CD Projekt RED's The Witcher trilogy is one of the rare role-playing series that successfully imitates real-world issues and topics such as politics, racism, and last but not least, economics. The Polish developer really poured their hearts and souls into the award-winning franchise, in fact, they even created a new in-game economic system from scratch for The Witcher III: Wild Hunt just so players get more mileage and interactivity out of their in-game money.
Brilliant as that might be, however, certain things in The Witcher's economy simply don't add up. At least, they don't when we apply real-world economic logic to them. As such, even a title touted as "Game of the Decade" is not without its cracks and blemishes. Here are some of those illogical economic things that somehow got through Geralt's astute Witcher senses.
10 THE MONSTER SLAYING CONUNDRUM
The irony in being a Witcher is that your very bread and butter is also the reason you're in an inevitable path to your unemployment. Eventually, all the monsters in Geralt's world will disappear thanks to him and his merry band of mutants and the world will have no use for them anymore.
Such woe is even voiced out by many characters Geralt meets in his journeys. Monster slaying might sound fun, but Geralt and the boys may actually want to take it slow if they want to stay in business. Funny enough, there are certain Witchers who have branched out to more daring freelancing options... such as regicide or being a king's bodyguard.
9 ANY OTHER JOB IS MORE PROFITABLE
You have to wonder why Geralt or other Witchers never actively seek greener pastures. They're certainly better at physical labor than any normal human being. Besides, the penalty for abandoning your Witcher school doesn't seem that harsh anyway. There are many ways Geralt could make better coin than as a Witcher.
One example is when someone asked Geralt to do some deep-sea diving in order to grab precious black pearls. For a Witcher, that's a safer and more doable activity than walking into a griffon's nest or a werewolf's den. Think of the profit Geralt could easily make doing those cakewalk jobs.
8 RICHEST WITCHER EVER
In regard to Witchers having every imaginable physical edge over most other living creatures (aside from reproduction), they can easily be kings. Just take a look at what Geralt comes across in his adventures; there's no shortage of treasure to be found in every nook and cranny of the world.
In fact, even the stuff Geralt finds (whether by looting dead bodies or treasure-hunting) costs a lot more than his usual Witcher contracts. It's not hard to amass coins in all three Witcher games in that regard and money is never really a problem for Geralt. It's certainly a far cry from the "hungry witcher" portrayal of the books.
7 WE DON'T NEED AN ARMY; WE HAVE A WITCHER
We did mention that Witchers are walking metahumans, right? That means no conventional human army can stop them. Even the general consensus for someone like Geralt is that he can cut down "20 men in the blink of an eye." In fact, someone other than Geralt has proven that Witchers are more valuable than any army, that Witcher is Letho of Gulet.
Letho proved in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings that he can ruin the whole world if he wanted. The rogue Witcher single-handedly sowed chaos by collecting kings' heads. So again, why are kings wasting money in armies when they could easily snag Witcher technology and methods to rule the world? Believe it or not, this was the initial plot of the first Witcher game; sadly, it was not explored too thoroughly.
6 WHY EVEN BOTHER WITH WITCHERS AGAINST MONSTERS?
Fancy and badass as Geralt's job may be, it's objectively unnecessary in his world. There exists a certain faction that basically nullifies his job in The Witcher III; they're called Radovid's Witch Hunters and they can take down even the most dangerous sorceresses with ease, meaning an army of them are likely more powerful than witchers.
Their success against magic basically depends on one thing: The fictional Dimeritium metal that somehow disables magic. So, it stands within reason that magical creatures should be no match against them since sorceresses aren't either. If they could stop being massive douchebags, they'd probably give Witchers a run for their coin.
5 GWENT IS PAY-TO-WIN
Gone are the earlier entries' gambling mini-games, being replaced with Gwent in The Witcher III. The poor peasants of Geralt's world had to learn some intricate and nerdy trading card game instead of a straightforward and more rewarding dice poker from the previous games. Since we're talking about peasants, they're also at a complete disadvantage when it comes to Gwent.
That's because Gwent is pay-to-win in The Witcher III, that is, one can buy awesome and powerful cards instead of fighting for them, something only the well-off citizens in any kingdom can do. This leaves the poorer Gwent players with sub-par cards and the rich players with a greater chance of winning and since Gwent has an actual coin reward, it's nothing but a rich man's game.
4 ONE-TRICK-PONY BLACKSMITHS
Venture around in Novigrad or other well-populated settlements in The Witcher III and you'll notice that blacksmiths are too lazy to branch out into other disciplines in their craft. Apparently, the developers thought it makes sense to divide the blacksmiths into swordmakers and armorers.
In reality, being able to do both would have been more profitable for them. Wastefully enough, you can even have a look inside these blacksmiths' establishments and see some armor plates in a swordmaker's place or some swords in an armorer's which are not for sale. Heck, one of them might even shout "top-notch swords!" but will only sell armor.
3 EMPEROR EMHYR'S PALTRY REWARD FOR CIRI
Emperor Emhyr's pomp and pride are reflected in the way he talks and deals with people around him, especially with Geralt. So when he touts his reward to Geralt for finding Ciri as a big break from the Witcher's usual sewage-wading monster hunts, expectations were high.
Then came the actual reward: A mere few thousand crowns (coins). As Geralt, most players can easily earn that much in an hour of treasure-hunting and monster-slaying. Besides, players are usually swimming in coins by the time Ciri meets the Emperor, meaning the reward is just pocket money, really. One would think that Emhyr would have been more generous since he's Emperor of half the Witcher world.
2 MAGIC BREAKS THE ECONOMY
Magical hocus pocus mostly gets thrown around in The Witcher trilogy as convenience or plot devices. In itself, that can create inconsistencies and problems with the game's lore. Sorceresses and sorcerers, due to their peerless command of magic, can be even more powerful than witchers or kings.
They can create portals that basically eliminate the need for transportation and can even wipe out whole armies as demonstrated by Sabrina Glevessig in The Witcher 2. Some of them can even summon workers to do their bidding. Why they haven't taken over everything is rather puzzling.
1 PICKY WITCHERS
Throughout the trilogy, the Witcher School of the Wolf is notably understaffed, with no new recruits whatsoever. That means their organization is dying a slow death. Turns out, that is partly their fault for being too picky with their Witcher candidates; they only accept young boys, usually human.
A special case was made for Ciri (she was never turned to a fully-fledged Witcher) but it seems only boys are allowed to be Witchers. However, the School of the Cat had an Elven Witcher member, meaning Elves are allowed. If that's the case, then the Witchers' recruit pool shouldn't really be running dry; there's no shortage of poor Elves who'd want a better life, even if it means being a sterile Witcher.