The Witcher 2 - 16 Endings Clarified

Looks like CD Projekt has re-thought their wording on the reported 16 different endings for The Witcher 2. The claim still seems valid to me but here's some of the clarification at Eurogamer:

"What is an ending?" he said. "In some games the ending is the final cut-scene, the summary. In The Witcher 2, political things are more important than they were in the first one. It's still action-packed and there is the story of Geralt, but it's a broader game. We go to a lot of different places. We see kingdoms clashing. It's more epic in scale.
"If it is that epic and the game is non-linear, then we thought, these choices have to affect how these kingdoms clash.
"We like to say we have 16 states of the world that you have at the end of The Witcher 2. It's not like 16 different cut-scenes. The last chapter, there is a big summary of what you have accomplished in the game. You will get that. You will see results of some early choices from hours of gameplay past.

More information.

Impressive if true.

16 states of the world could very well mean 4 different major plot points that can go one of two ways. Four to the two equals sixteen. At the very least that means that it's not just a big choice you make at the end of which ending you would like.

Maybe, maybe not. Say you have the option of seeing the kings of four nations killed or saved. That would give you sixteen ending states.

I wonder how they are going to deal with all these ending states in Witcher 3? Are they going to pull a Baldur's Gate and just decree one of the states to be the way it happened? Or will it be more like Mass Effect where the events have a small effect on the next game but nothing substantial. Heck, plenty of games wipe the past completely.

I just wanted to remark that I never got why people and developers where so fascinated with XX different endings.

That said: Since I'll play the game most likely only once or twice I'm actually looking quit forward to seeing how my choices effect the game world.

fascinating , i just hope that they do not screw it…

Looks like Geralt can make a huge impact for a lone swordsman .

Originally Posted by Roi Danton
I just wanted to remark that I never got why people and developers where so fascinated with XX different endings.

That said: Since I'll play the game most likely only once or twice I'm actually looking quit forward to seeing how my choices effect the game world.

It's not about replaying the game. More endings means more choices within the game whether it's the first time you played or the hundredth.

I like it when they mention what affect you had on the region. It's not really a big deal for me, but still it's a nice way to end the game.

It's certainly better than the game just saying "You Won!"…….*Credits*……..*Main Menu*

Originally Posted by Roi Danton
I just wanted to remark that I never got why people and developers where so fascinated with XX different endings.

Same here.

The ending, which usually accounts for less than 1% of the total game, means little to me. A game could have 100 different endings, but it means nothing if the game itself is mediocre. I'd rather the devs put that extra effort into the gameplay.

I don't mind a game having 3 or 4 possible endings, but anything more is overkill imo.

I think that multiple endings underline the influence your actions have in the game and it's replayability

16 endings that may be nothing or it may be a lot - I think it really depends what you count. I like it when games summarizes my journey in some way in the end, like in Fallout, or in the final chapter on the witcher. If you look at it that way, those games probably had a lot more "endings" than 16 (and so might TW2) in the combination of outcomes of the individual questlines and decisions you made.

As to the importance of having multiple endings - As Skaven said, I think its a symptom more than something valuable in itself - it indicates that the story actually has some flexibility, some choices and consequences built in, and in a way that really affects the game at a larger scale. Compare that to e.g. Risen (not a bad game by any means) - you do have some choices as you go, but they mean zilch to the outcome of the main quest. Always leaves me a tiny bit dissatisfied when I realize that in a game.

Having games with multiple endings because of branching at various points in the game could also be seen as a failing because a true maestro story/quest writer would be able to re-connect either chosen or all threads/branches back into a main composite game ending, much better than some lame marketing excuse or possibly the inability to join together storyline loose ends which probably would need aditional developer work input.
If that was the case then "16 loose ends" might be a more accurate description.

Originally Posted by Wulf
Having games with multiple endings because of branching at various points in the game could also be seen as a failing because a true maestro story/quest writer would be able to re-connect either chosen or all threads/branches back into a main composite game ending, much better than some lame marketing excuse or possibly the inability to join together storyline loose ends which probably would need aditional developer work input.
If that was the case then "16 loose ends" might be a more accurate description.

Quite the opposite. A master story teller would find ways to make each ending as different and unique and interesting as the constraints of the game engine / resource limitations allow.

Oh yes, i agree but only within the constraints of ideology…as mentioned by others, in practice once the number of endings become overbearing it becomes ridiculous - i would go along with the 3 or 4 limit.

If there's an ending, then I want it complete with the credits after it … like in any "real" movie …

16 endings. I hope it's 4 states each each with 2 possible values. But, knowing the designers, it will probably be 2 states with 4 possible values, all of them meaningless.

It's probably just a slide explaining what happened to certain factions/people, similar to what we've seen in a bunch of games. I think the biggest variation I've seen was in Arcanum, where you could get dozens of different ending slides depending on your actions. F:NV is also pretty good.

In any case, I tend to enjoy knowing what happened based on my choices.