A game is only called āwokeā when itās bad. Balderās Gate 3 is one of the most āwokeā major releases in the last few years but you hardly hear them complain about it.
Itās the same thing with cyberpunk 2077. The anti-woke crowd canāt agree on whether itās woke because many of them like it.
There were absolutely people calling that game woke. You didnāt hear them because they were drowned out by the good press. Itās not that game is only called woke when itās bad, itās that when a game is good thereās enough positive publicity to drowned out the negative.
I think the problem isnāt the wokeness for most people, but the awkward shoehorning of stereotypes and forced messaging that makes everything feel cheap and doesnāt contribute to the experience or story. For example having a lgbtq+ element for the sake of checking a diversity box, instead of it being a random fact of this world or character.
How do you differentiate between a character āwritten for the sake of checking a diversity boxā, a poorly-written diverse character, and a ārandom fact of the worldā?
Itās a fictional world. Nothing is random. Itās all creative decisions made by a team of writers and producers.
I donāt think shoehorning in of diverse identities and character backgrounds is good representation or good art, and I completely agree with your point there.
But I donāt think that the people driving the current backlash bother to make those distinctions.
What I see is a lot of outrage being stoked by people using the (updated) language and tactics of gamergate, and I donāt think the result of that will be ābetter representationā.
I think the result will be devs being harrassed and pushed out of an already brutal industry.
An LGBTQ person doesnāt need āa good reasonā for being written that way. If they did, then so would the straight person, no? Unless, of course, weāre trying to say that every storyās default needs to be a straight white man who doesnāt need to be constantly justifying his existence.
Frankly, these days you better have a damn good reason why we have to deal with the ten-thousandth same old shoe-horned straight relationship that only exists because two main characters happen to be opposite genders and roughly the same age. Like, yeah, who could have seen that coming wow good job hereās a sticker.
Itās not about checking a diversity box, itās about the barest amount of representation. The LGBT people in my life donāt exist because they fit some kind of plot-point in my life; they exist because thatās just how the dice landed and they donāt owe me a justification for why they are that way in order to be my friends. That would be absurd, right?
ā
Sidenote: Everyone complaining about Veilguard(for example) forgets that a) Bioware is famously unclear about what dialogue choices do and b) they just donāt, historically, seem to have the capacity to write terribly creative games. Theyāre fine and Iāve enjoyed playing the ones I have but still.
I didnāt say they need a reason to exist. I said basically the same thing as you. A character is supposed to just exists with their traits and act naturally, instead of making diversity their whole personality. Itās the same thing as the classic token black guy in movies. Only present to serve the quota, not actually contributing to anything. And having a character make their straight-ness and whiteness their whole personality would be just as infuriating.
I dispise forced romance just as much as you seem to, it doesnāt matter to me what the genders involved are, if itās there I want it to make sense and add something, not just tick a box.
Woke activists have already said that they are willing to annihilate and scorched-earth and salt-the-fields if DEI ESG woke things arent put front and centre into video games.
So maybe we dont need people who actively hate video games and gamers to be in the video game making industry. The woke can go be part of Hollywood leave the gamers alone.
I bought BG3 due to constant negative comments about it. Itās woke, everyone is bi (sign me the fuck up), random misogyny, etc. I figured if they were that mad it had to be good, and 427 hours of gameplay later I am glad I did that.
BG3 doesnāt lecture you like other games though. There is a difference between having these people live in your world vs being the spokesperson for BLM.
The difference isnāt in subject matter, but writing quality. I like retro shooters and considering Build Engine(think Duke Nukem) style games are based on movie genres, Iād love a blaxploitation game were Iām shooting Nazis and throwing molotov cocktails at clansmen. The subject matter would absolutely be in you face.
Remember, people got offended at how Nazis were portrayed Wolfenstein, a game solely about killing Nazis.
We can critique the writing of games like Dustborn, but the moment you start complaining about āwokenessā, you signal that youāre just gaming the algorithm for the lowest common denominator of viewer to drive that ad money up.
A game is only called āwokeā when itās bad. Balderās Gate 3 is one of the most āwokeā major releases in the last few years but you hardly hear them complain about it.
Itās the same thing with cyberpunk 2077. The anti-woke crowd canāt agree on whether itās woke because many of them like it.
There were absolutely people calling that game woke. You didnāt hear them because they were drowned out by the good press. Itās not that game is only called woke when itās bad, itās that when a game is good thereās enough positive publicity to drowned out the negative.
I think the problem isnāt the wokeness for most people, but the awkward shoehorning of stereotypes and forced messaging that makes everything feel cheap and doesnāt contribute to the experience or story. For example having a lgbtq+ element for the sake of checking a diversity box, instead of it being a random fact of this world or character.
How do you differentiate between a character āwritten for the sake of checking a diversity boxā, a poorly-written diverse character, and a ārandom fact of the worldā? Itās a fictional world. Nothing is random. Itās all creative decisions made by a team of writers and producers.
I donāt think shoehorning in of diverse identities and character backgrounds is good representation or good art, and I completely agree with your point there.
But I donāt think that the people driving the current backlash bother to make those distinctions.
What I see is a lot of outrage being stoked by people using the (updated) language and tactics of gamergate, and I donāt think the result of that will be ābetter representationā.
I think the result will be devs being harrassed and pushed out of an already brutal industry.
An LGBTQ person doesnāt need āa good reasonā for being written that way. If they did, then so would the straight person, no? Unless, of course, weāre trying to say that every storyās default needs to be a straight white man who doesnāt need to be constantly justifying his existence.
Frankly, these days you better have a damn good reason why we have to deal with the ten-thousandth same old shoe-horned straight relationship that only exists because two main characters happen to be opposite genders and roughly the same age. Like, yeah, who could have seen that coming wow good job hereās a sticker.
Itās not about checking a diversity box, itās about the barest amount of representation. The LGBT people in my life donāt exist because they fit some kind of plot-point in my life; they exist because thatās just how the dice landed and they donāt owe me a justification for why they are that way in order to be my friends. That would be absurd, right?
ā
Sidenote: Everyone complaining about Veilguard(for example) forgets that a) Bioware is famously unclear about what dialogue choices do and b) they just donāt, historically, seem to have the capacity to write terribly creative games. Theyāre fine and Iāve enjoyed playing the ones I have but still.
I didnāt say they need a reason to exist. I said basically the same thing as you. A character is supposed to just exists with their traits and act naturally, instead of making diversity their whole personality. Itās the same thing as the classic token black guy in movies. Only present to serve the quota, not actually contributing to anything. And having a character make their straight-ness and whiteness their whole personality would be just as infuriating.
I dispise forced romance just as much as you seem to, it doesnāt matter to me what the genders involved are, if itās there I want it to make sense and add something, not just tick a box.
Woke activists have already said that they are willing to annihilate and scorched-earth and salt-the-fields if DEI ESG woke things arent put front and centre into video games.
So maybe we dont need people who actively hate video games and gamers to be in the video game making industry. The woke can go be part of Hollywood leave the gamers alone.
I bought BG3 due to constant negative comments about it. Itās woke, everyone is bi (sign me the fuck up), random misogyny, etc. I figured if they were that mad it had to be good, and 427 hours of gameplay later I am glad I did that.
BG3 doesnāt lecture you like other games though. There is a difference between having these people live in your world vs being the spokesperson for BLM.
The difference isnāt in subject matter, but writing quality. I like retro shooters and considering Build Engine(think Duke Nukem) style games are based on movie genres, Iād love a blaxploitation game were Iām shooting Nazis and throwing molotov cocktails at clansmen. The subject matter would absolutely be in you face.
Remember, people got offended at how Nazis were portrayed Wolfenstein, a game solely about killing Nazis.
We can critique the writing of games like Dustborn, but the moment you start complaining about āwokenessā, you signal that youāre just gaming the algorithm for the lowest common denominator of viewer to drive that ad money up.
Which games are like that, though?