Witcher 3 Developer Calls Skyrim "Casual"

[Andy Chalk]

Witcher 3 Developer Calls Skyrim "Casual"

CD Projekt Red Environmental Designer Jonas Mattson thinks Bethesda's Skyrim is a great game, especially for people who like "playing around quite casually."

When you think about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you probably don't think "casual." With its massive open world, competing factions, huge array of NPCs, widely varied environments, hundreds of dungeons and deep, flexible character creation options, Skyrim is by most measures a full-on, heavyweight RPG. Unless you work at CD Projekt Red, that is, where they apparently think that it's a fun way to pass some time in between rounds of Bejeweled.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be set in a huge open world, much like Bethesda's famed Elder Scrolls series, but CDPR is taking a different approach to the concept. "I am a fan of Skyim, a lot of us love Skyim. But while they are doing their thing, like open world, jumping and playing around quite casually, we are doing it a little bit differently," Mattson told Gameranx. "We are heavily story driven and open world. This hasn't really been done before and we want to prove that it can be done."

Rather than other games, Mattson said The Witcher 3 takes inspiration from real-life cities like Amsterdam as well as films like Robin Hood (the one with Russell Crowe), Braveheart and even Snow White. "In our office we made a huge poster with tones of color and screen shots of different films like Game of Thrones," he said. "We know what kind of tones we want. Composition and color is very important for us, to get the tone right. It adds to the cinematic experience."

In all fairness, I don't think Mattson is actually suggesting that Skyrim is a "casual game" in the usual sense (although it's a funny thought), but rather that Bethesda's approach to storytelling is less focused than CDPR's. The Elder Scrolls games are basically settings in which you can do whatever you want, while The Witcher has been a much more directed experience; trying to bring the two together is a risky move, especially for a studio taking its first run at an open-world game, but if it works it could be flat-out amazing.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is being developed for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, and is expected out sometime in 2014.

Source: Gameranx [http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/15444/article/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-displays-a-reactive-open-world-with-organic-combat/#p4]

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[teh_gunslinger]

While it's a stretch to call Skyrim casual and I like the game quite a bit (140 hours before I got bored) the game is very light on actual systems and reactivity. It's ultimately a hollow game where you may be the guy who is the leased of every guild and saved the world but nobody in said world will note that.

The new skill system is also considerably more pointless than the earlier games and the game can't be lost and it never pushes back towards the player. Nothing has consequences and nothing ultimately matters. You may be able to sneak stab a dragon in the tail and kill it with that one stab but some dude will still call you milk drinker.

Casual game it may not be, but a game that doesn't demand anything or indeed give anything, that it is.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Considering the actual quote from CDPR, that's kinda been twisted into an inflammatory title...

 

[spartandude]

getting a little big headed now arnt we?

i wouldnt say Skyrim is casual, its very accessible which is a good thing and is maybe going a bit far in the that direction but its not casual. and while The Witcher 2 is my favourate game of all time i would'nt call it a complex game.

PS Morrowind did a great job at a rather story driven open world game

 

[Charli]

Christ the term casual really is being thrown about alot these days isn't it. Lets put it this way my mum can work around Bejeweled and even a few Zelda titles. When it came to Skyrim she was decidedly stumped.

That's my measurement stick and I'm staying by it.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Yeah, this article title is pure flame-baiting. What's next, Andy? Calling up David Gaider and telling him that CDPR didn't like his gay romances? Forging their signatures on a note to Chris Avellone saying that Planescape Torment sucked?

 

[Arkaijn]

Casual isn't a curse word, it just means the game has been watered down to appeal to a broader audience, which was what happened to Skyrim.

 

[Covarr]

Skyrim is definitely more casual than a lot of games, at least in the sense that you get to choose your own goals, and basically do whatever the hell you want. That's kind of the nature of open world games. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I'm not really sure why "casual" has such a stigma to it. Most games are casual in some way or another. Tomb Raider is casual in that it's really easy, and if you mess up you literally start where you left off; it takes little effort or determination to succeed. Call of Duty is casual in that the skill curve in multiplayer is so compressed that great and awful players are on near-equal footing. Neither is what someone thinks of when they think "casual gaming", a term typically reserved for the likes of Angry Birds and Draw Something, but the fact of the mater is, if you're playing for pretty much any reason other than competition for its own sake, you're playing casually.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Miyenne]

I don't know, I kind of agree. Skyrim is a wonderful game, but you can pick it up and play for 5 minutes and then stop for weeks (or months, as I do) on end and when you pick it up again you get straight back into it. That's kind a casual to me.

Skyrim with a deep, compelling story would be what I want the most. I haven't played the other Witcher games, but if this one turns out to be what they're aiming for, I may have to give it all a try.

 

[Something Amyss]

While it's a stretch to call Skyrim casual and I like the game quite a bit (140 hours before I got bored) the game is very light on actual systems and reactivity. It's ultimately a hollow game where you may be the guy who is the leased of every guild and saved the world but nobody in said world will note that.

Skyrim is a very casual game, because it's one of the ultimate "dick around" titles. Even the article here assumes he's not talking in the usual "casual v hardcore" slapfight people have.

Christ the term casual really is being thrown about alot these days isn't it. Lets put it this way my mum can work around Bejeweled and even a few Zelda titles. When it came to Skyrim she was decidedly stumped.

That's my measurement stick and I'm staying by it.

That's fine, but understand that casual is a real word with real-world uses and this use is completely accurate to Skyrim.

If you want "casual" to mean "games for moms," that's fine. Just don't pretend that's what other people mean, especially people from a different culture with a different native tongue.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

I wouldn't call Skyrim "casual," but it is extremely watered-down and streamlined compared to the others.

Probably to make the gameplay easier and more accessible so that it would appeal to the broader audience. :/ It certainly worked.

I really hope they don't do the same thing to Fallout 4. That would really push my buttons.

 

[Aircross]

I hope this means that you can kill NPCs who are needed to complete the storyline in Witcher 3.

 

[GAunderrated]

I don't know, I kind of agree. Skyrim is a wonderful game, but you can pick it up and play for 5 minutes and then stop for weeks (or months, as I do) on end and when you pick it up again you get straight back into it. That's kind a casual to me.

Skyrim with a deep, compelling story would be what I want the most. I haven't played the other Witcher games, but if this one turns out to be what they're aiming for, I may have to give it all a try.

I kinda agree that skyrim is a bit casual. That is no way is a negative use of the word casual though. What I mean by Skyrim is casual is that it is the type of game nearly anyone can pick up and get sucked into the game. It is the type of game you can pick up and play anytime you feel like.

And that is a good type of casual. I LOVE Morrowind with a passion but its gameplay mechanics are a bit too hardcore and not streamlined that any random person can pick up the game and not get bogged down by the interface alone. I have failed many times trying to get my friends to give it a try.

I think my point is getting lost in rambling.

TLDR: Skyrim is a more casual game but in a good way. The kind of casual or streamlined gameplay that makes a game a big hit.

 

[Alek The Great]

Except he wasn't calling the game casual in the sense that it's a casual game like Bejewled. I play Skyrim casually in the sense that I generally just faff about and explore not really being focused on one particular task. I absolutely love the openness of Skyrim but because I enjoyed exploring on my own more, I pretty much ignored the main quest for quite some time.

The word casual seems to have a singular purpose in gaming culture these days (and for some reason has a negative connotation), but Mattson was just explaining that they are going for a different experience from Skyrim. Not every quote needs to be taken this extremely.

P.S. Both Bejewled and Skyrim are awesome.

 

[Kaeniar]

Finally somebody said, what I always tried to get into peoples heads. Of course it's casual! No game-mechanic is what you can call "fleshed out", there are pretty much no consequences to your actions whatsoever (don't wanna be a werewolf anymore, well here ya go, etc), the gameworld reacts pretty much not at all to your actions (what? The emperor's dead? Well, bummer. Better rant a bit more about how I get guard duty!).
Skyrim is an extremely casual game, but still fun as hell! I Played it for about 350 hours, and more are to come thanks to the amazing mod-support, which makes the game at least slightly less casual.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

I dislike the terms casual and hardcore. There's a lot of stigma attached to them that makes people on both sides look like idiots.

However, there seems to be a gradual change in meaning that we need to try and bring forward a lot more! With the advent of more game playing individuals joining the fold, casual now has less to do with things like bejeweled. 'Hardcore vs. Casual' is now more akin to 'Excessively difficult vs. Engaging experience.' They are by no means mutually exclusive (which is why I don't like the terminology) but there is a different focus.

This new meaning seems to be more of what he's referring to. He isn't saying Skyrim is a 'play for 15 minutes' type of game. Its focus is on the open world, whereas previous Witcher projects are definitely known for being hard. Witcher 3 is going to try and bridge the gap.


Captcha: too bad
It seems captcha wants to keep spreading the hate :\

 

[endtherapture]

Yep Skyrim is casual.

Doesn't mean it's a bad game, but the story and gameplay are really separated from each other.

 

[Naqel]

Flame-bait aside, Skyrim was indeed pretty darn casual.

I mean, aside from the broken leveling system that had all enemies pump iron while you're mixing potions and chatting up the locals(too lazy to link the relevant Critical Miss), the only thing Skyrim didn't have was the ability to play it on your smartphone.

Seriously, every dungeon was a 20 minute separate adventure, with the only impact being that you sometimes unlock another adventure. That's mobile/casual gaming 101.