"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"
(www.gamesradar.com)
from inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world on 21 May 2025 23:25
https://lemmy.world/post/30035662
from inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world on 21 May 2025 23:25
https://lemmy.world/post/30035662
threaded - newest
What ISN’T woke to conservatives/republicans anymore?
Please don’t answer that, I know the answer, but come on. Pick up a book.
Reading is woke
It’s how they getcha! That dang “Thinking for themselves!”
I’m not reading that.
Typing is woke…oh crap
Typocal woke typist
“Up yours, woke typists!” in a Kermit Peterson voice
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/0ce49b80-0923-4e17-afc1-55aa97734850.jpeg">
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think about it your cock is soaking up the estrogen right from the tapp. Woke afff
^/s^
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You suddenly made it clear in my mind that most talk about hormones and other “gym biochem” reeks of body horror.
I am currently ingesting a cocktail of complex chemicals that are manipulating my sensory receptors, sending electrical impulses through my neural system and altering the balance of neurotransmitters in my brain.
Anyway, I’m kinda enjoying that sandwich.
Good one, although still sounding benign. Hormones and in general stuff related to flesh is when this shit hits MeatCanyon territory.
Having a consistent definition of “woke” is too woke for some fossils.
Woke did not exist before 2015, so everything created before that year is, in fact, absolutely based. Including all those apolitical masterpieces I grew up with, such as Metal Gear Solid and Bioshock. I wish they still made fun games instead of insisting on shoving leftist commentary down out throats. I really want to enjoy gaming again but developers are woke leftists now :(
Lucky for us, the glorious Nippon country is untouched by woke. No, I don’t know Japan and I’ve never visited it, but i play a lot of VNs, which is basically the same thing.
EDIT: In case it wasn’t clear… /s
the massive increase of “woke” by conservative began around the time trumps 1st term, it only amplyfied just befored the pandemic, and during the pandemic. when disney shows, movies, trek made all these right wingers all uncomfortable.
They had overused CRT.
They needed a new Buzzword.
DEI is the current boogeyman anyway.
CRT is also something they couldnt grasp or understanding, i felt like that dint stick too long, like woke did. crt is meant for LAW SCHOOL graduate studies. it was harder for low-brain conservatives to comprehend then woke and dei.
DEI is the new woke, but woke still is used heavily too.
If Legend of Zelda first came out today, you can bet your ass these people would be complaining about Link not being ‘manly’ enough.
The first trailer of Breath of the Wild had a lot of people literally wondering whether that Link was a girl. I didn’t see a lot of complaining about it, I wasn’t looking for some though.
Also, Gerudo town. I’m not sure what kind of mental gymnastics you’d need to shit on “wokeness” and somehow filter out BotW completely from it.
Half the things those idiots like would be ‘woke’ if they came out today. Any movie/videogame/(I would include books but these chuds don’t read) including a female lead, a non-white person, or a disabled individual is doing virtue signalling and pandering to minorities. But back then, chuds didn’t have the internet to tell them what to hate.
There are tons of things that nobody cared about years ago that wouldn’t fly today. Fairy Oddparents having a male individual become pregnant. LOTR’s Éowyn killing the witch king on her own. Avatar: TLA has a few ‘woke’ episodes as well - for example, one where the male leads learns how to fight from a woman, and another where the female lead needs to convince a male wizard to teach her magic, which was a man-only practice.
If they were released today, you’d find them in thumbnails on YT with “cringe”, “woke” or “DEI” written in CAPS all over the place.
Absolutely. Also Power Rangers for having a diverse cast that includes girls who kick ass too, and Captain Planet for having both a diverse cast and ecological consciousness. And X-Men for the same reasons they shat on X-Men '97. And Sonic the Hedgehog for being anti-authoritarian and having little PSAs about tolerance and being a good person. And Justice League Unlimited for showcasing female heroes just as much as male heroes. Powerpuff Girls for obvious reasons.
Back then they called everything they didn’t like “satanic” or “evil” anyway. Before they realised they could trick idiot kids into joining their cause by calling it “woke” and packaging it as rebellion instead of pearl clutching and puritanical nonsense.
That would be very funny to complain about those because those PSAs were enforced on the studios by the FCC. Lots of cartoons from that era had them, including fucking G.I. Joe (that’s where “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle” comes from).
Later Animaniacs parodied the shit out of these with absurd “wheel of morality” segments.
ioi-xd.net/files/wokeornot.html
As it turns out, not a lot.
“… and that’s terrible.”
I also remember Portal 2 being on that list for “Most male characters are being depicted as incompetent compared to female characters” or something.
Dude. There are 4 characters in the whole game, counting one that’s dead but probably has the most characterization. Two are male. One guy is definitely a moron by design, but the other was definitely not incompetent. Mad, evil, sure. But he certainly achieved stuff.
The only books these dumdums pick up are the ones getting thrown onto the fire
Cleaning your ass after shitting is woke.
I hope my simple annoyances of painting my nails as a man gives these type of people high blood pressure.
The fucking Secretary of Defense doesn’t wash his hands either
TIL, my mom works in the Department of Defence.
(Bitch never wash her hands and says I’m paranoid and germaphobic 🤨)
No no o no no no. It’s FEMININE to not have shit all over your asshole all the time.
<img alt="An image with the words “Whatever Offends Klansmen Easily”, each on its own line. “WOKE” can be read vertically with the first letters of each word" src="https://i.imgur.com/Mh6vav2.jpeg">
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Really doesn’t work with this format, honestly.
Perfection
woah a book, sounds “woke”, to these conservatives.
<img alt="" src="https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/9e6ef237-06be-49e6-a497-454ab8be6949.png">
Anything that vibes with the voting base is woke.
I mean, if you look up “gamergate” and see the real reason why these little whiny bitches had such a shit fit. You can see that a lot of male gamers are a bunch of whiny little bitches who throw idiotic tantrums whenever anything highlights women in the gaming world.
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Witcher 4 devs adjusting to Unreal Engine after years of REDengine:
<img alt="" src="https://midwest.social/pictrs/image/07c1a566-b20b-41e8-ba73-08ee40f53d28.webp">
Damn you. I will never not upvote this! It perfectly encapsulates conservatives and maga freaks…
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.
Them books are woke.
Tldr?
Females characters who live independently.
ehhhhhhh
I mean Ciri does but she’s a child throughout the books.
Yennefer and Triss are almost only as independent as their insatiable lust for Geralt lets them be. Kind of like Triss and Shani in the Witcher 1 but I’d argue they’re worse in that game than in the books
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.
How is “woke” an insult now? What am I supposed be? Asleep?
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+)
Ikr, idiots would rather be asleep at the wheel of life.
“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.
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.
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
There were multiple possible endings for both Geralt and Ciri, including endings where Ciri survives.
There were multiple endings depending on the choices you make throughout the game. Same for the two DLCs.
The ‘good’ endings were in the base game she confronts the winter and succeeds, returns to Geralt as a father figure, and lives on as a witcher. Then in the Blood & Wine DLC, Geralt basically retires in his own vineyard.
Witcher 4 starts off with Geralt waking up realising witcther 3 was all a dream and he has plenty of story left to monitize.
Oooh, the rare reverse Jacob’s Ladder scenario!
STFU, ghost of Dallas executive producer Leonard Katzman!
I felt similar about people wanting MC back in Halo.
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.
I’d be down for Witcher 4: Winedew Valley
Honestly, as a stopgap that just releases out of nowhere for the sole purpose of building hype for the actual Witcher 4, kinda like how Bethesda did with their random vault dweller mobile game, I’d be all for it.
Bonus points if it’s 16 bit.
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 and vengeance.
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someone missed the story in breath of the wild
Pisses me off really. At best it’s few centuries of peace and negligence.
Yeah I think we all know what he meant when he said “can’t”
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.
This comment is woke
Low lifes
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…
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?”
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.
Yeah. The controls, the fighting. Even with all the patches and community stuff laid on top, it was a bit too uncomfortable to actually play through for me.
The second one was brilliant. And to this day, despite me having almost 200 hours in Witcher 3, the only Witcher game I’ve actually finished. I think second’s format was perfect. 3 is just too open and beautiful, I get lost in wandering around too easily.
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.
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
That’s fair. I was thinking more about the overall aesthetic, as it’s a bit more stylised rather than leaning towards realism like in 1 and 3.
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.
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).
i promise you’ll be able to trace her ass crack through her jeans
hurls a little in my mouth ROFL I hope not.
Wait, so are you the one who did this?
Maybe I spend too much time here because I knew what that was before I clicked it
ROFL Never, good looking male butts are so rare in video games… I could never do that to Astarion, as I don’t find it particularly overwhelming. I see so many guys that have occasionally well-defined cheeks in pants, it’s a feature, not a bug. This was a Kinsey Scale 2 guy who was way too uncomfortable with how often his eyes drifted to Asatrion’s rear, as that digital man has a whole bakery.
Thong customization.
If I can’t have stripes or polka dots this game is not worth it.
I have a friend that’s the same. She refuses ro play witcher 3 because you cant pick a female character.
I think it’s ridiculous.
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.
Could also be about your conception of what you’re doing in a game - are you being the character, or controlling them
That’s why drag personally believes all RPGs with character customisation should have gender selection unless there’s a very good reason why not. The one good exception drag has seen is Pentiment - in that game you’re a mediaeval writer who hangs out with the monks at the Abbey. That story can’t be authentic with a woman player character. But that’s a very rare situation. Even games with named main characters can have gender select. Look at Prey and Mass Effect. It’s an accessibility feature.
Been meaning to try pentiment, is it any good?
Yes.
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.
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.
Hope you didn’t skip tomb raider
I 100% did, as the weird torture porn-esque deaths bothered me. I could’ve played if that questionable design choice wasn’t made…
Got ‘The last revelation’ as a gift, those puzzle solving frustrations are etched deep down. Still far from the worsts.
The death cutscenes were absolutely gratitudous in the first entry, but honestly, if you can get past that the whole series is quite good and it’s really great storytelling and acting watching Laura arc from terrified recent college graduate put into unthinkable situations that she must find a way to survive all the way to cocky know-it-all who must literally nearly end the entire world and accidentally kill many countless innocent people to finally find hubris and actually start being a decent human being
I did watch someone else play it (they cut out a lot of the death scenes). I liked the evolution of the character, as she grew despite being put in situations that were wilder than what any normal college graduate would face in the real world. Learning from her decisions, and not being broken by them, is something that I admire about the character building of Laura. I hope any future games won’t have those gratuitous as fuck death scenes or that lead dev dude who wanted players to feel ‘protective’ over Laura (dude was a weirdo).
Oh yuck!
The good news is past the first game the death cutscenes are far less gratuitous, and honestly as long as you’ve got decent enough reactions you don’t see very many of them. The third game in particular puts a ton of effort into being respectful, including for example, actually having NPCs speak in local languages with English subtitles rather than a crowd in Mexico City all speaking English for example
That’s another detail that I loved, natural spoken language felt like an immersive choice, which served to make me feel like I was part of the game (even though I was watching someone else play). It sucks that more games don’t do this, especially if they are set in foreign places.
I’m the exact opposite, but nothing wrong with your preference.
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?
She is the main character toward the end. The story was great and I need to replay it
She's not just the main character towards the end, she is the main character of the story. We play Geralt, who is a side character in Ciri's story.
I never really thought about it like that. Is that how the book series goes? I probably should read those as well
kind of, it’s more like it starts a geralt’s story, but becomes ciri’s story. the first two books are all geralt. after that it’s about geralt and ciri’s relationship. then by the last book we barely even see geralt.
then after the series was finished he started writing more little stories from earlier in geralt’s life.
as i said in another comment. it’s downright bizarre that ciri doesn’t get mentioned until the third game. she almost makes more sense as the protag anyway.
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.
Someone who can tame unicorns and jump through time and space is much more interesting than a berserker monster slayer.
Well, unless you fucked up the choices near the end. Really not fond of CDPR’s habit of that.
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.
anyone who has read the books was likely surprised that ciri wasn’t the main character of any of the games when they first started coming out :::especially since geralt dies at the end of the books :::
ciri was more the mc than geralt for most of the books. 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.
also, what will the world at large look like? they can’t do it like the last time where your previous save could alter the new game based on your decisions. you were simply able to do too much. they’d need to make like 3 entirely separate stories at the very least. like, who rules the north? are you the empress of nilfguard? is the church burning all the nonhumans at record pace? you can basically decide the entire fate of the northern realms and all of its people in multiple ways… unless it just takes place elsewhere. maybe we’ll be in zerrikania this time or some shit. there are many distant lands that the games never take us. it would be much more doable that way. then you’d just have to change dialogue and maybe swap out a few characters.
aaaanyway… yeah, anyone mad about her being the mc is a dumbass that doesn’t know shit about the story.
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. It was one of those “oh shit, yes, that explains everything” moments for me when I first read the books.
oh yeah, it’s been a while. details at foggy.
She does also extremely briefly travel to Edwardian or Victorian London (I forget exactly what year it was). It’s mostly depicted through a newspaper clipping from The Sun and a rebuttle from another newspaper calling out their quoted witness for trespassing and strongly implying he was inebriated at the time and being an unreliable source. It’s quite comically written really
hold up… ciri fucked a horse?
no, but she kind of wanted to… but it’s also way more fucked than that. please don’t make me type it out here. I’ll just say it involves violent rape while she’s still under age. it could be construed as a trauma response, but it’s debatable… I’m not convinced that sapkowski would have known what a trauma response was when he wrote that scene in the… 90s?
can’t actuality remember which book that happened in.
By thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world’s description I know what scene they’re talking about. It’s not great but it’s not as bad as they make out. Basically she ends up traveling for a bit with this really smarmy dude. Think incel used car salesman. He’s described as having greasy hair, he’s clearly not trustworthy and acts only in his own best interest, and is constantly trying to get into Ciri’s pants. But, he’s riding this incredible horse the likes of which Ciri has never seen before (and it turns out to in fact be a magical horse) and Ciri is just entranced by this incredible and majestic horse, and smarmy dude can tell, so he makes sure to use the horse to get Ciri to interact with him even though they both know she wants nothing to do with him and only gives him the light of day to see his horse.
Anyways smarmy dude and Ciri end up running from some bandits, smarmy dude is injured but plays down how badly, and basically uses this plus gifting her the horse she’s so entranced by to manipulate and guilt her into agreeing to sleep with him (from her perspective it’s been made clear how curious but nervous she is about sex, so she’s not entirely opposed, but it’s also implied up to this point that she’s far more into women than men) and then just as she’s starting to potentially enjoy the pity sex with the asshole but before either of them can actually get their pants off, he fucking dies!
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 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)
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
Edit: Cahir’s attraction to Ciri is also creepy as hell the way it’s written, but that might be intentional, since that’s at a point where she’s coming to realize that everyone wants something from her, everyone will tell her why she should want to give them what they want from her but nobody ever seems to care or ask what she actually wants.
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.
If anything, Ciri's the character whose story is wrapped up by the end of Witcher 3, she saved the world and fulfilled her destiny. Unlike Geralt or the sorceresses, she does get old too.
It's definitely understandable that a lot of players would feel betrayed at having Ciri becoming the MC after 3 games of Geralt. People would riot if you made someone else than Lara Croft the MC of tomb raider. A better solution would probably be a character creator for a new generation of witchers. Ciri is too powerful to be the MC.
Isn’t the good ending geralt giving her a Witcher blade and calling her an official witcher? That to me sets up part 4. End of the day im glad geralt gets a rest. Besides they’re remaking 1 and 2 so the geralt fix will come
There's plenty of different endings, but yeah that's probably the one they'll make canon.
The thing is Geralt is The Witcher, making Ciri the protagonist is a bastardization of the saga. Imagine that J.K rowling came up with a new book, titled it Harry Potter 8, and made the protagonist Hermione. To me this shows a real lack of understanding of their audience, people play The Witcher for the fantasy of being Geralt, of being a monster killer, of hooking up with every sorceress. But obviously IP sells, and they aren't gonna change the title of the saga to something like "child of the elder blood".
I wish them the best of luck, maybe they'll pull off a fallout 3 and reinvent themselves. But I personally will be passing on this spinoff.
Any person who unironically uses “woke” is a complete douche canoe and can go get fucked. Change my mind.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Don’t let the alt-right dictate what “woke” means
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.
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”?
Let Doechii do it for you 😛
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.
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.
i love woke, keep it coming
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.
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.
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.
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, a latina woman, or a black non-binary person.
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.
What? Where am I saying that?
Yes I would complain about all kind of stereotypes. Even the “white muscular tough guy” could be considered sexual objectification. IMO CoD is sometimes pretty gay coded.
I wasn’t saying that. You can have games without a single character. Or where the character doesn’t really matter, because it just an empty shell you are driving around and not more.
But IMO I mostly play story driven RPGs, where you are someone, and where you want the environment to react to you. It would be awesome if when you run around with colorful hair or tattoos, it would slightly change the disposition of the NPCs or cause them to comment on your appearance. Don’t let this stuff be just cosmetics, it should be more meaningful, and embedded into the game world.
Then yeah I get that. Your initial argument without the context you just added was just reminiscent of bigoted arguments. It was wrong of me to assume
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.)
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.
Idk about you but I’m pre-ordering the woke game
Eeew
Just for that, I’m springing for the collectors edition
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?
Oh normally I’d agree, but this is a spite pre-order not a gaming pre-order
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.
I really enjoyed cyberpunk 2077, I bought it a year after release on sale.
Now talk to several people who bought it day 1 😅
In all seriousness though, pre-ordering is bullshit
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
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.
I don’t know if I have met anyone complaining about Ciri being the protagonist of Witcher 4. Even the most conservative people I know who are fans of the series are pumped about her being the main character because they love the story and it’s the only logical way forward. The only complaints I have heard are that in universe she’s kind of overpowered for a video game protagonist. I think people whining about this are fake fans or just agitators who don’t even play these games.
Duh, however, they get millions of views across YouTube and X and hundreds of thousands of followers on Steam.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Unpopular opinion:
Witcher 4 won’t be as good as Witcher 3 cause the third one was very good.
So no matter who they chose, it’s probably gonna be underwhelming.
also the formula is starting to feel old so it won’t have as much lustre as long as they don’t reinvent themselves
It can be better
If they fix the horrendous gameplay
Fix two things:
Combine those two things together, and you get a consistently frustrating experience outside of combat. Installing a ranged loot mod was one of the biggest quality of life upgrades. You walk near a corpse or container, and it automatically gets looted.
The combat can also get repetitive at times, and the difficulty scaling is weird too. But as long as those two things and still deliver a good story, I think players will ultimately walk away happy.
If I ever replay it I’m going to try and remember the existence of this mod because it was painful
I feel like the repetitive combat is more a result of combat that actually encourages dodging and using signs rather than just standing still and slicing while the enemy either hits or not based on RNG, and the fact that in combat you truly are jumping around, dodging, parrying, etc. makes it more true to the source material.
The style of combat in The Witcher 3 also makes it so that if you do find yourself in a much higher level fight than you should be you can with enough tries manage to beat it. I had one playthrough where I took on the werewolf quest while too low level for it, didn’t preserve any saves before the no turning back point for the battle. In order to save my save file I had to keep trying and failing to defeat the werewolf until I finally got the hits and dodges just perfectly enough to defeat the werewolf. It sucked but ultimately it was possible to complete and not just by an attempt with golden RNG rolls results
People downvote you but I feel you.
The gameplay just doesn’t hold up, the combat is too basic, has no depth and become stale really quickly
This is why we’ll never see elder scrolls 6
Oh we will see it ! I’m confident it’s going to be shit, but who knows
Eh, I didn’t like Skyrim as much as Morrowind, so I think there’s some room for ES6 to improve on ES5.
Morrowind is the best. Oblivion remaster is better than skyrim (in my Morrowboomer opinion) and that was just refreshing a 20 year old game. I feel like there is a lot of hype for TES6 that it may not live up to, but surpassing skyrim is definitely doable.
Honestly TES6 has one thing going for it and that’s that Skyrim is over a decade old now so matching the scale and scope of Skyrim is much more achievable.
In my opinion when a sequel falls flat or is outshined by an earlier entry in the series, it’s usually because the studio messed with the formula for the gameplay, not because of a change in characters
Oblivion and Skyrim were both massive disappointments to me.
If ES 6 comes out, it’ll have maybe three skills - magic/combat/sneak. Any interesting/complicated lore will be retconned and shoved aside. (Why wasn’t Cyrodil a jungle? Where are my river drakes? What happened to Sutch? Where is my Colovian armor set?)
But it’s being made by the Bethesda that made Starfield. It’s going to have a terminal case of Emil.
He apparently worked on Oblivion (and Skyrim), so there’s a chance. He took a chance on Starfield and failed, so hopefully he learns from that instead of doubling down.
Yeah, but I don’t have a ton of faith in him, especially given that one whiny twitter thread he made.
I thought the same thing about Cyberpunk, they couldn’t make lightning strike twice. But in the end, once the issues were fixed, it’s also one of my favorite modern games.
Although I really liked cyberpunk and I’ve finished both that and Witcher 3 and cyberpunk is my favourite…
Really? I thought Witcher 3 was iconic, like it broke out of the regular gaming culture and into the mainstream, idk if cyberpunk did that.
My world would be better if Witcher 4 is better than 3 but I have doubts
That’s probably true, W3 is iconic in that regard. But Cyberpunk is just a great follow-up.
Nah, if the next Witcher MC was Dandelion, that would absolutely be the best one.
I don’t believe there are people who seriously throw the “woke” argument out there. I think it’s a sort of rage baiting by the journalists. Ffs there were 3 games with Geralt as lead. Enough is enough.
it must be out there enough to be brought to his attention. if thats the case i feel like ive started to distance myself from being online enough to not notice this shit anymore.
Journalists can simply assume it’s out there, or be even less serious and just bring it up to stir the pot.
Maybe not here in the fediverse, but there are dozens of youtube channels that are all about whining about “the woke” ruining the gaming industry, “explaining” how every spectacular failure we’ve seen in the last few years (Starfield, Concord) are because of DEI wokeness, etc.
Yeah, I guess as long as there are people that want to hear it, there will be people willing to parrot it.
Searching for Dustborn on YouTube is the best way to get introduced to those channels.
Just open YouTube in incognito mode and search a game title probably works. YouTube’s algorithm loves serving up manosphere style content like that like my dog loves eating my other dog’s poop. It’s disturbing on both fronts
Very true. I have its history tracking disabled, but it still suggests those videos or creators even when I’m watching something that has no relation to outrage, like a movie trailer or a GDC talk like one on Unreal Engine.
Yeah and they’re all fucking losers, it really feels like the vast majority of people don’t care about whatever these online people say ‘woke’ is. It’s the same as complaining about “political correctness gone mad”, affirmative action, etc, the same complaints they’ve had about social progress for decades. Nothing about these youtubers is new or worth dignifying with a response.
I’m mad about Ciri being the main character, however the reason I’m mad is not because of her character or her being a woman. What I’m upset about is that I thought this game would take place in a completely different time period or region. Like maybe during the first witchers? Maybe in the future? But no, CDPR is just force extending existing characters and a story that clearly ended. Zzzzz
Exactly my opinion as well, last game ended perfectly for a new story.
Yes. The games already retconned the ending of the books, which was pretty finalized. But whatever, the games were good. But now they’re just force extending an already forced extended storyline rofl. I was hoping for completely new characters in a completely new settings/time period. Such a fucking shame.
They made such a big deal about the witcher 4 not being about Geralt and being it’s own story, and now they’re just extending Ciri’s storyline. Pretty braindead decision in my opinion. It feels like they are just lazy and gave up on making a new character.
I think it’s risk aversion to some extent ?
It’s the same bullshit that has ruined hollywood. It’s safer to just reboot some bullshit or force a sequel vs. coming up with something new and original.
I’m not saying doing another Witcher game in general is a forced sequel. But using the same damn character is definitely a forced extension.
Quite the opposite for me. Having only random ass characters in the story would kill all my hype. Also I wished for Ciri as MC in the next game ever since I player W3, so for 10 years now.
My dream witcher game is set like 150 years in the future (early industrialized time period of the witcher universe.) And there could be tension as guns are invented and witchers aren’t needed as much. How great would that be?
Wanted to mention - The Season of Storms Witcher book has a short flash forward to around 150 years in the future, and they’re starting to burn fossil fuels. That’s where I got the 150 years.
Honestly I think W3 jumped the shark when it added a fifth faction for Gwent, and I know I’m not alone in this opinion.
People are complaining of having to stare at a female’s body while playing? They prefer looking at at male’s butt? That’s soooo gay!
Can we stop with this stupid and homophobic argument?
Have you considered that the comment could, in fact, be a joke?
Yes
Why the downvotes though!? This is GOLD!
His point is that making it a joke is kinda homophobic. Like being gay is a joke.
It’s making fun of idiots that think like that, not gay people.
the joke isn’t about being gay at all. it’s about reactionary people complaining about things being woke and gay but refusing to play with a woman on camera at all times. it’s using their inconsistency against them; not advocating for it.
Lol yes, thank you. I’m of the opinion that using /s defeats the whole point of sarcasm… But at the same time I suspect the world is going crazy via misinterpreted sarcasm on the Internet… It’s a tough decision, maybe I should be using /s but then it’s not sarcasm anymore…
🤣
I don’t think sarcasm is the problem. The bad actors are. In fact i think sarcasm is more necessary than ever:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
Since when is Poe making laws? I thought he’s an X-Wing pilot.
I’m a straight male who is very secure in my masculinity. But I’ve gotten shit from people when I use female characters in games. Never understood why that’s a problem.
I usually play as a female character in games too. I prefer to look at pretty things.
<img alt="" src="https://infosec.pub/pictrs/image/6f5456e9-8f6a-4be9-992f-f1af615e5416.jpeg">
.
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?
No, apparently it’s even worse; woke!
~:DDDD~
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
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
I mean, she couldn’t even counterattack in W3.
Why?
Is there an interpretation where it means somebody who is shockingly audacious?
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.
I didn’t like Witcher 3. I played the main storyline to Skellige and after a while of adventuring there, I just could not bring myself to continue the game.
I’ve read all the books, perhaps that has something to do with it.
As far as fantasy goes, are the books good?
Yes, I think so. There’s are interesting large scale trends in the book’s world, and even though the protagonists are powerful beings, they’re forced to mostly just witness and react to the events. The characters are deep and interesting and the overall plot is rewarding.
“Im happy to work with whatever the creative team comes up with.” is that a safe statement, or could that backfire, professionally?
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.
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 who matters does, no. “Woke” is in quotes because it’s a bullshit term.
.
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.”
Reading is also woke
Well I have had dreams of reading books. They’re weird. Like, I know it’s a dream and the sentences don’t make any sense. But I keep reading it anyways.
hot take: i fucking hated the way ciri and every single other woman in witcher3 was written/portrayed…
they all felt like they were written by incels who have never met or conversed with an actual real woman. they were shallow game of thrones/fantasy tropes and felt like walking talking cliches. i literally cringed through every interaction…
I get this somewhat but including ciri? I feel like there was none of that with her character. What about her struck you as that?
she was basically wesley crusher, without the character growth… she was a plot device, not a character.
“Shut up, Ciri.” - Captain Picard
And if I’m honest the books are similar. I like them, but all the women are super sexy super hot and they exist for Geralt to have sex with
These types of comments ignore the fact that Geralt is written in the exact same way.
The “romance” dialog options tend to be god awful.
And this also explains why they’ve “grown” her into a plastic, lip-plumped, reality-TV-star banshee. The character model looks awful.
You’re not going to play Witcher 4 because of woke Ciri, I’m not going to play because I don’t like the games. We are not the same
You’re not going to play Witcher 4 because you don’t like the games, I’m not going to play because my PC is aging and I feel new GPUs are so ridiculously overpriced, I don’t want to replace my RTX 3060 ti anytime soon.
I feel that. Still rocking a 1080. And I’ve got a series s for new releases.
I had my 1080 until last month. Enjoying 5080 now!
For real, the battle mechanics are just so clunky and slow. And the magic is just 5 times the same spell but with different colors.
Not to mention that you are shoehorned into a character that you don’t get to decide, and the NPCs laugh at you if you choose dialogue options that don’t fit this characters mold.
Rather play an actual RPG than this action adventure akin to Tomb Raider.
Thanks, I find the winky a much better option than the cold monotonous /s
The reactionary women-hating alt-right gamer-gate neo-nazi losers should just be ignored at this point.
To be fair, this post is the first I’ve heard of people upset about it
The thing about them is that they are loud, directed, and often affect the first impression a game gets. If this wasn’t with The Witcher fame, the effect would be more notable, and oftentimes they don’t admit why they really have a problem with the game directly.
I think in many cases they aren’t even admitting it to themselves. Self-delusion is kind of a recurring theme with them.
“at this point”
You’ve paid attention to them at some point?
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 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.
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.
The first game didn’t have much in the way of story. The focus was on the puzzles and adventuring. I don’t think that makes her less of a woman character. In a video game, the assets are the only difference, anyway. Not that women can’t be rough and adventurous and physical and like guns.
The protagonist is a woman.
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.
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.
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
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.
Something tells me their “peepee” never worked to begin with tbh.
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.
I have actually not. Thank you!
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
I agree
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
Yeah so others already explained it to you, but I’ll give you a quick summary.
Witcher is kind of a job title, but to get in you pretty much join a cult that gives you mutagens that give you cool powers, but also make you infertile and I believe resistant to STDs (this is why Geralt fucks so much).
Ciri trained with the witchers of the Wolf school. I don’t remember if she went through the mutations or not, but she has elder blood so she’s already more powerful than Geralt. She’s part of an end of the world prophecy. She’s also essentially Geralt’s adoptive daughter.
By the end of Witcher 3, Geralt is getting kind of tired. There’s literally no other Witcher in the universe more deserving to be the next lead than the spacetime manipulating princess who doesn’t even want to inherit her real father’s continent spanning empire because she’d rather be a badass Witcher.
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.
Female protags are rare. They used to be epic loot, but it’s getting better now.
I guess it’s Portal for me too. Then Oblivion with a female character with that golden armor from shivering isles for shiny boobs. I was a horny teen and porn was getting boring lol
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.
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
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.
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.
Suppose we agree then
Americans telling Polish how to write their books and make their games, lol. Fuck off!
Not gonna lie, I was hoping they’d use some Law of Surprise stuff to give Geralt a new ward and let you create your own Witcher. But, if instead I get to do teleport strike bullshit with Ciri’s powers, I’ll be content.
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.
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.
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Because just having two characters with the exact same lines is boring, Gerry has had 3 games now, I want to explore someone else as a character, with new motivations, character flaws etc
Let’s be honest, he’s only got 1 game. I tried going back to Witcher 1 and 2 after playing 3 and it’s impossible to adjust to the older game UI. Modding or tweaking it is also not worth it imo so I wouldn’t mind another Geralt game.
I don’t like 2 out of the the 3 geralt games, so I’m going to pretend two don’t exist too support my beliefs is some serious snowflake energy
Snowflake energy? Na man I’m just realistic. I have never met anyone who recommended Witcher 1/2 online or irl. It’s always about Witcher 3, and that’s because it’s still very playable and one of the best games ever.
It’s the less extreme version of Baldur’s Gate 3. Technically, there are two other games, but you won’t seriously recommend games 1 and 2 to anyone.
I know you understand my point, and it’s easier to say I’m a snowflake rather than actually say anything useful.
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People call me a conspiracy theorist but the message that is woke has been purposely molded into something for conservatives to hate.
Nothing threatens a “democratic” capitalist state more than social awareness, not even facism.
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My man Geralt looked like he was in dire need of a nap during the entire run of Witcher 3. Let him rest, people.
No rest for the wicked, and witchers be real wicked.
If you need consume X media to be able to enjoy Y media, we have a problem there, pal :/
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That’s not what he said??