Image: CD Projekt Red
Until recently, a “Witcher School” in Poland hosted live action role-playing game (LARP) events for fans of the popular fantasy series with the official blessing of the Witcher series game publisher CD Projekt Red. But last Friday, its organizers, a company called 5 Żywiołów, announced that the “school” would be permanently closed, citing the CDPR’s decision to withdraw its license. Organizers of the event say it was due to the work of a staff member of a far-right conservative group that opposes abortion and LGBTQ rights. (h / t Eurogamer)
According to a later Facebook comment from Witcher School organizers, CDPR “terminated the license agreement” with a three-month notice in late February. Although CDPR did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication, it was during the period of negative media attention around one of the people, Anna Wawrzyniak.
In an email to Kotaku, 5 Żywiołów said that Wawrzyniak worked on the witch school project from 2017 to 2019. He also wrote legal opinions for Ordo Iuris, an ultra-conservative think tank that was “instrumental in the almost total ban on abortion in Poland and influential in the creation of LGBTQ-free zones ”.
Event company co-founder Dastin Wawrzyniak (Anna Wawrzyniak’s spouse) told Kotaku that her relationship with the gaming studio had previously been “great.” He said that 5 Żywiołów often worked for CDPR and would even organize a picnic for the employees of the studio. CDPR did not participate in the development of the LARP plot, but the Witcher school license allowed the event company to use characters from the Witcher games to tell original stories.
5 Żywiołów emphasized that the company kept the professional and private spheres separate from its employees. “We do not yet plan to evaluate the views and activities in the private sphere of our colleagues and participants,” he wrote in a commentary response under Friday’s statement. “This would open a Pandora’s box full of prejudices and disputes … You know we’ve created a very inclusive project, without paying attention to differences and divisions.”
G / O Media may receive a commission
The feeling seems reasonable if you talk about pineapple on pizza and not, for example, about whether a businessman is trying to ban abortion or legislate queer Poles out of public life. This is exactly what Ordo Iuris has achieved successfully.