Dice Poker Witcher 2 How To Win

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Ah, minigames in RPGs. There have been a lot of classic minigames over the years that introduce really random tiny games into otherwise unrelated titles. Probably my favorite was the Triple Triad game back in Final Fantasy VIII – a simple collectable card game, but oh-so addicting. Final Fantasy actually has a long history of random minigames that can suck up a lot of your time while not really having anything to do with saving the world.

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Dice Poker Witcher 2 How To Win

Gambling minigames are relatively common in any game that has you amassing a fortune. Yakuza 4 might be the king of minigames, and it has no shortage of ways to separate you from your hard-earned cash. But onto business – the most recent game I’ve been playing is The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for the XBox 360. It features, among other things, a little dice poker minigame that lets you earn credits (Orens in this game) by beating your friends. For such a simple concept, it somehow manages to get nearly everything wrong. Here are five ways that dice poker in The Witcher 2 has an absolutely terrible interface.

Missing the tutorial

My first beef with the dice poker minigame in The Witcher 2 is the tutorial. Like all good minigames, there needs to be some introduction to get the player up to speed with what’s going on. Unfortunately, this one is completely missable – there’s a character in the opening act of the game that will give the rundown on how to play. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. I missed this guy, and as a result there’s no other way to hear the tutorial. Not even an on-screen “how to play” guide. So here’s usability tip #1:if you’re making up a game within a game, make sure to always include a way for the player to learn the rules. Even if they didn’t miss the tutorial, they may forget.

Why is rolling the dice so important?

The second problem is one of realism. I touched on irritating realism in my article on MLB 2K12 animations, and I’m starting to really dislike realism in games, which is weird. If you’re rolling dice on a board in the real world, there is always a chance that the dice will end up off the board. The developers of The Witcher 2, ever looking to create realism in their world of dragons and magic, made it possible to roll your dice off the board. Let’s be honest for a second: this is ridiculous.

On the XBox 360, the left stick controls where you start the dice from. Then you flick the right stick to roll the dice. Because clearly, this is a super-important control to get right or else gamers just won’t have the full “dice-rolling” experience? As a result here’s an (admittedly exaggerated) example of what could happen to you:

Right, so obviously nobody is going to purposefully drop their dice off the side of the board like that, but there’s also no benefit in letting the player move their dice around before they roll them. Then why is this even a thing that the player can do?

Thankfully, the XBox 360 version starts the player out in the middle of the table, so as long as the left stick doesn’t get moved, it’s pretty likely that the dice will stay on the table (although not guaranteed). The PC version, however, is even worse because of the disorienting camera view. Check out this YouTube video that shows how easy it is to miss the table entirely when using a mouse.

Minigame usability tip #2: don’t make the controls needlessly complex. If rolling dice is way easier in real life than in your game, then you are doing it wrong.

Unnecessarily complicated-looking dice

Third reason why the dice poker is broken: why is it so hard to read the dice? The Witcher 1 had a similar dice game, and it featured standard-looking six sided dice with little dots (pips) on them. In The Witcher 2, the designs are a lot more abstract, and as a result, way harder to read.

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It’s not un-decipherable, but when playing on a TV that’s across the room, it’s unnecessarily difficult, and requires a lot more thinking than it should just to figure out what was rolled. And thus, usability tip #3:sure, make it look festive, but not at the expense of easily being able to read and understand what’s going on.

Picking which dice to reroll, not keep

Number 4 is a small one, though important. After one roll of the dice, the player has the ability to re-roll some or all of their dice (see the screenshot above). The player makes this selection though by choosing which dice to re-roll, and each one is highlighted with an orange-ish glow. This seems really backwards – why wouldn’t the player select which ones to keep? In any video poker game that I’ve ever played, it’s always a matter of selecting the good cards, and everything else gets swept away.

I don’t have any hard evidence on this one; it just doesn’t seem in line with how I’m thinking about playing the game. I’m thinking, here are the “good dice” that I need to keep, and as a result those are the ones I want to select. Usability tip #4:think about how the player is going to be viewing the situation, and make sure your logic isn’t backwards. And if other interfaces have a standard way of performing the same action as yours, don’t be that guy and go against the expected norm!

I win…but I’m not sure why

And finally, the last aspect of dice poker on The Witcher 2 that is really irritating. After the two rounds are over, the player is greeted with a simple “you win” or “you lose”, along with the amount of money that was exchanged. What the game doesn’t indicate is why.

The player is left on this screen to try and decipher exactly why they won or lost. As I mentioned, I didn’t see the in-game tutorial, so I’m not sure if it goes over what the order of poker dice hands are or not. Even if it does, I’m sure most gamers aren’t going to have memorized the order – it may be similar to traditional poker, but with dice, it’s not 100% transferable knowledge. That is, assuming you can actually read the dice that are on the screen.

Fixing this problem wouldn’t be hard. A quick text description of what each player ended up with would make it 1000% easier to figure out who the winner was at a glance. The fifth and last usability tip for game developers: don’t make users work backwards to figure out why they won or lost your game – clearly, the game knows, so just put it out there.

Conclusion

The dice poker minigame in The Witcher 2 isn’t really that great. Or even good. It’s at best forgettable. As a way of earning money in-game, it’s not worth your time. And I didn’t even talk about how the gambling isn’t even in your favor since the computer gets the chance to raise, but the player doesn’t.

On top of all that the user interface is, as we’ve discussed, un-necessarily terrible too. The best thing I can think to say about it is that it’s a great example of how not to build a minigame. That’s something, right?

Related posts:

Dice poker returns as a mini-game in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Due to its inherent reliance on sheer luck, it is not a good way of making money.

Win

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The game is essentially unchanged from the original game, except that you now must physically 'roll' the dice and you have the possibility of losing one or more of them if they roll off the playing surface. The game now also takes one round only so there is more room for luck and less for tactics.

Compared to the first game, the camera angle at which the board is shown and the results of the rolled dice are more difficult to parse, making it more difficult to get a general overview of the situation. Another less than desirable change, the quick view of the current dice combinations for each player after the initial roll has been taken away resulting in a less accessible mini-game.

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The gambling aspect is also weighted against the player; the most that Geralt can bet is 10 orens on the first round and another 10 on the second, however the opponent can potentially raise Geralt's initial bet by another 10 orens and his second bet by another 10 orens (which they will only do if they have a good hand), effectively meaning that the stakes are going to be higher when the opponent has a good hand than when Geralt has a good hand, so on average you stand to lose more than you gain, all other things being equal.

It is possible to save before starting playing and then saving again if you win but relaoding the save if you lose, thus only ever winning games, however this is a very slow and tedious way of making orens.

Basics[edit edit source]

  • Each game consists of one round unless a draw occurs.
  • The round starts with you placing the bid. The opponent accepts or raises the bid and you are given the first option to take or to pass. (Note that on the 360 it is quicker to initially bet the minimum 5 orens and accept your opponents raise than to bet the maximum and wait while the console works out that it can't raise you. The opponent will generally / always raise if you bet the minimum to start).
  • You and your opponent roll all five dice. This is done by placing them above the board and clicking the left mouse button (360: flicking the right analogue stick). Moving the mouse (360: right stick) when rolling influences the direction the dice will roll and how strong the throw will be. (On a 360, the left stick decides the initial starting position). You must be careful not to throw them beyond the board. (On the 360 a gentle push downwards with the right stick should always keep all five dice in play).
  • At this moment you can choose to re-roll any dice or none.
  • After selecting the desired dice and confirming by pressing space (on the PC), both you and your opponent have once again an opportunity to raise the bid, match it, or resign.
  • You re-roll selected dice if any and can see the final result. Whoever has the better combination of dice after re-rolling wins the game. If both players have the same combinations, the highest roll wins. If both rolls are exactly the same it's a draw and another round begins with the same bid.
  • winning combinations are (highest to lowest):
    • Five-of-a-kind – five dice showing the same value
    • Four-of-a-kind – four dice showing the same value
    • Full House – a pair and a three
    • Six-high straight – dice showing II, III, IV, V and VI
    • Five-high straight – dice showing I, II, III, IV and V
    • Three-of-a-kind – three dice showing the same value
    • Two pairs – dice showing two matched pairs of values
    • One pair – dice showing a single matched pair of values

Associated Quests[edit edit source]

Players[edit edit source]

Prologue[edit edit source]

  • an unnamed soldier among the tents in Foltest's army camp will initiate Geralt to the game

Chapter I[edit edit source]

  • a trio on the lower level of the Flotsam inn
    • Casimir
    • Bendeck
    • Zindrab (only after the first two have been defeated)
  • the French Monk (DLC)
  • Einar Gausel (only after the trio at the inn have been defeated)
  • Sendler (only after Einar Gausel has been defeated)

Chapter II[edit edit source]

  • behind the smithy in Vergen:
    • Cornelius Meyer
    • Bruno Biggs
  • outside the Kaedweni camp canteen:
    • Fragile
    • Gondor
  • Cecil Burdon, only after beating the innkeeper at The Cauldron)
  • Haggard, the blacksmith's apprentice (only after beating Cecil Burdon)
  • Lasota (only after Madame Carole has been defeated)
  • Madame Carole (only after Zyvik has been defeated on Roche's path)
  • Skalen Burdon, to win the Dun Banner cloak
  • Zyvik (only after Gondor and Fragile have been defeated)

Chapter III[edit edit source]

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Witcher
  • inside a ruined building in the northeastern part of Loc Muinne
    • Aylaya
    • Filly
    • Hadrian the Black (only after defeating Aylaya and Filly)
    • Adelina (only after defeating Hadrian the Black)
  • The Incredible Lockhart (only after defeating Adelina)

Galleries[edit edit source]

In the Army camp[edit edit source]

In Flotsam[edit edit source]

  • Casimir

  • Bendeck

  • Zindrab

In Vergen[edit edit source]

  • Cornelius Meyer

  • Bruno Biggs

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In the Kaedweni camp[edit edit source]

  • Fragile

  • Gondor

In Loc Muinne[edit edit source]

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  • Aylaya

  • Filly

  • Hadrian the Black

  • Adelina

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