- cross-posted to:
- gamingcirclejerk@lemmy.world
- pcgaming@lemmy.ca
- cross-posted to:
- gamingcirclejerk@lemmy.world
- pcgaming@lemmy.ca
You must log in or # to comment.
Hey, anybody remember when MGS 2 came out, and the mass of NA gamers were raging about having to play as Raiden, because he was a … well in modern parlance, a beta cuck soyboy?
Kinda flew over all their heads that Raiden was basically a more realistic reflection of the NA target demo for MGS games, and oh he also goes through legitimate character development, gains maturity and confidence, oh well now, more lately, he’s basically a badass fucking cyberninja.
… Passing the torch off to Ciri fucking entirely makes sense within the world and lore of the Witcher series… and I thought we liked having an attractive gal booty to ogle at in third person?
Or is that now gay?
Passing the torch off to Ciri fucking entirely makes sense within the world and lore of the Witcher serie
It’s also literally what happens in the books. Ciri grows as a person and becomes a badass swordswoman while Geralt eventually swears off taking monster contracts and later actually stops killing monsters. He even goes to donate his sword before getting pulled into one last battle to protect his friends and chosen family
No, apparently it’s even worse; woke!
:DDDD
Oh boy the only issue I have is that I’m going to be unstoppable, Ciri is literally a broken main character nearing her full potential.
Bitch can fucking dimension travel, trained in sword and fight by other witchers and IIRC Yennefer trained her in some sort of sorcery arts as well so it’d be like having an OP mix of Geralt+Yennefer
Bitch
Why?
Is there an interpretation where it means somebody who is shockingly audacious?
I mean, she couldn’t even counterattack in W3.
Yennefer trained her in some sort of sorcery arts
So I recently devoured the book series and can clarify, she was first trained as a Witcher, then as a sourceress by Yennefer, but after she was teleported into the middle of the desert and tried to use fire as a source of power out of desperation, she gave up all magical abilities as the fire was trying to consumer her. So shes a brilliant swordswoman, has partial Witcher mutation (some of the mutations come from the secret Witcher diet which she was fed at Ker Moren while being trained) and depending on when in the timeline the game takes place she would have incredible reflexes and some interdimensional travel capabilities.
There’s also some really interesting opportunities for storytelling given how Ciri’s background is just soaked in trauma. On that note, I am also curious if they intend to play down the salaciousness for this entry or not. In the books Ciri was definitely curious (and heavily implied to be bi) but remained a virgin, and by the end of the series she was still a minor by modern standards. I want to say she was 16 or so at the end of the last book.
I’m super excited to see where this game goes, because if its worthy of being released after the masterpiece that was The Witcher 3, it’s going to be brilliant
Don’t forget the carnivorous unicorns
With regards to Ciri’s age, she’s 21 during the main events in The Witcher 3.
At the end of the books she’s 17.
No idea if they’ll play down the salaciousness or not, but given when the game will likely take place that at least won’t be any issues with the main character being a minor.
Any person who unironically uses “woke” is a complete douche canoe and can go get fucked. Change my mind.
Don’t let the alt-right dictate what “woke” means
I would love to not let the nazis dictate how the swastika is used, but their perversion of the original meaning has permanently altered how it’s seen by the rest of the world. Claiming the moral high ground by trying to force something to mean what it no longer does is a pointless exercise.
It’s not about claiming the moral high ground, it’s just that you can’t have a word that can be used to mean its opposite, even if “sarcastically”. The word woke is just the past tense of wake, nothing else. It can be used to represent someone “waking up” from the hide-your-head-in-the-sand routine, or becomes able to see things from a new perspective. For the right, it doesn’t really mean anything, but they are pretty much using it as the new “sheeple”. Which doesn’t make any sense.
But the important thing is this: if someone is ridiculing people for wanting to be informed, involved in society, or generally just themselves, the only thing they’re actually insulting is their own intelligence and heart. If we let them have their use of woke as a generic mean insult, we lose sight of that.
More than swastikas, I think this case is closer to saying “you can use literally to mean figuratively because it’s common use” to which I also say no, fuck that.
But yes, swastikas forever symbolise Nazism. That doesn’t negate their original, positive meaning previously found in history, religion and culture. This is not an “achtually it’s ok to draw swastikas because they are actually good”. I’m just saying that context, and intent, matters. If you tattoo one on yourself as a westerner, you’re a Nazi - and it’s ok that everyone treats you like one. But should those original uses be stopped because it’s now “forever bad”?
I think that ship has sailed. That word is at the moment a clear sign the person using it is an asshole. It can be reclaimed, but right now I don’t see that happening.
Woke means being aware that an interaction with a cop is a life or death situation. Cops aren’t your friends, they’re not here to protect you. They’re a threat, motivated by cruelty and love of power. When dealing with a cop, you have to speak gently, keep your hands visible at all times, and declare your intentions for every action. Or you could die. You could still die even if you do all that.
I won’t. Nobody is able to define what “wokeness” really means to them because it’s mostly code for “subset of people I don’t want to exist around me”.
Surprisingly, that doesn’t sound very good when said out loud.
“Woke” has had a consistent meaning since its introduction into the English language almost a hundred years ago. It means “Aware of systemic racism.”
When blues legend Lead Belly ended a show in 1938 by saying, “Stay woke,” he meant: “Stay aware of systemic racism.”
When some chud on YouTube in 2025 says “‘Woke’ is ruining gaming,” he means that awareness of systemic racism is ruining gaming. For him.
And when an American politician calls himself “anti-woke”, he’s saying that he opposes the awareness of systemic racism. Not that he denies the existence of it, but that he’d prefer no one talk about it, so that it can continue.
When some chud on YouTube in 2025 says “‘Woke’ is ruining gaming,” he means that awareness of systemic racism is ruining gaming. For him.
I don’t think it even goes that far tbh. Especially for less political, more gamer-type “conservatives”, it just means “the other side”, forcing so many girls (1) into their game. Maybe it’s just to deflect having to admit to being a misogynist.
And when an American politician calls himself “anti-woke”, he’s saying that he opposes the awareness of systemic racism. Not that he denies the existence of it, but that he’d prefer no one talk about it, so that it can continue.
Yes, exactly. No sane person would call themselves “anti-woke”. Unless they’re successful in subverting its meaning to be “those we’ll put in concentration camps”. Oh wait, that still wouldn’t make you sane.
Wrong way round. The unironic woke is the BLM socially aware activist.
It’s since around 2020 woke is mostly used as an insult by douche canoes.
Woke is now a synonym for Social Justice warrior.
A person or movement prioritizing moralizing outrage about minor grievances over actual effective societal change.
As my half Nigerian cousin likes to say on issues like white people wearing dreadlocks: “That’s something only white privileged women care about.”
Yes I agree with your interpretation of what woke currently means. I’m saying that this is actually using woke ironically an insult. An unironic usage has no negative connotations.
The best new use of woke is the woke right.
The author James Lindsay has defined it in similar terms, as “a victimhood-based identity politics” whose “victim groups are whites, Christians, men, and straight people”. He argues that the movement is “roughly intersectional” insofar as it is obsessed with identity politics and a grievance relating to anti-white racism. “Like their counterparts on the Woke Left,” Lindsay writes, “the Woke Right have accepted as fact that there’s a conspiracy against people like them and that their only real hope is to lean into the identity grouping and advocate for collective power under that heading”. In these terms, the “woke right” is a kind of ideological doppelgänger, whose members exhibit the same precisionist and absolutist tendencies of their leftist counterparts.
Pierce Morgan uses it more and more often against right wingers to great effect.
Right. The right wingers are arguing (usually without knowing it because they don’t understand words) for people to stay asleep and not think or question
Why complicate things ? Games are not books. I see Witcher game I expect Geralt. What is wrong with this thinking ? Do I need to think everytime I play Horizon ? No when I play Horizon I expect Aloy.
There is nothing to do with woke. If you expect people to read books before they play a game there is something wrong with you not with people who want to play a game with their favourite character.
The Witcher game series is based on the book series.
The post criticizes not the expectation of players that haven’t read the books, but of the subset of people that think making Ciri the protagonist is a political message, when it’s just staying true to its source.
Your critique has nothing to do with this post.
Expectations differ from person to person. You see the games as a separate thing. They are obviously not. But it’s totally fair to want another witcher game with Gerald with his story continued. If the original creator of the story didn’t write it that way, then CD Project Red would have to come up with their own story. Straying too far from source material can end badly - see Game of Thrones seasons 6-8.
Nah the author of article asume that all people that say that Ciri can’t be a witcher it’s because they claim it’s woke and tries to turn those who disagree to say it’s political. I clearly state it’s not. I don’t want Ciri in Witcher because I want to play Geralt. That’s all. The author puts books to afirmate his claims that only people who read books are worthy to say something about Ciri being a Witcher protagonist and that everyone else says it’s woke. No I disagree. Books are not Games.
Did you play TW3? Ciri is co-protagonist of the game, she is the character that has a journey.
It’s a game series (and later media series) literally based on a series of books. The short stories tell Garalt’s story, but the longform books are far more about Ciri than they are Geralt. Go read them they’re brilliant books but more important to the point you’ll understand why Ciri is so important to the story that’s being told
Geralt needs retirement. The ending of Blood and Wine expansion, tells you that loud and clear, and agree with that. It was a perfect ending for the Trilogy.
Ending with Ciri following the Witcher path, is Canon now. I dont agree with the decision of Ciri becoming a Witcher (not making her the protagonist, but her taking the Mutagens), but i want to see how they explain that turn of events.
Ending with Ciri following the Witcher path, is Canon now
It’s canon in the books too. She was trained at Ker Moren, then trained by Yennefer but ultimately she gives up her magic entirely after pulling from fire as a source out of desperation. She remains an extremely skilled swordswoman with partial mutation
That’s the problem, they want to put Ciri in same gameplay but different story and say that’s new Witcher. I would more likely play as Yenefer sorceress and slay monsters in a Witcher game than play as Ciri that somehow becomes a Witcher just to slay monsters with as sword. We already have character that slays monsters with a sword in Witcher game, he’s called Geralt.
The game is called Witcher not Witch or wizard though. You could play a mage build in Witcher 3 and have your swords as cosmetics.
I dont think its necessarily to complicate things but more that we’ve had Geralt as a main character for 3 games. His time is ending, and if you love him as a main character there are those 3 aforementioned games you can play to get what youre looking for. Switching up the main protagonist to another character that we as gamers have learned to love and accept through the series is probably the best move, both for business and canonically.
I’m sorry, but I still can’t help but laugh about the anti-woke Asterion flat-butt mod, and now in my head I just see all anti-woke gamers as jealous flat-butters.
They hate us cause they anus
E pluribus anus
Woah… Is that a… A Triple entendre?
Aint us (the original idiom)
They’re anuses/assholes/jerks (the pun)
No cheeks, just anus (literal)
The complexity was initially sensed, though I did not encompass it at the time of writing
I’ve never read the books, but… It was clear from game 3 that she was going to play an important role in the future. The entire plot of the main campaign in Witcher 3 was about HER powers. The Wild Hunt wanted her, not Geralt.
Plus also she’s awesome anyway. What the fuck is wrong with people? Oh I can’t enjoy my vibeo game with a wahmen as main character, it’ll ruin my mood!
Honestly I’d rather be looking at a cute girl dashing around than an old man, even if I identify more with the latter. Video games are for exploring things. Fantasy worlds, dragons, wraiths… And the biggest problem with suspending disbelief is playing a character who isn’t the same gender as the player? lmao.
Maybe I’m just not enough of a gamer. Only been two and a half decades or so since I first touched a computer and played games.
She is great in the books. One of the most unique characters in fiction imho. CDProjekt did really well adapting the continuation of her story in the games.
I didn’t played the game or read the books but I think if you are playing a game that is called Witcher and the Witcher himself is missing that is a big issue.
Normally you would get a new game with a new title but big companies want to use the IP and think using a known title is always better than coming up with a new title.
As I said I didn’t played Witcher 3 so dunno if it makes sense, but I wouldn’t be surprised if people are unhappy when their main character is missing in the game.
I guess if they didn’t read the books, watch the show, or play the most popular and most recent game in the series, then it is fairly reasonable for them to be confused as they won’t know shit.
Ciri is a Witcher. The Witcher isn’t missing at all.
I slightly puffed out out the nose in amused manner lol. The Witcher. <_>
It’s literally a job title in-universe. xD
I’m trying to remember the first game I played with a female lead and I think it was portal. And that woman didn’t speak. Strangely the next was transistor and she technically didn’t speak either.
People like Geralt, they like his brooding attitude. Making. Game about ciri means they don’t get a game with Geralt. And they really want another game with him for some reason.
Idk why they blame woke though
Cranky brooding swordsman is kinda a one trick pony. It’s brilliant and hilarious to respond to everything no matter how threatening with just a grunt or dismissive comment, but after 3 major games, it’s time for something else
Tomb Raider. That’s all I’m gonna say.
Tomb Raider is not a woman protagonist game though, at least in the first game they wanted to have Indiana Jones but didn’t got the rights to it. So the developers replaced the assets with a female.
In whole series there is not much that makes her a woman, more like an American gun-maniac guy that looks like a girl.
Plus also she’s awesome anyway. What the fuck is wrong with people? Oh I can’t enjoy my vibeo game with a wahmen as main character, it’ll ruin my mood!
That’s what I don’t understand, like, have people not played the Horizon games? They’re awesome, they’re fun as hell.
The main bullshit complaint I’ve seen about the Horizon games boils down to “Aloy doesn’t make my peepee hard”. There are dudes out there who only want to see women they can goon to.
Also, Tomb Raider. One of the most well known videogame characters is literally an ass-kicking woman.
Yep, I love the Tomb Raider games too, I still play Rise of the Tomb Raider sometimes, it’s such a great game.
have people not played the Horizon games? They’re awesome, they’re fun as hell.
I have actually not. Thank you!
I’ve only played Witcher 3, and I thought it was obvious that it’s Ciri’s story being told from the perspective of the supporting cast, and that is an incredibly cool literary device.
Honestly the longform books take a similar approach, telling several very important people’s stories from the perspective of how their stories intertwined with Geralt’s and later Ciri’s
Yeah. I haven’t played 1 much beyond the first 10 minutes, was too janky. 2 was mostly focused on the war, with Geralt being the most important character IMO. In 3 he was no longer THE most important character, but he was a close second - out of a large cast of supporting characters that aided them on the way.
I can’t play games anymore because of nonsense like this. I changed hobbies to writing Chinese poetry and watching ballet. The last Ballet I saw was Swan Lake in China. Absolutely beautiful.
Swansea is too woke. It has a female lead role.
What does reading the books have to do with the game. The books take place before the game series. Or am I mistaken.
Yeah, Geralt and Yen “dies” and may or may not be saved by Ciri’s power at the end of the series. Ciri is the pivotal character in the story, Geralt is really just there trying to find her.
If a game is deemed “woke” by right-wing shitheads, that’s like a seal of approval for me. Now, the game might still suck, but it’s not because of being inclusive and diverse.
If it does “flop”, they undoubtedly would chalk it up to it being inclusive and diverse though. Otherwise they just quickly move on to the next target.
Yup, with movies and games alike if it’s “woke” and flops they always say that’s why, when the truth is it just sucked.
This is the first I’ve heard of this game being deemed woke.
Didn’t you hear? Ciri is older and therefore ugly now. The worst offence that a designer could make for a female character.
If a game has a non-white or non-male protagonist, it’s automatically “woke.”
It’s a lot easier - if Americans don’t like what Europeans are doing, then it’s a great thing they’re doing!
Plenty of American developers are making “woke” games. This isn’t a country-specific thing. But in general, yes!
No one cares about woke bs.
No one who matters does, no. “Woke” is in quotes because it’s a bullshit term.
No, woke is bs because it’s an American crap. Remember when CDPR got under fire for not having black characters in Witcher 3?
Here are some links to refresh your memory:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/38fk20/whats_up_with_there_being_no_black_people_in_this/
- https://www.quora.com/How-come-nobody-complains-that-Witcher-isnt-being-genuine-because-they-arent-being-racist-to-black-people-in-it-like-they-would-if-black-people-were-seen-in-medieval-Poland
That’s your typical American woke mental diarrhea.
Once again - if Americans are complaining, then Europe is doing the right thing. It doesn’t matter what type of American is complaining.
i love woke, keep it coming
Americans telling Polish how to write their books and make their games, lol. Fuck off!
They should do a Last Of Us prequel with Joel, but he dies in that one too due to time travel shenanigans.
Can we have a Joel from another universe be the one to kill him? Multiverses are so hot right now.
I’ve said for years that one or more of the main characters should be prominent, but you play most of the game as a custom character and you get to choose your witcher school. So I’m sort of hoping that she’s the protagonist and main character in a similar way to how she is TW3.
Eh, idk. The Witcher universe has a framework for an RPG, but the books have always been about Geralt and Co. You could do something different in that universe, but I think the story and the games have some very strong structure that comes from the player being Geralt and living his story.
Witchers are a rare dying breed. Trying to shove another new generic Witcher in would force you into writing a whole new series of stories, and backgrounds, just for that one character, which would make it get lost in the mix imho.
Everything should be woke actually. If you complain about wokeness I don’t think you deserve to enjoy things
Imo there are two types of “wokeness”.
There is a diverse inclusive story by someone with an underrepresented experience who partially lived that story and has a unique perspective and ideas.
And then there is a “diverse” story constructed by an all white male board of execitives who think “wokeness” is trendy.
Movies like I Saw The TV Glow, Parasite, Sinners, etc are fantastic “woke” stories coming from the former group.
The latter group comes up with stories like “Ghostbusters but all women” or “Oceans 11 but all women” which I think should rightly be criticized.
The problem with Ghostbusters (2016) didn’t have anything to do with having an all female cast, it was more about the timing of the jokes, the lack of slow quiet scenes to build atmosphere, and the effects being crappy unmemorable CGI
The problem with Ghostbusters (2016) didn’t have anything to do with having an all female cast
That’s what I just said.
If women arent the ones greenlighting these movie, directing them, or even writing the script, how could they possibly be the problem?
I listed a bunch of actually good “woke” media. They were made by a trans and black creators but if you want examples of women being funny look at Veep, the Good Place, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, etc.
The problem as I pointed out is a predominately white male board member of business grads who feel having an all female cast is all they need to market a movie, so they can skip giving a shit about the product.
it was more about the timing of the jokes, the lack of slow quiet scenes to build atmosphere, and the effects being crappy unmemorable CGI
Because Sony can’t make a movie to save their lives. Look at Morbius, Kraven, Madame Web, etc.
There was a time in the early 00s/10s where society said “any representation is good representation”.
Movies like Black Panther and Get Out were inherently going to do well because they catered to an audience demand that had been long underrepresented.
Nowadays there are actually good movies in competition. We dont have to settle for bad representation. If you want a horror movie that’s an allegory for not transitioning you can watch it, if you want a vampire movie where the vampires are an allegory for racism and white exploitation that’s in theaters right now.
Spotting background character 1 and 2’s gay kiss in Disney’s reboot of Buzz Lightyear feels a lot less exciting to me.
When a bunch of white board members decide to make a movie “for women” and resurrect a dead IP and start forcing a script, that will be inherently more shallow than going to Amy Poehler and asking if she has an idea to pitch.
This is why Marvel succeeded in giving Ryan Coogler a higher degree of creative control for Black Panther than Sony did for any of the female cast in Ghostbusters.
While I’m enjoying diverse films like Sinners and I Saw the TV Glow, if you’re more interested in Disney’s live action remake of The Little Mermaid, or Disney’s live action remake of Snow White, go right ahead and watch it. I’m not saying you can’t.
But the idea you have to “support it” is nothing but marketing. I don’t think you’re really supporting diverse stories, I think you’re supporting corporations who exploit diversity and intentionally rage bait the worst racists imaginable for free marketing instead of investing the areas that you point out would make the movie better.
Honestly, why would you want a male protagonist in anything? We are just disgusting more dangerous. No one wants that shit. We suck
