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One of the reviewers wrote that he doubted a single girl had played the Witcher and enjoyed it, mainly because of its sexist approach to females and because of cards. Well I'm a girl and I love the game. Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed collecting cards. I think it's a lovely and funny idea. Yes, Geralt is not very "moral" in this aspect, so what? At least cards give me a hint that his love adventures won't be taken seriously in plot development, so I can flirt to my heart's content.
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Andikki: One of the reviewers wrote that he doubted a single girl had played the Witcher and enjoyed it, mainly because of its sexist approach to females and because of cards. Well I'm a girl and I love the game. Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed collecting cards. I think it's a lovely and funny idea. Yes, Geralt is not very "moral" in this aspect, so what? At least cards give me a hint that his love adventures won't be taken seriously in plot development, so I can flirt to my heart's content.
That reviewer must be stuck 20 years in the past then.

Three quarters of the girls I know are just as sexually easy going and "womanize" (Or would it be "manize" in this situation?) as all the guys I know are/do.

I find only a very small amount of the independent women around these days find guys/girls who are sexually open (I guess that's the right phrase?) morally bankrupt/bad people.
I'm a man and I read about the card collecting too.

I find it pretty objectionable. The Witcher seemed attractive for its graphics and the presentation of story (I watched some cutscenes). But I don't want to sit in a room with someone while I'm playing a game with a lot of sex in game (frankly, I don't want to do that by myself either). This is the same problem I had with Fallout 3 because of the language.

How am I supposed to play this game with people around?

P.S. - I know I don't have to buy the game. I haven't and I won't.
Post edited May 10, 2011 by darkness58ec
I found the card collecting mini-game more silly than offensive. However, I think that they should have had cards of both sexes, leaving his sexual orientation up to the player. After all, if Geralt is immune to disease, and somewhat of a hedonist, presumably he'd have no moral objection to shagging members of either sex.
He's not a hedonist, exactly... he just likes the ladies, and is a classic anti-hero. He's sterile and immune to disease, so the main dangers of having sex with random women are nullified. No child support payments, and no STDs. He's also a wanderer, so if a lady gets too clingy, he can just leave.

Note of course that you don't HAVE to sleep with anyone if you don't want to. There's only one scene that actually plays out the same regardless of your choices, you don't get a card for that one, and it's not entirely clear whether that's actual sex or just a sensual massage.

I also think the game is kinda silly, and could easily be offensive, though I don't mind it. I don't "collect" the cards, though, either. On my first run-through, I slept with everything that moved, but that was only to see what the cards looked like. Once I found all the cards on the Witcher Wiki, I stopped. If you're obsessed with collecting absolutely every card on every run-through, that really says more about you as a player than the game itself.
The game very clearly objectifies women, reducing many of them to collectibles or triumphs/conquests for Geralt. While I can see why some people won't mind them, I don't think it changes the fact that the sex cards feel completely out of place in what is supposed to be a "mature" and "adult" title. The stranger thing is that sex is handled very tastefully in many other parts of the game, and there are strong, developed female characters to be found. It's that inconsistency in tone that's most off-putting to me, because I'm never sure whether to congratulate CD Projekt for depicting realistic, well-written women with actual character depth, or to scold them for the negative portrayals.
Post edited May 10, 2011 by sear
I don't even get why this in the game. I mean I have nothing against sex in video games but the card collecting just seems stupid and silly. I doubt that many people bought a game that has dozens of hours in order to get cards for having sex with various female characters in the game.
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Andikki: One of the reviewers wrote that he doubted a single girl had played the Witcher and enjoyed it, mainly because of its sexist approach to females and because of cards. Well I'm a girl and I love the game. Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed collecting cards. I think it's a lovely and funny idea. Yes, Geralt is not very "moral" in this aspect, so what? At least cards give me a hint that his love adventures won't be taken seriously in plot development, so I can flirt to my heart's content.
I've only just finished the prologue, so I can't judge the whole game yet. But some of it does reek of cliche and intentionally appealing to a straight male audience. All the men just happen to be old and scarred up and over 40, and all the women are 20-35 and spotless. The only man under 40 gets flagged with a big obvious "going to die soon" marker and does so. Apparently they couldn't have a powerful sorceress be, say, a 58-year-old woman who's had years and years to synthesize a wide range of sophisticated arcane tricks, and even if such a sorceress existed, the 50-something-looking scar-faced Geralt wouldn't get hot and bothered about it.

If there were any frumpy women with speaking parts in the first several hours at all, I might have given the game more weight as an attempt at literature. As it stands now, it's all 30-something women with fishnet cleavage. I like attractive women and find them postively wank-worthy, but the cost you pay is that the world is that much more plasticy and exclusive.

Maybe there's more balance of characters as it goes on, but the first few hours are a parade of easily-recognized "the women are beautiful and the men are ugly" cliches. Collecting the cards itself doesn't really bother me as much as the above, though I suppose looking at all 12 back to back does make it all sort of tawdry-looking in retrospect.
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Andikki: One of the reviewers wrote that he doubted a single girl had played the Witcher and enjoyed it, mainly because of its sexist approach to females and because of cards. Well I'm a girl and I love the game. Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed collecting cards. I think it's a lovely and funny idea. Yes, Geralt is not very "moral" in this aspect, so what? At least cards give me a hint that his love adventures won't be taken seriously in plot development, so I can flirt to my heart's content.
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mothwentbad: I've only just finished the prologue, so I can't judge the whole game yet. But some of it does reek of cliche and intentionally appealing to a straight male audience. All the men just happen to be old and scarred up and over 40, and all the women are 20-35 and spotless. The only man under 40 gets flagged with a big obvious "going to die soon" marker and does so. Apparently they couldn't have a powerful sorceress be, say, a 58-year-old woman who's had years and years to synthesize a wide range of sophisticated arcane tricks, and even if such a sorceress existed, the 50-something-looking scar-faced Geralt wouldn't get hot and bothered about it.

If there were any frumpy women with speaking parts in the first several hours at all, I might have given the game more weight as an attempt at literature. As it stands now, it's all 30-something women with fishnet cleavage. I like attractive women and find them postively wank-worthy, but the cost you pay is that the world is that much more plasticy and exclusive.

Maybe there's more balance of characters as it goes on, but the first few hours are a parade of easily-recognized "the women are beautiful and the men are ugly" cliches. Collecting the cards itself doesn't really bother me as much as the above, though I suppose looking at all 12 back to back does make it all sort of tawdry-looking in retrospect.
Well, it makes sense for a socceress to be goodlooking, in the short stories socerres often used magic to make themselves look better...

But, all beautiful women is a bit weird. But I guess it is no better than many other WRPGs such as Dragon Age....
I can only assume that they wanted it as some kind of tongue-in-cheek "collection game" aspect in the game, funnily as a male I wouldn't be bothered if it were the other way around, a female character that "collects" males.

Regarding the sex itself, there are enough games that are designed with the prudish and easily offended in mind, but if EVERY game would be so, we might as well stop bothering altogether. Variety is good.
Post edited May 11, 2011 by Forneus
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Forneus: Regarding the sex itself, there are enough games that are designed with the prudish and easily offended in mind, but if EVERY game would be so, we might as well stop bothering altogether. Variety is good.
Don't forget the profanity either! For the most part it's not hilariously overdone (except for Thaler) but, of course, it's inappropriate by definition so using profanity "appropriately" is kinda silly.

I giggle every time one of the fistfighters tells me "Your mother sucks dwarf cock!" though. Something about that line just gets me.
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Forneus: Regarding the sex itself, there are enough games that are designed with the prudish and easily offended in mind, but if EVERY game would be so, we might as well stop bothering altogether. Variety is good.
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bevinator: Don't forget the profanity either! For the most part it's not hilariously overdone (except for Thaler) but, of course, it's inappropriate by definition so using profanity "appropriately" is kinda silly.

I giggle every time one of the fistfighters tells me "Your mother sucks dwarf cock!" though. Something about that line just gets me.
Well, of what I played, the fist fights have been in a bar so that kind of profanity actually makes sense.
Post edited May 11, 2011 by marcusmaximus
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Forneus: Variety is good.
"Variety" meaning 12 European women between the ages of 18 and 35 with slightly different choices of clothing and hair color?
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Forneus: Variety is good.
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mothwentbad: "Variety" meaning 12 European women between the ages of 18 and 35 with slightly different choices of clothing and hair color?
Well that's a different problem altogether. One could make a game with sexual content without making every woman in the game attractive.

Although Dragon Age 2 hasn't really many ugly women either (except for their hands, shudder).
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mothwentbad: "Variety" meaning 12 European women between the ages of 18 and 35 with slightly different choices of clothing and hair color?
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Forneus: Well that's a different problem altogether. One could make a game with sexual content without making every woman in the game attractive.

Although Dragon Age 2 hasn't really many ugly women either (except for their hands, shudder).
Ah. Yeah, *everyone* was pretty in however much Dragon Age 1 I got through. Even the dudes. So I guess that's balance or something. The thing where Morgana has to channel void energy to get her top to stay exactly in place is a bit much, though.