Interview CD Projekt Developers Talk About Witcher 3's Open World C&C at Rock Paper Shotgun

[Jaesun]

That must be why I don't like it then. (I'm actually just fucking sick to death of fantasy).

No you're not. You would kill for a full-fledged GoldBox game

True. I would fucking KILL for a New GoldBox Forgotten Realm game.

 

[Meatpies]

I hate that game devs feel the need to throw out hours of gameplay to make the product sound valuable enough
You can't just focus on releasing a good product, need to pad it out just so you can say shit like that.

 

[Roguey]

Most of this sounds great to me. CD Projekt finally getting it together. They still have a weird obsession with copying the Arkham games though.

Sounds very ME2-ish to me. Skip content to get C&C. As always the question is why the hell would you want to skip the content? Isn't it what you paid for? Also having to purposefully gimp yourself in order to get story variations doesn't strike me as good design.

Because the person playing doesn't feel like doing it? The Fallout games had ending slides change based on things you didn't do. Divinity 2 even had a couple of quests that would change if you turned down the quest (for example, guy asks you to clear out a cave, you say no then he decides to head out there on his own; if you go into the cave later you see and loot his dead body).

 

[The Bishop]

Because the person playing doesn't feel like doing it? The Fallout games had ending slides change based on things you didn't do. Divinity 2 even had a couple of quests that would change if you turned down the quest (for example, guy asks you to clear out a cave, you say no then he decides to head out there on his own; if you go into the cave later you see and loot his dead body).

Well, Divinity 2 is certainly a good example of person not feeling like doing something in a game, because combat was a such a snoozefest, but otherwise if player wants to skip on content then game designer simply didn't do his job on delivering interesting gameplay.

 

[Metro]

Anyone asked whether the world will actually be 'open' or is just going to be more of the same and as 'open' as Amalur with jumping/climbing in certain places so that you never deviate from the main paths?

 

[RK47]

Most of this sounds great to me. CD Projekt finally getting it together. They still have a weird obsession with copying the Arkham games though.

Sounds very ME2-ish to me. Skip content to get C&C. As always the question is why the hell would you want to skip the content? Isn't it what you paid for? Also having to purposefully gimp yourself in order to get story variations doesn't strike me as good design.

Because the person playing doesn't feel like doing it? The Fallout games had ending slides change based on things you didn't do. Divinity 2 even had a couple of quests that would change if you turned down the quest (for example, guy asks you to clear out a cave, you say no then he decides to head out there on his own; if you go into the cave later you see and loot his dead body).

Exactly, why do you question the player's agency, it's HIS choice to do or not do it; to simply say the player is stupid not doing your quest is just dev's pride talking. Maybe I don't like the NPC enough? Or maybe I am suspicious of his wife being kidnapped in the middle of afternoon?

To look at the quest skip to C&C as - 'why did people get consequences without making choices?' - is wrong. The player did the first C - the choice was not to help.

 

[Kem0sabe]

They are moving more and more away from the play style of the first Witcher into a strange amalgam of Skyrim and Mass Effect. I will probably still play it but i doubt i will be as excited as i was during the production of TW2 up to release.

 

[Irxy]

I personally would love to see a game where turning down a quest is a real option and doesn't feel like gimping yourself and loosing content.

 

[Roguey]

but otherwise if player wants to skip on content then game designer simply didn't do his job on delivering interesting gameplay.

Not necessarily. Some people just want to do the crit path, others get bored and just want to hurry up and see the ending after a certain point, some like to role play and turn down anything their character wouldn't want to do.

Anyone asked whether the world will actually be 'open' or is just going to be more of the same and as 'open' as Amalur with jumping/climbing in certain places so that you never deviate from the main paths?

They mentioned earlier that Geralt can in fact finally jump this time.

 

[The Bishop]

Not necessarily. Some people just want to do the crit path, others get bored and just want to hurry up and see the ending after a certain point

So basically you agree with me here. People trying to avoid gameplay because at certain point they find it too boring to cope with. Not that there's something wrong with playing games that way, ultimately it's up to the player. I just don't find practice of providing C&C based on how much player is bored with gameplay to be particularly good idea.

some like to role play and turn down anything their character wouldn't want to do.

Turning down requests isn't equivalent to avoiding quests and content altogether. If there's just one way to approach quests and the only alternative is to avoid them entirely then that's not what I'd call compelling quest design, making comparison with ME2 once again relevant.

 

[Metro]

They mentioned earlier that Geralt can in fact finally jump this time.

 

[Jaesun]

 

[BobtheTree]