Idk about you but I’m pre-ordering the woke game
"You can't just have Geralt for every single game" says his voice actor, and if you think The Witcher 4 making Ciri the protagonist is "woke," then "read the damn books"
Submitted 10 months ago by inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
Comments
CapriciousDay@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
I really enjoyed cyberpunk 2077, I bought it a year after release on sale.
Now talk to several people who bought it day 1 😅
CapriciousDay@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
I don’t mind, 90% of the value I’m getting out of this is making the sales of the game the MAGA people feel betrayed by go up by one
AVengefulAxolotl@lemmy.world 10 months ago
No pre-orders. This should be the No.1 rule for any gamer.
You dont even know what you get, why would you pre-order?
excral@feddit.org 10 months ago
If pre-orders ever made sense, it was when you still needed a physical cartridge or disc and the game wouldn’t get patches anyways. But those days are long gone.
CapriciousDay@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Oh normally I’d agree, but this is a spite pre-order not a gaming pre-order
slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 10 months ago
Eeew
CapriciousDay@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Just for that, I’m springing for the collectors edition
Joeyowlhouse@lemmy.wtf 10 months ago
It’s about time women got more accurate representation in games. How many games have you play as a man compared to playing as a woman? Technically it should be 50/50 to more accurately represent the real world.
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Video games are not the real world. They do not have to follow the rules of the real world. Even if parts or all of the game model the real world, video games are artwork, and artwork invents its own rules. Trying to enforce rules onto art has not worked well in the past, and will likely not work well in the future either.
cmhe@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I don’t think representation is the main issue, it is more about how they are presented.
Striding for a perfect 50/50, doesn’t really sense if they are all just stereotypes and sexual objectified. Also there are many other underrepresented population groups.
IMO, it is more important to focus good well written and complex characters, that represent real circumstances right.
I don’t complain that AAA studios have gone ‘woke’ because they now include choices to select from marginalized groups, I complain about them because they are often do not offer a deeper perspective of people in that group and are just different skins.
In some way, I can understand, games often happen in a Fantasy world, but I would wish that selecting different characters would do more than just exchanging the player mesh, texture and voice pack.
medgremlin@midwest.social 10 months ago
That’s why the trailer has me so hyped for this game. It looks like the game is going to be different because Ciri is the protagonist. Her experience, reactions, and approach to saving a young woman from being sacrificed are totally different than what Geralt’s would be. I hate it when games like Mass Effect are like “Oh! You can play as FemShep! That totally counts as representation!” even though it changes literally nothing about the story.
I want more games that actually address the real and significant differences in the experiences and perspectives of different characters. I’m always disappointed when there’s a “female” option that’s just a re-skin of the male character with no changes in how the character interacts with the world and the story. (This happens a lot in non-video game media too.)
Comrade_Spood@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
Unless you are also complaining about it when white male characters are also surface-level, 2-D, copy-and-paste characters then all you are saying is “Only white male characters are allowed to be simple or a stereotype/trope.” Lets be honest, not every game needs a complex and well written character, and that is fine. If they choose to go that route it doesn’t matter what race, religion, or gender the character is in the first place. So it doesn’t matter if they are a white male.
Now I’m also not gonna shut down your solution without being constructive and providing my own solution, cause I don’t think quotas are the answer either. Instead we should be uplifting and empowering marginalized creators and game designers so that they can make more characters that they want to make. Which is generally characters they can relate to. If people want more characters that are women, then the game industry needs to become a safe space for women and empower them so they can provide more representation for characters. Same thing for any other demographic. That will make sure that these characters are being made in an aethentic and organic way, and not just being pumped out to meet a quota, but also isn’t restricting when marginalized demographics can be used as characters.
Bieren@lemmy.world 10 months ago
The well written part is my concern. Or we will get the same quality as a lot of recent movies and shows. Where the characters are stereotypes, poorly written, poorly developed. With plot points that are just randomly forced into the story, and that plot point has nothing to do with the rest of the story. You know the ones, where something has been added to the story and has no reason or meaning or benefit to being part of the story.
stebo02@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
i love woke, keep it coming
mriswith@lemmy.world 10 months ago
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 TW3.
abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
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.
eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Good to know the VA isn’t a dickhead chud here. I’m not aware of him beyond this, but that’s at least a small win in my book.
state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
Any person who unironically uses “woke” is a complete douche canoe and can go get fucked. Change my mind.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Don’t let the alt-right dictate what “woke” means
Rose@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
kassiopaea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
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.
state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
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.
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 10 months ago
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.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 10 months ago
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.
bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
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.”
brsrklf@jlai.lu 10 months ago
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.
moakley@lemmy.world 10 months ago
“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.
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 10 months ago
How in the heck would Ciri not be the main character after the events of Witcher 3? Did anyone actually think she wouldn’t be?
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 10 months ago
I mean, I prayed to the nether gods that we’d get a Letho game. He’s the perfect protagonist if they wanted to move away from the books and more firmly into their own OC. Always had huge main character energy, and would be perfectly suited for exploring the morally grey areas of the Witcher world.
thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 10 months ago
anyone who has read the books was likely surprised that ciri was the math character of any of the games when they first started coming out ::: ending of the books especially since geralt dies at the end of the books :::
ciri was more the main character than geralt for most of the book. she’s the child of destiny. she’s the young character that grows up as we follow their journey. she’s the one that finds herself and shows major character development throughout the books. the only character development geralt goes through is accepting his bond with ciri. the first two games never mentioning ciri was outright bizarre tbh. only even remotely possibly because geralt lost his memory. like, with where geralt as at by the end of the books the only thing you could possibly expect him to do on regaining his memory is frantically search for signs of his adopted daughter
to a longtime book reader my reaction to ciri being the protag of the next game was “FINALLY”
my only curiosity at this point is how much she’ll be like book ciri. does she know magic? in the books ciri goes to sorceress school and then gets trained in primal magic by unicorns and immortal space elves. can you fuck a horse? that was one of the more… questionable scenes in the book.
tangent: sapkowski’s politics occasionally bleed through in weird ways in the books. like three’s a scene where a woman finds out she’s pregnant mid way through a literal war that our band wades through on their journey to save the world. the party basically needs the woman to proceed. she does not want the child. i believe it was the product of rape. yet for some reason geralt and a literal fucking vampire convince her that abortion is wrong and she should keep it instead of drinking a potion about it. it was so randomly out of character for everyone involved. but hey, that’s catholics for you i guess… /tangent
i think they generally said that ciri lost her elder blood powers after the king of the hunt was killed right? otherwise I’m gonna be really curious how handle that as well. she should be sort of the world’s greatest sorceress otherwise. ooh, i wonder if she’ll make quips about cyberpunk and/or other worlds she’s traveled to. like, she spent Decent bit of time in Arthurian legend. she shows up briefly in Victorian London.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 10 months ago
can you fuck a horse? that was one of the more… questionable scenes in the book.
Uhhh which book is that? If it’s the section I’m thinking of with Kelpie the horse, she’s entranced by its beauty and it’s rider/owner tries to use that to get into her pants (and ultimately died before he was successful) but I don’t believe she ever expressed sexual attraction at all to it by my memory from reading the books a couple of months ago.
the party basically needs the woman to proceed. she does not want the child. i believe it was the product of rape. yet for some reason geralt and a literal fucking vampire convince her that abortion is wrong and she should keep it instead of drinking a potion about it
The party is trying to find Ciri after her disappearance. Geralt and Cahir are having visions indicating that she’s presently in great danger and suffering (and at that she was!). Finding out while practically at the front lines of the great war that their incredible archer, Milva is pregnant completely derails their entire journey because she can’t ride, shouldn’t travel, and will need to rest in a safe area for a while (which they are at this point constantly far from anywhere safe), plus they can’t exactly bring a baby onto the battlefield they’re actively crossing. It’s one moral quandry wrapped in another. Ultimately Geralt and Cahir leave it to Milva’s decision, as does Regis the barber-surgeon/vampire who created the abortion potion.
Also it wasn’t rape. While guiding a group of elves to safety, they hid in a thicket for a night with Nilfgaurdians surrounding them and searching for them. The elves decided that since they were likely to die a horrible death at any moment that they should take the time they have to find what enjoyment they can, and Milva decided to join in. It just so happened they did not die that night and now Milva is carring a halfling for whom she does not know the fathers name (for safety no names were shared with the elves she guided)
i think they generally said that ciri lost her elder blood powers after the king of the hunt was killed right? otherwise I’m gonna be really curious how handle that as well. she should be sort of the world’s greatest sorceress otherwise.
She gave up her magic after trying to use fire as a source of power out of desperation while navigating out of the “Frying Pan” desert. She wanted to save Little Horse the unicorn after an unfortunate battle with a monster she hadn’t yet learned of, but no other sources were available. My understanding is fire as a magical source is all consuming so it is forbidden to pull from for safety reasons, but that was largely left up to interpretation.
Upon pulling from fire, she saw the imense power that presented her, the ability to rule the entire world, but also how that would hurt those she cared so deeply about, so she instead gave up her sourceress’ powers.
If you want anything to complain about in the books it should be Milva’s winging about being an illiterate farm girl that honestly was out of character and just seemed written in so she wouldn’t outshine the others
cactusupyourbutt@lemmy.world 10 months ago
hold up… ciri fucked a horse?
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I was under the impression that it wasn’t Victorian London, but The Plague Year. IIRC she, canonically, brings a blanket infested with plague lice from here to there, and ends up dropping it next to the ship Catriona, which is how the Catriona plague actually gets started.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 10 months ago
Well, unless you fucked up the choices near the end. Really not fond of CDPR’s habit of that.
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Yeah, there were a couple of tiny decisions, any of which failed you out if you got them wrong, and several of them had deceptive descriptions during the QTE.
wrekone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Came here to say this. Anyone that’s played Witcher 3 should have already known that Ciri was going to be the protagonist in the next game. I can’t wait. Ciri is badass.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Someone who can tame unicorns and jump through time and space is much more interesting than a berserker monster slayer.
kinther@lemmy.world 10 months ago
She is the main character toward the end. The story was great and I need to replay it
LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
ROFL I guess these dudes want to live a power fantasy through Geralt instead of accepting the natural next step; since they are following the Witcher Books for the most part, Ciri was bound to be the lead character. I feel the Witcher 4 will be an excellent game, there’s interesting ground to cover with Ciri. The only bad thing will be if there is no first person mode, as I tend to avoid games with women as leads…I like to look at men from behind, not ladies. I hope the art team chose a design that doesn’t try to make her into a thirst trap (as that low-key makes me not want to play games with female leads).
PanArab@lemm.ee 10 months ago
I like to look at men from behind, not ladies.
I’m the exact opposite, but nothing wrong with your preference.
And009@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
Hope you didn’t skip tomb raider
LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
I 100% did, as the weird torture porn-esque deaths bothered me. I could’ve played if that questionable design choice wasn’t made…
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I guess these dudes want to live a power fantasy through Geralt instead of accepting the natural next step;
I thought this was going to say something about looking inward or something. Like being inspired to be the best self you can.
That’s on me.
vxx@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I have a friends that’s the same. She refuses ro play witcher 3 because you cant pick a female character.
LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
In first person, there is no issue playing a female lead for me. I just have an issue with the common thirst trap design which has been a default design choice in games. As a gay dude, I find that sort of objectification is gross (the same is true for lead men in games. Except in the games that’s the point).
Especially when the camera does that pan to that lady lead’s ass in third person…Its not the vibe I seek when playing a game. 🙃
Any game with a leading lady that is serving cunt without the objectification I can easily play. Bayonetta is an example of one such game, she’s a force of nature, it feels as if she has a strong sense of agency. She’s not been made just for the male gaze.
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 10 months ago
This is understandable if someone has a strong gender identity. Most people don’t have much of a gender so it’s less important to them.
FunnyUsername@lemmy.world 10 months ago
i promise you’ll be able to trace her ass crack through her jeans
LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
hurls a little in my mouth ROFL I hope not.
k1ck455kc@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
As long as they remake the original Witcher(and maybe the 2nd one too) so i can experience it in a similarly cinematic way to The Witcher 3… I will be happy and excited to see what a Ciri-based game or even trilogy would look like.
Will definitely miss the masculine indulgences of TW3 in the Ciri game though…
kbotc@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Ciri has a relationship with a woman in the books, so I’m not sure you will miss what I assume you’re referring to as “the masculine indulgences” as much as you think you will.
On the other hand, CDPR retconned a shedload of that book so we shall see.
BadlyDrawnRhino@aussie.zone 10 months ago
They are remaking the first game, but I don’t know if there are enough details about it yet to know how extensive the overhaul will be. The second game doesn’t need one.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 10 months ago
The second one might benefit from a remaster by the time 4 comes out, as some of the models are a bit too XBox360 era, with the strangely wide shoulders and oversized arm muscles of the time
BmeBenji@lemm.ee 10 months ago
If you’re avoiding the first two Witcher games because they’re somehow not cinematic, you’re sorely mistaken.
Both of those games are incredibly atmospheric to the point of mastery. (tbf you have to be able to forgive the character models in the first game and that can be admittedly difficult because HOLY HELL ZOLTAN ARE YOU OKAY)
also wtf do you mean “masculine indulgences?”
pezhore@infosec.pub 10 months ago
Definitely not OP, but I wouldn’t mind remasters of the first game to address the wonky controls. Witcher 2 was fine, but trying to go from Witcher 3 back to Witcher 1 for the first time was not a great experience for me.
ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Low lifes
VirgilMastercard@reddthat.com 10 months ago
This comment is woke
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 10 months ago
“You can’t just have Geralt for every single game.”
I mean… Yes. You literally can.
Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby… You can create infinite video games with the same main character over and over again. Its like an infinite money glitch if the character is popular and well liked.
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
All of those games’ characters are essentially just mascots though (other than samus). So they’re not really an applicable comparison for continuing a character long term in a story focused world that tries to be somewhat grounded in terms of consequences and passage of time.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
Yeah I think we all know what he meant when he said “can”
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
And009@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
Pisses me off really. At best it’s few centuries of peace and negligence.
lime@feddit.nu 10 months ago
someone missed the story in breath of the wild
ysjet@lemmy.world 10 months ago
The difference is that none of those characters had their stories wrapped up.
Geralt’s story was wrapped up in Witcher 3. That was the whole point.
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Geralt could go on a Gwent tour… but what’s this? Upon entering this new land of Walachia, some bandits stole his Gwent deck while he was asleep in his camp. And he had the ultra rare nude Triss card in it, too! Open, The Witcher 4: a quest for cards.
Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They need to release a fake “Witcher 4” that’s just an older Geralt moping around his vineyard bitching about how his knees hurt. All of his quests would be things like pestering his workers about how badass he used to be, going to town to return a watermelon to the fruit vendor because of a mushy spot he didn’t notice when he purchased it, shit like that.
All the while, the townsfolk would slip idle chatter about crazy shit that Ciri’s doing off camera.
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I felt similar about people wanting MC back in Halo.
Fizz@lemmy.nz 10 months ago
Witcher 4 starts off with Geralt waking up realising witcther 3 was all a dream and he has plenty of story left to monitize.
Wahots@pawb.social 10 months ago
What happened to him in the end? I remember her sacrificing herself to the winter, but all I remember is Geralt living and then the post game DLC. Maybe I got the really weird ending, haha
Vince@lemmy.world 10 months ago
How is work an insult? What am I supposed be? Asleep?
Goretantath@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Ikr, idiots would rather be asleep at the wheel of life.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 10 months ago
conservatives use it to shut down arguements, of things that they are potentially wrong about, which includes everything they dont like. but mostly refers to traditional male and female roles(no lgbtq+)
Seefoo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
honestly though, calling it woke makes me want to check it now…so 🤷. I am not sure woke is the insult its intended to be.
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 10 months ago
Them books are woke.
neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Tldr?
FireRetardant@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Lots of respect for Doug Cockle, the VA. He could use the outcry to try to get another big deal and make more money as the main character, but instead he recognizes the witcher is bigger than him or his character and is happy to have another person take the lead role and the spotlight.
kibiz0r@midwest.social 10 months ago
Empricorn@feddit.nl 10 months ago
Damn you. I will never not upvote this! It perfectly encapsulates conservatives and maga freaks…
UraniumForBreakfast@lemm.ee 10 months ago
What ISN’T woke to conservatives/republicans anymore?
Please don’t answer that, I know the answer, but come on. Pick up a book.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I want to believe this is just s straw man argument but sadly I know there are enough jerks out there who absolutely call everything that doesn’t cater precisely to toxic masculinity wOkE.
I think it‘s a bit of a bummer that the ending of Witcher 3 that does make the most sense in-universe isn‘t canon in favor of what I think is pure fan service. I will probably still play the shit out of this though because all of their games have been hitters for me. Even Cyberpunk at launch. Even Witcher 1.