There May Never be a Witcher 4

[Mister K]

Good. Sometimes, stories need to have an ending and not every franchise has a Final Fantasy-like "new game, new world, old name" cop out.

What? That's literally the worst example you could have used. Final fantasy are all ( barring the sequels) all self contained stories. You could literally give most of them different names and it wouldn't change a thing. If anything that's what games should strive for.

That is what I meant. I meant that since these games are self-contained, their stories don't become stale, new characters are introduced, etc., and most of the game frnchises don't have this, sadly.

 

[The White Hunter]

But a Pokemon MMO only sounds good on paper, in practice it would be an atrocious grindfest because every MMO has to be the same.

Pokemon already plays like an MMO anyway. Seriously. You start out in Newbie Town, get your first weapon from the people who tell you there's some big thing you should go check out, and then you set out on an epic quest spanning across a relatively large region, frequently being accosted by randos out in the middle of nowhere who want to try beating you up just because you ran in front of them for half a second and occasionally getting side-tracked by things that have little to do with whatever overarching quest you were supposed to be on in the first place.

I spent a lot of time typing out a response to your claim that "every MMO has to be the same", as well, but I feel like your opinion on MMOs is already pretty solidified.

OT: I don't see any reason to be surprised by this. I'm very excited to see what they do with Cyberpunk anyway. Cyberpunk quickly became one of my favorite thematic settings when I really dove into it for the first time a few years ago, and CD Projekt is one of the few developers I legitimately respect at the moment.

It plays like a basic old fashioned RPG more than most modern MMO's.

I actually do like MMO's, they're fun to play with friends and give a lot of bang for buck; many thousands of hours into FFXIV to attest that with a touch of WoW, TESO, Guild Wars 2 and Wildstar. But I do have my issues with the genre and certain tropes within it, for example I really don't like the tank-like movement controls of WoW, I find them awkward and archaic but they are still aped to this day, I'd much rather see options like FFXIV offers to alter the controls to suit, WoW I can give a pass to due to it's age but Wildstar has the same set-up and frankly has no reason to have it that way. TESO actually feels very different and handles like a beast of it's own.

I like the sub-genre, I just wish more of them took more risks and didn't ape WoW quite so much. I'd also like to see wider varieties of challenge levels in certain MMO's, something WoW does very well but nobody likes to copy, but that's neither here nor there.

TL;DR: I'm a bit burnt out on the genre and would love to see more experimental things come out of it and see fresh new ideas.

I have a lot more strong feelings about the way FFXIV has been handled since the launch of Heavensward, I adore the game but they've made many mis-steps since 3.0 in my opinion.


Edit: I'd probably try a pokemon MMO out to be honest, but not sure I would enjoy it. I'd love to see what Nintendo would want for a sub-fee.

 

[shrekfan246]

But a Pokemon MMO only sounds good on paper, in practice it would be an atrocious grindfest because every MMO has to be the same.

Pokemon already plays like an MMO anyway. Seriously. You start out in Newbie Town, get your first weapon from the people who tell you there's some big thing you should go check out, and then you set out on an epic quest spanning across a relatively large region, frequently being accosted by randos out in the middle of nowhere who want to try beating you up just because you ran in front of them for half a second and occasionally getting side-tracked by things that have little to do with whatever overarching quest you were supposed to be on in the first place.

I spent a lot of time typing out a response to your claim that "every MMO has to be the same", as well, but I feel like your opinion on MMOs is already pretty solidified.

OT: I don't see any reason to be surprised by this. I'm very excited to see what they do with Cyberpunk anyway. Cyberpunk quickly became one of my favorite thematic settings when I really dove into it for the first time a few years ago, and CD Projekt is one of the few developers I legitimately respect at the moment.

It plays like a basic old fashioned RPG more than most modern MMO's.

Well, yes, my point is more that fundamentally there isn't much which really needs to be changed about the Pokemon formula to turn it into an MMO. I got very MMO-esque feelings out of the first three Final Fantasy games when I played them for the first time a year and a half ago, too.

TL;DR: I'm a bit burnt out on the genre and would love to see more experimental things come out of it and see fresh new ideas.

See, that's understandable. I just got a bit hung up on claiming that they're "all the same", because while there may be certain unfortunate similarities that certain MMOs would be better off getting rid of entirely (and yes, there are a lot of MMOs that try to ape WoW's style), trying to say that WoW, The Secret World, The Old Republic, EVE Online, Elsword, Path of Exile, Warframe, Wakfu, and Planetside 2 are all the same is kind of like saying that Portal, Halo, Chivalry, and Deus Ex are all the same.

I would've thrown Destiny in there, too, but that is kinda just Halo by way of World of Warcraft. Different style of gameplay, same style of game progression, but for some people that one difference is enough to make it a fresh experience.

(EDIT: The Secret World and The Old Republic happen to be two which unfortunately tried copying WoW when their much bigger strength oddly lies in their story, but that's also what sets them apart because hardly anybody actually cares about them for their PvP or endgame content, and their stories were told much better than even WoW did at least until recently.)

 

[The White Hunter]

But a Pokemon MMO only sounds good on paper, in practice it would be an atrocious grindfest because every MMO has to be the same.

Pokemon already plays like an MMO anyway. Seriously. You start out in Newbie Town, get your first weapon from the people who tell you there's some big thing you should go check out, and then you set out on an epic quest spanning across a relatively large region, frequently being accosted by randos out in the middle of nowhere who want to try beating you up just because you ran in front of them for half a second and occasionally getting side-tracked by things that have little to do with whatever overarching quest you were supposed to be on in the first place.

I spent a lot of time typing out a response to your claim that "every MMO has to be the same", as well, but I feel like your opinion on MMOs is already pretty solidified.

OT: I don't see any reason to be surprised by this. I'm very excited to see what they do with Cyberpunk anyway. Cyberpunk quickly became one of my favorite thematic settings when I really dove into it for the first time a few years ago, and CD Projekt is one of the few developers I legitimately respect at the moment.

It plays like a basic old fashioned RPG more than most modern MMO's.

Well, yes, my point is more that fundamentally there isn't much which really needs to be changed about the Pokemon formula to turn it into an MMO. I got very MMO-esque feelings out of the first three Final Fantasy games when I played them for the first time a year and a half ago, too.

TL;DR: I'm a bit burnt out on the genre and would love to see more experimental things come out of it and see fresh new ideas.

See, that's understandable. I just got a bit hung up on claiming that they're "all the same", because while there may be certain unfortunate similarities that certain MMOs would be better off getting rid of entirely (and yes, there are a lot of MMOs that try to ape WoW's style), trying to say that WoW, The Secret World, The Old Republic, EVE Online, Elsword, Path of Exile, Warframe, Wakfu, and Planetside 2 are all the same is kind of like saying that Portal, Halo, Chivalry, and Deus Ex are all the same.

I would've thrown Destiny in there, too, but that is kinda just Halo by way of World of Warcraft. Different style of gameplay, same style of game progression, but for some people that one difference is enough to make it a fresh experience.

Yeah, I get that there's differences between the games but it's also other things that I think the genre can really do better without. Too many copy outdated ideas and structures. Timers and weekly caps and their ilk I don't feel are really necessary. It's artificial restriction for the purpose of player retention but I don't play to get gear I play for that social experience, working together to kill big monsters and such. Final Fantasy XIV is very guilty of restricting players to extend the meagre content offered by it's cut down team post 3.0, and also not trusting players with choice.

The genre does have variety in gameplay and presentation and such, it's more the underlying systems and restrictions that really could do with dying out.

Edit: Example; I kinda hate the way endgame token caps basically massively punish taking a break. If you take a month off of FFXIV for example to play other stuff or deal with real life stuff, you come back undergeared, squishy as hell and people assume you're terrible and are cunts about it and then it takes weeks and weeks to catch up.

 

[shrekfan246]

The genre does have variety in gameplay and presentation and such, it's more the underlying systems and restrictions that really could do with dying out.

For the sake of their business I understand why they do it. I mean, the only time it ever really bothers me is Free-to-Play games. You want to talk exploitative practices, no need to look any further than at something like ArcheAge.

I don't know, I don't really mind the stuff that's supposed to "prolong" the life of an MMO. I don't really have the time anymore to just play all day every day, so having something that prevents me just, say, endlessly running raids over and over again doesn't particularly bother me. I guess I've never really been concerned with the lifespan of games in the first place, though. I don't play competitive multiplayer games, and most singleplayer games don't hold me so tightly that I can't play anything else, so it's always been a bit strange to me whenever people apparently primarily play a single lone game for any extended period of time. I always just think that there are other things I could be doing, even if it's just playing a different game.

EDIT:

Edit: Example; I kinda hate the way endgame token caps basically massively punish taking a break. If you take a month off of FFXIV for example to play other stuff or deal with real life stuff, you come back undergeared, squishy as hell and people assume you're terrible and are cunts about it and then it takes weeks and weeks to catch up.

Ah, well, yes, the gear crunch is very real. I wouldn't say that's so much an issue inherent to the genre, though, any more so than toxic communities are inherent to MOBAs. Running with a decent and affable guild, that sort of thing was never really an issue for me. Random groups will be random groups, of course, but that sort of elitism is present within literally every level of gaming. If gear progression was slowed down or fundamentally changed to not be as important a thing anymore, people would just find something else to focus on that makes every player except them the worst thing ever.

Arbitrarily capping how much "currency" you can acquire is complete trash, though. I'll agree with that.

 

[The White Hunter]

The genre does have variety in gameplay and presentation and such, it's more the underlying systems and restrictions that really could do with dying out.

For the sake of their business I understand why they do it. I mean, the only time it ever really bothers me is Free-to-Play games. You want to talk exploitative practices, no need to look any further than at something like ArcheAge.

I don't know, I don't really mind the stuff that's supposed to "prolong" the life of an MMO. I don't really have the time anymore to just play all day every day, so having something that prevents me just, say, endlessly running raids over and over again doesn't particularly bother me. I guess I've never really been concerned with the lifespan of games in the first place, though. I don't play competitive multiplayer games, and most singleplayer games don't hold me so tightly that I can't play anything else, so it's always been a bit strange to me whenever people apparently primarily play a single lone game for any extended period of time. I always just think that there are other things I could be doing, even if it's just playing a different game.

That's fair, different strokes for different folks. I'm talking an approach of holding off on MMO's and just playing them every now and then again for now, since I'm too busy to do any endgame raiding (and frankly, FFXIV 3.X raiding is pretty shit compared to the 2.X raids in my opinion) and beyond that there tends not to be much for me.

Been playing too much Dark Souls 3, Divinity and killing off some of my indie backlog.

 

[shrekfan246]

That's fair, different strokes for different folks. I'm talking an approach of holding off on MMO's and just playing them every now and then again for now, since I'm too busy to do any endgame raiding (and frankly, FFXIV 3.X raiding is pretty shit compared to the 2.X raids in my opinion) and beyond that there tends not to be much for me.

Yeah, I fell out of interest with hardcore raiding back when my main WoW guild basically died with the second-to-last content patch of Mists of Pandaria. I'm sure I'd still be interested in occasionally checking out the new stuff, but obsessively doing everything each week just isn't my bag anymore.

Been playing too much Dark Souls 3, Divinity and killing off some of my indie backlog.

I still wish I had Dark Souls 3. Original Sin is on my backlog list too, but mine is admittedly massive and only ever seems to grow no matter how many games I finish. I still need to play The Witcher and The Witcher 2, for crying out loud.

 

[The White Hunter]

That's fair, different strokes for different folks. I'm talking an approach of holding off on MMO's and just playing them every now and then again for now, since I'm too busy to do any endgame raiding (and frankly, FFXIV 3.X raiding is pretty shit compared to the 2.X raids in my opinion) and beyond that there tends not to be much for me.

Yeah, I fell out of interest with hardcore raiding back when my main WoW guild basically died with the second-to-last content patch of Mists of Pandaria. I'm sure I'd still be interested in occasionally checking out the new stuff, but obsessively doing everything each week just isn't my bag anymore.

Been playing too much Dark Souls 3, Divinity and killing off some of my indie backlog.

I still wish I had Dark Souls 3. Original Sin is on my backlog list too, but mine is admittedly massive and only ever seems to grow no matter how many games I finish. I still need to play The Witcher and The Witcher 2, for crying out loud.

I count myself lucky to have no interest in the Witcher and thus not have it on my backlog. I've been playing Original Sin in co-op and hope to beat it before the sequel comes out. Dark Souls 3 is just excellent, lack of poise is bullshit and I'm tired of invaders not having the balls to just fight me though.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

This isn't news... they literally said the Witcher 3 was going to be their last Witcher game before it even came out.

Yep! But we should all (sadly) admit that "Gaming Studio Stays True to its Word" is a newsworthy event in and of itself.

 

[Baresark]

This isn't news... they literally said the Witcher 3 was going to be their last Witcher game before it even came out.

Yep! But we should all (sadly) admit that "Gaming Studio Stays True to its Word" is a newsworthy event in and of itself.

I can get on board with that. I will always applause CDPR.

 

[Dalisclock]

I still need to play The Witcher and The Witcher 2, for crying out loud.

If it makes you feel any better, I just finished The Witcher for the first time and it's okay. Some good stuff buried under a lot of crap, notably a clunky interface, mediocre combat mechanics and some pretty awful presentation issues.

 

[shrekfan246]

I still need to play The Witcher and The Witcher 2, for crying out loud.

If it makes you feel any better, I just finished The Witcher for the first time and it's okay. Some good stuff buried under a lot of crap, notably a clunky interface, mediocre combat mechanics and some pretty awful presentation issues.

Oh yes, I know, I've played a few hours of it in the past and I can get into it. I've just got so much else to do that it's really hard to convince myself to dig into a series of games which will take me something like 50+ hours per game to finish.

 

[FPLOON]

That's "news" and all, but will there never be a Definitive Witcher Collection on console(s)?

Other than that, why would they when they got another game to put all that love and time to make?

But a Pokemon MMO only sounds good on paper, in practice it would be an atrocious grindfest because every MMO has to be the same.

But, who doesn't want to grind for berries in order to make more Pokeblocks to end the optional fetch quest with that one NPC from another region?

 

[Jandau]

Good. Not everything needs a sequel. Witcher 3 is one of the best RPGs ever made, one of the best games ever made. It doesn't need to devolve into endless sequels until eventually it falls apart, tainting the memory of the awesomeness that came before.

 

[happyninja42]

Ah! But Cyberpunk is not an original IP, as it is an adaptation of the Cyberpunk roleplaying game, best known for its second edition Cyberpunk 2020!

The article didn't say original IP, it said "New IP for the company", as in it's new material for them to start working on. As in "I just got a new car!" Not implying they made the car from scratch, but that they haven't ever had that IP to work on before.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Fair enough, you can't keep spinning the story out forever, that ends with you getting Lost.

They likely could if they wanted to. There's 4 more books in the series they could pull content from for games. I could see a Witcher 4 in 10 years time, not any time soon.

 

[F-I-D-O]

Well, Witcher is a licensed series, so working on a new game/arc would involve renegotiating with Andrzej Sapkowski. Granted, Cyberpunk is also licensed, but CD Projekt is probably looking to springboard from Witcher + Cyberpunk into an original universe.

On top of that, Geralt's game-story concluded in 3. It's also all distinctly non-canon, as Andrzej has said, but there's also no reason to push the digital tales further without cheapening the existing arc and journey.

Plus, a great way to prevent creative burn out is to change the environment, and jumping from likely 10 years of fantasy development to the far future must have been a fun change for the studio.

 

[sumanoskae]

To be fair, they could've done one that doesn't follow Geralt. Maybe they could've done a game starring Ciri, or show what Yen or Triss do on their own adventures.

I want to play a Witcher game that let's me create my OWN character; the biggest issue I have with the franchise is that it occupies that really irritating middle ground between a blank slate protagonist and a complete character that's all the rage these days thanks to Mass Effect.

Geralt isn't complex enough to be his own character because all the choices that could contribute to his nuance are left up to me, an yet his attitude and mannerisms are totally out of my control. Not to mention that there seem to be certain things he will always refuse to do.