We were shown an example of how one simple decision early on in the game can have a long-lasting impact on the world of The Witcher. It started with a simple quest to protect a pile of goods along a riverbank from ravenous monsters. Once you've warded off the beasts, a band of travelers arrive and lay claim to the goods.
You could let them take what they came for. After all, you were hired to fight were monsters, not men. On the other hand, you could also defend the goods and slay the strangers.
All this knowledge is gleaned in retrospect, nearly ten hours after your seemingly innocuous choice on the riverbank. Whether or not you made the right or wrong move earlier is besides the point. By shrouding the consequences of each decision you'll make over the course of the game, and creating an elaborate web of actions and reactions, CD Projekt hopes to bypass the tendency to "test the designer's vision" and have you playing that role, steering yourself to one of the game's multiple endings.
