So, a hypothetical PS2 game that used a straight white male protagonist as a means to target a straight white male audience is woke.

Duly noted.

Long but a good watch imo. 

Their approach to CDPR is absolutely schizophrenic. They’re raging about Ciri. With Cyberpunk, they alternated between outrage over CDPR not using the words “male” and “female” in the character creator and calling them “based” because they saw the Chromanticore model as CDPR mocking nonbinary people.

Yeah, I dont really get the Ciri criticism. Even by the comparisons from her as a younger lady, she still looks good now. Thats definitely a female character. I dont really care what a character looks like tbh. If theyre hot, then thats just a nice bonus, but it doesnt make much of an impact when it comes to my decision to buy a game.

I think its more because of what some of the CDPR developers have said in the past. So now they have been "branded" a woke company and people are looking for red flags. Which I think both gamers and developers have some fault in.

I do understand and agree with some of the criticism of certain games being woke and agendas being shoehorned into games, but when theres hundreds of content creators complaining about it, I can see why people find it exhausting. 

So basically if a game only use a straight white male or a skimpy outfit wearing woman than that game can be considered not woke. Even better is to make sure not to include any other race unless they are 8n their stereotypical roles. Adding any options that recognize other races, genders social or economics outside of how games were made before is totally woke.

Well Im sure there are a few that thinks that way, but they are not the majority. 

A woke game is hard to define and has plenty of different views,  the issue is that a lot of companies tried to weaponise 'inclusivity' 'woke' for one goal and that is to make profit but plenty of them failed at it because the audiences did not always care.

It is especialy troublesome when inclusivity in a game can become a main priority above quality or sales potential of a game.
Personally I hate it when it feels so pushed into existing franchises. 

The obvious mindset  'new game from franchise X would sell X amount of copies anyway so push inclusivity/woke into the game and when it sells well we have proof that it is what gamers want.

One of the franchises was clearly saints Row, the devs could not stop talking about how they want to bring the Saints row franchise to the 'modern times' the DEI created a cast of main characters that people not feel any connection with and it turned  Volution into a DIE company.

I just want devs to make the games they want instead of making a game that needed to get trough a process to see it has some political inclusivity boxes checked. Gamers don't want it thats why so many Western devs are struggling and that is why we just a got a GOTY awards with basically mostly games made in Non Western countries.

The term "woke" is commonly used to criticize anything in media, such as movies or books, that seemingly embraces a politically liberal or progressive philosophy.

It is often, but not exclusively, associated with what some perceive as an "excess of representation in media." It also refers to any social values that don't align with conservative views (according to U.S. standards) on issues like race or the portrayal of women.

For example:

- **Unattractive women?** Probably "woke," because women are expected to be physically attractive.

- **Women behaving or talking in a more masculine way?** Probably "woke," because women should be portrayed as approachable, well-meaning, and cute.

- **Racial minority characters in positions of power?** Probably "woke," because main characters are expected to have light skin.

- **A positive attitude towards LGBT+ people?** Probably "woke," because LGBT+ people are often considered "sinful" by some, and they shouldn't be represented positively.

- **Same-gender relationships?** Probably "woke," because only heterosexual relationships should be depicted, as LGBTQ+ individuals are often seen as sinful.

Some people are even shocked to see games labeled as "woke" for portraying things like:

- Interracial relationships

- Mentions of global warming

- Emphasis on historical female leaders

- Gender-neutral body types in character creators

- Criticism of American consumerism

An infamous list of so-called "woke" games exists as a guide for conservative people to avoid supporting games they perceive as promoting "wokeness."

[Here is the list](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1AVTZPJij5PQmlWAkYdDahBrxDiwqWMGsWEcEnpdKTa4/htmlview?pli=1)

However, the term is losing its specific meaning and is increasingly being used to target almost anything, even games that clearly appeal to traditional "dude/bro" audiences, like Warhammer.

This shift is fueled by influencers, who know there's a sizable group of people particularly right-wing individuals and incels who are frustrated with modern media because it no longer caters exclusively to their preferences. These influencers exploit this frustration to drive discourse, ultimately seeking to control the narrative. For them, it's an easy way to generate views and monetize their content.

No. Woke is a term only for forced minorities. Intentionally using a white male for the sake of appealing to the majority would be considered something else negative. Greed, perhaps? I would call it greed, myself, but I don't think there's a term for it.

Either scenario is a problem. Either one is wrong. A person should be chosen for any given position based on their qualifications and merit, not the color of their skin, who they sleep with or whether they have ovaries or a penis. Anything short of that is immoral. Period.

And pandering to activists for the sake of looking saintly while being anything but?

That's straight up evil.

For me, something is woke when it has DEI funding/agenda behind it. Unfortunately, what’s happening now is that type of agenda pushing medium has gone overboard, with many things from movies to games hiring people based off skin color. This is inherently racist and doesn’t benefit anyone. Now when things are made, like Ciri being the next Witcher, people are beginning to loose sight of what is actually woke VS what isn’t. Do I think her being the next Witcher was a feminist girl boss push? No. Do I blame people for thinking it is? Yes and no, considering how far some of the casting and hiring decisions have gone over recent years, it’s hard to pick out the goodies VS the baddies sometimes.