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Witcher 4 Dev talks about Ciri fan reaction: "Ciri is called a witcher in books", "we're not suddenly making up stuff just because we want to", etc

Mortisfacio

Member
But you are the one ignoring the Trial of the Grasses. Not only that, insulting every discussion about the lore about Trial of the Grasses.

Can surprise you, but the Trial of the Grasses are a part of the 30 years of build-up you keep repeating in this thread many many times.

No, I'm not. My comments are specifically around the trial of grasses. CDPR has already stated there's a reason for it, just hasn't divulged what the reason is. As for women in regards to this, I'm routinely addressing that if you're comparing Ciri to the fate of some orphan girls, you're ignorant.
 
Admittedly, I've yet to finish the Witcher 3 and it's the only game I've played of the series. But even though Ciri is heavily featured in the books, the overall story for me was always about Geralt; to a lesser extent Yenn and Ciri. And while games and TV are different mediums, the trend of girl boss in both games and TV recently have been total duds. I'd have rather they had titled it differently that the "Witcher", but I guess that might've caused some problems for marketing and brand recognition.

If handled right, this can turn out great. I'm hoping they do right by the series, but not sold yet.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Here you go

y1XhtH6.jpeg

6/10, spines not cracked, no dogeared pages, would not bang!

07ZmUdD.jpeg
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
In a way they're trapped by the lore - I think all the stuff around Ciri is the least interesting parts about the Witcher lore - it's just your bog-standard chosen one stuff shoe-horned into a dark fantasy world that is much more interesting without it. Also a Witcher as a concept is ridiculously masculine coded - so to make Ciri the successor to the Witchers wasn't a very good idea. The role of a Witcher will never fit her particularly well.
This is very insightful. I think an AWESOME story would be Ciri trying to find a boy to carry on Geralt's legacy, one that she can never carry herself, but she does it out of love for Geralt and her belief in the Witcher mission.
 
I will say this guy is doing what other developers should be doing. Which is instead of attacking fans and calling them names and -ists, he’s acknowledging the fans and their concerns, and saying we’ll let our end product prove your concerns were unnecessary.

Refreshing considering what we usually see is “those who criticize us are sexist and racist and our game is not made for them.”
 

thefool

Member
Ciri:
-Elder Blood
-Child of Destiny
-Can Transcend time and space
-30 year history of lore of routinely being shown to be incredibly unique
-2nd conjunction post-Witcher 3 that we don't know the details of

Congrats, you just described why her submitting herself to be a Witcher is nonsensical.

You can also read the books btw. Unless you think the author is a dumbass too.
 
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Mortisfacio

Member
Congrats, you just described why her submitting herself to be a Witcher is nonsensical.

You can also read the books btw. Unless you think the author is a dumbass too.

Congrats. You can't read:


Given how powerful the White Wolf's adopted daughter is by the end of the game regardless, CD Projekt Red is quick to assure us that she won't be overwhelmingly so in The Witcher 4. She's no Mary Sue.

"The gap between her being totally overpowered at the end of the previous game and now," reveals executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga, "with the skill set we showed off in the trailer… something totally happened in between."

Just because we don't know the exact reason for it yet doesn't mean the reasoning is wrong or right. By all means we can circle back to this discussion of opinion or objectivity once the reason is revealed, but CDPR has already stated this reason is addressed. We just don't know if that reason is any good or not.

I also have read the books, thanks. That's why I've come to the conclusion those comparing Ciri to the fate of orphan girls are dumb and/or ignorant, objectively speaking.
 
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Mortisfacio

Member
Read them again is my advice.

My advice is pick up hooked on phonics and you can learn to read to begin with.

 
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Senua

Member
I will say this guy is doing what other developers should be doing. Which is instead of attacking fans and calling them names and -ists, he’s acknowledging the fans and their concerns, and saying we’ll let our end product prove your concerns were unnecessary.

Refreshing considering what we usually see is “those who criticize us are sexist and racist and our game is not made for them.”
True enough. Same can't be said about this thread which is just full of people insulting one another lol
 
They are absolutely making stuff up just to crowbar her in as the main protagonist with full witcher powers. I wonder how they'll strip her of her elder blood powers to make the combat somewhat of a challenge.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
I thought Ciri would obviously be the protagonist after 3 and have no issue with that

Did they say anything about if the model change was just a random CGI trailer thing though? It's not even like we're asking for some sexualized bimbo here, Ciri just already had a great established model in 3 and it was weird to change it when she was already a grown woman with fully developed facial structure
 

Raven117

Member
Yeah, no shit. So why do you insult people when they take issue with something that is blatantly not consistent with the game world?
Because some of y’all just jump to “because it’s woke” too quickly. (And my point is there is no “consistent game world” if the source material says it can happen, it can happen… and even if it doesn’t… who cares, It’s made up)
 

Raven117

Member
He shouldn't be insulting you or anyone else. That said, things do change. Not just in storytelling, but in real life. There was a time we thought we were at the center of the universe. There was also a time when people thought it impossible to go to space. Just because something was once true, doesn't mean it will always be that way. But in regards to fiction, you can point to so many examples of the lore of a setting changing, for better or worse. People might call it a lore retcon, I would refer to it as the lore evolving. Obviously if it's badly written, lazy, and makes no sense, then yes I would refer to it more as a retcon. But if there's a lot of though put into it, and it serves a purpose in the story, then it doesn't necessarily mean it's a retcon.

The Witcher 3 establishes the process of the Trial of Grasses is nearly forgotten, and Witchers are on their way out. However towards the end of The Witcher 3, another Conjuction of Spheres occurs, potentially bringing in more monsters into the world. It stands to reason that there will be a need for a new generation of Witchers. How will the Trial of Grasses be rediscovered? We don't know yet. How will Ciri survive it? It it because she's unique? Is it because it will be a new variation of the trial that can allow both sexes to survive? We don't know yet. But seeing as how CDPR have mentioned that they will explore this, I don't think this is really worth all the time and energy to get mad about it, until we see what they do with it.
Better said than I ever could.

I’m just losing patience with the pearl-clutching on seeing the “woke” monster under every rock.
 

Madflavor

Member
Better said than I ever could.

I’m just losing patience with the pearl-clutching on seeing the “woke” monster under every rock.

In a nutshell many gamers have become Stan Marsh when he was depressed:


To be fair, we have been burned many times before, so it's not like this cynicism is coming out of nowhere. But it's definitely gotten to the point where some gamers are seeing red everywhere now. Even for a company like CDPR who for the past 10 years haven't missed when it comes to great storytelling and characters. Not to mention how Ciri being the protagonist was obviously telegraphed. But some people see a woman in the lead role and DEI in the company and immediately throw their guard up.

As much as I think DEI is destructive poison, it's important for people to keep in mind that how one company implements DEI isn't necessarily going to be done the same way as another company. Just because a game has "woke" shit in it, doesn't mean the whole game is going to suck. If you look at The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, there were plenty of woke elements in those games. Same goes for Baldur's Gate 3. But the games didn't suffer as a result of it.
 

Raven117

Member
In a nutshell many gamers have become Stan Marsh when he was depressed:


To be fair, we have been burned many times before, so it's not like this cynicism is coming out of nowhere. But it's definitely gotten to the point where some gamers are seeing red everywhere now. Even for a company like CDPR who for the past 10 years haven't missed when it comes to great storytelling and characters. Not to mention how Ciri being the protagonist was obviously telegraphed. But some people see a woman in the lead role and DEI in the company and immediately throw their guard up.

As much as I think DEI is destructive poison, it's important for people to keep in mind that how one company implements DEI isn't necessarily going to be done the same way as another company. Just because a game has "woke" shit in it, doesn't mean the whole game is going to suck. If you look at The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, there were plenty of woke elements in those games. Same goes for Baldur's Gate 3. But the games didn't suffer as a result of it.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve said similar things on here, but I’m just losing patience.

But this should be stickied to the top of every thread like this. To me, it’s 100 percent the right way to think about this stuff while recognizing that some devs (and other media) have been serving up shit sandwiches to lay at the alter of “dei” without making a compelling game.
 

Neilg

Member
She's going to be taking the Trial of Grasses in the game. It's not going to be handwaved away as something that already happened. We're going to see her take it, her reasoning for doing it, how the people around her react to it, and how it effects her. Let them cook.
Yeah they get to cover a big moment and there's no way it's going to be some straight forward 'she wants to do it, she's done it, wow that was tough but she's a Witcher now' like everyone is fearing. I have a feeling they're going to make it pretty interesting and it'll come between hours 5-10 before the game opens up.


I trust them. I loved the first on PC, as janky as it was on release. They might have fucked up the cyberpunk launch but they've never fucked up a story imo.
 

Laptop1991

Member
i'm looking forward to playing as Ciri, but that's because of the Witcher 3 game and dlc, which i loved game and story wise, i have never read the books or played the 1st 2 games all the way through so i only know what the 3rd game says, also a lot of concern is "the modern day audience"gaming we are going through right now, how much will it affect the Witcher 4 is the real concern, will they change CIri too much from TW3 is the real worry for fans.
 
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thefool

Member
Btw in CDPR own lore there already is woman Witcher, in Witcher 1 there's a woman name White Rayla, who was adult and even mortally wounded and she was given Witcher mutagens and survived. Strangely did not saw anyone complaining about the lore then.

She's not a Witcher, she's a mutant. You're mixing the trial of grasses with salamandra mutations.

There are zero female witchers in books and games (tw 1-3) canon, which does not mean women can't became witchers. The hard question is why would Ciri go through such sacrifice and I have my suspicions how they are moving forward with that storyline.
 
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Duchess

Member
Did they say anything about if the model change was just a random CGI trailer thing though? It's not even like we're asking for some sexualized bimbo here, Ciri just already had a great established model in 3 and it was weird to change it when she was already a grown woman with fully developed facial structure
I don't know if it was mentioned in the trailer, but perhaps this game is set many years after Wild Hunt (at least 10 years), so that would explain why she's been aged up?
 
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LordOfChaos

Member
I don't know if it was mentioned in the trailer, but perhaps this game is set many years after Wild Hunt (at least 10 years), so that would explain why she's been aged up?
Your facial bones aren't changing after 21 regardless. It just looked like someone else. Could well just be a CG trailer oddity though.

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The-Witcher-3-Ciri-wallpaper.jpg



Skin changes make sense, but her nose and brow look more masc'ed up, maybe to look older but not in a way that makes sense if you think about it
 
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