Skyblade
makes posts you should read while listening to the Jurassic Park theme

Some weird Jungian game

You can get used to them, tbh. Took me a while as well, but at least in SMT IV you have 3rd person exploration

I hope they hurry the smurf up!

If it were on a large scale, sure. This is one thing, though.

Shhhh

You know how they say the camera adds a few pounds? The Internet does the same with ideas. And everything really. As a species we are just not able to comprehend so people existing and having different ideas - the average capacity for empathy is around 150 people.

So you know what? At a certain point you're just gonna need to say "smurf it". every possible position on anything will have extremes, and these extremes will always be magnified by the internet. Just because it's happening and somebody has written about it, doesn't mean things are as dire as they seem. I used to worry. Now I just don't. I know I can't control everything that happens to the world and just go about my own business Heck, I'm tired enough with just that as it is So yeah, just chill.

Bad times are temporary, Sky. Sorry I haven't replied to the mognet yet, I haven't had the time. But everything will get better

So when it comes to book knowledge versus the games in the Witcher, now that I've reached 3, I can tell you it looks like this. 1 doesn't require book knowledge as it's relatively self-contained, Geralt has amnesia, and most things you need to know to understand the game's plot are explained. It still has plenty of shout outs and callbacks, so while playing it without reading the books is doable, it's certainly not optimal because you just won't be able to appreciate the wider context of it.

With 2, things get trickier. Over the course of the game, Geralt gradually regains his memories, and characters and terms from the books get brought back and become prominent, crucial to the story even, but don't get even a bit of exposition. It looks like the game just expects you to know what it's talking about without it explaining anything to you, because you should have known this already by now!

3 is kind of in the middle. On the one hand, it relies heavily on the book content because it's story seems like it's the most direct continuation of the book plot, resolving plot threads from the books and bringing back many important book characters who have been shoved aside or absent in the previous two games. On the other hand, it does provide a lot of exposition to the point that I don't think you'd be lost. But you still miss out on all the emotional investment only following the series from the beginning can give you.

And while I said the eighth book is totally optional since it's a side story, I also highly recommend reading it because it's literally the best one.

There are 8 books, but the last one is a side story written later, so it's not required reading, so to speak. And if you can't afford to buy them, there's always the library

It may still be awhile. Money will be an issue for awhile. Hopefully by then, I'll be able to stomach an open-world game again. I'm kind of burnt out on them.

I have not, but it's because I don't own the game or a system to play it on yet. Though I may invest in a WiiU pretty soon.