Top The Witcher 3 Controversies to Date

Immature treatment of sex

If there is one thing that gamers love about The Witcher series, is that game creators CD Projekt Red are not afraid to deal with mature themes. After all, the land of Temeria in which the series takes place is as dark and gritty as the Westeros of Game of Thrones. And when it was announced that the game would feature hours of sex, fans of the series knew that the witcher Geralt would certainly live up to his ladies’ man reputation in his final adventure.

But not everyone is pleased with the game’s portrayal of sex, and a Time writer called the sex in the game “the most idiotic and juvenile thing I’ve seen in a very long time”. The game does feature sex on a stuffed unicorn after all, so perhaps the treatment of sex in the game might not be to all adults liking. But still, CD Projekt should be commended for dealing with mature themes in their games, even if the subject of sex in video games is definitely a thorny one.

Is the Witcher 3 racist?

It all began with an article by South African writer Tauriq Moosa, in which he criticized The Witcher 3 for only featuring pale skinned people. Moosa summed up the matter by stating that “we got a hundred articles confronting the Witcher 3 devs about less pretty grass physics, but not a single article asking them about no people of color.”

And while it would be too easy to dismiss the matter by saying that “it’s just a fantasy game”, I think that Polish outfit CD Projekt just tried to be true to the game’s western European medieval setting, and had no racist intent. But it is true that games like Dragon Age: Inquisition are more racially diverse, and let players customize their character as they see fit. And given that The Witcher 3 has sold millions (the series now clearly has mainstream appeal) and that the original Witcher game had minority characters, perhaps future games in the series might be more racially inclusive. But despite the controversy, it is clear that The Witcher 3 is still a top game and most definitely Game of the Year material.