The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski's disdain of games

[Storyfag]

He doesn't play games nor he understand them or like them.

Bullshit. He understands games well enough to have published a pen and paper RPG, "The Eye of Yrrhedes". In the preface, he goes on how he was always jealous of the western countries where you could easily get such gems as "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons". To now try and maintain that he does not like or play games is slimy to say the least. The medium used by games is secondary.

 

[Paul_cz]

Bullshit. He understands games well enough to have published a pen and paper RPG, "The Eye of Yrrhedes". In the preface, he goes on how he was always jealous of the western countries where you could easily get such gems as "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons". To now try and maintain that he does not like or play games is slimy to say the least. The medium used by games is secondary.

Pen and paper games and computer games are two completely separate things. Even if Sapkowski 22 years ago published PnP game it says nothing about his relationship to electronic games.

He sold rights to Witcher for 4000$ lol... Don't know if it's true, but if it is no wonder there is so much bile coming out of him for years. He's just salty old fuck.

He has NOT sold it for 4000 dollars. That is another bullshit clickbait by shitty press. Adrian Chmielarz already refuted this. Nobody except Sapkowski and CDP knows how much money they paid for the rights.

I've stumbled upon a quite interesting interview with Sapkowski

This interview is great. He comes off as arrogant, but in a really funny, almost ironic way. Like I get the vibe that he is not really serious when saying half the stuff he says. And he is pretty fair to games. Considers them good, what he saw of them visually is good, but he does not play them so cannot comment further. Of course he gets pissy when people suggest that games made him famous, but who wouldn't be? His assertion of 50-50 games helping books and books helping games is fair.

 

[Doktor Best]

People take his comments way too seriously and i think hes exploiting that fact by trolling the large fancrowds to gain attention.

If he said the usual marketing bullshit that gaem is great, hes lucky someone as talented as cdpr adapted his novels, yadda yadda yadda, nobody would really give a shit. He wouldnt have gotten the coverage he has now.

And look at that, he now is included in the big cake of the netflix adaption. Everything done right in my book.

 

[norolim]

Nobody except Sapkowski and CDP knows how much money they paid for the rights.

That is not correct anymore. A week ago an ex-lead of the CD Projekt RED studio revealed that they paid 35K for the rights in two instalments of 15 & 20 thousand.

 

[Paul_cz]

Nobody except Sapkowski and CDP knows how much money they paid for the rights.

That is not correct anymore. A week ago an ex-lead of the CD Projekt RED studio revealed that they paid 35K for the rights in two instalments of 15 & 20 thousand.

Cool, so yeah that is quite a bit more than 4K. TBH this was shitload of money in poland back in 2000 or so. Considering that first attempt failed and there was extremely tiny chance that CDP could make a good and especially profitable game, I am not surprised Sapkowski took the money upfront. It was smart at the time, dumb in hindsight, but yeah.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

At least he finishes books. I've been waiting nearly a decade to read Martins Winds of Winter. I blame the show for slowing his already slow process to a near standstill.

 

[pippin]

I find it hilarious that I only knew about Twitcher being an adaptation because I was aware of the books. I wonder how many people played Witcher 3 first and think it's an original setting. Sapkowski's name has no pull in America, but sometimes by contract you have to specify that this work is based on the novels made by this guy. At least you know GoT is based on ASOIAF.

At least he finishes books. I've been waiting nearly a decade to read Martins Winds of Winter. I blame the show for slowing his already slow process to a near standstill.

I gave up and sold the books actually. The first three were cool, but everything after it is just dull or even dumb. I dunno, I felt it was low fantasy done right. The more high fantasy elements GRRM introduces, the more shitty the narrative becomes. It doesn't help that his editor worships him like a god and GRRM now has Lucas Syndrome, no one will dare to tell him no, or to cut some shit out. I mean, consider the shitshow that became Feast and Dance.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

Yeah, he's much better at basic fictional medieval settings without the introduction of dragons, but I think he senses this, which is why he's been avoiding putting too much magic into the books. For instance, Tyrion in the 5th book was supposed to meet the Shrouded Lord in the 5th book when he fell into the lake

Spoiler

Technically I think he still did but doesnt remember it as GRRM didnt want it in, even though he wrote the chapter

but GRRM decided to remove it because he didn't like how much magic was beginning to play in the series. Although with Euron and the dragons, as well as the wall most likely crumbling in the next book, magic will most likely start taking a prominent role.

I actually liked Feast & Dance. I was originally angry they introduced so many new character POVs in Feast but started to become interested over time, and I simply enjoyed Dance, other than the Danny chapters, which are god awful boring. I might be in the minority in this tho.

 

[Gerrard]

Nobody except Sapkowski and CDP knows how much money they paid for the rights.

That is not correct anymore. A week ago an ex-lead of the CD Projekt RED studio revealed that they paid 35K for the rights in two instalments of 15 & 20 thousand.

Cool, so yeah that is quite a bit more than 4K. TBH this was shitload of money in poland back in 2000 or so. Considering that first attempt failed and there was extremely tiny chance that CDP could make a good and especially profitable game, I am not surprised Sapkowski took the money upfront. It was smart at the time, dumb in hindsight, but yeah.

Selling the rights to make ANY NUMBER OF GAMES was pretty retarded regardless. He should've sold the rights to ONE game, and then if they wanted to make another talk from there.

 

[Israfael]

What's funny Sapkowski's books, especially the first two (short stories, I mean) require people to be a) slavs b) remember the soviet times (there's lot of jokes connected to life in Warsaw bloc and Soviet reality), so the non-Russian / non-Potato readers probably don't get half the things that are there, and the fact that the games kind of removed that part and replaced it with standard fare anti-fantasy/fantasy fiction, while getting huge popularity, probably hurts him more than the twitcher2 covers or whatnot

 

[laclongquan]

35k is good money in 2000s, considering book advances, royalty, and shits. Especially considering he's a Polish author with maybe a TV adaptation at that point.

He's just an old bitter writer who luck into having his works internationalized. A younger man would try to capitalize on that luck, but I guess he's 60-70 then.

And to be fair, it's not that easy to leverage such thing into books' fame and money.

Still~

Nobody except Sapkowski and CDP knows how much money they paid for the rights.

That is not correct anymore. A week ago an ex-lead of the CD Projekt RED studio revealed that they paid 35K for the rights in two instalments of 15 & 20 thousand.

Cool, so yeah that is quite a bit more than 4K. TBH this was shitload of money in poland back in 2000 or so. Considering that first attempt failed and there was extremely tiny chance that CDP could make a good and especially profitable game, I am not surprised Sapkowski took the money upfront. It was smart at the time, dumb in hindsight, but yeah.

Selling the rights to make ANY NUMBER OF GAMES was pretty retarded regardless. He should've sold the rights to ONE game, and then if they wanted to make another talk from there.

That's where the second installment of 20k coming in. The first was 15k is pretty good risky money. And it must have been specified in contract, so it's not like he can refuse or raise it.

 

[Paul_cz]

I find it hilarious that I only knew about Twitcher being an adaptation because I was aware of the books. I wonder how many people played Witcher 3 first and think it's an original setting. Sapkowski's name has no pull in America, but sometimes by contract you have to specify that this work is based on the novels made by this guy. At least you know GoT is based on ASOIAF.

Iirc Sapkowski's name is the first thing in the credits. Of course, not everyone sees those, but in general CDP are not hiding anything.

 

[ShadowSpectre]

It's alright, you can bet Sapkowski is going to cash in on his deal with Netflix this time around.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I was reading through this thread a few days ago and thinking how ludicrous the assertion that people thought the books were based on the games is. I can even remember a PCGamer preview of Twitcher1 from back around when NWN was first released that went on at length about what a big deal the books were back in Poland.

Cue to this afternoon when I walked into a Barnes and Noble in downtown Chicago with the intention of picking up The Last Wish. Scanning the fantasy section shelf to "Sapkowski" I was surprised that, not only was The Last Wish not there, there wasn't a single Sapkowski book on the shelf! Perplexed, as I know they've had multiple mass-market paperback printings in the US in the past few years, I approached a store clerk and asked if they had anything by Sapkowski. The clerk dutifully ran "Sapkowski "through his store's inventory program, shrugged his head, and gave me a short "Nope. Sorry."
"Really?!" I pressed him incredulously. "'The Witcher' books?" At the words "The Witcher" he gave an immediate jolt of recognition and promptly showed me over to a shelf full of the whole series. The Shelf was in an unmarked aisle adjacent to the sci-fi/fantasy section and sharing shelf-space with such distinguished company as a slew of Mass Effect, Halo, and World of Warcraft novels. He then told me that he loved "that game, but the books aren't nearly as good". I was nearly too embarrassed to buy the book, but it appears here that Sapkowski is spot on about some people believing him to be an inferior knockoff of the original, and I can understand why that would grate at anyone who's genuinely created something.

 

[Baterky]

I was reading through this thread a few days ago and thinking how ludicrous the assertion that people thought the books were based on the games is. I can even remember a PCGamer preview of Twitcher1 from back around when NWN was first released that went on at length about what a big deal the books were back in Poland.

Cue to this afternoon when I walked into a Barnes and Noble in downtown Chicago with the intention of picking up The Last Wish. Scanning the fantasy section shelf to "Sapkowski" I was surprised that, not only was The Last Wish not there, there wasn't a single Sapkowski book on the shelf! Perplexed, as I know they've had multiple mass-market paperback printings in the US in the past few years, I approached a store clerk and asked if they had anything by Sapkowski. The clerk dutifully ran "Sapkowski "through his store's inventory program, shrugged his head, and gave me a short "Nope. Sorry."
"Really?!" I pressed him incredulously. "'The Witcher' books?" At the words "The Witcher" he gave an immediate jolt of recognition and promptly showed me over to a shelf full of the whole series. The Shelf was in an unmarked aisle adjacent to the sci-fi/fantasy section and sharing shelf-space with such distinguished company as a slew of Mass Effect, Halo, and World of Warcraft novels. He then told me that he loved "that game, but the books aren't nearly as good". I was nearly too embarrassed to buy the book, but it appears here that Sapkowski is spot on about some people believing him to be an inferior knockoff of the original, and I can understand why that would grate at anyone who's genuinely created something.

I totally aggree, I mean of course the games changed a lot what was in the books because they took a different path. And I think as a creator it can be hard to see your creation become something completely different and more liked than what you have been working for. Still, I read all the books before the game so I still have good memories about it.

 

[Tytus]

I was reading through this thread a few days ago and thinking how ludicrous the assertion that people thought the books were based on the games is. I can even remember a PCGamer preview of Twitcher1 from back around when NWN was first released that went on at length about what a big deal the books were back in Poland.

Cue to this afternoon when I walked into a Barnes and Noble in downtown Chicago with the intention of picking up The Last Wish. Scanning the fantasy section shelf to "Sapkowski" I was surprised that, not only was The Last Wish not there, there wasn't a single Sapkowski book on the shelf! Perplexed, as I know they've had multiple mass-market paperback printings in the US in the past few years, I approached a store clerk and asked if they had anything by Sapkowski. The clerk dutifully ran "Sapkowski "through his store's inventory program, shrugged his head, and gave me a short "Nope. Sorry."
"Really?!" I pressed him incredulously. "'The Witcher' books?" At the words "The Witcher" he gave an immediate jolt of recognition and promptly showed me over to a shelf full of the whole series. The Shelf was in an unmarked aisle adjacent to the sci-fi/fantasy section and sharing shelf-space with such distinguished company as a slew of Mass Effect, Halo, and World of Warcraft novels. He then told me that he loved "that game, but the books aren't nearly as good". I was nearly too embarrassed to buy the book, but it appears here that Sapkowski is spot on about some people believing him to be an inferior knockoff of the original, and I can understand why that would grate at anyone who's genuinely created something.

I don't agree with the clerk at all. I mean Sapkowski did a great job adapting the games into a series of books. He even captured the alchemy mechanic from the first game perfectly.

But seriously, you will find retards everywhere. There are people claiming that Warhammer 40k ripped off Starcraft. Does the creators of W40k should be furious about it? Hell no, that only shows the popularity their work have reached. And let's face it without the Witcher games the books wouldn't even be translated into english. Sapkowski wouldn't have a TV series to work on. He is just bitter that he made a bad financial deal because he was greedy and didn't believe a game can be profitable.

 

[Gargall amb Mocs]

Who cares? Fantasy 'literature' is shit and will always be, and only virgin beardnecks with down syndrome would dare to think otherwise.

 

[Mark Richard]

I was reading through this thread a few days ago and thinking how ludicrous the assertion that people thought the books were based on the games is. I can even remember a PCGamer preview of Twitcher1 from back around when NWN was first released that went on at length about what a big deal the books were back in Poland.

Cue to this afternoon when I walked into a Barnes and Noble in downtown Chicago with the intention of picking up The Last Wish. Scanning the fantasy section shelf to "Sapkowski" I was surprised that, not only was The Last Wish not there, there wasn't a single Sapkowski book on the shelf! Perplexed, as I know they've had multiple mass-market paperback printings in the US in the past few years, I approached a store clerk and asked if they had anything by Sapkowski. The clerk dutifully ran "Sapkowski "through his store's inventory program, shrugged his head, and gave me a short "Nope. Sorry."
"Really?!" I pressed him incredulously. "'The Witcher' books?" At the words "The Witcher" he gave an immediate jolt of recognition and promptly showed me over to a shelf full of the whole series. The Shelf was in an unmarked aisle adjacent to the sci-fi/fantasy section and sharing shelf-space with such distinguished company as a slew of Mass Effect, Halo, and World of Warcraft novels. He then told me that he loved "that game, but the books aren't nearly as good". I was nearly too embarrassed to buy the book, but it appears here that Sapkowski is spot on about some people believing him to be an inferior knockoff of the original, and I can understand why that would grate at anyone who's genuinely created something.

But seriously, you will find retards everywhere. There are people claiming that Warhammer 40k ripped off Starcraft. Does the creators of W40k should be furious about it? Hell no, that only shows the popularity their work have reached.

Warhammer 40k board games haven't been banished to the shit shelf and made worse just by proximity to the other trash. There's a difference between an individual with a belief, and a store reinforcing that belief in an official capacity. The latter makes it solid, putting the belief into practice.

 

[Tytus]

I was reading through this thread a few days ago and thinking how ludicrous the assertion that people thought the books were based on the games is. I can even remember a PCGamer preview of Twitcher1 from back around when NWN was first released that went on at length about what a big deal the books were back in Poland.

Cue to this afternoon when I walked into a Barnes and Noble in downtown Chicago with the intention of picking up The Last Wish. Scanning the fantasy section shelf to "Sapkowski" I was surprised that, not only was The Last Wish not there, there wasn't a single Sapkowski book on the shelf! Perplexed, as I know they've had multiple mass-market paperback printings in the US in the past few years, I approached a store clerk and asked if they had anything by Sapkowski. The clerk dutifully ran "Sapkowski "through his store's inventory program, shrugged his head, and gave me a short "Nope. Sorry."
"Really?!" I pressed him incredulously. "'The Witcher' books?" At the words "The Witcher" he gave an immediate jolt of recognition and promptly showed me over to a shelf full of the whole series. The Shelf was in an unmarked aisle adjacent to the sci-fi/fantasy section and sharing shelf-space with such distinguished company as a slew of Mass Effect, Halo, and World of Warcraft novels. He then told me that he loved "that game, but the books aren't nearly as good". I was nearly too embarrassed to buy the book, but it appears here that Sapkowski is spot on about some people believing him to be an inferior knockoff of the original, and I can understand why that would grate at anyone who's genuinely created something.

But seriously, you will find retards everywhere. There are people claiming that Warhammer 40k ripped off Starcraft. Does the creators of W40k should be furious about it? Hell no, that only shows the popularity their work have reached.

Warhammer 40k board games haven't been relegated to the shit shelf and made worse just by proximity to the other trash. There's a difference between an individual with a belief, and a store reinforcing that belief in an official capacity.

Board games maybe not. But novels sure they are. They are in the same book section like Warcraft shit-novels are in. Years ago when they were still printing it in Poland (don't know if they still do) they were standing beside shit like Diablo novels.

 

[Taluntain]

With foreign authors a lot can ride on who's doing the translation as well. I remember that the novella that came along with the first Witcher felt like it was translated by some starving Polish English student. Details and nuances can get lost in translation even with decent translators, but mediocre ones will definitely drag a work down to their level. Plus there are the cultural differences, things that don't translate well into English, heck, even the word "Witcher" feels like it was made up by a shoddy translator who's never heard of warlocks. Wouldn't really surprise me if that was actually the case.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

I mean if i would be him and be constantly nagged by people about games when you don't want nothing to do with it because you don't earn single buck on it i would be pretty annoyed too.

He doesn't earn a single buck from the games because when CD Project Red started working on the 1st Witcher game he refused to receive any share of the profit, or have any thing to do with the development, because he tough the game's would be trash and flop.

He made a shit decision, the game's made a fuckton of cash and became more famous than any of his books.

That's why Sapoveski gets butthurt evey time someone remembers him of his stupid mistakes.

 

[Perkel]

I mean if i would be him and be constantly nagged by people about games when you don't want nothing to do with it because you don't earn single buck on it i would be pretty annoyed too.

He doesn't earn a single buck from the games because when CD Project Red started working on the 1st Witcher game he refused to receive any share of the profit, or have any thing to do with the development, because he tough the game's would be trash and flop.

He made a shit decision, the game's made a fuckton of cash and became more famous than any of his books.

That's why Sapoveski gets butthurt evey time someone remembers him of his stupid mistakes.

Yeah but he isn't annoyed about money. He is annoyed because when people talk about his work they force him to constantly say that he has nothing to do with games and he doesn't care about them.

 

[Storyfag]

"Witcher" feels like it was made up by a shoddy translator who's never heard of warlocks.

This is, perhaps, because the original "Wiedźmin" was made up by a shoddy trans... writer. Polish has a "czarownik" for "warlock" and it is completely distinct from "wiedźmin" which is a neologism invented by Sapkowski, who used the core "wiedźma" or "witch". The "Witcher" translation makes perfect sense in context

 

[Tytus]

"Witcher" feels like it was made up by a shoddy translator who's never heard of warlocks.

This is, perhaps, because the original "Wiedźmin" was made up by a shoddy trans... writer. Polish has a "czarownik" for "warlock" and it is completely distinct from "wiedźmin" which is a neologism invented by Sapkowski, who used the core "wiedźma" or "witch". The "Witcher" translation makes perfect sense in context

You are way off here. Sapkowski didn't invent the word. He borrowed it from slavic folklore.

In Slavic mythology, a Vědmák (Russian: Ведьмак; Czech: Vědmák; Bulgarian: Вещер; Ukrainian: Відьмак, Vidmak, Belarusian: вядзьмак, вядзьмар,[1] Polish: Wiedźmin, wiedźmak Serbian: Вештац[2]) is a warlock or male witch, the female equivalent (witch) being vědma,[3] but unlike the latter, the vedmak may also possess positive qualities.

For example, they treat people and animals,[4] protect humanity, and force witches to stop doing evil. On the other hand, they are thought to be people connected to the Devil, and are capable of harming other human beings by sending illnesses, killing cattle, spoiling a harvest, etc.[5] The word was also used as an insult.[5] A vedmak can turn into any animal or any object.[5] He is capable of shapeshifting into a horse, a moth, or a wolf. He is also resistant to rusalkas' enchantments.

The term Vedmak comes from Proto-Slavic *vědět ("to know") and Old Russian вѣдь ("knowledge; witchcraft", compare the use of the term "cunning" in English folklore).[6]

Under the influence of The Witcher fantasy saga by Andrzej Sapkowski, the term vedmak can be translated as "witcher" in English.

 

[Taluntain]

He may not have invented the Polish word, but whoever came up with the word "witcher" certainly invented it in English. English's had a word for male witches going back hundreds of years so it's hard to think that "witcher" could be a product of anything but ignorance.