Support NeoGAF

[Mortisfacio]

Woke isn't the existence of minorities, it's the pushing of narratives that 100% goes against people's lived experiences, like having women prominently featured as Frontline soldiers in Battlefield V, or this new archetype of cis white men relegated to roles of being exclusively evil, cowardly, or weak.

That's more in-line with what I'd define "woke" as, but I've seen enough posts on here, reddit, twitter, etc. that the existence of even the smallest things is "woke". Like the body type stuff. I think it's dumb, but I've seen plenty of posts around the web stating they won't buy games that do this, like this for example:



While I don't agree with it happening, it's so inconsequential to the overall game I don't care. Needing to spend my time being preached to about inequalities in a game I'm trying to play to escape from reality on? No thanks.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Forced inclusion is a big no from me. I don’t care if the game has some elements that some might consider “woke”, like a gay person in there, but when it’s forcefully done just to appease, or to oppose a certain group, I’m all the way out.

 

[Closer]

I don't even care. Ever since I saw sex in a game, I thought that was completely out of place. We won't stop sex showing in games anymore, why should we care if some games goes the extra mile and add some more? I don't even pay attention to the story anymore, skip almost everything. Let the gameplay shine First and foremost.

 

[Warnen]

No feelings either way. Won't stop me from enjoying something like the new dragon age but don't find myself seeking it out either.

 

[Mithos]

 

[Wooxsvan]

Imagine how gays feel being forced to do str8 relationships in games and to watch str8 relationships in films then...

they have films and games? whats your point?

 

[SHA]

To some, they do not give a fuck. They don't care about anything about he character and play the game regardless. Good for those people.

Others like myself,

Call me a bigot, redneck, or whatever name you want to call me. When I play a story based game, Ilke to picture me in the eyes of the main protagonist. When I see characters like in Intergalactic it puts me in a situation I do not want to be in. I'm not down for the modern Gen Z identity politics or gender swaps. I am an old fashioned guy where a man has their place in the world and women have their place. I do not expect to see a lot of women brick layers or garbage men just like I do not expect to see a lot of men in women's spaces.
The sad fact is, I know exactly what I am going to get out of a woke game like intergalactic. It's going to be a girl boss narrative where she is better at every thing than anyone else and if there are any men involved in the game they are going to be some blue haired soy boy type. I like to play traditional stories that reflect the way I see the world or atleast a character I can believe in. Lara Croft is an example of a female character done properly vs some Steroid manly looking chick like Abby in TLOU2. As far as stories that are based in far out fantasy I wish no sexuality or politics to be involved.

My point is story means a ton to me in a videogame. There are a ton of great games I cannot play anymore personally because the story ruined it for me but that is just me. A great game can have a great story like a full motion picture. I purposely do not watch woke films like from the Woke Disney company in the like because it is simply stories I do not wish to see or have any value too. Thats just me and maybe you don't give a shit less. Does it matter to you?

Can you give examples of wokeness in games? cause I don't see it's the same for everyone. From what I see, any topic is held to the right people to talk, out of discussion topics don't exist.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

There are many legit and logical reasons why someone would not play a game because of so called "woke" elements in it. Unfortunately I'm too lazy to list some of them, this horse has been beaten to death and I'm tired of it. Except when you have new memes, I like those.

 

[Gonzito]

If a game is woke, I am not buying it. Simple as that

 

[AmuroChan]

It depends on what your definition of woke is. If a game stars a female or POC, that's not inherently woke to me. For me personally, the only time I would not play a game due to "wokeness" is if it is over the top preachy and intentionally trying to shove ideology down my throat. Then I'm out.

 

[Holammer]

A big fat "depends" from me. I try to be fair, but a developer going on a virtue signaling spiel will put me off every time.
Timespinner & Fallen Leaf are examples of games I avoided. The particularly embarrassing drama surrounding FL could have been avoided.

TLDR: they tried to use minor "outrage" over pronouns for publicity.

 

[Edmund]

I'm in the performance arts industry (piano/theatre) and most people in this industry are left leaning. So I'm definitely ok with woke stuff. Unless it's too in your face and preachy like Dragon Age Veilguard.

I'm a big dragon age fan but I'm not touching Veilguard.

 

[Muffdraul]

Not really. Two examples:

TLOU2 was considered hyper woke long before it released, but I couldn't wait to play it and it's one of my favorite games of the last 10 years.

It was obvious Saints Row 2022 was going to be super woke, I bought it anyway. I only played it for a couple of hours, but that was because it's a shitty game to actually sit and play. The wokeness didn't bother me that much.

Watch Dogs 2 is considered super woke... it's been my chill-out 'comfort food' game for the last 8 years. It's practically a woke parody. An Asperger's character literally says the line "This is systemic injustice at the highest level" in a dead-eyed monotone.

 

[rofif]

Yes and I will skip game like veilguard or latest life is strange games.
BUT it's almost impossible to judge for real what is woke before playing it.
Eveyone was screaming forspoken is woke but it's not. It's not even sbi game. And it looked woke from outside.
Tlou2? I am torn. I don't think it really is woke. Not in that stupid pandering way. Or at least the narrative makes it worth it.

 

[Ogbert]

Yes.

Destroy communism.

 

[Eimran]

I game to escape reality not to be preached about somebody's identity politics

 

[Mister Wolf]

Yes. Anything pushing an acceptance of gender dysphoria or blurring of genders in general is an immediate pass. Skipped both Last Of Us 2 and Veilguard.

 

[xanaum]

Yeah, these days, I’m over it. I’m tired of all this artificial virtue signaling about inclusivity at work, on social media, in conversations with anyone under 40. And now I have to deal with it in my games too, where I just want to escape from all that?

Our Western life has turned into a hell in recent years because of this.

So, no, this product wasn’t for me.

 

[reinking]

A 4 minute Intergalactic trailer….

 

[DForce]

No.

I might find moments cringe because they're trying to force something into the story, but move on after the scene passes.

 

[ssringo]

developer going on a virtue signaling spiel will put me off every time

Yeah, this is probably a bigger problem and any 'woke' elements of a game. It just draws unnecessary attention and negativity.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Depends on how much of that disgusting woke garbage it has. It certainty doesn't help me get interested in the game at first glance. A nice game usually has the appeal to get me interested/curious on the game at first and ends up making me stay for the rest. If the game has a bunch of woke shit on it's first appearance than I won't even be interested enough to check it out in the first place.

 

[Ar¢tos]

they have films and games? whats your point?

The point is that gay gamers often don't have a choice and are forced to do str8 relationships in games because the story demands it, but if devs put a gay/lesbian relationship it's instant chaos.
Str8 gamers are so insecure they can't handle a virtual kiss or hug between 2 men.

 

[Moses85]

Sure!

Get

 

[thegame983]

It basically means that the game needs to be perfect for me to consider it.

 

[EN250]

Depends on the level of stupidly forced crap trying to preach and lecture me or when something like that is shoehorned badly, for example, Spanish dub Spider-Man 2 has this stupid character talking in inclusive language with neutral non-gendered pronouns and changing all naturally gendered words with E at the end (example, cat: gata for femenine, gato for masculine, but in inclusive would be gatE for both ) and that's annoying and stupid an no matter how much it triggers to the average American liberal, Spanish is a gendered language, deal with it

 

[ReBurn]

I try to not waste my limited time on earth worrying about identity politics. I sometimes use input from people who choose to spend their time worrying about it so I don't have to, but overall I try to keep things simple. I buy what I think I'll like and I don't buy things that I think I won't like.

 

[REDRZA MWS]

Whatever difference is between “yes, I don’t buy”, or “no, I don’t buy”, I’m in both camps.

I will not support DEI sweet baby bullshit to placate insanity.

I buy a game because I want it, hopefully it turns out to be a great entertaining experience, and that’s merit based not forced bullshit for fringe political reasons.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

It does. There's plenty of options that I don't need to play a game with "top scars", BLM flags, or similar nonsense.

 

[Zannegan]

Depends what you mean by woke.

I actively avoid most story heavy games anyway because the writing is bad. When someone's more interested in preaching than crafting a compelling narrative, it shows, and it makes it even less likely that the story will be good. Beyond that, it's hard to say.

BG3 is on my someday play list, and that's got many of the hallmarks of woke. Stellar Blade is not on my list, and it's been the poster child for pushback. "Inclusion" is definitely not a selling point in and of itself for me, but genuine fresh perspectives and ideas are. All in all... IDK. You tell me.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Yes. But I'm level headed about it and try to ensure the game isn't so much pushing an agenda and form my own opinion. So far all the games I wanted to bomb, have bombed.

 

[Neff]

Honestly don't care. If the game looks interesting, I'll play it.

 

[BlackTron]

I'm glad somebody decided to make a thread for this

 

[3liteDragon]

I can tolerate a lot of things. TLOU didn't bother me at all but the new Dragon Age did. It literally had lectures on how to properly address a non-binary person.


Stuff like this is not what I will spend my money on.

This is basically where I'm at rn, gameplay still comes first for me.

 

[Robb]

Yes, but I’d say I’m pretty tolerant. Depends on how extreme and in your face it is.

But it’s the same with most things. I don’t have any problem playing games with religious themes, but I’d never play a game that is actively designed with the main goal of promoting a specific religion, for example.

 

[envyzeal]

Someone should create a thread to vote where you draw the line of "wokeness"

Should be fun

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Yup, I’m done with woke shit.

If it has 0 charisma girlboss characters, forced diversity even when it doesn’t make sense, makes all the white guys either villains or soy losers, heavy handed messaging, gay romance scenes that are obviously just there for virtue signaling, self insert characters, etc etc. then you can count me out.

That shit is so trite and played out nowadays. I’m done with it. I’ve got more games than I’ve got time to play them. Not wasting another minute on some woke modern audiences diarrhea.

 

[adamsapple]

No, the game being good or bad depending on what I'm seeing of it, gameplay etc, effects my interest in the game more.

 

[Kacho]

The poll results lol

 

[Plague Doctor]

The issue is they are hollow gestures and vanity politics to usually reflect the personal views of one or few key executives in a project.

They are mostly tone deaf and performative. They feel highly contrived in their settings where there is a lot of logic hoops you have to leap to accept it.

But, here's the thing. None of this is the worst aspect.

The worst part is the petulant antagonism of the devs or execs showing disdain for the audience. Look, if mother fuckers have wacky ass views but they are aware of it and their heart is in the right place, I can be convinced (unlikely but possible). When they are actively trying to provoke the audience and then talk down to them as the followup, yeah that's my "go fuck yourself" moment.

I don't want anyone to be ran out because of their vision and it not finding a larger audience. I want them to be ran out when they act like assholes to the same consumer base that supports their industry.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

red flag but will play if good

 

[poppabk]

I don't give a shit as long as it is good. The problem with true 'woke' stuff is that it is often very heavy handed and ironically homogeneous.

 

[Meowtor]

i really dont understand nor care? like what IS woke? because i keep seeing people yell about woke this and woke that and i look at it like .... wat. at the end of the day im just going to play games that look good to me. thats it.

 

[IDKFA]

"Wokeness" is such a retarded word.

I prefer the good old days of "social justice" and "political correctness".

Anyway, yes, if it's over the top then I won't buy it because I won't enjoy it. That goes the same for books, fims and TV as well.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

never heard of it

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I mean I think it depends a lot on the quality of the game and the degree of wokeness

People forget that Hogwarts Legacy has sold over 30 million copies and it's actually super woke, it even has a trans NPC character

 

[Salty Pickle]

I don’t give a damn, I don’t wank to the character.

Doesn’t bother me one bit if the player has the choice to play as whatever they want. Even a chick with a dick and a beard. We live in a free world (at least I do).

But I won’t touch dragon age because I don’t like being lectured but at the same time I don’t lecture others. I think there is a big difference between for example dragon age and TLOU2 and that game was fantastic.

 

[Danjin44]

I don’t pay attention to if the game is “woke” or not, I either like the game or I don’t.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Depends.

For most games it doesn't. With Concord though it did because the characters ended up looking extraordinarily lame due to "woke" design.

I can usually tolerate some wokeness in my games but when games go overboard like Concord or Dragon Age Veilguard it becomes even too much for me and I consider myself liberal and open minded most of the time.

 

[Saber]

Yes, it totally affects my purchasing process.
The last thing I want is a fucking game telling me what is right or wrong, neither want any form of social preaching or normalizing this insane terms. Thats why it has being long since I ever bought any Sony game and the leaks about Wolverine killed any interest I have in the game.