Here I was, enjoying a wonderful world, my disbelief completely suspended...and a monk asks me to play dice with him, in exchange of which, if I'm lucky, he'll grant me a relic. Nice deal I tell to myself, before taking the dice in my hands and rolling, only to find myself winning on the first try!
Except then the game tells you to check the extras sections...which in turns sends to to a GOG.com promotion.

my suspended disbelief got kicked in the balls, and I the whole experience showed me that well before being an epic story, it is a game by the gog guys, a chance for them to plug their service into a high profile game. What was once an experience gratified by a serious story is now a marketing ploy.

Is that the only one in the game? What do you think about in-game advertising in games like The Witcher 2?

There is a long standing tradition in software design community to include Easter Eggs in the software (especially games). In my opinion the Monk is nothing different than that...

Considering it is an NPC that speaks in character and is professionally designed I see no issue with this function, especially that the character is nowhere near the critical quest path through the game (you have to go out of your way to look for him).

I completely disagree with the term used here of in game advertising. In game advertising for me is a soft drink add popping on right before the major boss fight… “Having problems dealing with Kingslayer… try Mountain Dew for recharge!”

On the other hand product placement have been present on more than one occasion in other AAA titles…

so far it appears to be the only one in the game. I must admit, I was ticked off at seeing that kind of cheap marketing. Dragon Age did it in DA:O and I get REALLY annoyed at that. Its like the bloody Ads in DVD movies which VLC will skip but some DVD players won't; you pay for something, and get your experience lessened by an attempt to squeeze more blood from you.

Guys at CD Projeckt, that was kind of a low blow along with that ridiculous (and miserable failure) of the original patch via in-game downloader/installer, aka: lite DRM. Not a good idea to play with the patience of buyers by testing how much in-game ads and hidden DRM we will stomach. I for one have near zero patience and have writtn of EA 100% as a result. if it wasn't for the 180* CD Projeckt did with the SecuROM/in-game installer patch & DLC scheme, that would have been my last CD Projeckt purchase just like EA. For now CD Projeckt is sort of on probabtion for me.

Just let us buy and play our games with no bloody hidden, annoying hidden DRMs or in-game ads! That is what we pay for (or don't pay if they insist on testing our patience). Some may be driven to pay the pirates instead for removing annoying stuff like this.

Its the only one as far as im aware =) I only discovered that little promotion during my second playthrough because i thought the priest would give a powerful trinket or item of some sort if i beat him at dice lol.

Its not that bad though imo..a hooded monk stuck in the basement of a tavern in the first chapter offering an out of game advertisement is pretty tame by current standards.

At least the Witcher 2 is DRM free and doesnt require an anal probe to launch and play. If that means we have to put up with an out of the way hooded monk salesman then so be it.

Why does this sound like the most extreme, awesome thing ever?

I think I'm a part of the problem :(

It is pretty tame when you think about it, but in the moment, it was huge because I was so deeply lost into what is otherwise an incredible experience.
And the fact that they went no DRM with the patch was a really really good move from CDprojekt. I am far from hating them for what they did, it just seems so out of place in an experience like the witcher. I wouldn't look twice in WoW, but a deep story driven RPG like TW2, it just jumps in your face.

While I like and acknowledge that TW2 was DRM free in the end, it wans't entirely for the right reasons. Basically CDR got backed into a corner when all their fancy SecuROM and content/patch servers ALL failed and they had to either give manual alternatives or risk the biggest gaming fiasco since DA:2 and SecuROM. The excuse of protect from pre-release I consider PR bull as they had already said themselves DRM doesn't stop piracy and it certainly doesn't stopped leaked version on the Internet. The in-game installer/downloader was an attempt to have a simple, less noticible version of DRM. sneaky, as they must have known issues would need patches which functionally would make the game unplayable without patches (effectively making an in-game downloader with no manual links) a DRM unto itself. I think CD Projeckt flirted with the devil (perhaps under pressure from their distributors like Atari), got burned and did a 180* before they totally alienated their audience. Doing the right thing after getting caught/burned doing the wrong thing reduces one's integrity in my book. I'll see what they do with TW3, but I won't preorder again. Not tilll I see proof of a properly reformed CDP. (ie, no Internet based DRM directly or indirectly)

i thought it was funny and creative. some people just have black and white mentality...ie all in-game advertising=bad regardless of how it's presented.

While you are entitled to your opinion (as I am to mine) I just wanted to let you know that I think (based on your posts in this thread so far) your expectations are entirely unrealistic and their application unfair...

This game doesn't always take it's self too seriously, you just got to look for some of the silly moments.

Not sure how you come to that conclusion. A year ago they went on record as being against DRM, thne applied it themselves. Proving their own statement to the dismay of their fans. The GOG version was "mostly" drm free from a functional standpoint, but not quite 100%. Many people started believing in them. Expectation entirely unreliastic? hmmm...they take a public stand denouncing DRM, claim the GOG version is DRM free, get prepurchase funds before the game is even released, the game comes out with bugs many (including myself now that I've played it a bit) border the game on being unplayable for many without patches which people could not get manually, have the biggest complaints made as a side-effect of the DRM (official and non-offocial) backfiring or kill performance (securom was FUNNY) and to expect better than that is unreasonable. Interesting. Paying for a game and not having garbage that kills it in return unreasonable. fasinating. There was a time before the Interet became too easy to waste bandwidth on when games WERE the way they should be. too much bandwidth availability caused people to look for ways to do things at the additional expense of the customer. And people are only recently seeing the full effect. Perhaps we have ourselves to blame for everyone who takes stuff like this up the rear end instead of saying "no" is guilty I suppose. So if you mean it is unreasonable to expect quality and integrety if we allow this stuff to happen and keep shelling out our money, then you're right, it is unreasonable. And so I say again, I feel I've been somewhat betrayed and burned, so no preorder for CDP until their next release is done without fiascos like this. Incidently, the key responsive issue/bug is a deal breaker. It creates unnecessary frustration and confusion and it seems clear they did graphics fluidity at the expense of some usability. Not a good tradeoff. So CDP needs to ge that fixed NOW. I'm done with the game until they do. Life is too short.

OT- Who gives a shit? You get an added NPC, an extra game of dice to play, and a percentage off some games by the publisher via GoG. It was also a very funny way of adding that monk guy they promoted the game with. It was meant to be funny and give you a real-life bonus for completing it, not advertise the site in which many bought the damn game from in the first place.

Some of these topics are just getting to be ridiculous. Go blog this shit somewhere so forum browsers dont have to be bothered with it.

TOTALLLLLLLLLLLLY AGREE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well said, Jeffro.