• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Are there any games you played/finished and enjoyed that were considered "woke"?

DryvBy

Member
Hopefully this doesn't derail into something stupid as I'm genuinely curious if people sometimes just don't 100% care about it all. I'm on the fence myself.

I mostly enjoyed Spider-Man 2 for the gameplay, exploration and combat. The graphics were pretty good, audio was good. I had to ignore some glaring issues with the story, usually Miles who I loved in the first game but this time came off as "Spider-Woke" with jokes being replaced by constant badgering of how so hip and diverse and amazing NY is. I've been to NY a few times, literally one of the rudest and jerk off places I've been (personally also liked that lol).

Would I prefer to have heavy handed preaching, these weird censorship groups, and weird shoehorned isms shoved into a game? 100%. I want to mostly just see blood and guts and have fun.

Also, Concord can still suck it. When it's leaking this out of its sides, I will absolutely skip. But the big DMC5 controversy on the PS5? Gotta big a pretty sensitive weirdo to skip a game over a 1 second scene.


Anyway, anything people have enjoyed that had some woke stuff but wasn't that bad, or that was overblown but ended up not bothering you?
 

Flabagast

Member
- TLOU2, big time
- Life is strange games

And probably a few others. Whether a game is woke or not is not really indicative of its quality imho (controversial opinion I know), and it’s nice to have diversity in characters and situation sometimes, unless you always want to play the same thing. In that case you are an idiot.
 

DryvBy

Member
I dont looks at games if there were "woke" or not, if the character and story is badly written it doesn't really make much difference to me it woke or not.
That's how I feel sometimes too. My last thread was making fun of a "super woke" game and I'd never play that trash. But a couple of really insignificant lines isn't going to make me not play what could be a great game.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Not really. I dropped The Gunk pretty early. Not because of "woke" but because the main character constantly talking to herself drove me crazy. I didn't know it was "woke" at the time, but I guess it was?

I usually don't play games with any kind of social "message" because I just can't stand pandering.
 

Valedix

Member
Hopefully this doesn't derail into something stupid as I'm genuinely curious if people sometimes just don't 100% care about it all. I'm on the fence myself.

I mostly enjoyed Spider-Man 2 for the gameplay, exploration and combat. The graphics were pretty good, audio was good. I had to ignore some glaring issues with the story, usually Miles who I loved in the first game but this time came off as "Spider-Woke" with jokes being replaced by constant badgering of how so hip and diverse and amazing NY is. I've been to NY a few times, literally one of the rudest and jerk off places I've been (personally also liked that lol).

Would I prefer to have heavy handed preaching, these weird censorship groups, and weird shoehorned isms shoved into a game? 100%. I want to mostly just see blood and guts and have fun.

Also, Concord can still suck it. When it's leaking this out of its sides, I will absolutely skip. But the big DMC5 controversy on the PS5? Gotta big a pretty sensitive weirdo to skip a game over a 1 second scene.


Anyway, anything people have enjoyed that had some woke stuff but wasn't that bad, or that was overblown but ended up not bothering you?
I enjoyed the web suit a lot in Spiderman 2 the story ending fell off (at least the last fight was somewhat decent), just wished they did more it didn't have the same impact as the first game.
 

Humdinger

Member
Horizon Forbidden West, maybe? Not so much the main game, although it certainly had woke elements, but the expansion. I finished them and thought they were okay - like 7/10 okay. I would have enjoyed them more without the woke stuff. I enjoyed the first game a lot more.

Some people in the thread are citing TLOU1 and the first Spider-Man. Those games aren't woke. A game isn't woke just because it has strong female characters or lesbians in it. People need to get a handle on what the word "woke" means before they throw it around, because they're just diluting the meaning.

In order for a game to be "woke," there has to be an identity politics agenda. Assuming you're well-acquainted with the philosophical/political orientation I'm calling "identity politics" (and many are not), you will recognize it in the characters, character design, dialog, and/or story. You'll hear the identity politics Message that the writer is trying to preach. Typically it won't be subtle.

Once a game crosses that threshold, I'm out. I won't play it.
 
Last edited:

EverydayBeast

ChatGPT 0.1
MV5BNjRmN2EzYTEtYzNlYy00ZDc4LWJlZDgtMDQzYjM0Njg5NmYyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTk2OTAzNTI@._V1_.jpg


They may be women but they were tough, uncharted the lost legacy was a huge risk for naughty dog but it still offered fun platforming (Jungle, grappling hook etc.).

716Apq6EN0L.jpg


Nier replicant had it's moments of woke but it's still a strong AAA semi open world game.
 

Hugare

Gold Member
Hmm, TLOU 1 and Spider-Man, but these first titles weren't very woke.
TLOU1 was fine but I'm not likely to ever play TLOU 2.

I'll never play Spider-Man 2.
There is nothing woke about TLOU1 and Spider-man. Unless Bill being gay count as woke, but c'mon. And I really cant think of one instance of Spider-man being woke.

2 on the other hand, is just ridiculous. Avoid.

And TLOU 2 is totally fine. The homophobe barman" scene is important for Ellie and Joel's relationship in that moment. Abby being huge is also important for her character arch.

Answering the thread: Life is Strange series, I guess.

I tend to research before buying. Spider-man 2 caught me by surprise tho.
 

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
Absolutely, stories don't have to fit my preconceived notions of gender roles, race, sex, etc for me to enjoy them. It seems that when some see these things, they can't see past it, but I choose not to let that happen. I run into stories that at first make me feel uneasy or uncomfortable, but that's what experiencing these fantasy worlds is all about. Tbh, just as often games suffer when they try too hard to play it straight. This is coming from someone who was born and raised in South Mississippi, so I had conservative values beat into me since I was a youngen.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was the first R&C game that felt like it wasn't made for its traditional audience. The traditional game play elements were all there, but the story telling was off. The game went out of its way to be nice, inoffensive and inclusive. It was things like a mining planet with all those female miners, the pregnant flying dragon, the monster that wasn't truly a monster but misunderstood, the depressed, little yellow robot who so needed a friend, the introduction of a female playable Lombax character (who was later said to be canonically lesbian - at least according to one of the writers).

I really enjoyed the gameplay but the story/characters left a sour taste in my mouth. I played every single R&C game from Insomniac and never had an issue with the storytelling, even the R&C remake for the PS4 was fine, but R&C:RA made me realize the Insomniac of old had changed. Spider-Man 2 was another step in that direction from what I've read here. (The first Spider-Man game was perfectly fine in that regard even though I didn't really enjoy the segments where you had to play as MJ or Miles).
 
Last edited:

Katatonic

Member
Concord.

I ain't got love for contrived wokeness but the gameplay got me wanting more.
Gonna buy and download later if it releases at midnight. I don't need it to last forever neither. As long as I get my decent time's worth, Im good.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Considering woke really has no meaning and was even initially a positive term before it was turned into a negative one, it's a bit difficult to answer.

How do we define it? Some are blatant with political messaging such as Goodbye Volcano High, but would a game like Baldur's Gate 3 fall under the "woke" category?
 

DryvBy

Member
Considering woke really has no meaning and was even initially a positive term before it was turned into a negative one, it's a bit difficult to answer.

How do we define it? Some are blatant with political messaging such as Goodbye Volcano High, but would a game like Baldur's Gate 3 fall under the "woke" category?
It's morphed into something else. I'd say a general definition is when you push agendas for the same of pushing agendas, or preach some extreme type of morality as if you don't teach it to everyone, then the thing you're for will become extinct. But generally the shoehorning is what I think most people consider woke.
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
I wanted to like Wargroove 2 but the insufferable new commanders and dialog made it impossible and I just stopped playing it. Injected the first game directly into my veins.
 

Bernardougf

Member
TLOU2 the thread... it was a woke fest and totally shit for me but a lot of people enjoy it or even love it ...

I avoid all games/movies/series with woke thematic ... I used to find some presence of wokeness tolerable but now days I just avoid them all together.. cant cope anymore with my entertainment being woke and shit because this two words walk hand in hand.

There is a lot of media and games to play.. so is pretty easy to avoid something and go play/watch another thing.
 
Last edited:

TransTrender

Gold Member
There is nothing woke about TLOU1 and Spider-man. Unless Bill being gay count as woke, but c'mon. And I really cant think of one instance of Spider-man being woke.

2 on the other hand, is just ridiculous. Avoid.

And TLOU 2 is totally fine. The homophobe barman" scene is important for Ellie and Joel's relationship in that moment. Abby being huge is also important for her character arch.

Answering the thread: Life is Strange series, I guess.

I tend to research before buying. Spider-man 2 caught me by surprise tho.
Right I didn't think those two games were woke but they were my only examples.
 

Karak

Member
I haven't seen any official "this is woke, this isn't woke" lists so I am not sure as everything now seems to be called that.
But I can say I love Uncharted Lost Legacy, True Colors, Life is Strange, Longest Journey. Hell I don't even know what is considered woke thats even out. I think Spiderman 2 had some complaints but I pushed them aside.
 

MikeM

Gold Member
Anyone claiming things are woke is up there with vegans and crossfitters- they always have to tell you.

Anyways, Spiderman 2 was my latest “woke” game and I thought it was fantastic. Another one that comes to mind is TLOU 2 and I love that game.

If game good, game good. 🤷‍♂️
 

Wonko_C

Member
Does the Quest 2 version of Resident Evil 4 count? (removal of the "Ballistics" line), because I didn't care, I just played the game and enjoyed it.
 

bbeach123

Member
I dont mind woke as long as the characters look good . Big titty hot girl spewing nonsense woke ideology ? Inject it into my vein girl.

Short blue hair whale ? No thanks fuck off .
 
Last edited:

LectureMaster

Gold Member
While I always openly despise the retarded ideology. I was actually able to enjoy games touching those liberal/progressive elements when done right.

Like some folks pointed out above, the key is the characters/stories need to be well thought and well written.

I think two prime examples are the OG Dragon age trilogy and Life is Strange.

In DA series feature a good amount of LGBTQ people but they are generally written as sane, reasonable figures, nothing like the degenerate perverts that nowadays often represent their community online.

In fact, I liked some of those characters. Plus, the gay people in DA games have gender locked romance, which makes sense like in reality and imo much more reasonable than BG3's pansexual romance case.

The same can be said about Life is Strange. You know, teenagers can be cringy at times but overall the character development coming out quite naturally and I didn't feel it was shoved down to my throat.

I hoped more games could follow those cases if they wanted to address those "progressive" elements but nope, instead you get unethical perverts like Sweet Baby running the business.
 

Robb

Gold Member
I immensely enjoyed the Paper Mario TTYD remaster.

Enjoyed GoW Ragnarok as well, despite its faults.

I’ve enjoyed most of the Spider-Man games as well and when I get a Ps5 I’ll very likely power through SM2 despite the woke complaints. I’m a sucker for SM.
 
Last edited:

Stuart360

Member
Probably Outer Worlds, although wokism wasnt as in your face back then like it is now.
I did still pick up on all the 'strong independant female' npc's, and the derpy male npc's. And all that schpeel. Although at least with that game you can kill most people that get on your nerves lol.

These days i just usually ignore the games if they are too 'in your face' with agenda drivel
 
Top Bottom