He probably thinks just listening to the guys point of view is sympathetic.
Heh I was literally going to mention this but cut it out. I didn’t want to sound like I was preaching one way or another.
I think we’re heading down a scary road in the real world where listening is off limits and only social media condemnation is allowed. I liked in the game how this character slowly began to realize it was all his fault beyond empty words to that effect, and he saw the consequences of his actions.
I think most of us agree that Gies is more sensitive to these issues than we are. (I’m discounting the idea that it’s all just an act, and that Gies is putting on a persona, for the sake of this argument.) If these issues bother him, then why shouldn’t he write about how the game made him feel when he played it? I don’t understand how that’s “dishonest” at all.
As readers, we’re entirely free to discount his points if we know that that stuff won’t bother us - just like any other criticism.
Some of the women has a cleavage that… let’s say they showed more than they hide with the cloth. And it isn’t like they were in a party or something. That’s the only small complaint I have, because it gives me the feeling it’s there as fanservice not because it makes sense. But it’s like a speck of sand in comparison with the greatness of the game.
More important is Geralt movement. Funny, at first I didn’t have a problem and I thought people complaining about it were whiners. But in the last two days I’m actually bumping into objects more than before.
You can’t expect sorceresses to make sense. :)
I did laugh / roll eyes that the nip slip outfit is back. Wasn’t it Tom that was like “WTF is going on there?” in The Witcher 2? Still a lot of overgrown boys at CDPR, though I’ve seen no evidence they are misogynists like Gies may be implying.
Keira’s attire was distracting, indeed! :P
But if liking tits makes you a misogynist, well, I think there are a few thousand million misogynists in planet Earth.
I have been getting around scorch by baiting the AI. I think the AI needs to use scorch if the attack number per card is above a certain threshold. I usually will throw round one but try to get the AI to dump as many cards as possible, including scorch. So I will sacrifice my “tight bond” cards or drop a first round horn to draw the scorch. The AI can really be abused if you plan on throwing a round, to the extent where you can play any garbage just to get it to play another card. They could be winning the round by 30 points and still counter your “poor infantry” with a “muster” card.
A fun little thing I was thinking as I slaughtered another group of bandits… Many of the quests or areas are filthy with wraiths and there is a theme about proper burials and respect for the dead yet Geralt is leaving hundreds of bodies lying around. Talk about job security, “sure I will deal with your bandit problem for a fee,” and a few weeks later, “sure I will deal your wraith/drowner/ghoul problem for a fee.”
There should be a quest line about a rogue witcher doing this.
While I’m gushing, I want to praise the sex scene early in the game. It’s so charming and delightful. There’s even a little quest! It’s not a matter of getting a friendship/rivalry meter high enough and then grinding out a perfunctory scene. It’s played in such a happy and natural way, like everything else in this masterpiece of believability.
And to think it happened only three years from when the medium hit rock bottom: showering together wearing underwear in Mass Effect 3.
In the books, most sorceressess would dress like that, many times with much more revealing attires, even if that happens mostly in parties. It is said, however, that some of them would extend that “dress code” outside those parties, and Keira Metz is arguably one of them. So is Síle, apparently, though this one doesn’t show in the books as far as I know.
As much as I like Gwent, I do have to say that the cards using in-game characters as subjects is a bit off-putting.
At the very least, I would like the cards to use art that reflects the style of art used in other in-game objects like tapestries or paintings.
See Geralt or Zoltan on the same board with obvious game studio concept art is really weird for something that’s supposed to be taking place in the world.
In fairness, it’s not just the diminutive scale that makes it so dangerous to live inside an RPG. It’s the fact that the food chain is completely inverted and apex predators make up 95% of the wildlife.
Yes, rhamorim.
They need to spin off Gwent into its own product. It wouldn’t be Hearthstone, but it’d have a much bigger impact than the board game and that freaking MOBA.
Also need an expandalone with Ciri. Expand her repertoire and reuse some of the map.
Free money and prestige for the taking.
Yeah, I do think that he should do it, if the game effected him that way. Totally valid, that is important in a review. But personally for me, I understand that stuff in the game (hard to be a woman) to be world-building and backstory important to understanding the world in the game around us. The skimpy costumes are kind of odd, but in this world, the Sorceresses do that on purpose I think. (magical alteration of features). I am not bothered by this stuff, but that is just me. And as a consumer of content from Polygon, I don’t like it when a review focuses on something that isn’t an issue for me. I think a far more valid criticism would be to point out some of the lazy “Medieval Fantasy times is hard for womens” tropes in the fiction, rather than the fact that they are misogynistic tropes.
I am just venting because he does this so much in his reviews. Every time it ends up being a rant about something or another. I read them with a fascination over how he keeps on trucking with this stuff.
I think he could have a greater impact and write a better review if he were to write an article about his thoughts on the world in the game, and touch on that in the review (with a link). I generally dislike when someone writes a review with an agenda (see reviews of bad games where the author is desperately trying to be funny). Hell, I think I would appreciate it a LOT more if maybe some of the female staff members at Polygon would write about their opinions on this. I am a man, and so is Arthur. Our opinions about what is or isn’t misogynistic and sexist don’t matter as much as it does coming from people who personally are effected by that every day. Also, Polygon has some stellar female writers, and I would love to hear their opinions on this subject.
I also think he misses the point a bit with this particular fiction. Women are treated badly in this world, and many of them are sex objects, but many of them are also some of the most powerful badass characters as well. Like “A Song of Ice and Fire” this fiction is a tad misogynistic, because of the world it is set in. But that baseline misogyny is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gender stereotypes and roles. Things are a lot deeper than they look at face value in both fictions. (Like for instance, sexy sorceresses that use their magic to alter their appearance, who wouldn’t do that if they had the power?).
I agree. It was pretty fun and light hearted, and its conclusion was very true to the books. Really well done, as most everything in this game.
Agreed!
I think a Ciri expansion/game is quite likely, but I’m early in Witcher 3 yet, so not sure how viable that would be. We’ll see.
On the subject of questions - the other day you complained about the wraiths in a certain main quest. Do you mean…
Wandering In The Dark" spoilers
…the “doppelgänger” wraiths that can appear if you examine the wrong symbol in the mystery elf cave?
Timex
3340
The notions of social commentary in the Witcher are kind of interesting, perhaps worthy of a P&R thread about it. (Would certainly be a better thread than the god forsaken GG thread that absolutely refuses to die there)
I think that reviewer missed a few things when he was complaining about some of that stuff.
For instance, there’s tons of violence against women in the game… But I’m not sure there is any more than, or even as much as, against men. Turns out, the game world is insanely brutal. Men are constantly being tortured, enslaved, murdered, etc. I mean, christ, I can’t even count the number of guys I’ve decapitated or literally cut in half.
Regarding the sorceresses being all hot and sexy time all the time, I always took this as part of their character. They got magic, so they kind of make themselves all look super hot… because it gives them an advantage against stupid men. I never regarded this as a negative characteristic.
In fifty hours I haven’t used fast travel once.
Roach is always close by anyway and is enjoyable to ride.
The Keira Metz dinner scene and after. Soo goood. Though I will reload and refuse. “I am a Witcher, not a gigolo.”
And of course there is another quest after that. I can’t believe how they managed to pack so much so high quality content into this in only 3 years. It just boggles my mind when comparing it to copypastethons like AC Unity which are build by 800 people teams over 4 years.
FWIW, I haven’t noticed any lazy objectification. There was a great example in one of the Tropes videos about a bit character in Dragon Age who is established as evil that must be stopped because of how he treats some random group of women who are completely irrelevant to the scene. They are objects used to further the more important conflict between the main character and this man. Whereas in the infamous quest Gies mentions, the woman in question is her own person with her own thoughts and desires, and a complete arc separate from the hero’s story. (The picture I quoted says a thousand words about the ultimate importance of the men in that quest.) She also happens to be pretty badass, though from what I gather, “strong female character” doesn’t always have to mean the ability to swing a sword like a man.
I also think there’s more to it than equal opportunity brutality. They don’t use that as a crutch to defend an objectified treatment of women. The game treats both sexes like real people in a challenging and lawless time. The weak are often victims left with few options and we see the real consequences those people have to deal with. It seems fair even if it doesn’t make every other guard captain a woman like a Bioware game, for example.
I’m no expert on this so I could be wrong. I also have no idea if this is what men and women who play games really want. I just think a baseline of competence and care is remarkable when most games struggle with that so much.
The one tone deaf thing I’ve seen is an ambient line by some peasant who makes a quip about whether to beat his wife once or twice per week. I might be missing a joke here because it’s so out of place.
