The Witcher 3: The Ugly - Player Agency

What is Player Agency?  In an RPG this is the mechanic that allows the Player Character (PC) to make long-lasting decisions with ramifications not just in speech options but to building out skills, abilities, improving stats and equipment that will then change how NPCs and the game world react to them.  In The Witcher 3 (TW3), there is an illusion of Player Agency in that individual quests or decisions will have some different long-term outcomes, but that is limited to those directly involved in that quest line.  Thus saving the life of someone may get thanks or disdain from a loved one later on, but no word about that spreads beyond that quest.  In other words there is no general reputation system guiding the factions within the game world, no word of mouth that spreads faster than the Witcher can travel and generally nothing that gets larger world recognition within the game based on the decisions made.  There are a couple of exceptions to this, as the main plot centers on this and a sub-plot side-quest to remove the Redanian King both have such ramifications.  The first cannot be failed and the second only fails by not doing it at all, which means little room for actual role-playing is available in that quest.

An example of the lack of choices are seen in the large number of bandits, deserters and pirates that are instantly hostile to Geralt and simply seek to kill him.  There are a few instances where getting rid of these individuals may 'liberate' a site so that those chased off from them will return to it, but that does not go beyond the individual site.  The rulers of that area (or proxy rulers) do not hear of this sort of thing and word doesn't spread to nearby friendly places that indicate that their general feelings for Witchers is being modified for this individual.  A few quests with ramifications is not a framework for changing how factions view the PC and then react to what the PC does.  Rescue a small military unit and word doesn't spread amongst the fellow soldiers about it.  Help out a village with a monster and word doesn't spread about it.  Refuse payment because you are moved by the bad straights of those offering to pay for the quest, and that word doesn't spread, either.

On the flip side it isn't possible to join any of the rogue bands and help them to help themselves.  Consider that most of the game play takes place in a region where the terrain has bogged down proper military operations and a war of attrition has started up, with the diseases and insects of the terrain just as much, if not more of a threat to the two armies than the actual haphazard fighting.  There are many camps of bandits, deserters and pirates that add to the problems of the locals and the military on both sides, thus someone able to demonstrate some base leadership ability and organizational skills could prove more than just a nasty sideshow to an already miserable war theater.  Two armies would just love to get out of this mess in the swamp lands of Velen, but that will require a great logistical build-up now that both sides have exhausted their immediate supplies in the last attempt at a breakout.  In short, this lull and no-man's land affair is ripe for a force for change and that is the usual role of the PC in most games, no matter what the over-arching quest line is about.  Even a moderate reinforcement of local communities could tip the balance of power in this interim period.  Many small decisions of who to help and how to help them could and should have long-lasting effects in terms of the game timeframe.

That is Player Agency at the Theater level of military operations, and while most players will not see Geralt as having a stake in this, his very actions in and of themselves might begin tipping that balance in this Theater of war.  In fact this Theater would actually have a profound impact on the Strategic level of military operations, so changing the tide in the Theater might just change the tide of the overall war OUTSIDE of the main quest line.  Logistics is king in warfare, and the swampy lands of Velen are hell on logistics, supply, maintenance and medical practitioners.

The central city in the game is Novigrad which remains studiously neutral in the war between the Nilfgaardian and Redanian Empires.  It is, in medieval terms, an 'open city' although nominally reinforced by a side, it is not closed to either side and is independent in its operations.  Of course it isn't that simple as such cities tend to be highly prosperous ones that seek to avoid the war as it is bad for trade.  Novigrad has the largest fleet  around and the coffers to outfit 2 complete armies, so it is a capable neutrality that neither side wishes to antagonize.  While nominally in Redanian territory it houses the Church of the Eternal Fire and Witch Hunters, who seek to wipe out mages, sorceresses, herbalists, pellars and anyone even faintly related to magic.  When Geralt arrives this pogrom is in full swing and the start of anti-human sentiment is starting up.  This city offers one hint of a quest line that must have been scotched by the developers as it would require some in-depth RPG mechanics in a game only featuring a few RPG elements.  It is one that is hinted at by the King of Beggars: uniting the criminal factions to remove the Church and its Witch Hunters to attempt to bring some rationality back to the way the city is run.

Hearing this, as a player, brought a smile to my face as, surely, this must be the largest secondary quest in the entire game: swing the city of Novigrad to being completely neutral and even expand its trade by allowing magic users and others to freely practice their trades, which are taxable.  When corruption sets into government then that government starts to operate more as a criminal faction, one powerful enough to get rid of the regular criminals, and that is a threat to those normal crime factions.  The Mafia sided with the Allies against Mussolini in Sicily, a concept which would fit in with what is seen of the Church of the Eternal Fire becoming dealers in addictive drugs, extortion and other assorted criminal enterprises.  This must surely be a tense story line of Geralt serving as go-between so that the criminal faction heads might be brought around to usurping control and restoring standard civil government that enforces laws. 

Why?  Criminals who operate as government have corrupted moral standards and that makes the clear line between what is legal and illegal hazy, and just turns the government into a true criminal enterprise.  With there being no immorality, enforcing laws becomes a secondary concern to taking as much in the way of goods and cash from those under the rulers.  A return to 'sanity' as the King of Beggars puts it, requires there to be a sharp dividing line of morality so that normal criminal operations aren't put out of business by those associated with the government who use the power of government to wipe out the normal criminals.  Having moral standards and increased trade means higher prices can be charged for everything, and that includes criminal operations: a corrupt government is bad for criminals especially when the morals it is pushing are bad for business.

Consider the implications in the main quest line to having Novigrad cleaned up by the criminals so that they can properly operate: all the stuff about getting Dandelion out to learn about Ciri would come at the end of that quest.  Plus with restored civic order, Novigrad could actually start hiring mercenaries and forming up a local militia: it has the cash to do so and there are a lot of disgruntled deserters who would like to operate in a normal environment and not have a price on their heads.  Say, what was that about helping the bandit scum in Velen that neighbors Novigrad, again?  If TW3 was an RPG first, with RPG game mechanics fully working, then a small powerbase in Velen could be grafted to Novigrad and serve as a local counter-balance to the two military organizations.  Neutral trade would expand and both sides could depend on it, so long as they didn't move on it.  Either side might seek to take Novigrad, but that would move the other to aid it, immediately, due to the personal way both Rulers operate.  There is an example of such an influential City State with expanded territory in Kovir, and Novigrad would be set to pull off something similar with a cross-agreement between a semi-unified group of deserters, bandits and pirates willing to fall under rule of a wealthy City State to better arm and protect themselves against the two hostile armies.

Finally there is the conspiracy to remove the Redanian King as he is quite mad and destroying the very infrastructure that allowed Redania to become powerful in the first place.  That conspiracy is led by the ex-head of Intelligence for Redania under its prior ruler, and he is now one of the criminal bosses in Novigrad.  To me this entire concept hinted at by the King of Beggars seems to have been set up with the idea of turning the tide of the entire war just to solve the quest line Geralt is on.  With a mob boss turned Emperor, and the other bosses running Novigrad to bring back sanity and profitability, plus remove government as a competitor, the entire end game of the war is written out there, but lacks a good quest line for it.  This is where Theater level changes can have Strategic importance, and it all starts with one man on a mission that isn't to actually do that.  This would, indeed, be an optional side-quest though it would branch out very quickly to consume a major portion of the game.

If that covers the Theater and Strategic levels of Player Agency, then there is only the Tactical side left.  Here is the stuff of the actual gameplay: the decisions made, the way combat is handled and the general flow of the game.  Combat elements are a way to implement parts of the RPG structure, yet this is sorely lacking in TW3 where combat mechanics take precedence and then the game designers tinker with that to remove some key aspects of Player Agency leading up to combat.  An example of this is going into a house being ransacked by 'creditors' (just plain thieves at that point) and the end of the discussion line gets Geralt thrown into a fistfight.  This is not unusual.  And fistfights are sprung on the PC and many of them operate so as to remove all the player decisions leading up to it on a tactical level.  Take a long-lasting decoction before going into the cutscene and then being thrown into a fistfight?  Sorry, mate, but the game designers wiped that from the slate as they did all the other decisions you made to keep your health up.  The player is repeatedly urged to 'prepare for battle' and then has those preparations wiped out by the whim of the game designers.  That is a slap to the face of the player: sorry, we want this fight to be artificially hard so you can fail it, so just get used to it.  Or, in other words: we lied to you and you believed us, sucker.

Say isn't that steel sword for humans and such?  When someone threatens your life and they have brought fists to a sword wielding Witcher, why is Geralt stuck using his fists?  There is only a code duello in Toussaint, not the dark alleys and bars of Novigrad.  Oh and you can't use any Witcher Signs, either, because, you know, REASONS that game designers refuse to explain to you about what is proper and improper fighting when someone wants to beat you up.  And here I thought that the illiterate cut-throats and thieves didn't operate by such rules.  Silly me.

In fact after any cutscene you had better take a quick moment to see what the designers decided to do to your PC while the cinematics were running, since there are some actual BATTLES where this is done as well.  Yeah, effects that should last for a few hours in the game and do so normally during normal game play get wiped out in a few minutes because, you know, REASONS.  Prepare for battle, sucker, and we'll just wipe those out for you when we want to for 'dramatic tension'.

That is the most base sort of Tactical Player Agency: controlling what your PC does, what is worn, what equipment is used and what other effects that act normally are put in place.  Whenever a game designer decides to overrule the player, then Player Agency is lost.  This happened so many times in TW3 that I lost count, and it left a long and bitter taste in my mouth as a player who is used to game designers in RPG, even those RPGs with only some nominal elements in it, respecting the actions of the player.  Especially when the player is specifically told to prepare ahead of time for combat.  No game designer of a putative RPG should ever do that. And for this alone the classification of 'Action RPG' starts to turn into 'Action Visual Novel with a few RPG elements here and there'.

I can still give The Witcher 3 a recommendation for playing, but it is with the steep proviso that Player Agency isn't respected on designer whimsy.  If the generally linear story with choke-point decisions are a few good RPG elements, not respecting actual player choice on a tactical level indicates a lack of an RPG framework or even just respecting basic, common sense when preparing for a situation.  It is one thing to not prepare properly and live with the consequences, it is another to have the entire set of preparations thrown out and the rules changed without notice due to game design that you get no warning about.  I'll make no bones about The Witcher 3 being a good, if not great experience, but it is not a wholehearted support of the entire player experience.  This didn't have to be done in this manner to get dramatic scenes, and the abuse of this mechanic so frequently is a major negative to the whole experience to myself as a gamer.