The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is going to have an incredible amount of sex, as revealed by senior designer Damien Monhier.
The game has 16 hours of sex scene motion capture data, which will be used extensively throughout the game. Apparently, the sex scenes start within the first 15 seconds of the game itself, in a scene where the camera lingers on a woman’s posterior mere moments after dismounting from Geralt.
The woman, in this case, is Yennefer of Vengerberg, Geralt’s lover, and a mother figure to the new game’s deuteragonist, Ciri. Monhier defends this choice, stating that they wanted an immediate and straightforward way of establishing that Geralt and Yennefer have a close connection. If you believe the worst of Geralt, at the very least, it can be said that he enjoys her company, but fans of Geralt through the novels, games, and movies know better.
Much of the game involves Geralt searching for Yennefer, and Monhier explains that using Yennefer as MacGuffin gives players a reason to follow a certain direction in the game’s open world.
While the rationale for using sex in this way is open to criticism, CD Projekt RED’s approach to sex is distinctive in the industry. Geralt is not an unlikely stoic simmering in Freudian complexes, like many other male game protagonists. He is outwardly promiscuous, and sex is not treated as a reward in his storylines, but as an end in itself, and also as a part of his life and identity.
How do you like CD Projekt RED’s treatment of sex in their Witcher games? Do you think there are aspects of it they can improve, or should stop? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Update: CD Projekt RED's quest designer Nikolas Kolm has clarified that while 16 hours of sex scene motion capture data was recorded, the game itself will not have 16 hours of sex.
#Witcher3 It took 16 hours to record all mo-cap material for the sex parts. This does not translate to 16 hours of sex in game. Thanks!
— Nikolas Kolm (@NKuillAndInk) January 28, 2015
