Witcher 3 Quest Reaction: Videogame Narratives and What they Bring to the Table

Spoilers!

So I just beat the Witcher 3 quest where you smuggle Triss out of Novigrad after the government begins to crack down on the mages of the game. There's an opportunity to to have a romantic relationship with this character which was my intention due to previous decisions the player makes to build up a make or break moment... but I missed it and didn’t realize the quest would end with the final interaction that happened.

I messed up that decision because I was thinking about Triss's livelihood and how she shouldn't stay in Novigrad. I was thinking how dangerous it would’ve been. I was thinking how selfish it would be for a lover to put someone through that. I was thinking. Which was amazing to say the least because I miss romantic cues likes this all the time in real life because I think like this; too damn much. The game really served as an accurate mirror for a lot of the thought pattern pathologies I have in my own day-to-day life and if the goal of art is to reflect life, well damn, CD projekt Red did a great fucking job.

On top of that, this is something only the magic of videogame narratives could accomplish because the player (me) is forced to make all those decisions. In a movie the viewer is shoehorned to relate to a character's decisions, but providing agency provides an interesting layer of meaning by letting the player understand how he/she conducts themselves within the world. Obviously the nature of videogames enables this by giving players the opportunity to "role-play" as their character. Which brings up interesting questions as to if it was actually me making those decisions or if I was capitulating to my concept of what Geralt would do. Maybe our personas merge into something new, who knows. However, I retained the agency, the instant regret, and profound impact.

An impact accomplished expertly by the rest of the moment’s design. Immediately following the incident, as Dijkstra gave his long-winded Rant about the politics, possible futures of the country and societal impact of generational damage of poor leaders (basically all of the shit that enthralled me about the game up until that point) all I heard was white noise; accompanied by a music selection that emphasized longing and regret.

To me, this juxtaposition of a somber tone with what should be an excited moment symbolized CD Projekt shoving my conflicted interests/decision making in my face. Is safety worth risking? Who am I to even judge that? What is the prospect of a relationship even worth, and can you even value that against something? All questions I had yet to even ask myself pertaining to my real world interactions (be kind I'm still young and dumb). But at the end of the day, a game that makes players ponder about their own priorities of what ACTUALLY is important in life by providing situations that reflect the conflicted nature of encounters between people and then force players to productively deal with those consequences, is a massive success in video-game narrative based storytelling (where quality is more often than not lackluster). Bravo CD Projekt.

Also please don't spoil the rest of the game.