10 Things Every Video Game Needs To Learn From The Witcher 3

Not by me, I actually stumbled on this page while looking on possible update on upcoming Geralt adventures movie which is supposed to hit cinemas next year.

Anyway, the site is organized as click-bait scheme so each point is on separate page.
I'm listing all 10 points by Bendan Jacobs @ whatculture.com what every videogame, scratch that, it's what every CEO of publisher companies… needs to learn from TW3.
One by one with a link to each argument why:

10. How To Make Great Minigames
9. How To Design Environments
8. How To Attract A Diverse Range Of Gamers
7. How To Implement Player Choice
6. It Proved Single Player Isn't Dead
5. Everybody Got A Satisfying Ending
4. How To Create & Structure Side Quests
3. Creating Substantial & Worthwhile DLC
2. How To Communicate With Your Fanbase
1. How To Write A Good Story

I cannot agree on point #2 though. While CDpr listened to fans postrelease and made game changes discussed and asked for by fans, miscommunication was the reason of "graphicsdowngradegate" and IMO it's still something CDpr can improve in future game releases.

Your thoughts?

These guys are ALL about clickbaiting, but anyway:
10. True: Gwent turned out surprisingly good
9. Next to GTA's, the best designed open world: definitely most "organic" one.
8. Meh: Don't know what he's saying. They did the great job for newcomers, but some characters should have played a larger role( Adda, Anais, Siegfried), new comers can go plough themselves!
7. Good, though AP and Witcher II are still better.
6. Eh, what's he talking about?
5. It does a better job than most, but some epilogue characters could have been more expanded on.
4. The best written, excellent in presentation, world building and cinematography. Only major flaw is a relatively simple( typically: talk, go, kill, "follow Witcher senses", etc) structure. They really need to expand this with player skills in Cyberpunk. ( "Beyond the beef").
3. True
2. Disagree…their PR is a mess. Devs listen to feedback, but there are others, like Obsidian, who more actively communicate on their forums.
1. Taken as a whole, they have some of the best writing in industry, but there is room for improvement: early game pacing, some character arcs/villains sometimes undeveloped and last act is often not best realized( probably because of all the effort that goes into sidequests).
CDPR is at their best with short length/medium stories focused on only a few characters…Hearts of Stone, great example and some of the best writing there is in video games, across all genres.

I know it's clickbait style but what can I do?
Every single site seems to be moving onto that horrible idea, I've started avoiding sites I was regular lurker on like Escapist Magazine because of that practice. Recently I'm seeing it also on PC Gamer, luckily mostly with stuff I don't even care to read.

Dunno why are they all doing it. One of the oldest sites with numbering things, cracked.com, does spread an article across two pages, but never makes each point on a separate page, can't they all just learn from it.

I quess its to get more page views and thus gain more income from adds. For me personally this kind of practise is an instant turn off. And since I'm using addblocker, its a snowball's chance in hell that I'm whitelisting a clickbait site.

I agree with the article for the most part. That being said, the most impressive thing about TW3 is how it managed to combine a massive scope with excellent story telling. I honestly don't expect us to see many RPGs of this size, so I'm not really sure that's something others can "learn". Most don't have the capacity to make 100+ hours games, so it's hardly a common issue.

I think the settlements are the best part of TW3. The villages, towns, castles, etc made me feel like I was in real places. Novigrad is amazing, and it's by far the most impressive city I've seen in an RPG to date. The design of those places and the surrounding environments really helped make the overall atmosphere one of the best I've ever experienced in a game.

The worst part of TW3 is the loot system. Too much loot laying around, and most of it is junk. I also hated how so many vendors are conveniently selling maps to loot stashes. Still, it was a forgivable flaw for me considering how great most everything else was.

Bottom line this was an epic game. My quick summary on the witcher franchise would be as follows:
* Great devs/studio obviously
* Picked some great pre-existing IP - I think this is important…this world was well suited for action-oriented RPG treatment (the fact that the witchers job is to kill monsters for money now and then is a beautiful built in side quest feature)
* Great writing and story telling (ties into the pre existing IP as well)
* And each game got better in almost every way…pretty amazing really
Classic series.
And pulled it off on both PC and console without the PC version sucking!

I think the most important piece of advice for developers is "DON'T ADD FUCKING LUT BOXES". I'm glad CD project red didn't stoop to that level in their new game.

Originally Posted by rodriguezp
I think the most important piece of advice for developers is "DON'T ADD FUCKING LUT BOXES". I'm glad CD project red didn't stoop to that level in their new game.

Oh yes, that's the plain truth. There's no better way to ruin a game than to add some skins to it.