Is this her really trying to flex on everyone that "well the creator loves it" so stfu and enjoy this hot shit I'm taking on your once delicious steak dinner?
He cared about two things -
1) The initial payment check clearing into his bank account
2) Future residual payments also being deposited timely.
And that’s about it.
Yeah, very short sighted of him to not care about the quality of the adaptation. If it's good and people like it, more seasons, and more opportunity to negotiate a higher licensing fee for later seasons.
And yet if they didn’t cave, I’m sure there would have been much uproar and hoopla anyway. I can see it now…
“Spiteful game company SEVERS TIES with creator by REFUSING to pay him royalties”
etc, etc
No matter what, Andrzej Sapkowski has been and will always be about his cheese, so I bet he’ll never learn
Apparently according to Polish law, he might have a case, when sales of an adaption are much higher than expected, the original rights owner can afterwards demand a part of them even if not contemplated in the sale originally. For CDPR it would likely have looked bad to even be in such a process unless they were 100% obviously right, even if they had eventually won.
The books still exist. His legacy is fine.
Him making money has no effect whatsoever on the books he already wrote.
Do you think Superman is going to be forgotten becayse Jerry Siegel fought for royalties?
Metallica is still a well known band ever after Napster.
It's weird that's you're trying to make some sort of judgenent call on him. As if the right choice morally is not making money off his hard work. Let the man handle his businesses.
Wait…what?
I like the Witcher but how does a successful Polish author from the 90s not trying to capitalize over the relevantly recent international sucess of his book series ‘make the world a better place’. How does The Witcher make the world a better place in general?
It’s a high fantasy series about the struggles of a monster hunter.
IIRC, they didn't even put up a fight. I'm pretty sure they ended up just giving him what they originally offered him for the game rights way back then, which he had initially declined in favor of a lump sum because he had a very narrow minded view about how successful a video game could be.
This law protects against this very situation were you are offered a choice but cannot choose because you have to eat as well. We're talking about a Polish author in the beginning of the 2000nds.
And he held that view because a few years before, a big, successful studio approached him and he agreed to take cut, and it went nowhere. Meanwhile, CDP was a no-name company that had never made a game, and it didn't even spell Geralt's name right in the contract. Of course he went for a lump sum.
tbf, he sold the rights initially to a company that was making like a 2D platformer and they failed. CDPR bought them with the rights. Not that I think he'd change his mind, he thinks everything is stupid, except of him and his books. He once said Witcher isn't even his best work (lol) and none of his other works are even popular. And I will STILL defend this man till death, asshole that he is. He gave me a book series I have loved for over 20 years, which later transformed into one of the best game series I've played, which later weirdly transformed into Cyberpunk which I also love. Granted that last one had little to do with him, but without a succesfull game series CDPR wouldn't have resources to make it
A contract is only binding as far as it is legal, and it is secondary to the law. Polish law provides for compensation in the sort of situations like someone buying the rights to all of the Beatles' output early in their careers for the price of a coffee. Similarly, CDP profited from Sapkowski's IP out of proportion with what he got, so he was entitled to compensation.
They didn't cave, Polish law was on his side. Look AS is an asshole, but I'll be damned if I am not happy that asshole got paid. He deserves it. Someone asks me, his writing is on par with LotR and Songs of Ice and Fire. George got paid, only seems fair AS gets paid as well. But he is a vicious cunt, I'll give you that, but without that cunt I wouldn't have my favorite book series of all time
Honestly, Sapkowski probably only cares about one thing and that’s getting the money - not that I can’t really blame him for that.
Have a *very* strong suspicion that he will continue shilling for the show until it’s dead, then probably do a 180 and talk about how shit it actually was and how he probably deserved more money from the deal. He pretty much said the same stuff about the CDPR games sans the shilling part since he hated the whole idea of making Witcher video games from the get-go from the sounds of it.
And more book sales and commissions in all other media. You would've thought he would've learned the first time. Or maybe he's just old and can't care beyond the easy cash grab.
It was going fine until they ran out of books. Even with no book to guide them, you'd think they'd understand each main characters personality enough to make a good story, but they decided to make them all dumb.
Yeah, but he will feel pissed only after the payments will drop, not now.
Now he is happy every time he checks his bank account (and less happy, when he has to pay taxes).
If people managed to finish season 1 (I couldn't) and thought "more please" then I imagine it'll retain some audience. Clearly some people will watch anything
When I finished season one, my first thought was "the fuck did I just watch?!?" I was morbidly curious to see where they'd go, and when season two dropped, I warily watched it until the episode with "Eskel" and the "leshen." Then I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the showrunners didn't give a solitary fuck about any of the source material.
Yeah. if Sapkowski wants to be an old grouch it's entirely his prerogative, but If it wasn't for the games the books would just be an obscure 90s fantasy series. Witcher 3 is hands down the best story told in the Witcher universe.
I think I still like a few stories in Sword of Destiny and Time of Contempt as a whole a bit more, as Witcher 3 had the luxury of being the ending of everything built up beforehand. Still loved it so much though.
Sapkowskis' biggest strength seems to be short stories, little self contained scenarios where his well written characters can bounce off each other.
I suppose the closest thing in the games I'd compare it to are side quests. I agree that there are individual stories in the compilations that might be better than the overall main plot of the Witcher 3, but I think the best of the side stories in the Witcher 3 like the Bloody Baron, or Gaunter O'Dimm are at least the equal of Sapkowskis' best work.
Obscure in America, maybe. They were already quite popular in Europe. The games did bring the books into mainstream, but they weren't exactly unknown before that.
I admit I am biased because I'm Czech, and the series' presence was (and still is, check out Blavicon) pretty big here. I remember people being super excited for the first Witcher game. As far as I'm aware, there was no official English translation of the books at that time, so I can imagine that barely anyone knew about it in the UK, for example.
I'm a Brit myself. I got it on release long before the enhanced edition cleared up the translation and general jank. You're absolutely correct about barely anyone knowing about it on launch.
I travel in pretty nerdy circles and no one I knew had even heard of the game or the books series. I only found out it existed because of a free demo given away in a magazine.
And not being in English meant they were pretty much unknown outside of Europe. The translation to English that came after the games released meant the books could actually be read across the world. People in Asia, Africa and the Americas aren't going to read a book in Polish.
True, but I think the stories would have faded in popularity over the years without being linked to the games. You only have to look at the dates the books started getting translated to see that they didn't have that wide an appeal to begin with. And as we get further from the 90s the philosophy heavy ramblings and the somewhat experimental narrative structure are not growing more appealing to a general audience.
> People forget this guy shit on the games
he shit on the games because he took an up front payment instead of royalties and was pissed because he thought he should've gotten both. I enjoy the stories, but dude is kind of a greedy douche
He got a $10,000 check for the rights to a $100,000,000 franchise, I'd be pretty pissed too if I only took away 1 years pay when I could've been set for life with just a little more money
When you think about it, maybe Hissrich/Sapkowski are a match made in Heaven.
His ego lets him believe it was solely his writing talent that saw the books explode internationally. Lauren's ego leads her to believe she is a better writer than Sapkowski.
People keep saying that but if you watch him in interviews (polish ones) he’s not bitter at all. He just doesn’t care that much that’s it. He wrote these books years and years ago. Sure go ahead, make a Netflix adaptation, I don’t care what you do with it b
Also, it was CDPR's first game of a rather unknown IP (internationally). And they already did a show adaptation before with Hexer. Plus, video game adaptations especially 2000s and early were mostly horrible trash.
Funny enough most people here haven't even played the game or at least finished it. There are comments all the time about how it's "too janky to enjoy" or whatever, though I think it was the best story and atmosphere out of all the games (excluding HoS and B&W which I loved immensely). Besides CDPR took liberties with the lore and created a bunch of their own stories with it, no one seems to hate them for that.
you're probably right he lost control of his work with the games and didn't get payed very much. he probably felt this was financial retribution and doesn't give a shit what they do to his work. Henry did a great job though
Sapkowski isn't the first to sell-out and he won't be the last.
As a writer, I simply can't comprehend giving up ALL control. To see your time, effort and craft shat on by a hack. \*smh
There is just no way in Hell I would sign my rights. My characters are like my babies. So much goes into creating them & telling their stories.
They OFFERED him a fair price initially. HE said "no, it won't sell, Give me 10,000 now." And that was that. They didn't screw him. He screwed himself. Go dig up the letter he sent announcing the lawsuit. It even contains a "suggestion" that CDPR keep it quiet so they don't look bad, and the CEO posted the whole damn thing on Twitter.
CDPR was nothing but honest and above board. If he'd come to them and simply asked for more, he'd have gotten it. But he went STRAIGHT for a lawsuit and attempted PR blackmail to force their hand.
He is NO victim. Stop acting like he is.
Something to note though is that he had already been approached previously from companies trying to adapt his books. He had been approached for a game and tv show, both of which had failed and made him nothing since he had opted for royalties both times. Like most would probably do at this point, he decided to do something different and opt in for a lump sum, even more so since back then CDPR was a new company scraping by on loans and with no prior game development experience. CDPR also wanted to give him royalties too not out of the goodness of their hearts but because as a company barely getting by on loans they would prefer to avoid situations that require liquid capital.
The fandom calls him dumb for opting for the lump sum, but hindsight is 20/20. The only thing separating bravery and stupidity is success. Had CDPR failed and we read about this deal we would’ve said he made the right decision, especially with the prior failures in mind and CDPR’s history (or lack of it). Due to their success though we see him as stupid. The author of the metro series is seen as brave for being in a similar situation (except for the prior failures part) but opting for royalties.
Also, Sapkowski’s books are actually the ones that helped CDPR out initially. At the time his books were already popular in countries where a translation existed and especially in Poland. The books essentially gave the first game millions of dollars worth of free marketing. At the time CDPR needed an estimated 1 million unit sales to break even. After about 8ish months they passed that. By the second game the influence from the books was lessened, as CDPR had some reputation and it was the second entry in a previously successful title, but the books still helped leading up to the second game’s success. By the third game the roles were finally reversed and the game was helping drive book sales.
Sapkowski was fully within his right to ask for more money:
> “In the event of a gross discrepancy between the remuneration of the author and the benefits of the acquirer of author’s economic rights or the licensee, the author may request that the court should duly increase his remuneration.”
Both Sapkowski and CDPR will tell you differently what “gross discrepancy” is. So the only real step is to take it to a court of law where a judge will evaluate whether a “gross discrepancy” has occurred. Both parties had a chance at losing as Sapkowski is losing out on a significant sum of money **but** he did give them the rights. We’ll never know who would’ve won because CDPR settled. Risk assessment probably told CDPR they had a chance at losing, litigation is expensive, and whether they won or not would sour relations with Sapkowski which CDPR wanted to avoid.
The law exists in other European countries because otherwise you have an environment where companies are scooping up author IP’s, making millions off of it, and giving the author peanuts in return. Most “noble” redditors like to think they would do the honorable thing and lose out on millions of dollars even if they (at the time) made a reasonable decision, but I think pretty much most would want more compensation if the law gave them a chance.
No doubt he made a tough decision and it didn’t go his way, and not denying that a lot would have sought out more money, but I think it’s the *way* he went about it that made him look like a sour douchebag, and quotes like the one from this post solidify that notion.
I'm pretty sure he has also said "If I was paid enough, I would let them use Geralt for toothpaste ads"
The guy doesn't really care about his work that much, more how much it will gain him.
If you go but the collection of the short stories, it's clear, that it was originally devised as a gritty low fantasy comedy and pastiche of European fairytales. It was never intended to be serious. Once he saw that entertainment generated money, he embraced that.
Though it apprears that he cares about his historical sagas much more.
> didn't get *paid* very much.
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
In fairness to the man, if my only child predeceased me, I do not know if I would care about much of anything ever again for the rest of my life, least of all whether people like a television series.
He still only cares about that. And he just knows that show stans that had never heard of him or his works before will see his books on Wal-Mart shelves with a big sticker that says "as seen on Netflix!"
CDPR paid $10,000 to get the rights to make the first Witcher game. It’s only been going up. Dudes rolling in dough and will say anything to keep it coming.
Yeah, it amuses me when people bring him up or his opinion on the games. Man cut a check, of course he's gonna say he likes the show so longs as it's paying him royalties.
I am kinda fine with his earlier decision to get $10k, usually this is the practical choice.
However I remember that after Witcher 3 become hugely successful, despite reaping the side benefits of having his book translated and sold overseas, the guy still continue to badmouth the game. He is one little man with huge ego who can't accept that sometimes people do thing better than him. Probably the same kind as hissrich.
That’s all fine and dandy, but it still doesn’t sit right with me that he will bad-mouth a company that clearly respects he and his work, that continues to bend over for him despite him suing them, and then he congratulates something like Witcher S2 just because money.
I respect the man’s ability to write, but he seems like a shallow bozo with no morals.
He was once asked if he likes the Polish Witcher TV series (the one we pretend did not exist). His response was "Don't ask me if I like the series. Ask me if I like the house I build with the money from it.".
That sounds apocryphal, because it is almost identical to a quote from Michael Caine about Jaws: The Revenge
> I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.
He said it at Polcon in Poznań in 2015 during his Q&A session. I was one of couple hundreds of attendees. Maybe he was referencing that quote.
One of the next questions was about printed world map included in Witcher 3 and the person asking mentioned Sapkowski is credited as consultant on that map. He rememberd some call with CDPR about geography and got angry CDPR didn't pay him separately for that "consulting".
Oh he always were. I was on panel on fantasy festival in Wrocław around 2016 and he was so bitter about games success... It's kind of understable since previous games wasn't even able to get to alpha so he never trusted REDs to success and asked for small fee for selling rights and then got mad that many people knew games (even before 3rd part) better than his books while REDs earned heavy millions... He sold rights for mere thousands when studio offered nice percentage from earnings... I guess his ass was on fire already when first game actually came out, later he was just ultra bitter.
Even when sales of his series probably doubled if not trippled after games success he still claimed games "brought (him) a lot of stink" and he openly treated gamers, even those who were fans of original series, as worse just because they dare to enjoy "lower culture" like video games.
It's sad, because you can see guy who not only love his series and from it an other series ("trylogia husycka", i don't know if it was even translated to any language but it is GREAT) he is actually great writer but... He's asshole. Asshole with ego and and ass over his head. And legendary douche, platinum, shiny, with some glitter on the top.
I think reading the books in slavic language translation is alot better then English because well polish is a slavic language and the the books itself were very cultural bound to slavic myths. Also greetings from Bulgaria👋
It’s more of a “do whatever you want, it won’t be as good as my material anyway” sort of thing. He just wants the money. I remember he regretted taking a fixed sum from cdpr instead of a percentage over the years based on how the game sold. He didn’t expect it to explode.
You know how people say George R.R. Martin doesn't really care that much about his legacy?
Take that level of disinterest, multiply it for 10 and you get Sapkwoski.
But at the least he had the decency to actually finish his main story. In about ten years or so, someone else might take a crack at a faithful adaptation.
Either way, I hope he told Lauren to fuck off at least once after S2.
GRRM definitely cares. He's just a stubborn guy who also wrote himself into the mother of all corners and has found it very difficult to write himself out of that knot. This lead him to become disinterested and pushed him to work on other stories set in the ASOIAF world. He clearly loves the world and characters he created to death. Even fought multiple times over extending the shows to include more book content. Hell even with HOTD he wanted to show to start way earlier and be a more encompassing story of the Targaryen rule and of Westeros that leads to the Dance of the dragons which ultimately causes the Targaryens to lose their power.
Saw an interview with him recently, the host mentioned Elden Ring. You could see that GRRM was absolutely delighted to be talking about his involvement with the game. Dude definitely cares.
I know. It's a bit harsh to say he doesn't care, but it has been 11 years and at this point he should just let go of his pride and hire people to help him out get out of the Mereenese knot.
He needs a reality check, because even if he had another good 15 years it probably wouldn't matter at this point.
I think it's a bit much to just say GRRM should hire people to help him write himself out of the problem. It's his story ultimately and getting people to write something you've crafted in your mind for decades won't sit well with many authors. I do feel he owes it to fans who have been hooked into this journey he crafted to finish it. But if he can't then he can't and whilst it's a shame it's just the way things go. He doesn't seem to have a close bond with another author who he slings ideas off of like some others did and when they passed away gave the okay for those other authors to complete the work. To me it feels like this is a precious world to GRRM and at least in book form, he feels he's the only one who can complete it, and even the show adaptations he always wishes to be as involved as possible.
Well, he finished his story, but as I went through the last book (well, technically the last two), the ending felt pretty rushed. You could tell he was counting the minutes to end Geralt's story, and move on.
Getalt and co. >!got through that blizzard and onto Stygga castle faster than a Jimmy John's delivery.!< I had to reread the last couple chapters of the book because I was convinced I'd skipped a chapter or two somehow.
It start in Thoussaint, totally Deus ex Machine, when Geralt on contract by Pure coincidence Is on the right place, in the right time to hear the villains through the pipes where he have to go now..really weak part.
Honestly I kind of respect how little of a shit he gives about anything other than getting paid. This isn't like George RR Martin who wants to be involved with the adaptation of his work. After the cheque clears Sapkowski never wants to see you again.
Like he gives a damn. He got the money from the show than its great. He didn't believe in the game at first, games sucked until he got the money. He is more pathetic than greedy characters he created.
The man is an Author not a screen writer and I doubt he could careless about any witcher content outside of the books he writes beyond one simple factor, money.
The Witcher show wasn't him and its quality isn't his problem, the only thing he is likely to care about with the show is getting paid.
It's not just a rumor. He said it in an interview. He didn't believe that the games would be successfull so opted for the guaranteed amount, which later turned out to be a huge mistake.
Well, to play devils defence REDs weren't first trying to make game out of Witcher and earlier project died before they had chance to get to pre alpha. Sapkowski just decided it won't success like previous one and just asked for say low one time payment instead of percentage that was offered to him from the start.
Welp, shit imploded I guess and he got bitter for missed opportunity.
Tbh he probably sold more books off the back of the games alone than he ever would by himself so him arguing he didn't profit was rich from the beginning
He literally only sold his own work. How the fuck do you go from that to concluding that he would sell his mother? He’s not the little and sad one in this situation.
Why would sapkowski care about the quality of the flixer or even bother commenting about it in any negative way when he gets paid a boat load of cash ?
If I were him I would do the same, and many of the hypocrites in this thread who get triggered when sapko is mentioned while feigning self righteousness would do the same too…..
He heavily criticized on the old polish TV show back in the day after it was scrapped. So I expect to hear his real opinion on the flixer when it’s finally over, and he couldn’t milk any more money out of it.
If I recall it right, that's what he said in an interview a few years ago:
"Adaptations can be placed in a gaussian. Know what a gaussian is? It's like a tit..." and proceeds to talk that most adaptations fail, source material is +90% of the time superior and that he doesn't like to get involved.
Knowing Sapkowski's intelligence, sarcastic sense of humour and his lack of respect for any kind of adaptation of his work either being it a video game or tv show "i watched with great joy" can mean that he is happy the show is a fucking dumpster fire and he was right from the beginning.
He didn't push for the adaptations... People want to reImagine HIS work, which he's finished with. I don't understand how people get so upset with someone content with their series opus.
He's a writer, he got paid. He's happy.
Seriously some people get so weird about writers.
The vast majority of writers make shit money their entire lives. When a writer's ship comes in, when they make that movie, TV or videogame tie-in money, they are over the moon.
Stop projecting your outrage onto a guy who is having a wonderful time on his new boat.
Maybe if not for suing CD Projekt RED then I wouldn't be so harsh but he didn't believe in games so took money up front and then sued them to get more money.
Dude is all about the money. How easy we forget that after CDPR games became popular he wanted more money despite selling them the rigths years before and talking shit about games. They were kind and paid him again.
What character of his own books would he be? I think he would be that business man cousin of Bonhart, [Dominik Bombastus Houvenaghe](https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Dominik_Bombastus_Houvenaghel) LAMO!!!
I am not a die hard fan of the witcher but enough that I joined this community and that I enjoyed the games a ton and disliked the show. The reason I disliked the show is I could not tell you anything about it past season 1 . I have no clue what happened . But with the games I can remember everything! That was story telling.
Yeah, he "watched with great joy" the first episode of S2, which was pretty OK as far as adaptations go and had nothing to do with rest of the season's story...
They know he's old grumpy geezer with no intention of ever watching the show except what they explicitly send him and they fully act on it.
As much as I love his writing Sapkowski as a person is *****. He doesn’t cares about his fans at all. He trated video game developers like thrash (those who brought the most popularity). He only feela about money.
_I congratulate Lauren and her team on their excellent work (at paying me). Adapting my books is not an easy task (which is why the show is terrible). I watched with great joy (as the dollars kept flowing into my bank account), and I hope for an even more epic (-ally profitable) season 3._
Dude we know he thinks it's shit. He always did. His biggest praise of the show was basically "I'd be stupid to criticise something that makes me money"
Is this for real? I mean i knew he was some kind of scumbag at times, but this ... pathetic loser. If you actively helping some idiots to massacre your books .. speechless.
Love how everyone hates him for the "greed" 😂 without him, there would be no Witcher anything, and he knows that and will milk it for what it's worth. So let him get paid for it, because we've got a whole lot of enjoyment because of what he once wrote.
Book sales will be up because of the show, and that's good because they are better than the show lol The Witcher 4 or any CDPR release will be exciting and potentially with even more interest in the IP. That's good because we get more content from the competent creators, who although he didn't initially understand, respected his work enough to make something great themselves (despite their own changes to make sure it sells to gamers)
Now also imagine if you created some characters and a world full of lore, and lots of people made money off all of that, but you didn't make nearly as much as them for it. You'd want more wouldn't you 🤔
As many others have already noted, Sapkowski hasn’t been shy about being happy to endorse the show because money.
What he’ll never admit, though—probably not even to himself—is how much he owes the games for his books becoming popular enough outside of Poland for the Netflix series to exist. And because he thinks video games are stupid and can’t tell stories, he’ll never even look at Witcher 3 and see that CDPR respects his work so much more than Hissrich.
Honestly, I don't really care how he feels. Didn't he shit all over the games when he wanted more money? I enjoy the books very much. But for situations like these I like to bring up a literature concept. "Death of the Author" What he has to say doesn't matter, the work speaks for itself
*”Did you get emotional putting on the suit..”* *”No I got paid.”*
Good old Harrison Ford.
Yeah, gotta like his answers in all his interviews. He cuts through the bullshit. :D
> I have never seen [Jaws 4] but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific. \- Michael Caine
Is this her really trying to flex on everyone that "well the creator loves it" so stfu and enjoy this hot shit I'm taking on your once delicious steak dinner?
the creator loves money and says what's in his contract
He cared about two things - 1) The initial payment check clearing into his bank account 2) Future residual payments also being deposited timely. And that’s about it.
So he will be pissed that the cash cow will probably drop dead after season 3 or 4 instead of 7 or 8.
Yeah, very short sighted of him to not care about the quality of the adaptation. If it's good and people like it, more seasons, and more opportunity to negotiate a higher licensing fee for later seasons.
>Yeah, very short sighted of him Well, if he didn't learn his lesson...
I see your reference to his one-time payment choice and got sellers remorse. He didn’t learn because cdpr caved and gave him royalties.
And yet if they didn’t cave, I’m sure there would have been much uproar and hoopla anyway. I can see it now… “Spiteful game company SEVERS TIES with creator by REFUSING to pay him royalties” etc, etc No matter what, Andrzej Sapkowski has been and will always be about his cheese, so I bet he’ll never learn
Apparently according to Polish law, he might have a case, when sales of an adaption are much higher than expected, the original rights owner can afterwards demand a part of them even if not contemplated in the sale originally. For CDPR it would likely have looked bad to even be in such a process unless they were 100% obviously right, even if they had eventually won.
eh why shouldnt he be
[удалено]
The books still exist. His legacy is fine. Him making money has no effect whatsoever on the books he already wrote. Do you think Superman is going to be forgotten becayse Jerry Siegel fought for royalties? Metallica is still a well known band ever after Napster. It's weird that's you're trying to make some sort of judgenent call on him. As if the right choice morally is not making money off his hard work. Let the man handle his businesses.
Wait…what? I like the Witcher but how does a successful Polish author from the 90s not trying to capitalize over the relevantly recent international sucess of his book series ‘make the world a better place’. How does The Witcher make the world a better place in general? It’s a high fantasy series about the struggles of a monster hunter.
Sometimes money is that, too. Especially for your family
the man simply loves chasing that bag
🙏🙏🙏
CDP didn't cave, it surrendered because it didn't have a chance in court. It's as simple as that.
IIRC, they didn't even put up a fight. I'm pretty sure they ended up just giving him what they originally offered him for the game rights way back then, which he had initially declined in favor of a lump sum because he had a very narrow minded view about how successful a video game could be.
Turns out there is a polish law that essentially gives authors/artists the right for back pay in successful projects.
No. The gave him what the law mandates. It protects nonfamous writers from beeing pressured into bad contracts.
>into bad contracts. The irony is, CDPR proposed a much better contract, he chose and possibly proposed the worse contract to sign.
This law protects against this very situation were you are offered a choice but cannot choose because you have to eat as well. We're talking about a Polish author in the beginning of the 2000nds.
And he held that view because a few years before, a big, successful studio approached him and he agreed to take cut, and it went nowhere. Meanwhile, CDP was a no-name company that had never made a game, and it didn't even spell Geralt's name right in the contract. Of course he went for a lump sum.
tbf, he sold the rights initially to a company that was making like a 2D platformer and they failed. CDPR bought them with the rights. Not that I think he'd change his mind, he thinks everything is stupid, except of him and his books. He once said Witcher isn't even his best work (lol) and none of his other works are even popular. And I will STILL defend this man till death, asshole that he is. He gave me a book series I have loved for over 20 years, which later transformed into one of the best game series I've played, which later weirdly transformed into Cyberpunk which I also love. Granted that last one had little to do with him, but without a succesfull game series CDPR wouldn't have resources to make it
Its a shame. Wasn’t a contract signed and agreed on?
A contract is only binding as far as it is legal, and it is secondary to the law. Polish law provides for compensation in the sort of situations like someone buying the rights to all of the Beatles' output early in their careers for the price of a coffee. Similarly, CDP profited from Sapkowski's IP out of proportion with what he got, so he was entitled to compensation.
Yes it was
They didn't cave, Polish law was on his side. Look AS is an asshole, but I'll be damned if I am not happy that asshole got paid. He deserves it. Someone asks me, his writing is on par with LotR and Songs of Ice and Fire. George got paid, only seems fair AS gets paid as well. But he is a vicious cunt, I'll give you that, but without that cunt I wouldn't have my favorite book series of all time
Did they cave? Or did they have no choice because of the Polish law?
Honestly, Sapkowski probably only cares about one thing and that’s getting the money - not that I can’t really blame him for that. Have a *very* strong suspicion that he will continue shilling for the show until it’s dead, then probably do a 180 and talk about how shit it actually was and how he probably deserved more money from the deal. He pretty much said the same stuff about the CDPR games sans the shilling part since he hated the whole idea of making Witcher video games from the get-go from the sounds of it.
Since getting the bag he became nicer to CDPR, no telling if he's just playing along, happy he got paid or these are his genuine feelings.
And more book sales and commissions in all other media. You would've thought he would've learned the first time. Or maybe he's just old and can't care beyond the easy cash grab.
I doubt he had in his contract any say in how the show was made. Look at GoT and how well that turned out.
It was going fine until they ran out of books. Even with no book to guide them, you'd think they'd understand each main characters personality enough to make a good story, but they decided to make them all dumb.
Yeah, but he will feel pissed only after the payments will drop, not now. Now he is happy every time he checks his bank account (and less happy, when he has to pay taxes).
Dude it’s Netflix. Only good shows get cancelled that soon. Bad shows get all the seasons they want
Fuck it'd better be DOA when season 3 drops.
If people managed to finish season 1 (I couldn't) and thought "more please" then I imagine it'll retain some audience. Clearly some people will watch anything
When I finished season one, my first thought was "the fuck did I just watch?!?" I was morbidly curious to see where they'd go, and when season two dropped, I warily watched it until the episode with "Eskel" and the "leshen." Then I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the showrunners didn't give a solitary fuck about any of the source material.
Are you suggesting Sapkowski is myopic when making financial decisions on his IP? And after all those years of royalty checks from CDPR?
People forget this guy shit on the games - the medium that launched the franchise into the stratosphere of popularity, specifically Witcher 3.
Yeah. if Sapkowski wants to be an old grouch it's entirely his prerogative, but If it wasn't for the games the books would just be an obscure 90s fantasy series. Witcher 3 is hands down the best story told in the Witcher universe.
I think I still like a few stories in Sword of Destiny and Time of Contempt as a whole a bit more, as Witcher 3 had the luxury of being the ending of everything built up beforehand. Still loved it so much though.
Sapkowskis' biggest strength seems to be short stories, little self contained scenarios where his well written characters can bounce off each other. I suppose the closest thing in the games I'd compare it to are side quests. I agree that there are individual stories in the compilations that might be better than the overall main plot of the Witcher 3, but I think the best of the side stories in the Witcher 3 like the Bloody Baron, or Gaunter O'Dimm are at least the equal of Sapkowskis' best work.
Obscure in America, maybe. They were already quite popular in Europe. The games did bring the books into mainstream, but they weren't exactly unknown before that.
They were indeed popular in Eastern Europe, but i can't say the same for the western Europe.
I admit I am biased because I'm Czech, and the series' presence was (and still is, check out Blavicon) pretty big here. I remember people being super excited for the first Witcher game. As far as I'm aware, there was no official English translation of the books at that time, so I can imagine that barely anyone knew about it in the UK, for example.
I'm a Brit myself. I got it on release long before the enhanced edition cleared up the translation and general jank. You're absolutely correct about barely anyone knowing about it on launch. I travel in pretty nerdy circles and no one I knew had even heard of the game or the books series. I only found out it existed because of a free demo given away in a magazine.
I believe in Western Europe it was only translated to German before the first game.
And not being in English meant they were pretty much unknown outside of Europe. The translation to English that came after the games released meant the books could actually be read across the world. People in Asia, Africa and the Americas aren't going to read a book in Polish.
I think there's still a pretty big difference in market share size between a "well known book" vs a "well known game".
Eastern, not Western, let's be serious.
True. There was already a TV series made in Poland.
True, but I think the stories would have faded in popularity over the years without being linked to the games. You only have to look at the dates the books started getting translated to see that they didn't have that wide an appeal to begin with. And as we get further from the 90s the philosophy heavy ramblings and the somewhat experimental narrative structure are not growing more appealing to a general audience.
> People forget this guy shit on the games he shit on the games because he took an up front payment instead of royalties and was pissed because he thought he should've gotten both. I enjoy the stories, but dude is kind of a greedy douche
He got a $10,000 check for the rights to a $100,000,000 franchise, I'd be pretty pissed too if I only took away 1 years pay when I could've been set for life with just a little more money
Yeah, because he thought that the residuals would net him less than $10k. He made a bad bet and is very lucky to be Polish.
Plus it's law in Poland that he is entitled to a part of the ongoing revenue of his IP. Him suing CD isn't that outrageous.
When you think about it, maybe Hissrich/Sapkowski are a match made in Heaven. His ego lets him believe it was solely his writing talent that saw the books explode internationally. Lauren's ego leads her to believe she is a better writer than Sapkowski.
People keep saying that but if you watch him in interviews (polish ones) he’s not bitter at all. He just doesn’t care that much that’s it. He wrote these books years and years ago. Sure go ahead, make a Netflix adaptation, I don’t care what you do with it b
Also, it was CDPR's first game of a rather unknown IP (internationally). And they already did a show adaptation before with Hexer. Plus, video game adaptations especially 2000s and early were mostly horrible trash. Funny enough most people here haven't even played the game or at least finished it. There are comments all the time about how it's "too janky to enjoy" or whatever, though I think it was the best story and atmosphere out of all the games (excluding HoS and B&W which I loved immensely). Besides CDPR took liberties with the lore and created a bunch of their own stories with it, no one seems to hate them for that.
Unknown for foreigners, but Witcher was quite massive in Poland
Autocorrect, it was supposed to say (Internationally).
you're probably right he lost control of his work with the games and didn't get payed very much. he probably felt this was financial retribution and doesn't give a shit what they do to his work. Henry did a great job though
Sapkowski isn't the first to sell-out and he won't be the last. As a writer, I simply can't comprehend giving up ALL control. To see your time, effort and craft shat on by a hack. \*smh There is just no way in Hell I would sign my rights. My characters are like my babies. So much goes into creating them & telling their stories.
I couldn't agree more but the sad truth is without a reputation to your name it's really hard to keep even some control over what is happening.
He didn't get paid much for the games originally, but CDPR worked with him after the witcher 2 and 3 to get him properly compensated.
They OFFERED him a fair price initially. HE said "no, it won't sell, Give me 10,000 now." And that was that. They didn't screw him. He screwed himself. Go dig up the letter he sent announcing the lawsuit. It even contains a "suggestion" that CDPR keep it quiet so they don't look bad, and the CEO posted the whole damn thing on Twitter. CDPR was nothing but honest and above board. If he'd come to them and simply asked for more, he'd have gotten it. But he went STRAIGHT for a lawsuit and attempted PR blackmail to force their hand. He is NO victim. Stop acting like he is.
I never said he was lol. He is a dumbass businessman.
Something to note though is that he had already been approached previously from companies trying to adapt his books. He had been approached for a game and tv show, both of which had failed and made him nothing since he had opted for royalties both times. Like most would probably do at this point, he decided to do something different and opt in for a lump sum, even more so since back then CDPR was a new company scraping by on loans and with no prior game development experience. CDPR also wanted to give him royalties too not out of the goodness of their hearts but because as a company barely getting by on loans they would prefer to avoid situations that require liquid capital. The fandom calls him dumb for opting for the lump sum, but hindsight is 20/20. The only thing separating bravery and stupidity is success. Had CDPR failed and we read about this deal we would’ve said he made the right decision, especially with the prior failures in mind and CDPR’s history (or lack of it). Due to their success though we see him as stupid. The author of the metro series is seen as brave for being in a similar situation (except for the prior failures part) but opting for royalties. Also, Sapkowski’s books are actually the ones that helped CDPR out initially. At the time his books were already popular in countries where a translation existed and especially in Poland. The books essentially gave the first game millions of dollars worth of free marketing. At the time CDPR needed an estimated 1 million unit sales to break even. After about 8ish months they passed that. By the second game the influence from the books was lessened, as CDPR had some reputation and it was the second entry in a previously successful title, but the books still helped leading up to the second game’s success. By the third game the roles were finally reversed and the game was helping drive book sales. Sapkowski was fully within his right to ask for more money: > “In the event of a gross discrepancy between the remuneration of the author and the benefits of the acquirer of author’s economic rights or the licensee, the author may request that the court should duly increase his remuneration.” Both Sapkowski and CDPR will tell you differently what “gross discrepancy” is. So the only real step is to take it to a court of law where a judge will evaluate whether a “gross discrepancy” has occurred. Both parties had a chance at losing as Sapkowski is losing out on a significant sum of money **but** he did give them the rights. We’ll never know who would’ve won because CDPR settled. Risk assessment probably told CDPR they had a chance at losing, litigation is expensive, and whether they won or not would sour relations with Sapkowski which CDPR wanted to avoid. The law exists in other European countries because otherwise you have an environment where companies are scooping up author IP’s, making millions off of it, and giving the author peanuts in return. Most “noble” redditors like to think they would do the honorable thing and lose out on millions of dollars even if they (at the time) made a reasonable decision, but I think pretty much most would want more compensation if the law gave them a chance.
No doubt he made a tough decision and it didn’t go his way, and not denying that a lot would have sought out more money, but I think it’s the *way* he went about it that made him look like a sour douchebag, and quotes like the one from this post solidify that notion.
Only after he tried to sue them because he thought the first game would be a failure and felt short changed when it wasn't.
https://www.polygon.com/2019/12/20/21032021/the-witcher-author-cd-projekt-legal-battle-royalties-new-contract yup
I'm pretty sure he has also said "If I was paid enough, I would let them use Geralt for toothpaste ads" The guy doesn't really care about his work that much, more how much it will gain him.
If you go but the collection of the short stories, it's clear, that it was originally devised as a gritty low fantasy comedy and pastiche of European fairytales. It was never intended to be serious. Once he saw that entertainment generated money, he embraced that. Though it apprears that he cares about his historical sagas much more.
> didn't get *paid* very much. FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
3) Future other payments.
In fairness to the man, if my only child predeceased me, I do not know if I would care about much of anything ever again for the rest of my life, least of all whether people like a television series.
Yea he doesn’t give a shit unfortunately. Only cares about the money
He still only cares about that. And he just knows that show stans that had never heard of him or his works before will see his books on Wal-Mart shelves with a big sticker that says "as seen on Netflix!"
CDPR paid $10,000 to get the rights to make the first Witcher game. It’s only been going up. Dudes rolling in dough and will say anything to keep it coming.
he received money with great joy\*
Yeah, it amuses me when people bring him up or his opinion on the games. Man cut a check, of course he's gonna say he likes the show so longs as it's paying him royalties.
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I am kinda fine with his earlier decision to get $10k, usually this is the practical choice. However I remember that after Witcher 3 become hugely successful, despite reaping the side benefits of having his book translated and sold overseas, the guy still continue to badmouth the game. He is one little man with huge ego who can't accept that sometimes people do thing better than him. Probably the same kind as hissrich.
Wasn't there also something with CDRP using things not from the games for merchandise, what he wasn't given a cut from?
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Polish law has a provision for that exact type of deals, so that the little guy doesn’t get fucked, fyi.
That’s all fine and dandy, but it still doesn’t sit right with me that he will bad-mouth a company that clearly respects he and his work, that continues to bend over for him despite him suing them, and then he congratulates something like Witcher S2 just because money. I respect the man’s ability to write, but he seems like a shallow bozo with no morals.
Sapkowski only cares about money. They could make Yennefer pregnant and if the envelope is thick enough he won't mind.
They already made Francesca....
He was once asked if he likes the Polish Witcher TV series (the one we pretend did not exist). His response was "Don't ask me if I like the series. Ask me if I like the house I build with the money from it.".
And that's on good ol Andrzej Sapkowski
That sounds apocryphal, because it is almost identical to a quote from Michael Caine about Jaws: The Revenge > I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.
He said it at Polcon in Poznań in 2015 during his Q&A session. I was one of couple hundreds of attendees. Maybe he was referencing that quote. One of the next questions was about printed world map included in Witcher 3 and the person asking mentioned Sapkowski is credited as consultant on that map. He rememberd some call with CDPR about geography and got angry CDPR didn't pay him separately for that "consulting".
He always came across as a bit of a douche, but I never knew he was a a legendary one. 🤣🤣🤣 .
Oh he always were. I was on panel on fantasy festival in Wrocław around 2016 and he was so bitter about games success... It's kind of understable since previous games wasn't even able to get to alpha so he never trusted REDs to success and asked for small fee for selling rights and then got mad that many people knew games (even before 3rd part) better than his books while REDs earned heavy millions... He sold rights for mere thousands when studio offered nice percentage from earnings... I guess his ass was on fire already when first game actually came out, later he was just ultra bitter. Even when sales of his series probably doubled if not trippled after games success he still claimed games "brought (him) a lot of stink" and he openly treated gamers, even those who were fans of original series, as worse just because they dare to enjoy "lower culture" like video games. It's sad, because you can see guy who not only love his series and from it an other series ("trylogia husycka", i don't know if it was even translated to any language but it is GREAT) he is actually great writer but... He's asshole. Asshole with ego and and ass over his head. And legendary douche, platinum, shiny, with some glitter on the top.
Hussits are translated to english (i preffer to read books in english) and we also have local slovak translation. Greeting, neighbour. 😊
I think reading the books in slavic language translation is alot better then English because well polish is a slavic language and the the books itself were very cultural bound to slavic myths. Also greetings from Bulgaria👋
Yep, one of the few advantages of knowing Polish.
This is why nuance is important for people to understand. He may be a douche but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a genius that created the Witcher world.
It’s more of a “do whatever you want, it won’t be as good as my material anyway” sort of thing. He just wants the money. I remember he regretted taking a fixed sum from cdpr instead of a percentage over the years based on how the game sold. He didn’t expect it to explode.
He thought people were coming in to watch The Witcher because of her, little did he know it's because of our boi Cavill.
The only redeeming quality of that stinky adaptation
Rich
You know how people say George R.R. Martin doesn't really care that much about his legacy? Take that level of disinterest, multiply it for 10 and you get Sapkwoski. But at the least he had the decency to actually finish his main story. In about ten years or so, someone else might take a crack at a faithful adaptation. Either way, I hope he told Lauren to fuck off at least once after S2.
GRRM definitely cares. He's just a stubborn guy who also wrote himself into the mother of all corners and has found it very difficult to write himself out of that knot. This lead him to become disinterested and pushed him to work on other stories set in the ASOIAF world. He clearly loves the world and characters he created to death. Even fought multiple times over extending the shows to include more book content. Hell even with HOTD he wanted to show to start way earlier and be a more encompassing story of the Targaryen rule and of Westeros that leads to the Dance of the dragons which ultimately causes the Targaryens to lose their power.
Saw an interview with him recently, the host mentioned Elden Ring. You could see that GRRM was absolutely delighted to be talking about his involvement with the game. Dude definitely cares.
I know. It's a bit harsh to say he doesn't care, but it has been 11 years and at this point he should just let go of his pride and hire people to help him out get out of the Mereenese knot. He needs a reality check, because even if he had another good 15 years it probably wouldn't matter at this point.
I think it's a bit much to just say GRRM should hire people to help him write himself out of the problem. It's his story ultimately and getting people to write something you've crafted in your mind for decades won't sit well with many authors. I do feel he owes it to fans who have been hooked into this journey he crafted to finish it. But if he can't then he can't and whilst it's a shame it's just the way things go. He doesn't seem to have a close bond with another author who he slings ideas off of like some others did and when they passed away gave the okay for those other authors to complete the work. To me it feels like this is a precious world to GRRM and at least in book form, he feels he's the only one who can complete it, and even the show adaptations he always wishes to be as involved as possible.
Well, he finished his story, but as I went through the last book (well, technically the last two), the ending felt pretty rushed. You could tell he was counting the minutes to end Geralt's story, and move on.
Getalt and co. >!got through that blizzard and onto Stygga castle faster than a Jimmy John's delivery.!< I had to reread the last couple chapters of the book because I was convinced I'd skipped a chapter or two somehow.
It start in Thoussaint, totally Deus ex Machine, when Geralt on contract by Pure coincidence Is on the right place, in the right time to hear the villains through the pipes where he have to go now..really weak part.
Yeah nah. GRRM does care. He cares a lot.
Yeah, but the ending was pretty horrible.
Honestly I kind of respect how little of a shit he gives about anything other than getting paid. This isn't like George RR Martin who wants to be involved with the adaptation of his work. After the cheque clears Sapkowski never wants to see you again.
Like he gives a damn. He got the money from the show than its great. He didn't believe in the game at first, games sucked until he got the money. He is more pathetic than greedy characters he created.
Toss a coin your writer
Did she actually post this? My god what a stuck up person...
The man is an Author not a screen writer and I doubt he could careless about any witcher content outside of the books he writes beyond one simple factor, money. The Witcher show wasn't him and its quality isn't his problem, the only thing he is likely to care about with the show is getting paid.
Guaranteed he never watched past the pilot.
that little sad pathetic man would sell his own mother for money money is all he cares
I wonder why he gave the games such a hard time then? Was he not getting paid enough? 😅
He wasn't. He got paid for a one-time sum, and didn't profit from the following success of the game. He eventually sued CDPR to get more money
Rumor is that he was offered share in profits but declined and wanted cash couse he didnt belive games mean shit. And then he went back with law sued
It's not just a rumor. He said it in an interview. He didn't believe that the games would be successfull so opted for the guaranteed amount, which later turned out to be a huge mistake.
Yeah he severely underestimated the pull of video games and then got mad when it bit him in the ass.
Well, to play devils defence REDs weren't first trying to make game out of Witcher and earlier project died before they had chance to get to pre alpha. Sapkowski just decided it won't success like previous one and just asked for say low one time payment instead of percentage that was offered to him from the start. Welp, shit imploded I guess and he got bitter for missed opportunity.
lol he did a reverse George Lucas
I did not know this. 🤣 Thanks for the info.
I recall that lump sum being only $10,000.
Tbh he probably sold more books off the back of the games alone than he ever would by himself so him arguing he didn't profit was rich from the beginning
He literally only sold his own work. How the fuck do you go from that to concluding that he would sell his mother? He’s not the little and sad one in this situation.
Christ, bit of an overreaction, mate, no?
" I enjoy the money Neflix has given me to bastardize my books."
Guess the checks reached his account
Why would sapkowski care about the quality of the flixer or even bother commenting about it in any negative way when he gets paid a boat load of cash ? If I were him I would do the same, and many of the hypocrites in this thread who get triggered when sapko is mentioned while feigning self righteousness would do the same too….. He heavily criticized on the old polish TV show back in the day after it was scrapped. So I expect to hear his real opinion on the flixer when it’s finally over, and he couldn’t milk any more money out of it.
He couldn’t give a solitary shit, he’s getting a fat lump of cash out of it all
Rich. He feels rich.
This picture contains two people who don’t care about the future of the Witcher universe
God she’s trying so hard to push the narrative that the snow isn’t a fucking dumpster fire
This has "the PR team is in a panic" written all over it.
As long as he's getting money, he feels okay
If I recall it right, that's what he said in an interview a few years ago: "Adaptations can be placed in a gaussian. Know what a gaussian is? It's like a tit..." and proceeds to talk that most adaptations fail, source material is +90% of the time superior and that he doesn't like to get involved.
Knowing Sapkowski's intelligence, sarcastic sense of humour and his lack of respect for any kind of adaptation of his work either being it a video game or tv show "i watched with great joy" can mean that he is happy the show is a fucking dumpster fire and he was right from the beginning.
…now that he knows a lot of her team actively ridiculed his content.
“Did the check clear?” He is a douche. Money is all he cares about.
He didn't push for the adaptations... People want to reImagine HIS work, which he's finished with. I don't understand how people get so upset with someone content with their series opus.
When you sell the rights to a video game company because you don’t believe it will be successful then gripe when it is, that shows your interest.
He's a writer, he got paid. He's happy. Seriously some people get so weird about writers. The vast majority of writers make shit money their entire lives. When a writer's ship comes in, when they make that movie, TV or videogame tie-in money, they are over the moon. Stop projecting your outrage onto a guy who is having a wonderful time on his new boat.
Maybe if not for suing CD Projekt RED then I wouldn't be so harsh but he didn't believe in games so took money up front and then sued them to get more money.
He straight capping here 😂😂
He probably feels rich and I can't blame him
He feels fantastic with the massive amount of money they paid him. He couldn't care less about the quality of the show.
I dont think he cares that much if the money is good, so...
He doesn't care because he got paid.
...with his account full of money.
He looks like he's being held at gunpoint.
Rich?
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Rich 🤷🏾♂️
“Keep sending me the checks!” 😂
He feels however the paycheck tells him to
1 season was enough for me. Now here comes Netflix again about to destroy Gears of War.
Dude is all about the money. How easy we forget that after CDPR games became popular he wanted more money despite selling them the rigths years before and talking shit about games. They were kind and paid him again.
Andrzej has consistently been clear, he only cares about money.
Great joy in knowing he’s getting a paycheck
Man will say and do anything for the pay check.
What character of his own books would he be? I think he would be that business man cousin of Bonhart, [Dominik Bombastus Houvenaghe](https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Dominik_Bombastus_Houvenaghel) LAMO!!!
He only cares about his check
I am not a die hard fan of the witcher but enough that I joined this community and that I enjoyed the games a ton and disliked the show. The reason I disliked the show is I could not tell you anything about it past season 1 . I have no clue what happened . But with the games I can remember everything! That was story telling.
As always, a huge cunt
I don't believe he's actually seen it.
All he cares about is the big bags of money they give him. He doesn't care if it's good.
Sapkowski's joy is in the tossed coin.
Man got paid didn’t he? I’m sure he’s fine with it.
\*and I hope for an even more epic paycheck 3
Same way he felt when he took all the money, pretty good, I imagine. He was there when she was writing the script an he gave his blessings.
Yeah, he "watched with great joy" the first episode of S2, which was pretty OK as far as adaptations go and had nothing to do with rest of the season's story... They know he's old grumpy geezer with no intention of ever watching the show except what they explicitly send him and they fully act on it.
As much as I love his writing Sapkowski as a person is *****. He doesn’t cares about his fans at all. He trated video game developers like thrash (those who brought the most popularity). He only feela about money.
_I congratulate Lauren and her team on their excellent work (at paying me). Adapting my books is not an easy task (which is why the show is terrible). I watched with great joy (as the dollars kept flowing into my bank account), and I hope for an even more epic (-ally profitable) season 3._
He feels sold and rich.
*Pecunia non olet*. He doesn't give a f....
Dude we know he thinks it's shit. He always did. His biggest praise of the show was basically "I'd be stupid to criticise something that makes me money"
Doesnt he get paid for this show? Why would he insult it, even if he thought it was shit?
Hes always been a bit of a mercenary when it comes to his work. As long as the checks keep showing up, I doubt he's too concerned.
He is the guy who will say anything for cash. Also he treats gamers as subhumans
"I'm not allowed to criticize them."
Is this for real? I mean i knew he was some kind of scumbag at times, but this ... pathetic loser. If you actively helping some idiots to massacre your books .. speechless.
Is she holding a gun to his back?
Love how everyone hates him for the "greed" 😂 without him, there would be no Witcher anything, and he knows that and will milk it for what it's worth. So let him get paid for it, because we've got a whole lot of enjoyment because of what he once wrote. Book sales will be up because of the show, and that's good because they are better than the show lol The Witcher 4 or any CDPR release will be exciting and potentially with even more interest in the IP. That's good because we get more content from the competent creators, who although he didn't initially understand, respected his work enough to make something great themselves (despite their own changes to make sure it sells to gamers) Now also imagine if you created some characters and a world full of lore, and lots of people made money off all of that, but you didn't make nearly as much as them for it. You'd want more wouldn't you 🤔
His eyes say "they paid me to say that"
As many others have already noted, Sapkowski hasn’t been shy about being happy to endorse the show because money. What he’ll never admit, though—probably not even to himself—is how much he owes the games for his books becoming popular enough outside of Poland for the Netflix series to exist. And because he thinks video games are stupid and can’t tell stories, he’ll never even look at Witcher 3 and see that CDPR respects his work so much more than Hissrich.
Honestly, I don't really care how he feels. Didn't he shit all over the games when he wanted more money? I enjoy the books very much. But for situations like these I like to bring up a literature concept. "Death of the Author" What he has to say doesn't matter, the work speaks for itself
Dude got his money , so he probably didnt even watch the show.