I've played a lot of RPGs in my day, and I've never felt like leveling is slower than it is in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Although it's intended to be excruciatingly slow, a bug introduced in the game's latest patch has only made matters worse.
Following the deployment of the latest The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt patch, gamers have reported that they aren't receiving experience for completing many quests throughout the game regardless of level. After a day of frustration, CD Projekt Red acknowledged the problem with the following post:
At the same time we want to shed some light on the issue. First of all, it doesn't impact the game balance in any significant way. Also, you will be able to finish the game with your character achieving a level within the threshold we had in mind when we designed the game.
We hope this clears things up a bit. Again, rest assured, we won’t stop working on improving the game and there are more patches coming in the near future.
As stated above, the issue won't be resolved until Monday or later. Consequently, there are many players who have gone from experiencing the naturally slow progression of The Witcher 3 to a near halt. Some have given up and are taking a break from the game until the issue is corrected, and some are going full time with Gwent (card game) until the next patch arrives.
Although CD Projekt Red has battled to stabilize its game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is certainly one of the most unstable AAA experience in recent times. Even after several patches, I am regularly encountering crashes, discombobulated character models, and frustrating pathing issues while riding the horse. If you're on the fence about buying it, I would recommend waiting until several more patches are deployed.