6:20 I always feel at home when Woolie gets that hype in the room lol "And CD Project has landed every one of those shots with his *track suit on...* and he's still *_wearin his T I M B S nigga!_* "
Man, Woolie is my inner shitty thoughts. Outside I cringe and say "man, that sucks" while inside I'm laughing and thinking he's a big idiot. Woolie is a better man then I.
Here's my thing. You can feel sorry for Andrzej throwing away the chance to make the royalties off of _The Witcher_ games, but personally, my sympathy erodes a little when you learn the guy has a degree in economics. It wasn't like he was an idiot about these things and didn't know about how royalties and royalty percentages work, he legit thought--either feeling that his works weren't important enough to notice (sympathetic, but unlikely) or out of raging arrogance regarding his fans, video game players and all--that CD Projekt Red would fail in its endeavor to translate his universe to a wider audience, and pretty much said as much to the faces of the people who were working to make this happen. That's a _really_ shitty way to treat people who obviously respect you and your work, and it abates whatever sympathy I have for him regarding the matter.
To be fair to him, CD Projekt Red was a small games localization company whose only in-house project was a cancelled port, and the Polish video games market at the time was mostly pirated games from other countries. If you had a book series in 2002 and a group approaches you that: A) Are working in a market that is dominated by other countries that for the most part exists in Poland only through piracy. B) Have never released a game before, and does not know how to make games. Asked if they could base their game on your novel and pay you royalties or a sum. Would you wait for these punks to get successful if they ever get successful, or would you pay your bills? The chance of them hitting it big, let alone the fucking biggest award-winning series over ten years later, looked like the same chances as winning the lottery. And there are plenty of developers now in today's market when there are way more avenues for funding, and distribution who still fail super hard and go nowhere. Also never forget Mighty No. 9. Hindsight is 20/20.
This is true, but it also happens to fit a rather unfortunate pattern of behavior for Andrzej in regards to both _The Witcher_ and his fans. He never really intended _The Witcher_ to become the massive success it was (it started off originally as a collection of short stories focusing on a post-modernist take on traditional fairy tales like Cinderella and the like) and has gone on record as saying that the only reason he had Geralt and Yennifer killed at the end of _The Last Wish_ (kind of a spoiler, but if you've played _The Witcher_ games, this is the point where the game franchise begins) was because he was getting sick of writing the books--which is fair--but also because he found his fans to be annoying, so he wanted to pocket what money he could and bury the franchise. While it's certainly understandable that some people might not enjoy the more fanboy aspects of their fanbase, it's pretty much agreed that Andrzej's reaction boiled down to "I'm killing your beloved character because he's not making me enough money and I don't like you." Compare this to Glukhovsky's attitude, which has been very warm towards his fanbase, and accepting of both fan reactions and fan interpretations, including the video games. You'll also note that with the success of the games, Andrzej since gone on to write another _Witcher_ novel, albeit a prequel. And he wasn't a starving writer at the time, or anything like that. While they weren't well-known by the wider world, _The Witcher_ was an absolute sensation in Poland. By 2002, Andrzej was making plenty of money in Poland from _The Witcher_ books, not to mention the money he had received from the short-lived _The Hexer_ TV series, which incidentally he practically sabotaged when he found out it wasn't making enough money for his liking. He was a well-established author with a sizable fanbase, so really, while one could be skeptical of CD Projekt Red's ambitious undertaking, there really wasn't any reason to pocket the cash and then practically tell them to their face "you're going to fail". The only one who had anything to lose at this point was CD Projekt Red. Andrzej already had one bad adaptation of the series, and it hadn't destroyed his career or people's opinion of the books. Finally, while he's been fine with the games themselves existing, Andrzej has displayed a very condescending attitude towards the medium of video games and towards _The Witcher_ games themselves, and has since gone on to state that the entire _Witcher_ game series is non-canon. While he has every right to state as much, this combined with said attitude towards games really just comes across as considering the games to be inferior on the basis that they are games, which is a terrible attitude to have towards a sizable chunk of the fanbase that considers the games an excellent complement to the book series, and the means by which a much wider international audience can easily access the series. Also, I hope you don't find this wall of text as a response to be offensive, or anything. You make excellent points, but bringing up said points made it clear that what I've said could require some context.
Here's a thing though: Empirical experience often works like that, even though it should not. Now, you might think it does not apply, but it does. Because Sapkowski sold the rights to the video game adaptation TWICE. And the first time, the game failed to materialise at all. Over several years. And yes, there was every reason to believe that CD Projekt Red's was going to fail, because it nearly did. We are talking about the game that used Aurora, an engine that was five years old, and wasn't that good in the first place, because it was a better alternative to what CDPR had. The script was scrapped. Twice. For an RPG game. That's why you have lines and scenes lifted whole from the book. And I mean wholesale. As in, you can point to a book and it is word for word identical. The only reason, and I mean, the only reason, CDPR managed to release the first Witcher at all was because, at the time, majority of the developer team was polish and were thus fairly good programmers and writers, that were paid below what is considered a minimum wage in western countries. The people running the company didn't know what the fuck they were doing, because they decided to start making video games as an alternative to publishing, seeing as Steam was starting to become a thing and it became obvious that the physical publishing was on its way out. They haven't learned fast either, because aggressive expansion very nearly killed the company before they could release Witcher 2. Sapkowski is an arsehole. I've met the guy, I know that for fact. But he didn't make a mistake in judgement at the time. The idea that CDPR could succeed is baffling when you know the details. Also, the problem with Witcher and Sapkowski is that he is mad at the series as a whole. He hates it, because there are other books of his, which he considers to be better, and which never achieved the same levels of popularity. Basically, he is best known for the work he himself considers inferior. Speaking as a writer myself: That is immensely frustrating.
+ MrDarth151 Oh, believe me, I'm honestly kind of baffled at the success of the studio and that the games have done as well as they have with a wide international audience, or hell, at all. I can also certainly sympathize with the way he feels about _The Witcher_ and, as I graciously consider myself an aspiring writer (having not written a damn thing that's seen publication, mind) I can imagine what it would be like to only ever be remembered for something I wrote to pay the bills, and I can see why he'd have such a bitter attitude in regards to anything having to do with _The Witcher._ He's got the right to feel that way and, again, I can totally sympathize with that. I can also imagine why he'd be initially skeptical of the game deal (and I had no idea that CDPR's deal was the _second_ one offered to him, so thanks for enlightening me to that) on the basis that, indeed, CDPR was a tiny studio with nothing notable to show for it at the time, working on an adaptation to a game that almost nobody outside of Eastern Europe would have heard of before. So, in and of itself, asking for one lump sum in case the game or the deal fell through is actually the smart play in that situation. I know that's probably what I would do if that ever happened with me, doubtful as it may be. Hindsight's 20/20 and all that. So I don't think he's an idiot or a jerk just for making the deal he made, that'd be ridiculous, and I apologize if the way I wrote my comment made it appear that way. My issue in terms of the deal he made and the narrative around it is that Sapkowski was not some wide-eyed babe in the woods starving artist who got swindled out of money he righteously deserves, as I have heard a few people tell me. He wasn't. He knew exactly what he was doing and while it was the smart thing to do, it's still an absolutely dickish thing to tell that to people who are going to work hard to adapt your work into anything, be it a film, television show or game that their endeavor is going to fail straight to their faces out of sheer contempt. I get that he didn't trust them and that he hates _The Witcher,_ but that's just rotten. So basically, I'm not saying the guy's an idiot or made a dumb decision. I'm just saying I don't feel sorry for the fact that he missed his chance to get his Scrooge McDuck on and spend his days lounging by the big money poolside full of them improbable vidya game royalty bucks. Because as you said it, he's an arsehole. By the way, and no sarcasm here at all, I'd love to know what you've written. I'm always looking for new stories and authors to check out, so if you get this reply (god knows I never get alerted to replies to my comments), drop me a title or a link or what have you! : D
I mean the author is so cool that after he finished the novels he not only said it was cool for 4A to run with it, BUT HE HELPS THEM WRITE THE GAMES. He collaborated the whole time with 4a not only for the new game, but back before he released the final book he worked with A4 to make shure the games tied in with the book. For example artyoms wife is introduced in the games before the books but the whole story fits in for 2035. Thats an author acknowledging the potential games have
That's rich coming from someone bent on making fantasy gritty and hard boiled and lowest common denominator, clearly-for-the-angsty-teens as possible...
I love the Witcher books, but the author is completely WRONG. He is polish, I'm hungarian, our countries kinda have a everlasting friendship, but those damn books weren't even HEARD of in my country, on my language, let alone translated.
When I First played the game and found out about the books, i immediatly tried to buy them. But there wasn't a single one published in Brazil yet. Tried Portugal, nothing as well. As a last resource I tried in English and only found the First book published, which i couldn't even buy because the price was Crazy when converted to my country's currency. In other words: He's Full of shit, those books weren't even close to being published in most countries. Edit: in Brazil, the First book was published in 2011a mere 4 years after the game's release lol
Man, I had to replay the part with Woolie's response to this so many times because I was laughing so hard I started crying and couldn't listen properly.
Man I remember reading Witcher books as a child... Such an amasing series. And then half a decade later - there's gonna be a video game! Holy shit I was hyped, and boy do the CDPR delivered!
poland doesn't border russia proper. it technically borders russia as it is next to kaliningrad oblast, a russian exclave taken from nazi germany and never returned to another nation becase russia wants a baltic port that isn't frozen. but it isn't connected to the rest of russia.
Well I have this massive Medieval Fantasy series that I'm making and hope to turn it into a show or game one day but I kinda can't because I have things from other game franchises in it.
Flash forward to the tail end of 2019. CDPR and Andrzej make a new deal where he can collect royalties because CDPR wanted to give him the money he foolishly passed on.
They didn't do it out of charity. Andrei was in the process of taking them to court and polish courts were more likely to possibly give him more in royalties than if CD just straight up gives him some guaranteed royalties without taking the risk and spending money on legalities. If this were an American court Andrei would have been up shit creek but a Polish court was much more likely to side with him from what I understand.
To be completely fair to the author: it's not necessarily that he hates video games in particular. The Witcher also was a Polish TV series that was god awful and was panned in Poland when it aired. It took him a long time to want to give the rights to the Witcher to any medium, so it stands to reason the second time he might want to demand up-front payment. While he's definitely still salty about the money (and he should have known better, given he was an economist before a writer) it still makes his situation a little more understandable.
Only issue is that chucklefuck of an author deliberately sabotaged that TV series when he found out it wasn't making him enough money, and no the dude DOES hate video games and follows the mentality of "Bah! Dis is just fer dem stupid kids!"
He had his first chance and he fecked it up. It's like the lead actor did for GTA4: he didn't think it would be popular after it was released and pull the same shite I get the concern but I'd be happy to see my work got love due to 3rd party help.
Even if the books were good, they'd still be worthless as far as the English-speaking crowd is concerned. I never even heard of the series before the first game came out, and if you told me that it was some series of fantasy novels from Poland that you could only experience in the form of bootleg translated text files, I don't think I would have even bothered.
I really hope they don't make a new Witcher. There's absolutely no threat that can top the White Frost and the Wild Hunt. The war Nilfgaard waged ended, and Ciri might not even be a witcher in some endings. It would cheapen the third game and spit on people that got the Empress ending. I hate it when a game forces a "canon" ending for multiple choice endings.
14:20 "Russia, a crazy piracy country", huh ? You mean country #2 of Steam's language usage (and sales) ranking until arrival of China which put it in #3 now ? That Russia ?
I don't feel sorry for the author of the Witcher at all. He is a plaglarist and a fool, and the games blew his books the fuck up in popularity in the west.
Spicy Salmon he not a plagiarist you idiot he wrote books first a plagiarist copy’s someone’s works and says it there’s the witcher books are his work.
Not sure if you're aware The Many, but before calling someone an idiot you should read through the comments. Other's believe his books hold plagiarized elements from another author. From your comment, it seems you think Salmon was talking about the games...
Ok, still no reason to call someone an idiot especially since that's possibly not true. I haven't read his books or the works people think he plagiarized so I can't say, but whether you see something as plagiarism, mirrored thinking, or inspired works is up to perspective sometimes. If multiple people feel its plagiarism then to them its plagiarism, but professionally its up to the authors of both works to bring it to light.