Guaranteed the word “woke” will be thrown around left and right
I don’t think I’ll ever understand why people have a problem with a female protagonist. I’m a girl and my fave games ever all involve playing as male protagonists. One of the core essences of playing videogames is escapism, to be someone that you’re not, I don’t see what’s immersion breaking about it. I’ve seen the trailer and I’m hyped!
Metroid FTW
Yeah I don’t understand why people want to play themselves in a video game honestly
No no you see it is because I have dedicated the last 20 years of my life to Witcher lore and have memorized not only every line but every plot in the series and books, and you see, Ciri is supposed to be much [choice: less/more] powerful than this trailer makes her appear! I’m boycotting this game and recommend everyone else does too! I’m tired of them shitting on lore with woke propaganda!
Anyway, I think that covers it.
Ah I see you too are a “true” gamer
How come how the absolute worst men are allowed to represent the entire gender?
Being loud and offensive attracts more attention than being normal
I feel like the left should know better though
A chain is not stronger than its weakest link or something
actually pretty good analogy. like, whole generations of fucked up men come from the idea that if you just give up on the bad ones they disappear and nothing will come of it
That doesn’t really work though… You could say the same thing about any demographic, and it would be correctly called out as racist/sexist/homophobic/etc
I don’t understand the hate for women in video games, If the next Doom game comes out with a female protagonist I’d be going “HELL YEAH RIP ITS HEAD OFF!!!” the same way I do in Doom Eternal
From shitty YouTuber influencers.
A guy from work constantly tells me how I should feel about a game based on a YouTuber he watches. He doesn’t play it, he just parrot that shit. Often it’s the most sexist, disgusting take.
And most of these influencers are outright basement dwellers with pride.
So like, they’re getting shitty takes from shitty human beings who are proud of being shitty?
Yeah basically that neckbeard guy who just rages against anything that doesn’t help his fantasies of being a real man. Can’t remember the channel, want to say the
fappeningbut it’s not that.E: shit I mean the quartering, have a cold and no sleep for 2 days. That’s something completely different…
Don’t understand it as a rational thing, understand the hate as a cancer with its growth being juiced and accelerated by the ruling class because incels are the easiest demographic to scam into violently acting against their own interests.
A cancerous process is by definition irrational from the perspective of the body it acts upon, the reason the cancer exists and grows is not because of a motive, desire or need but rather because the cancerous process consumes all the space and oxygen in a room at a faster rate than anything else can compete with while remaining invisible to the body as a threat.
Toxicity towards women displaces other topics and viewpoints specifically because the men pushing those topics want to monopolize the discussion and framing and often centrist types don’t challenge that at all because of some self-perceived high ground to tolerating intolerance (not something you tend to believe in if you have experienced serious hate).
Generally speaking im absolutely for a better representation of women and minorities. However, theres on criterium for it: it must fit with the lore. If the lore makes sense with a woman, go for it. If you just replace the main character with a woman, but don’t adjust the lore in a way that its clear that its an entire new storyline or so, than I’m against swapping out the main character. Inclusion shouldn’t lower the quality of a game.
Agreed.
Ciri is a huge part of the Witcher games.
They prepped us for her becoming a Witcher or something adjacent to it in TW3.
There’s no conspiracy to turn you gay or trans here. It’s just a continuation of the series.
Though talking about the lore, that had better not be regular witcher alchemy in that potion. She explicitly hasn’t had the special diet, trial of grasses or the mutations so witcher potions should basically be poison she can’t process at all.
Canonically she’s witcher trained but not subjected to any of the mutations, but she’s also of the Elder Blood and a Source. So compared to a traditional witcher you’d expect her to be slower and weaker (because she lacks the mutations) but have greater access to magic (because she’s a Source). You’d also expect her to use most witcher tools and gadgets, but not potions (because they should just be poison to her, not having the altered gut of a witcher).
…
Don’t know anything about the Witcher, but assuming that it is as you said, than that’s a good thing.
So maybe it’s not actually the DEI itself that makes the game bad but actually the shitty game design and writing that makes the game bad and lore suck.
That’s a pretty good description. Inclusion for the same of inclusion sucks.
So like, in this case, ciri makes perfect sense as she’s by pore, essentially the next be of kin.
I hate how everything has to be stupid culture war nonsense these days.
I’ll probably get the game but be disappointed I don’t get to play as Geralt.
I’d also be disappointed to get a new Horizon game where I don’t get to play as Aloy. Does that make me a misandrist?
No, but being disappointed you don’t play as Geralt means you missed half the point of 3.
Let the dude retire to his life of cheating on his girlfriend, damn
(Lore nerd rant ahead, tl;dr: Ciri being the protag is 100% fine and I expected it but her being a full witcher is weird)
There’s exactly one somewhat valid complaint to be had here, and it’s that Ciri in the books explicitly didn’t go through the Trial of the Grasses (aka one of the main mutation processes that makes you a witcher or, as it often happens, just straight up kills you), so idk how they’ll justify her being able to use witcher potions and stuff now. And (also in the books) she has lost her access to magic at one point, so using witcher signs is strange too.
I can see her wanting to take the plunge and go through with the trials, but I’m also certain that Geralt wouldn’t want that for her bc of how much it fucks you up + most of the secrets of the trials have been lost.
I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and wait and see what explanation they come up with for her being a full witcher, but it better be good.
So, from lore perspective, I have no objections to her being the protag but I don’t love her being a full witcher. I liked what they did with her gameplay sections in W3, I hoped they’d have just expanded on that gameplay idea more.
I agree it seems a little shoe-horned to make her a classical witcher. I hope it’s not just to give her the title, because she could easily be the protagonist, and/or have the job of being a witcher without the trial of the grasses. She was given the training and education of a witcher, and has magical powers of her own already. Receiving the trials would be a huge deal, narratively, to the characters, and to world building. I could easily see this being a fumbled corporate attempt at placating fans that wanted to see geralt, without any regard for the characters or world building. (Similar to “Rey Skywalker” having absolutely no business being a Skywalker). But that’s all speculation. If it’s treated as a major plot point, and not done just for the hell of it, it could still be good.
Yeah, exactly! I’m not married to the lore to the degree that I won’t give the devs a chance to explain how this came to be, but I’m worried it’s going to just be a cheap “well we needed to keep the signs and the potions as mechanics but Geralt is retired, fuck it, let’s say they found instructions on how to safely make more witchers in Vesemir’s cupboard somewhere.”
Just because she does it in the trailer does not mean we start there in the game.
Yeah I’m not sure what her becoming a witcher adds to her story. She already has a lot going for her. Now if she became a badass witch like Granny weatherwax that’s the left turn I want to see.
Ciri used headology: The bandit lies down questioning how exactly disappointed his mother will be in him when ciri gets back from the coven.
She’s wearing a feline medallion in the trailer, so it stands to reason she’s affiliated with the School of the Cat now. She probably went through their trials. And apparently CDPR has stated she is indeed a full witcher now.
Don’t understand the hate. I also prefer sexy characters as I dont prioritize realism in games and am looking for escapism but that isn’t the game. If you want a game with sexy characters, there are plenty.
I often mod games to add that asthetic. I’ll probably wait for this to be on a big sale once there are such mods for that reason.
Don’t like what they’re selling? Don’t play it. Or mod it. Don’t screech on the internet that it’s not fair to you. You didn’t make the thing.
So much rage. It’s like complaining a romantic comedy isn’t an action movie.
joking (mostly)
I also like sexy characters and I’m livid every time I see a scantily clad woman without a male (or enby) counterpart.
I WANT MORE SEXY MEN IN VIDEO GAMES!
It’s not even that, she still looks good. They’re mad she isn’t a college girl in a white shirt anymore. She has armor and an actual woman’s face, the horror.
Where ? I don’t see them
Various comment sections on German IT news sites. Cesspit of incels and horny old men that complain about the ass they’ll have to stare at not being plump enough.
One question, do you have a GF ?
I’m actually interested in both ways your narration is going to go. Please describe both paths:
a) No, I had one but then we married.
b) No, I don’t.
So shall I assume that you don’t ?
I am unsure how to express myself any clearer. Please proceed.
So you’re an incel demonizing other incels ?
Alright, not very original but I’ll take it. Now do a)!
Don’t look at Steam discussions huh
Probably smart
People look at them? The most I have contact with the general Steam Community is the artwork secrion beneath some games on the community hub.
I still don’t see them & their concerns are pretty valid to be fair
Isn’t female witcher technically a witch? 🤔
In general English usage I think you may be right.
In the world of “The Witcher” (which is translated from Polish) there are both male and female mages with inborn abilities. Sometimes they are called sorcerers and sorceresses, sometimes they are called mages, sometimes they are called something related to their specialisation of magic, and sometimes wise women who do magic but didn’t go to the academy are called witches.
Witchers, however, are not mages. They are made from ordinary humans and are gene manipulated and highly trained to be monster hunters. They have some witcher powers that are related to runes, and they make potions that have side effects only they can survive thanks to their manipulated bodies. Witchers at birth do not have special potential. Though a lot of little witcher trainees die, so you could argue they are artificially selected in that way.
Ciri is kind of neither of those, but she has special abilities related to space and time manipulation. In the new trailer it seems she drinks a witcher potion, but from what we know she never underwent the manipulation that witchers did.
Cdpr confirmed that she underwent the trials and is now a Witcher.
Weren’t the mutagens for the trials destroyed in canon? It will be interesting to see how they get around this.
The Wolf school had it’s mutagens destroyed, yes. But in the trailer, it appears Ciri is wearing a feline medallion, implying that she is somehow affiliated with the School of the Cat now.
Ahhh okay. I missed that bit.
Could be that she used her space time powers to find a more stable version. Or who knows all the crossovers could be canon and she grabbed some bullshit from monster hunter or some shit.
She might have done the trials with another school. In the trailer, she is wearing a feline witcher medallion, not a wolf one. I don’t think the lore ever mentions the School of the Cat having their mutagens destroyed.
Im not really into the lore, more of a Warhammer fantasy guy I was just making a guess based off of the sheer number of crossovers. Seriously that shit is absurd, its like a reverse Scooby-Doo.
I’m not too far into the lore either, but the Witcher audiobooks jsut happened to be up next in my listening queue, so I guess I’ll find out about all that pretty soon.
IIRC, the original polish “witcher” was made by taking word for “witch” and changing the grammatical gender to be masculine. Evidently this was not an existing word meaning “male witch”, and so was better translated as “witcher” (ie a made up word clearly derived from “witch”) instead of “witch” or “wizard”.
I don’t think so.
I think being a Witcher is a distinct moniker In universe for the training/vocation of hunting magical monsters.
The usual male analogues in media for witch are wizards and/or warlocks
that implies that men are witch-er than a female witch? :D
dude some even said they made her ugly … she looks like fucking Tricia Helfer!
The ugly comments are fucking hilarious. She’s a perfectly attractive older woman at this point, and quite honestly, if I’m going to be forced to take up her mantle as the player character, I’ll have a much easier time identifying with a hardened older woman as a Witcher than a young adult girl with perpetually running mascara.
I didn’t enjoy playing the Ciri bits at all in TW3, but this version of Ciri is about as palatable as it could have been, and I’m open to it. Especially if I can customize her playstyle like I could Geralt, so that it’s not just fast, whippy, lightning zippy-zappy whatever-the-fuck that was in TW3.
I’ve seen more posts complaining about complainers, than I’ve seen complainers.
This is Lemmy. You’re looking for reddit.
Currently I split my time a bit on reddit and Lemmy, but at this point I don’t even bother with their gaming communities. Lemmy is miles better in that regard imo as far as discussions go.
I haven’t seen a single complaint about Ciri being the protagonist of the next witcher game andI believe it’s because she isn’t a “let’s put a woman here for the quotas” type of character.
Yeah, I honestly haven’t seen an actual complaint.
Is it here, or on the internet as a whole? I have already seen a TON of vitriol in the trailer’s comments on YouTube. They’re loudly skreeeing woke, and DEI, and even the less insane ones are “so disappointed in CDPR.”
EDIT - I spoke too soon, they’re even here in this very post.
so disappointed in CDPR
Did they play the third game? Do they remember how important Ciri was, how special her powers?
I’m wagering most of them haven’t.
They just start frothing at the sight of a powerful woman
Really? Can you share them? I saw the post on lemmy complaining about wanting male/female options, but there’s also this article with gems such as below.
Even in the comments of that article though, is “DEI detected = Purchase rejected”.
So the comments are out there, probably on reddit too, but they are there.
That’s super reaching for straws. It’s a skin in a third party Battle Royale game. He couldn’t even bring himself to compare her to Ciri in Witcher 3.
We’re a pretty happy bubble here, which is why I’m here
Nothing happy about creating your own boogy man lol.
Doesn’t Geralt basically retire at the end of 3??? Of course it’s her turn to be the protag, fuck the haters.
You also spend multiple chunks of the game playing as Ciri. Like what are folks expecting?
The kinds of people that claim “wokism” in games tend to also not actually play the games they’re bitching about, so they don’t actually know what to expect.
Oh this is funnier than that.
Awhile ago my partner and I discovered there’s a combined work “Woke Advisory List” of videogames compiled by these backwards grognards. It roughly places games into categories of “Do not play, tis too woke” and “mild Trigger warning - has woke elements”
There is no small matter of quality of game that seems to influence which category the game is put in. Generally blah games with like a non sexy female protagonist and a single gay person randomly existing as a character you optionally meet might classify as “Holy shit! Too woke too WOKE!”… But then LIFE IS STRANGE is only categorized with the mildest of warnings of “some gay themes”… Like bro… “some” ?
It is equal parts hilarious and disheartening to go through and look at all the shit they decry as woke collated in one place and to recognize what counts as “exceptions” because they cannot bring themselves to cast games they love onto the burn pile.
It’s not just that they don’t want to put games they love into the pile. Their whole idiology is based on woke games failing. If a game is successful and “woke” then their idiology must be wrong. They will never admit to this being the case, so instead the game must not be that “woke” after all.
My thought was that Geralt and Ciri’s stories were over or decided, and I’m disappointed they didn’t find a way to do a Witcher story either in the future or past that enabled you to pick your own gender, appearance, Witcher school, or whatever else, maybe with creative use of the trial of the grasses or something.
I’ll happily play as Ciri to revisit the universe and maybe some familiar characters, but I just wish they’d done something newer or more original.
I started the Witcher 3 twice. Got bored with it both times. Seeing the trailer for the Witcher 4 is actuslly making me go back to finish the Witcher 3.
Guaranteed the word “woke” will be thrown around left and right
More like it will be thrown from the right
How could anyone hate Ciri :c
I can’t understand hating Ciri as a chracter, but I can understand being kind of a disappointed not having Geralt as a playable character.
If you consider it as an isolated game it doesn’t matter, but when you play three games as one character and then suddenly switch to another character it can feel kind of melancholic, in absence of a better word. Especially since now there’s a non-zero chance that they’ll kill Geralt in the new game.
But anyway, Ciri was an interesting character and those parts in Witcher 3 where you played as her were great.
and then suddenly switch to another character it can feel kind of melancholic
Its not that sudden, Ciri was playable in Witcher 3 at times and the ending that has to be canon for her to be the W4 Protag leaves Geralt alive and old, and if you count B&W the owner of a vineyard where he can chill with his girl of choice, so they don’t even need to kill him off
“He’s old and hangs out in Toussaint now, he sends Ciri letters” would be easy to do
Well obviously Geralt survives in the end of witcher 3 and most likely will be alive in 4, but what I meant is that they might kill him in the new game like they did with Vesemir in Witcher 3. They don’t need to, and I hope they don’t, but it would be kind of an easy plot device so there’s a chance. But at this point it’s just speculation anyway.
My main point was more in line that some people just don’t like change and that would be enough to make them oppose Ciri as the main character.
Witcher 3 had multiple endings, and he dies in one of them
I heard somewhere that I think CDPR said even that ending there is a way Garalt could still survive. I don’t remember what the ending is, but also it doesn’t really matter because they can do what they want with him.
Geralt got his ending in The Witcher 3. I would much rather play as Ciri.
It’s not sudden at all. In fact there’s no way you can be a fan of these games and not have seen this coming. It was the very obvious Next Step.
Someone that did not read the books. There are multiple points where the story shifts to Ciri. In a similar way Ragnarok shifts to Atreaus.
Witcher 3 literally has you play as her on multiple occasions, too
I haven’t even finished it before and I can think of at least 2
So it’d be someone who’s never read the books and has never played 3 (she isn’t mentioned in 1 or 2)
For me it’s not that I hate ciri at all. I completely understand women’s complaint that most games have a male protagonist and they can’t relate to that. I feel the same way, I like to feel at least somewhat immersed and I can never really get that with a female protagonist. It’s not like I don’t try either, I just never end up getting into the games I have tried that are like this.
I know it’s hard when the story is based on an individual, but I just wish more games had an option so everyone could play who they want to. I don’t hate them for this choice, it will just be another game that “isn’t for me” in the same way a hyper competitive PVP game “isn’t for me” which is fine.
I’m sorry, you’re saying you’re unable to get into a game simply because it’s a female protagonist? If it was a male you’d be fine?
“It’s so hard for me to imagine myself as a mutant monster killing master swordsman in a fantasy world if said mutant has a pair of tits”
Lol
Exactly lol, it has nothing to do with some weird gender thing. It’s a role playing game. You’re playing as a role. Even in Skyrim the role you’re playing (even if you choose a white male human) is someone living in Skyrim, a fictional place fighting dragons and draugr. So I think gender is one of the smallest differences.
God forbid you play a different perspective and see what it’s like.
Female V in cyberpunk is one of the best gaming experiences. You feel being catcalled and hit on directly - and you beat the ever loving shit out of them for doing it.
But what if I play as a female character and start liking dicks? No way bro the risk is just too high!
I’m convinced that anyone who feels like they need to take steps to avoid liking dicks is actually in denial that they already like dicks.
Ha, one of the first times I saw someone playing as a woman (in third person) I asked why and he joked and said “dude why would I want to stare at a man’s ass for 60 hours?”. Not a bad argument tbh…
I mean how could you ever sympathize with a character that doesn’t look exactly like you*?
*(Or the ideal of yourself, because let’s be honest…)
I think he means he thinks women have trouble identifying to male protagonists as he has trouble identifying to female protagonists. If it was a male it’s ok because he’s a male (he can relate to).
He’s conflating women “can’t get behind a male protagonist” with women “who want more representation” and using it as his excuse. I think most gamers don’t care, and don’t think we should always have the choice. The only people who will hate this choice is people who already wanted to hate on women to begin with.
Which to that I’d say women have been able to “get behind male protagonists” for decades now.
I think choice is fun, for some games, but some games like the Witcher tell a specific narrative, and it makes sense that they are tailored for a specific character, and I think we all know the sort of abuse that Ciri is going to see in the world of the Witcher.
I think of any gender has trouble “identifying” with a character of another gender that’s 100% a them issue, they need to figure out why they have such a problem with it, because that says more about them then it does game makers. (I know not you, the original person).
Seriously all it says to me is that you’re insecure with yourself if you can’t even play a fictional fantasy game as a woman.
Definitely. It is probably in part cultural indoctrination teaching that women are weak & such. And they don’t want to feel weak. Many of my favorite games have women protagonists.
Looking forward to W4.
Many games are just better IMO by choosing the female POV. Femshep >>>> Maleshep
When logic is forsaken, turnabout is fair play.
Pretty much, yeah. Part of it is the whole “power fantasy” thing. I get, as others said, that it’s a fantasy world so how could you expect to be immersed with mutants and whatever, but that’s not the point. I don’t expect it to be a VR experience where I can’t even tell I’m not in the real world, and as others assumed no for fucks sake it has nothing to do with hating women. That’s absurd. It’s just a personal preference thing. I’m not going to write to the devs bitching or make some stupid “woke game” post, I just probably won’t play it.
What? Women can’t be powerful?
You really need to look internally and analyze why you feel that way.
Is it really like that for you? Does the same thing happen with books, movies, TV? Should they have an “option”?
I have absolutely no trouble immersing myself into Aloy, Lara Croft, Jesse (Control), Red (Transistor), Bayonetta, Faith (Mirror’s Edge), and others.
Like, the character not being the same gender as me, doesn’t even register as an obstacle for inhabiting them. I’m able to mentally become them in literally the exact same way I do any other protagonist.
Since, it’s not like I need to be the same as someone in order to see the world through their perspective.
The opposite, the less they are like me, the greater the chance I’ll get to experience something from outside my own lived experience. And I like that.
I’m with women in that they should have representation in games (and stories in general), but even just for myself I’m cheering this particular progression on for the sheer variety it brings.
Is it really like that for you? Does the same thing happen with books, movies, TV? Should they have an “option”?
It is like that for me and they don’t need to have that option, that’s unrealistic to expect. You can’t choose anything in a book or movie. It just becomes something that “isn’t for me” which is fine. Not everything has to be my taste. I was simply explaining why it had nothing to do with hating ciri for some people.
I don’t get you at all but fair fucks to you being civil about the matter. You got a lot of hate on here while simply stating a preference that you unfortunately share with a bunch of incel neckbeards.
I’m the other way, interestingly. I like playing a woman as a protagonist. Not because I’ll lust over them or anything, it’s simply more enjoyable.
I appreciate that. I just see it as the typical “people love to attack others online” and I have no desire to try to insult people even if they’re telling me liking chocolate over vanilla is wrong and I’m an asshole for it lol only I know myself, and I know there’s no hatred or misogyny behind my preferences.
One of the best things about art is it can help to share what others experience; it gives us an opportunity to “walk in someone else’s shoes”. I think this can lead to more empathy in a world sorely lacking in it.
Jesse’s an Outlier.
So it’s not the magical powers, physical abilities, sexual magnatism, combat prowess, charisma, or anything else that Garalt has that you don’t that throws you off? It’s only that he has the body shape of a man that allows you to be immersed? If you played Garalt, but the body was modded into that of a female character, you’d lose your immersion, even though it’s damn near equally unlike you as a person as before?
Many Mass Effect players reported that FemShep was the better way to play the game. Many guys play female avatars in games because the cosmetic choices are usually more interesting. This actually came up in a study on MMORPG players many years ago, and I imagine it is still true today.
