I said it already in another thread that the big "WitcherCon" amounted to just a couple of lame presentations and pretty pathetic giveaway, and it got me thinking about all the ways they wasted this opportunity.

There was really no effort put into even pretending it's a celebration of the Witcher franchise as a whole and its fans. Instead we got just a bunch of promotional interviews and ads for upcoming products from Netflix and CDPR.

Think of all the things they could have done, all things Witcher they ignored entirely. Like, you know... the books? Or the old Polish tv series. Or the recent Polish feature lenght fan film?

Things they could have done
-interview the person who translated the books
-interview Michał Żebrowski (who played Geralt in the Polish tv series). Remember - he's also voicing Geralt in the Polish dub of the Netflix show, so it's not a stretch for Netflix to get him involved. How cool would it have been to get him in the same room with Cavill? Or at least have him participate online?
-do an interview, maybe a live Q&A with the cast & crew of Alzur's Legacy?
-do something with the fans? A cosplay competition or something?
-a decent giveaway (Thronebreaker? Concept art books for the tv show? e-book of the classic Polish comic book adaptation of the Witcher novels? Audiobook of the Last Wish short story read by Cavill like he did here?)
-competitions to win game and tv show related gadgets?
-charity auction of game and show related memorabilia?

And I'm sure people here could come up with dozens more ideas. I know not everything could be done, but did anyone actually try? To brainstorm such ideas, to pick up a phone and contact these people?

The difference between a promotion and fandom...

... but my contention here is that even as promotion this "Con" missed the mark. Like I said in the other thread, it took me about 5 mins to get the strong impression that I was not the audience they (Netflix) were courting.

As for Sapkowski...

... I'd love to have seen him involved, but with his "history" around the license, I never expected anything.

Having been involved with documenting early Cons, most start off pretty mediocre, but I do agree with you...

... if this was / is really about celebrating The Witcher...

... they could have done so much more to honor the subject...

... and that respect would have naturally brought interest in new pursuits and "products."

Instead we go a strange "infomercial" that IMO didn't seem as energizing as intended.

The Witcher series has just never been very good, that's all.

Well, to each their own. Good-or-bad The Witcher has generated quite a following. And I've been associated with a few good Cons for what I would consider terrible properties.

Everybody's a critic. I, for one, thought it was an awesome celebration of the series and it somehow managed to make me even more addicted than I already was (and believe me, I'm absurdly addicted right now). There was room for more, for sure, but we can blame the draconian COVID restrictions for some of that. Other things can be improved upon for future versions. As for the giveaway, why Thronebreaker? It's a fantastic game but it doesn't cost that much. Why not buy it (even on sale) to support the devs and show CDPR that we'd love more spinoff games like that?

You're in the minority then. :) People love everything that's associated with The Witcher and this won't change in the future. It's an international brand for quite a long time.

That's exactly my hope. I'm not criticising just to complain, but to point out there's a vast, untapped potential here and it's a shame to let the idea of a "WitcherCon" to be wasted on what kai2, I think very aptly, described as an infomercial. It was just a suggestion. I already own the game, it's not like I was asking for it for myself. It's just one of the things I thought they could, potentially, given away to make it actually worthwile and memorable, instead of a comic you don't even get to own, an old concert video they already gave away before and 4 worthless Gwent cards.

That's fine, feedback is great but none of it was pathetic or bogus or any of the other terms you used to describe it. Most people had fun with it. Like I said, it has room for potential, I don't disagree there. I just don't think it was bad, either. For a first-time event, it was actually really solid, given the global circumstances.

Yeah, that's fair, I just don't think they needed to give away any of the games en masse. I think it would have been better to have a major prize draw with 50-100 keys for Thronebreaker, since it'd encourage people to look into the game to see if they want to enter and thus, more people might actually give it a go.

Also, the Gwent cards aren't worthless unless you don't play the game (not sure if you do). If you do play it, they're actually quite useful, especially the Vesemir one and the one with Geralt and Jaskier/Dandelion (drawing a blank on its name off-hand).. at least, in my experience. But yeah, if you don't play the game, I get that.

EDIT: "Sunset Wanderers" is the name of that card.

Just saying, the Witcher is the McDonalds of RPGs.

If you could give a quick summary of why you believe that (so as to avoid derailing the thread), I'd much appreciate it. I wasn't entirely sold on the series for quite a long time.

nvm, it's not worth it

Someone got knighted at least?

So it was a con after all as in you all got conned.

And it's all GOG's fault! *points finger*

I didn’t even bother looking, between DRM’d goods and the usual pandering to fanboys it had nothing of interest.