The meme is completely on point. I mean, I know I’ll be roasted for this, but I hated pretty much everything about The Witcher, instantly.
It gave me valuable perspective on what ALL fantasy stuff must look like to people who never fuck with fantasy stuff, and generally dislike it. I only played a few hours of it, and the whole time I was like “they’re not adequately explaining what a ‘witcher’ really even is. They’re not introducing the worldbuilding stuff in a way that makes me give a shit about it. And the main-character-has-lost-his-memory trope is just waaaaaay too overdone, in the first place. This is all just boring me. And now I’m getting…ummm…some kind of virtual post-coital trading card? To commemorate my character boning this redheaded fantasy ho? Okay? That seems sort of classless.”
Keep in mind, I do like fantasy shit. I defend “genre fiction,” whenever I see people employing that phrase as an epithet. But “The Witcher” made me realize what it must really look like, when you’re a non-genre person, looking in from the outside.
Basically, it was both an enlightening and depressing experience.
EDIT: I really hate the fact that I only remembered anything about that fantasy ho, because the stupid ‘sexcard’ helped me fucking remember it. Goddammit.
I forced myself to finish it (fucking third chapter) because everyone keeps saying how good the third one is and I just couldn’t be bothered to go past the tutorial of the second one after playing the first game…
Witcher 2 had a amazing intro video. And then honestly, I don’t remember much of my playthrough. I remember running around whacking things, rolling around a lot and getting 10 hours in, stopped playing because I was too drunk and forgot everything.
Then I played Witcher 3 and went, “Wait, this series is a RPG?!”
The Witcher 1 was honestly pretty mid, I agree with your criticisms. It coasted on an open world, a 3-style fighting system, and the appeal of being a Fantasy Detective™.
The Witcher 3 was genuinely great though, definite recommend.
I do keep hearing that, from a lot of people. I might mess with it, eventually. I’m sure it goes on sale for the price of a bucket of popcorn, pretty frequently.
The earliest (modern, post-printing-press) example of the trope appears to be in A Tale of Two Cities, which was published in 1859. I’m sure there were plenty of other instances of it, before the arrival of the 20th century, but it looks like it wasn’t until the amnesia trope started appearing in various silent-era movies that it really became a cliché.
But it’s a total cliché. And it has been one, for a very long time. That doesn’t mean you can’t employ it, successfully. But if you choose to put that shit in your fiction, you are giving yourself an enormous extra encumbrance. It’s like running a marathon with extra weights strapped to your legs. Succeeding will be much more difficult, and you should only attempt such a flex if you’re REALLY GOOD AT WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
And the dipshits who made “The Witcher” just weren’t good enough. Even without that extra difficulty, they were already writing cringe-ass dialogue and generally doing everything in a low-quality manner.
Listen, I’m working my way through a bottle of Jamison whiskey as we speak and can barely understand what you’re getting at. I read something about amnesia though, which reminded me of my aunt’s exorcism, which also reminded me I still have fries i.N my toaster oven from earlier, so thanks. Good name btw.
Amnesia isn’t an encumbrance for writers, it’s a crutch. When you aren’t good at writing characters and settings with logical depth, you give your main character amnesia. That way anytime something needs explaining you just have your character ask why something is the way that it is. If you need a Deus ex machina to solve a writing mistake you just pull something out of the blue and claim it was always a likelihood.
Even at the time people commented how weird it was. It was a big dipshit move. I’m glad they improved on the matter, even if the Witcher 2 was still a little rough on that point.
The meme is completely on point. I mean, I know I’ll be roasted for this, but I hated pretty much everything about The Witcher, instantly.
It gave me valuable perspective on what ALL fantasy stuff must look like to people who never fuck with fantasy stuff, and generally dislike it. I only played a few hours of it, and the whole time I was like “they’re not adequately explaining what a ‘witcher’ really even is. They’re not introducing the worldbuilding stuff in a way that makes me give a shit about it. And the main-character-has-lost-his-memory trope is just waaaaaay too overdone, in the first place. This is all just boring me. And now I’m getting…ummm…some kind of virtual post-coital trading card? To commemorate my character boning this redheaded fantasy ho? Okay? That seems sort of classless.”
Keep in mind, I do like fantasy shit. I defend “genre fiction,” whenever I see people employing that phrase as an epithet. But “The Witcher” made me realize what it must really look like, when you’re a non-genre person, looking in from the outside.
Basically, it was both an enlightening and depressing experience.
EDIT: I really hate the fact that I only remembered anything about that fantasy ho, because the stupid ‘sexcard’ helped me fucking remember it. Goddammit.
I forced myself to finish it (fucking third chapter) because everyone keeps saying how good the third one is and I just couldn’t be bothered to go past the tutorial of the second one after playing the first game…
There is no reason the play 1 before 2 and 3. And you don’t need to play 2 to play 3 either, though at least tw2 is a good game.
Witcher 2 had a amazing intro video. And then honestly, I don’t remember much of my playthrough. I remember running around whacking things, rolling around a lot and getting 10 hours in, stopped playing because I was too drunk and forgot everything.
Then I played Witcher 3 and went, “Wait, this series is a RPG?!”
W2 crashed for me at some point and I went “well, I’ll carry on playing that at some point” and that was 7 years ago.
People already thought it was classless in 2007
So… the r-word isn’t funny anymore?
The Witcher 1 was honestly pretty mid, I agree with your criticisms. It coasted on an open world, a 3-style fighting system, and the appeal of being a Fantasy Detective™.
The Witcher 3 was genuinely great though, definite recommend.
I do keep hearing that, from a lot of people. I might mess with it, eventually. I’m sure it goes on sale for the price of a bucket of popcorn, pretty frequently.
Yeah, I think I grabbed it for 10$ or something.
Agree toost but, memory loss overdone a la 2007? So a game.yhat was developed in the several years prior even?
The “main character has amnesia” trope was already overdone in 1907, bro.
Example?
The earliest (modern, post-printing-press) example of the trope appears to be in A Tale of Two Cities, which was published in 1859. I’m sure there were plenty of other instances of it, before the arrival of the 20th century, but it looks like it wasn’t until the amnesia trope started appearing in various silent-era movies that it really became a cliché.
But it’s a total cliché. And it has been one, for a very long time. That doesn’t mean you can’t employ it, successfully. But if you choose to put that shit in your fiction, you are giving yourself an enormous extra encumbrance. It’s like running a marathon with extra weights strapped to your legs. Succeeding will be much more difficult, and you should only attempt such a flex if you’re REALLY GOOD AT WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
And the dipshits who made “The Witcher” just weren’t good enough. Even without that extra difficulty, they were already writing cringe-ass dialogue and generally doing everything in a low-quality manner.
Listen, I’m working my way through a bottle of Jamison whiskey as we speak and can barely understand what you’re getting at. I read something about amnesia though, which reminded me of my aunt’s exorcism, which also reminded me I still have fries i.N my toaster oven from earlier, so thanks. Good name btw.
Amnesia isn’t an encumbrance for writers, it’s a crutch. When you aren’t good at writing characters and settings with logical depth, you give your main character amnesia. That way anytime something needs explaining you just have your character ask why something is the way that it is. If you need a Deus ex machina to solve a writing mistake you just pull something out of the blue and claim it was always a likelihood.
Nice reply
Then you blew it calling developers who made a totally optional game to play dipshits.
Ehhh, that’s fair.
EDIT: The sexcard thing still kinda vindicates me. That is a dipshit move.
Even at the time people commented how weird it was. It was a big dipshit move. I’m glad they improved on the matter, even if the Witcher 2 was still a little rough on that point.