.

Anita Sarkeesian would be most upset.

I agree with that. I mean, by medieval and even TWitcher (novels) standards these guys are on the level. That sergeant dude actually bothers to read the sentence, the blokes are not raping the woman, or anything - they try to execute justic and instill order in a war-torn region. Granted, they might be doing that for all the wrong reasons, but they do lack the sadistic glee about them which reflects positively upon them. I could understand the disdain the protagonist feels, but not what pushed him to murdering "honest" soldiers. That's why I said this scene is over the top and sensationalist nonsense - it takes the situation out of context and puts contemporary tropes ("oh a poor, attractive woman, abused by gruff blokes with the looks of russkie peasants") so that trailer has clear, relatable but ultimately shallow message behind it.

You mean Nilfgaardian justice? The justice of something that made more problems for Geralt and those he loves than all Northern Kingdoms combined.

I don't really want to enter a fanboish squabble, being a Sapkowsky fanboy myself but... what problems did Nifgaldrian justice cause to Geralt? Last time I checked Geralt couldn't give a flying fuck about Nilfgaard and the war with the Nordlings - sure it may have caused immediate difficulties (e.g. fighting Nilfgaard troops on that Bridge on the Yaruga to save his gang), but he had more pressing, personal things in mind than raging at the injustice of the "Black Ones"... which wasn;t that unjust. In fact Sapkowsky makes a point to show similarities between both sides of the conflict by stressing how petty and (rarely) noble they can be.

More to the point how does yours sentence have anything to do with what we see in the trailer?

Geralt of the books has impulses, I cant see any sensationalism and damsel in distress, in the books he reacts to a raped lass, despite claiming to never meddle, because he sees Ciri in her, he rescues Anguleme because she reminds him of Ciri, the Witcher2 showes teh "badass" Nilfgaardians down the players throat, and a very non-responsive Geralt that often doesn't question anything, ponder the idiocy of "Conspiracy Theory," in Witcher 2.

Yes, but he is not an a dumb action heroe idiot who kills the bloke who just paid him money, because four guys just do their job. He knows little of the context (maybe the girl really was a cannibal; maybe the soldiers caught her as she was cutting the throat of their commrade, severely wounded on the battlefield?), so why does he meddle in something that is quite beyond him? The answer is: sensationalism and pandering to the masses. And trust me we could do away with it in TW3. Sapkowsky did his utmost to avoid that, giving Geralt clear insight into situation so he could (grudgingly) do his White Knight routine (for which he usually paid a hefty price). CDPRed cannot into flair and style, it seems.

 

[Amerilias]

Maybe the trailer shows just one of many possible courses of action. If you were playing and making decisions, what would you do? It's up to a player (like in previous game , Malena incident )

 

[Azrael the cat]

He saved someone guilty of murder and cannibalism? Dat moral choices!

I do have my doubts that she was really guilty of that. Seemed more like a case of "We don't like you, so we frame you". Or "She's evil, because.. uhrm... woman!".

Then again, remember the chapter 1 of the first game? Where you have what seems to be a raping, evil lynch mob (so evil that a beast is plaguing the town as a manifestation of their - or somebody's evil) killing a witch who just wants to sell curing potions? All your interactions seem to indicate 'witch is good', 'townies are bad and looking for a scapegoat'. But while nothing ever points it out to you, if you keep your eyes open and look around at some of the things you can find around the place, it's quite clear that she's completely fucking guilty and has gone well beyond 'justified revenge' to 'cold evil sorceress bitch'.

 

[Grunker]

He saved someone guilty of murder and cannibalism? Dat moral choices!

I do have my doubts that she was really guilty of that. Seemed more like a case of "We don't like you, so we frame you". Or "She's evil, because.. uhrm... woman!".

Then again, remember the chapter 1 of the first game? Where you have what seems to be a raping, evil lynch mob (so evil that a beast is plaguing the town as a manifestation of their - or somebody's evil) killing a witch who just wants to sell curing potions? All your interactions seem to indicate 'witch is good', 'townies are bad and looking for a scapegoat'. But while nothing ever points it out to you, if you keep your eyes open and look around at some of the things you can find around the place, it's quite clear that she's completely fucking guilty and has gone well beyond 'justified revenge' to 'cold evil sorceress bitch'.

Stop talking like the trailer indicates any of this. It doesn't. If it had such a discussion within it, it would be interesting.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

You folks seem to ignore the fact that this is TW3. As in, two games before it had Geralt do ungeralty things already. Since the last book finishes with Geralt dying, and the first game begins with him somehow not being dead, the series has already diverged from the books so much it doesn't matter that much.

Personally, I don't care. Books are one thing. Game is another. Potato is third. What I want for TW3 is for it to be a good, fun game. If Geralt being ungeralty bothers you so much, I'm 100% sure you'll be able to mod it so that he's called Buba the Red-Assed Monkey.

 

[Amerilias]

This reminds "Rashomon" , a film made by Kurosawa ...
This trailer was made to create discussions like this We do not know anything but we must make choices .... Maybe your Geralt would not save her .
I hope we will have that freedom in game.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I found Geralt in the books to be so boring and unlikeable that I don't mind CDProjekt trying something different. I don't want to play as a character who would just walk past a woman being beaten up, killed and possibly raped by a bunch of dirty peasants.

The Sapkowski universe exists on its own, this is CDProjekt's own take on it. Think of it like Nolan and Batman.

 

[Servo]

If Geralt being ungeralty bothers you so much, I'm 100% sure you'll be able to mod it so that he's called Buba the Red-Assed Monkey.

The modders will fix it!

No, but seriously, I do hope this mod becomes a reality.

 

[Darth Roxor]

This reminds "Rashomon" , a film made by Kurosawa ...

o__________________________________________o

 

[Amerilias]

This reminds "Rashomon" , a film made by Kurosawa ...

o__________________________________________o

ok ,ok I overreacted , sorry

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

This reminds "Rashomon" , a film made by Kurosawa ...

o__________________________________________o

ok ,ok I overreacted , sorry

Another add-one to the potato collective.

 

[Mrowak]

You folks seem to ignore the fact that this is TW3. As in, two games before it had Geralt do ungeralty things already. Since the last book finishes with Geralt dying, and the first game begins with him somehow not being dead, the series has already diverged from the books so much it doesn't matter that much.

Personally, I don't care. Books are one thing. Game is another. Potato is third. What I want for TW3 is for it to be a good, fun game. If Geralt being ungeralty bothers you so much, I'm 100% sure you'll be able to mod it so that he's called Buba the Red-Assed Monkey.

It's less of an issue about the medium itself, and more about CDP "getting it", being faitful to the material. I, for one thing, liked that character and the world for what was completely absent in the trailer; what the trailer stands in direct opposition to - Cohesiveness and down-to-earthness. Cheap sensationalism is pervasive everywhere these days. I hoped that at least this one franchise could do away with it.

This reminds "Rashomon" , a film made by Kurosawa ...

Seriously bro...

 

[Grunker]

being faitful to the material

Fuck this. Seriously. No one cares if something "faithful to the material", as long as it is good. See aforementioned acid-trippin' ninja hobbits from space.

Also, completely irrelevant:

http://www.thatvideosite.com/v/4165/stephen-colbert-impersonates-a-nuclear-explosion

 

[Kz3r0]

The problem is that Codex doesn't understand grey morality, choosing between being a scumbag or a paladin it's not moral whatever, nor choosing a lesser evil, choosing to do something questionable for noble reasons is grey morality, the opposite is just hypocrisy.