writing quality of The Witcher

I finished The Witcher and somewhat enjoyed it but the very confusing
dialog likely due to the translation made it difficult to follow the
story, I felt as though I was missing the point too often and that
hurt the game for me. So I would not count writing as one of The
Witcher's strong points which is too bad since it was probably due to
the translations.
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

On Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:24:01 -0700 (PDT), "Brandon J. Van Every"
<bvanevery.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:

>It was nominated for a 2008 Writer's Guild Award, but it was beaten by
>Dead Head Fred. http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=2764 A
>guy who worked on Dead Head Fred makes some comments about the award,
>especially why Bioshock was absent from the list of nominees.
>http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/portal-bioshock.html
>
>I'm playing The Witcher demo. I'm at the point where green hellhounds
>summarily kill me. So far I've seen no evidence of high quality
>writing. Characters, bad guys, and plot elements are predictable.
>Dialogue is terrible. Maybe the original Polish dialogue and voice
>acting were better. Some people believe that the voice acting was
>outsourced and performed without direction, resulting in mediocrity.
>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=536 But was the original Polish
>dialogue anything special to begin with? By screenwriting standards,
>what I hear in the English version is bland, devoid of style, turn of
>phrase, wit, insight, character, or poignancy. Who cares what these
>guys are saying, it's perfunctory blah blah blah.
>
>How far does one have to get into the game, before seeing evidence of
>the supposedly good writing? Is it actually *good* writing? Would it
>stand up to a mass public accustomed to Hollywood level writers? Or
>is it merely better than the atrocious writing of the game industry in
>general?
>
>
>Cheers,
>Brandon Van Every

You will have a very nice update in the areas about which you complain
FOR FREE around mid-May. Of course, it may still not satisfy your very
high standards...............................

See theWitcher website and scroll back through the news announcements.

John Lewis
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

Thus spake "Brandon J. Van Every" <bvanevery.TakeThisOut@gmail.com>, Sat, 15 Mar 2008
14:24:01 -0700 (PDT), Anno Domini:

>It was nominated for a 2008 Writer's Guild Award, but it was beaten by
>Dead Head Fred. http://www.wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=2764 A
>guy who worked on Dead Head Fred makes some comments about the award,
>especially why Bioshock was absent from the list of nominees.
>http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/portal-bioshock.html
>
>I'm playing The Witcher demo. I'm at the point where green hellhounds
>summarily kill me. So far I've seen no evidence of high quality
>writing. Characters, bad guys, and plot elements are predictable.
>Dialogue is terrible. Maybe the original Polish dialogue and voice
>acting were better. Some people believe that the voice acting was
>outsourced and performed without direction, resulting in mediocrity.
>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=536 But was the original Polish
>dialogue anything special to begin with? By screenwriting standards,
>what I hear in the English version is bland, devoid of style, turn of
>phrase, wit, insight, character, or poignancy. Who cares what these
>guys are saying, it's perfunctory blah blah blah.
>
>How far does one have to get into the game, before seeing evidence of
>the supposedly good writing? Is it actually *good* writing? Would it
>stand up to a mass public accustomed to Hollywood level writers? Or
>is it merely better than the atrocious writing of the game industry in
>general?

2/10.
Played many crpgs in recent years? Would you like a blowjob with that too
sir? Pfft.

--
Nostromo
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

On Mar 15, 5:24 pm, "Brandon J. Van Every" <bvanev... DeleteThis @gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> I'm playing The Witcher demo. I'm at the point where green hellhounds
> summarily kill me.

Turned out it was my video card. When I set all the video settings to
"low" quality, suddenly combat became playable. I click on guys, they
get chopped up, and faster if I time it with the appearance of the
"flaming sword" icon. The moral of this story, as far as I'm
concerned, is that Vista sucks. SP1 is due out this week, I hope that
does something about my lousy video performance.

I think the frame rates for some of the cutscenes improves also. Not
all of them though; some seemed to be rendered on higher quality
settings no matter what. When the frame rate picks up though, the
characters are a little less on crack. Their eye movements aren't
quite as objectionable. It could be that eye movement requires a
higher frame rate to be represented. Or I could just be getting used
to it, difficult to say. But the eyes have rather sharp reflections
in them on the "low" video settings, so it's hard not to notice the
eyes.

> So far I've seen no evidence of high quality
> writing. Characters, bad guys, and plot elements are predictable.
> Dialogue is terrible.

I put the candles in the 5 fire shrines, and this terminated the
demo. I did manage to wander around a fair amount and collect a lot
of marginally useful stuff from people's houses. I interacted with a
lot of NPCs. I don't think this is remarkable writing. However,
sometimes there's a decent character piece, like some of the dwarves.
Also, having the NPCs moving and voice acted is a big improvement over
Morrowind, the last RPG I played at any length. It may not be
brilliant writing, but it gives the world more of a pulse. Also even
if the game isn't brilliantly written, it is decently animated. That
helps with accepting what's going on.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

On Mar 17, 12:52 am, "Brandon J. Van Every" <bvanev... DeleteThis @gmail.com>
wrote:
> Also even
> if the game isn't brilliantly written, it is decently animated. That
> helps with accepting what's going on.

Not sure if I'm going to buy it. I think the following review shows
how genre-tastic it really is though.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuati...2831-Ze
Like, if you didn't know how to mule and perform alchemy from every
other RPG you've ever played, would you care about any of that?


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

> Some people believe that the voice acting was
> outsourced and performed without direction, resulting in mediocrity.
> http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=536

Both the Italian voice acting and writing are excellent: the guys that
adapted the game did really a great job. So, I suspect that the English
version is suffering from some sub-par adaptation.

Which, now that I think about it, is strange, because, while the voice
acting quality can vary, but the translation was probably based on the
English text.

Anyway, lines like "I'm no poet but I do recognize a pear when I see it" are
already classic. It's no "Torment", but high quality writing nonethe less,
IMHO.
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:15:53 +0100, "Vincenzo Beretta"
<reckall.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote:

>> Some people believe that the voice acting was
>> outsourced and performed without direction, resulting in mediocrity.
>> http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=536
>
>Both the Italian voice acting and writing are excellent: the guys that
>adapted the game did really a great job. So, I suspect that the English
>version is suffering from some sub-par adaptation.
>
>Which, now that I think about it, is strange, because, while the voice
>acting quality can vary, but the translation was probably based on the
>English text.
>
>Anyway, lines like "I'm no poet but I do recognize a pear when I see it" are
>already classic. It's no "Torment", but high quality writing nonethe less,
>IMHO.
>
>

With regard to the English version, please read here:-

http://www.thewitcher.com/community/en/news/444.html

Especially note the following parts of the text:-

" Fans that have already bought the game need not worry, however,
because the new content and improvements will be available to them in
the form of a downloadable update "


"First and foremost, the English language version will be, for the
most part, completely re-done. The amount of text in that version was
reduced compared to other language versions and that was said to cause
a significant decrease in immersion and atmosphere. Now the English
version will be as polished and atmospheric as the other language
versions. "


John Lewis
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

On Mar 17, 9:47 am, john.....DeleteThis@verizon.net (John Lewis) wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:15:53 +0100, "Vincenzo Beretta"
>
>
>
>
>
> <reck....DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> Some people believe that the voice acting was
> >> outsourced and performed without direction, resulting in mediocrity.
> >>http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=536
>
> >Both the Italian voice acting and writing are excellent: the guys that
> >adapted the game did really a great job. So, I suspect that the English
> >version is suffering from some sub-par adaptation.
>
> >Which, now that I think about it, is strange, because, while the voice
> >acting quality can vary, but the translation was probably based on the
> >English text.
>
> >Anyway, lines like "I'm no poet but I do recognize a pear when I see it" are
> >already classic. It's no "Torment", but high quality writing nonethe less,
> >IMHO.
>
> With regard to the English version, please read here:-
>
> http://www.thewitcher.com/community/en/news/444.html
>
> Especially note the following parts of the text:-
>
> " Fans that have already bought the game need not worry, however,
> because the new content and improvements will be available to them in
> the form of a downloadable update "
>
> "First and foremost, the English language version will be, for the
> most part, completely re-done. The amount of text in that version was
> reduced compared to other language versions and that was said to cause
> a significant decrease in immersion and atmosphere. Now the English
> version will be as polished and atmospheric as the other language
> versions. "
>
> John Lewis- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

That's good news but unfortunately I would have a tough time wanting
to replay it it for a long time. Especially for such a story-based
game I don't enjoy replaying games within a year or even two but maybe
by then if the English version of the game is greatly improved due to
this issue then I would give it another play and enjoy it more. I
enjoyed it somewhat even as is (and the story issues likely due to
translation issues are the only big negative I had to the game) but
without any modifications I would probably never replay it so I'm glad
there will be modifications. There were so many times when a
character would take an action or make a decision which didn't make
any sense to me, that can happen a bit in any story-driven game but in
The Witcher it was extremely frequent for me, I'd often wonder "What
on earth just happened here?" and "How did that answer he gave have
anything whatsoever to do with the question he was posed?". Hopefully
that will be fixed with the updates.
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

On Mar 17, 7:04 pm, "Brandon J. Van Every" <bvanev....RemoveThis@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> There are those who will blaze trails in this industry, and those who
> are easily pleased and will repeat the same games we've had for 30
> years.

And really, what have I done in The Witcher demo?
- searched a lot of barrels
- clicked on a lot of monsters to have them die
- criss-crossed the map running errands
- screwed an easy maiden by giving her flowers
- played a boxing minigame
- didn't make a single potion, because somehow I missed how I was
supposed to do it
- leveled up my guy, in a way that's imperceptible to me

Really the only new thing is the easy maiden. It's not making me
hungry for more of the same. I think I've done almost everything that
can be done in the demo. There's a cave to the south that doesn't
seem to have a purpose, unless the Salamanders come back there at some
point. I don't think I'm going to get into the city, seeing as how
any major quest completion with the Reverend ends the demo.

I think it's better done than Morrowind, but it's still basically the
same stuff we're always doing in RPGs.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

> "First and foremost, the English language version will be, for the
> most part, completely re-done. The amount of text in that version was
> reduced compared to other language versions and that was said to cause
> a significant decrease in immersion and atmosphere. Now the English
> version will be as polished and atmospheric as the other language
> versions. "

I'm curious to check it. I played the Italian version (text and dubbing),
and, even with all the national pride in the world, I doubt that a
translation would have improved and enriched the original text. Thus, it is
possibile that the *published* English version was not only "cut" but also
somehow dumbed down from the original "master" English version.
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher 

Thus spake "Brandon J. Van Every" <bvanevery.TakeThisOut@gmail.com>, Mon, 17 Mar 2008
17:23:28 -0700 (PDT), Anno Domini:

>On Mar 17, 7:04 pm, "Brandon J. Van Every" <bvanev....TakeThisOut@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>>
>> There are those who will blaze trails in this industry, and those who
>> are easily pleased and will repeat the same games we've had for 30
>> years.
>
>And really, what have I done in The Witcher demo?
>- searched a lot of barrels
>- clicked on a lot of monsters to have them die
>- criss-crossed the map running errands
>- screwed an easy maiden by giving her flowers
>- played a boxing minigame
>- didn't make a single potion, because somehow I missed how I was
>supposed to do it
>- leveled up my guy, in a way that's imperceptible to me
>
>Really the only new thing is the easy maiden. It's not making me
>hungry for more of the same. I think I've done almost everything that
>can be done in the demo. There's a cave to the south that doesn't
>seem to have a purpose, unless the Salamanders come back there at some
>point. I don't think I'm going to get into the city, seeing as how
>any major quest completion with the Reverend ends the demo.
>
>I think it's better done than Morrowind, but it's still basically the
>same stuff we're always doing in RPGs.

I wasn't the numbnuts complaining about the storyline or writing quality
only to not even make mention of it in a laundry list of manufactured
mediocrity :-p

--
Nostromo
 >> Stay informed about: writing quality of The Witcher