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Forums - Politics Discussion - What is a "Woke" Game

konnichiwa said:
Machiavellian said:

I think the most telling point is that you associate people who want to ban Harry Potter as woke.  Now why don't you tell us why you consider those groups as woke or would you put any group that wants to ban anything into that group, cancel a game because of whatever they feel is wrong with it or do you only include the groups you consider woke associated with the word.

That's why I wrote in my first post that woke is hard to define and used the part you quoted 'inclusive' behind 'woke'

That doesn't make woke hard to define, its that its used for everything.  There is no definition of woke outside of being "Something I do not like or agree with" because you can pretty much add everything gamers disagree with a game woke.  You only have to go to any number of forums including ones here and it all boils down to "I did not like this decision so its woke".

Basically you just painted a group as woke for wanting to ban Harry Potter but why are they considered woke for their opinion.  If anything, the need to label something we disagree with causes people to use to best avaliable term, no matter if it fits or not "Its close enough" which is generally what is happening.



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I like the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of "woke" number 2: "politically liberal or progressive (as in matters of racial and social justice) especially in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme". A bald, butch female character in itself is not woke, but we all know the cultural zeitgeist at the moment, and have seen enough of these things now to be able to say that certain attributes in characters tend to come with a whole lot of baggage and an overarching ideology, hence making the game woke.
We cannot say that for certain when it comes to Intergalactic at this point, but what would you wager? The voice actress herself is a woke extremist, which is hardly a coincidence.
And when we zoom out far enough, all of this goes back to daddy Blackrock and Vanguard and such, and their weird social engineering agenda, which they have stated publicly. They are pulling the strings of all the companies they have a stake in, and that is what all of this is ultimately about. What motivates them to do this, I don't know but it's hard for me to imagine it is anything other than profit of some kind. Or maybe they really think they can force the populations to think a certain way, in which case it is pure hubris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s4o3A1Bmvc



Dante9 said:

I like the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of "woke" number 2: "politically liberal or progressive (as in matters of racial and social justice) especially in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme". A bald, butch female character in itself is not woke, but we all know the cultural zeitgeist at the moment, and have seen enough of these things now to be able to say that certain attributes in characters tend to come with a whole lot of baggage and an overarching ideology, hence making the game woke.
We cannot say that for certain when it comes to Intergalactic at this point, but what would you wager? The voice actress herself is a woke extremist, which is hardly a coincidence.
And when we zoom out far enough, all of this goes back to daddy Blackrock and Vanguard and such, and their weird social engineering agenda, which they have stated publicly. They are pulling the strings of all the companies they have a stake in, and that is what all of this is ultimately about. What motivates them to do this, I don't know but it's hard for me to imagine it is anything other than profit of some kind. Or maybe they really think they can force the populations to think a certain way, in which case it is pure hubris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s4o3A1Bmvc

With that same line of thought, would a buff white dude be considered woke.  If the character was a blonde white woman in a skimpy outfit would that be considered woke.  Right here you are determining Intergalactic is woke because the voice actress by your metric is a woke extremist. So if the voice actor is male and also considered a woke extremist but the character in Intergalactic was portrayed as a white dude instead would that be considered woke.

Hell, I will go ever further, what if we keep the character a woman, but make her look like a run way model in some nice tight outfit but keep the voice actor would you think it woke.



Machiavellian said:
konnichiwa said:

That's why I wrote in my first post that woke is hard to define and used the part you quoted 'inclusive' behind 'woke'

That doesn't make woke hard to define, its that its used for everything.  There is no definition of woke outside of being "Something I do not like or agree with" because you can pretty much add everything gamers disagree with a game woke.  You only have to go to any number of forums including ones here and it all boils down to "I did not like this decision so its woke".

Basically you just painted a group as woke for wanting to ban Harry Potter but why are they considered woke for their opinion.  If anything, the need to label something we disagree with causes people to use to best avaliable term, no matter if it fits or not "Its close enough" which is generally what is happening.

Thats why I put the 'inclusive' part, the trans lobby was very aggressive in the way they attacked certain journalists etc. LRG even fired an employee because she said 'I like what I see I really look forward to hogwards legacy'.  LRG then made a statement that they stand for 'Inclusivity' and fired hire. This happened after pressure from the Trans lobby including people like Purple Tinker...who cheered and saw her getting fired as social justice...






Looking for definitions will never get anywhere, at most it will serve for people to stick with definitions to start/win arguments on the internet. Also each one is entitled to thir own opinions and different people will have different red lines on what makes a game woke.
All I can say is that if that person, whatever is their gender, will be the protagonist of the game then I have no interest whatsoever in playing it.
Not selling for me will have no impact for the company as I was told I am on a minority and modern audiences are the vast majority today. I wish success to the developers though.



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EnricoPallazzo said:

Looking for definitions will never get anywhere, at most it will serve for people to stick with definitions to start/win arguments on the internet. Also each one is entitled to thir own opinions and different people will have different red lines on what makes a game woke.

That's already the reason it doesn't have a definition. You can use it wherever, you can move whatever goal posts. You don't have to put any thought behind anything.

You can complain about anything that doesn't fit your tiny worldview, and you have a magic word that fits any situation. 

It's all about emotions, not about any kind of rationality. 

EnricoPallazzo said:

All I can say is that if that person, whatever is their gender, will be the protagonist of the game then I have no interest whatsoever in playing it.

It's weird to me to write off a game based of a protagonist, but that's your right. 

She's very obviously a woman. There's nothing even in here that suggests any kind of "gender agenda".

Last edited by the-pi-guy - 6 days ago

Machiavellian said:
KLXVER said:

Well its not always about the game itself. Its about the people behind it. If a developer or a consultant on a game has said on social media that they dont like white dudes or just white people in general(which happens way too often), then why should I as a white person support that game? And developers who say shit like that is not going to have a straight white male as their hero. Because that would go against their woke agenda. White people are either evil or bumbling comic relief in these games.

If a developer or consultant said he doesn't like white people and decides to not put them a game, why would that be woke.  Would that not be racist? Now what if that same developer says, he doesn't like black or Asian people so he isn't going to put them in his game, would you still support that game?

Can you tell me what developer stated they do not like White people or white people in general since you stated this happen often but unless there is only one developer making a game, I find that hard to believe.

Do you need for the character to be a straight white male dude?  If a game doesn't have one of those requirements are you immediately believing that a team of probably hundreds are all woman, non white or gay deciding that this main character definitely needs to be something other than straight white dude.

It just seems diversity is really getting to you.  You do know that the reason you are seeing more diverse characters is because dev teams are made up of more diverse people.  Creative people probably getting tired of just doing dude bro 1000 so they do something different.  Is it threatening the status quo, you bet but then again, games are reaching a much bigger market today than they use to.

Thats a pretty common thing among woke people. They dehuminize white people by stating you cant be racist against them because they are not an opressed people and are "In power". Whatever that means... If you dont know this about some of the woke crowd, then I dont know what to tell you.

Matt Hansen is the latest to lash out. Calling the industry full of crusty white people. 

Then you have shit like this:

I dont need a straight white male in a game, no. I have no preferences when it comes to characters in a game. I can play as any human, any alien or robot, any animal, any inanimate object etc. I just dont want the developer to talk down to me because of my skin color.



Dante9 said:

"politically liberal or progressive (as in matters of racial and social justice) especially in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme". 

While I believe this is a good definition, the problem is then we need to define what is unreasonable or extreme, which will vary a LOT from person to person. 

Dante9 said:

"politically liberal or progressive (as in matters of racial and social justice) especially in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme". 


We cannot say that for certain when it comes to Intergalactic at this point, but what would you wager? The voice actress herself is a woke extremist, which is hardly a coincidence.

And there is a good chance she was hired by Naughty Dog exactly because of this. After TLOU2 I believe there is a good chance they will double down on the progressive themes on their next game, druckman for example even said something in the lines of "representation is more important than gameplay". it seems TLOU2 was a success so there would be no reason to go back.



Woke is a strange label that is poorly defined and very subjective. However, it is not without meaning, and it does to an extent point to something that is wrong with modern society. It is of course overused by some on the right, but also too easily dismissed by people on the left.

The consensus understanding of the word seems to be that it relates to minority identity topics, typically gender and sexuality related, but often also race and nationality. Anybody who uses it for other issues, such as climate science, economics etc. should be dismissed immediatly, these are either bad faith actors or low-IQ individuals.

When applied to the relevant topics, the word should still be used very carefully. When a product is "woke" it implies that whatever inclusivity it showcases, either has poor motivation or terrible execution. There is not a video game that immediatly comes to mind, though I am sure there are several examples, but from Hollywood you needn't look any further than Disney. One of the most obvious examples is the new Snow White movie:

Here are some plot points from the original:

1. Snow White has her name, because she is white as snow.

2. Lost in the woods, she ends up in a cottage inhabited by seven dwarfs, depicted as fantastical creatures.

3. Getting poisoned by an evil witch, she is saved by a prince who steals a kiss when she is sleeping and takes her to his castle.

In the upcoming film, Snow White keeps her name, but is no longer white. Disney changed the seven dwarfs to a diverse group of mainly full grown characters, after receiving backlash, then changed it back after receiving another wave of backlash. Who knows how they will handle the third point?

It seems to me they are a little more focused on pleasing or at the very least not offending a far-left political segment, than they are focused on following a creative vision. Couple that with a generally creatively bankrupt track-record when it comes to live-action remakes, and yes you indeed end up with a WOKE film.



A woke game is whatever the anti woke crowd call woke. Doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. Anti woke say they want games and character that make sense, but call a game like South of Midnight woke because it stars a black women even though the setting makes perfect sense for this character. If any of you watched the video I posted, the guy makes a great point how the movie Aliens gets a pass from being woke because it a damn good movie from the 80s, but if it would have released this year, it would be considered woke. Same with Terminator 2 and plenty of other great older movies. It's the same way with older games get a pass because they are great, but would easily be called woke if released today.