The creator of the School of the Lynx fan fiction hopes CD Projekt will come up with “something better” for Witcher 4

Of Serious Stories Exploring What Would Happen If Skyrim‘s Dragonborn should become Emperor of Tamriel, or the notion that Deacon out failure 4 is in fact the protagonist of Fallout 3 with a changed face, to humorous stories centered around Geralt of Rivia’s gwent addiction and art that illustrate the inevitable consequences of the deep sexual tension between them Disco Elysium‘s Detectives, check out the community for any popular RPG and you’ll find fans bringing their own flavors to their favorite franchises through the medium of fanfiction.

Works of fan fiction are almost never cloaked in mainstream news stories surrounding their respective franchises; They’re usually viewed as something that can make your own playthroughs more interesting, but provide shaky ground on which to base theories. That’s what makes recent events surrounding The Witcher series and School of the Lynx so interesting: it started out as a simple fanfiction article on The Witcher wiki, before suddenly bursting into the limelight when CD Projekt Red announced its next game .

However, for the Witcher fanfiction writer SMiki55one of the two authors of school of the lynx Fanfiction along with Witcher190 haven’t been much busier than usual over the last few weeks.

“I was initially concerned that some people might confuse our fanfic with canon when looking for information about the new school, but luckily many long-time Witcher fans were able to determine that the information was posted on a Fanon wiki, not the official,” says SMiki55. “A few days after the announcement, I edited the author template so that the banner visible in each article indicates that the text is not canonical.”

This might come as a surprise to outside observers, with the expectation that if an interesting (yet obscure) fan fiction article suddenly becomes intimately entangled in one of the biggest gaming news stories of the year, it would unleash a tidal wave of speculation from the gaming audience and media of all stripes, authors would receive similar attention.

The story behind the Lynx School fan fiction is certainly interesting and a little tongue in cheek, as SMiki55 admits to having been skeptical at the time of The Witcher 3’s release about the merits of adding more schools to the franchise, and with the arrival of explains the game “Witcher schools seemed to increase in number, but the lore for many of them remained very superficial”.

According to SMiki55, this question remains open. “To be honest, I think we kind of overdid it with the dozens of new schools listed there (on the Fanon wiki).” Although they also credit these fanfictions for explaining some of the lack of representation in the original Witcher – Address books by Andrzej Sapkowski.

“If fans feel they’re represented by a school that draws inspiration from Japan, India or Mesoamerica, why take that away from them?”

Regardless of how you feel about it, the fact that your fan fiction immediately becomes the subject of worldwide intrigue is very much dependent on your personality. For some, going from being an anonymous online fan to being at the forefront of the latest news surrounding one of your favorite game franchises is what they would dream of, with both journalists and fans suddenly queuing up to get yours hearing thoughts about something you are very passionate.

On the other hand, some people — who might be more of an introvert or just enjoy writing fanfiction for their own use in playthroughs — might find this unanticipated influx of attention intimidating or stressful. Keeping the masses’ critical eyes on the work might have contributed to the assumption that only a handful of other fans would see it’s annoying. For this reason, it’s a bit alarming that CD Projekt didn’t reach out to the fanfiction writers beforehand, as SMiki55 explains: “I got the confirmation the same way everyone else did: by reading the Eurogamer article, quoting Robert Malinowski.”

Given that they didn’t make a point of reaching out to the writers behind the School of the Lynx fan fiction, it’s also surprising that in its statement, CD Projekt didn’t choose to endorse its upcoming game from the fan -Fiction not long after the announcement and confirmed that the Witcher medallion it contained was meant to resemble a lynx – not a normal cat as many had suspected. We contacted CD Projekt RED for comment before publishing this article, but the developer has declined comment at this time.

Assuming that this statement was made in part to add some water to the huge fire of speculation that had erupted around the idea of ​​Ciri being the game’s protagonist, it would have made no sense for CD Projekt to confirm that this is the School of the Lynx set that will be featured in his game will be different than that depicted in the fanfiction? Especially since many, including SMiki55, already believe that this will be the case.

If the Ciri theory was quickly quashed for fear of disappointing fans when it turned out to be inaccurate, surely it’s just as obvious and necessary to take the same step with the School of the Lynx theories? The fact that it was not included might give credence to the notion that there will be at least some similarities between the two lynx schools (ie the now official and the unofficial one). However, if this is the case, CD Projekt’s boat could end up in murky waters.

To see this content, please enable targeting cookies.
Manage cookie settings

On the surface, the idea of ​​using existing fan fiction as the basis for a new game in the story of any franchise seems a bit harmless: fans get the satisfaction of contributing to the future of something they love, and CD Projekt gets a new one Game that is based on ideas that they know will interest their hardcore fans. But things get interesting when the idea of ​​compensation comes into play.

Even though fan fiction writers like SMiki55 can’t (and don’t want to) claim ownership of any of the trademarked materials included in their writings, certainly when used in the same way that a traditional in-house game writer’s work would be , the fan fiction writers should receive some sort of compensation for their contribution to what is likely to be a highly profitable game. Just look at what a mess Ubisoft has made with its whole Joseph Gordon-Levitt plan to collect content for Beyond Good and Evil 2.

For SMiki55, the idea of ​​the new Witcher game with a Lynx school reflecting the fanfiction is not appealing. “Honestly, I’d be pretty disappointed because I expected CDPR to come up with a better story than our mediocre fanfic,” they explain. Regarding possible payments or credits in the unlikely event that this is the case, SMiki55 adds: “That’s up to me and CDPR (and Witcher190). Wishful thinking in public doesn’t help.”

Regardless of whether the fan fiction writers involved were compensated, using their work as the basis for a Witcher game would also likely have consequences for the very idea of ​​fan fiction writing itself, a practice shunned in mainstream circles and has been degraded a long time. SMiki55 thinks that these consequences can be both positive and negative.

“It seems conceivable that many fans, especially younger ones, would start writing their own stories and ideas to see in the future installments of their favorite franchises. And it’s nice! Creativity is one of the defining skills of modernity, every spark should be nurtured and cultivated. There are successful book authors who grew out of fan fiction authors.”

However, they also cite some examples of increasing fan involvement in major franchises going awry, and allude to the war between Games Workshop and Warhammer fans over the use of intellectual property in fan animation and the treatment of actors such as Kelly Marie Tran by Star Wars fans at . The latter example is of particular concern to SMiki55, as “this ‘militant fandom’ threat also looms among sections of Witcher fans, as seen by people criticizing CDPR or POC actors from The Witcher TV series bother I hope these select few don’t dominate the fandom of a franchise I love and care about.”

Perhaps the career path from fan fiction writer to game designer will become more of an accepted norm in the future, with game companies seeking more help from people who know both the lore of their RPGs and the desires of the fan bases they wish to appeal to. Or maybe this is becoming another controversial way of exploiting passionate people without giving them proper compensation in an industry already riddled with anti-union executives and anti-consumer practices.

For now, whatever happens in the future, at least we can rejoice in the fact that CD Projekt may have opened the doors for us to dream of a Witcher game, where stories like Dandelion and his Witcher friend enter somewhat clumsily bed while Geralt turns out to have had red hair before his mutations took effect, or that the white wolf finally fulfills his destiny of retiring from the witcher’s profession and becoming the daytime TV host of ‘The Geralt Springer Show’ Become reality.

Because as SMiki55 says, “Fan fiction is healthy as long as it doesn’t evolve into naval warfare.”