When you think of RPGs, a high fantasy setting is usually the backdrop that comes to mind. However, The Witcher doesn't take place in your typical fantasy setting. This is a dark world where Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes aren't cute little denizens of a happy world only plagued by horned baddies. The non-human races have become second-class, loathed citizens to the more populous humans in the world (a point hammered home at the German Games Convention as a latex model of a bloodied "Elvish Traitor" hanged outside the CDProjekt booth). There is no pure embodiment of evil that you must defeat, either. Instead, everything in the world is presented in shades of grey (as in the real world) and it's up to you to interact with the world as you see fit.