It could all have been so beautiful. Developer CD Projekt Red announces a successor at the Game Awards 2024, one of the most popular games of all time. Storms of cheers break out, players almost burst with anticipation, fans discuss the possible story, and the first plans for cosplays are made. But then something happens that's been happening more and more often lately: the Internet does what the Internet just does, which is to be outraged. And violently!
The trigger for the entire turmoil is CD Projekt Red's decision to send the previous protagonist Geralt into retirement after 17 years and three games and instead hand the silver sword to his foster daughter Ciri. She's not entirely new as a playable character because you're inwas allowed to slip into her skin for a short time. But a loud group of players vehemently refuses to take on a permanent role as a white-haired young lady. Why does it have to be a woman now?!
Such discussions are not new, but they have reached frightening proportions in recent years. Also, which was also announced at the Game Awards, is currently facing some tough headwinds. Developer Naughty Dog was even forced to deactivate the comments under the trailer on their channel. But what exactly is the problem?
I don't want to play women!
Read the comments under the trailerthrough, it seems as if women are traditionally only allowed to fulfill two roles in video games: damsel in distress or object to fulfill male fantasies. Any overlaps cannot be ruled out. Totally exaggerated? There are a lot of strong, independent protagonists? Real? Let's think about the greatest and most famous heroines in video game history.
Personally, when it comes to strong female heroines, the first person that comes to mind is Samus Aran. The tough bounty hunter has been kicking alien asses and showing Metroid moms where the rockets come out of her blaster since 1986. There are now almost a dozen games with her as the main character, apart from guest appearances like in the Super Smash Bros. series. But somehow Samus' role isn't quite as heroic.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)
Because in the 2D Metroids and also in the Prime series there is a little treat for the players. The faster you complete the story or the more items you collect, the more parts of her suit Samus takes off after the credits. With speed runners and collectors, she only wears underwear. Interestingly, this is how players first found out that Samus was a woman in 1986, even though the rough pixel look still left a lot to the imagination.
A half-naked woman as a “reward” for a good performance in a game? Sounds far less heroic and somehow like objectification. And unfortunately this is not a relic from a distant past. Even in(2014), the scantily clad version of Samus was still playable. Only with the current onethey said goodbye to it. Here Samus gets to wear her skin-tight spandex suit aka Zero Suit instead. Anyway!
Who else do we have? Lara Croft? In the 90s, it adorned many a ceiling above the bed of pubescent teenagers or late-pubescent young men as “illustrative material”, despite triangular breasts. The archaeologist has now undergone various redesigns and reboots and is getting much closer to an anatomically correct representation of a real woman. That's what the last and current incarnation of Lara Croft was for(2014) but also a huge outcry from some players because it was no longer “their” Lara. They probably wanted the triangular stem back...
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)
Princesses Peach and Zelda, on the other hand, have come a long way, as both only recently got their own big gamesrespectivedonated. It's kind of funny that it took Zelda 38 years to do this. After all, it has been the Legend of Zelda since the beginning of the series and not the Legend of Link. But these are likely to remain exceptions for the time being, as the two blue-blooded ladies otherwise correspond to the cliché of the classic damsel in distress.
So video games have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to portraying women. There have always been strong heroines in video games, but they were often reduced to their appearance - no matter how edgy - or had to be used as a prize for special achievements. Nowadays, if a female protagonist doesn't fit at least one of these two patterns, a chorus of men on the internet immediately responds - with great concern that they will no longer be able to live out whatever fantasies they have.
It's true that a lot is changing in pop culture, but given the way video games have treated women so far, it's about time! Can we please finally agree that women as protagonists does not mean the work of the devil just because they are women? Or games become unplayable just because the hero is a heroine?
No, I meant ugly women!
At Intergalactic the case is somewhat different. The bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun, played by actress Tati Gabrielle, is not pretty enough for many people. In particular, her bald head and skin color are, to put it mildly, less well received. Some pranksters even want masks as DLC so they don't have to see the "ugly face."
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet (tba)
Discussing beauty is almost impossible. What is perceived as pretty or beautiful is highly subjective and is not for nothing in the proverbial eye of the beholder. In this respect, different opinions are of course absolutely legitimate. However, it is now frightening, as some people think, to have to express their point of view.
CD Projekt Red also had to listen to a lot for Ciri's new design. Supposedly they made the new sorcerer particularly ugly in the trailer in order to follow a “woke agenda”. If you haven't heard the term "woke" before, I would like to express my absolute admiration. This comes from the African-American civil rights movement of the 1930s and means (according to Duden) “to be highly politically awake and committed against (especially racist, sexist, social) discrimination”.
“Woke” is hardly used as a self-description these days. Now almost exclusively politically conservative or right-wing groups use the term as an insult to brand efforts against racism, transphobia, sexism or homophobia as a threat to their way of life and thus to exploit them politically for their own benefit. This again raises the question of how worthy of protection is a way of life that propagates hate and inequality.
The people commenting probably fear that in the future video games will no longer only focus on white, heterosexual muscle men or beautiful bikini babes, but will increasingly allow black, non-binary and/or queer characters who are not perfect in their eyes - completely because of the obvious racism to remain silent.
Stellar Blade (2024)
Last year, my colleague Dennis experienced first-hand how emotionally charged the topic is. In his test for Souls-likeHe praised the “wild ballet of attacks, evasive maneuvers, parries and special moves that captivates you more with every fight” and even ennobled the title as an “action pearl”. He was extremely impressed with the game, but he also had some criticism. Above all, the questionable camera angles, whose only motivation is often to be able to look up the skirt of the main character Eve, and the exaggerated shaking of certain body parts made him frown heavily.
Rarely has a (completely legitimate and well-reasoned) opinion received as much backlash in the comments as this paragraph about the objectification of Eve and her dangerously underage-looking companion Lily. People demand “boobs and cheeks forever”, are happy about “finally a game with a female” or claim that that’s just how it is with “Japanese games”.
Aside from the fact that developer Shift Up comes from Korea, such statements are precisely the reason why it is important to include these cheap, clumsy attempts at ingratiation with the lustful male audience as criticism in a test. If the “sexy protagonist is the cherry on the cake”, an editor is personally attacked or an entire test is dismissed as “dirty” because a few sentences don't suit you, then I can only hope that these bombshells are not representative of them Majority of the players are.
F*cking pronouns!
The topic of “wokeness” gets on my nerves quite often. For example, when companies speak out against discrimination, but only pay lip service to it and their commitment does not go beyond coloring their own logo in rainbow colors during Pride Month in June. This is so-called “woke washing”.
The Witcher IV (tba)
But most of all, when I have to seriously discuss with people in the comments in 2025 whether it can be right to view over half of humanity as sex objects, inferior or not worthy of representation. Does this mean that every game has to have a bald, lesbian, black trans woman as the protagonist? Certainly not! But no one is demanding that. Is a game automatically bad just because it is? Absolutely no way!
And yet YouTuber Asmongold has it(link to video)probably right when he says with reference to Intergalactic: “The game will flop because the character is “ugly”.” We experienced a similar situation last year. Sony's attempt withEstablishing a new star in the hero shooter sky was quite a failure. After just two weeks, the servers were taken offline again due to a lack of players.
The main reason in the eyes of the players was what they considered to be the excessive “wokeness”. One could also have complained about Concord that almost all character concepts and abilities were stolen from other titles and the design looked like a junk party in places. Or you could point out that the developers would obviously have preferred to make a game with more story instead of a clumsy arena shooter. And it certainly didn't help that Sony wanted 40 euros for a game whose genre is full of free-to-play titles.
Concord (2024)
But there is relatively little of this in many reviews and especially in the comments. Instead, people complain about blue lipstick and displayed pronouns. The campaign of the “Anti-Wokers”, which began with the very first trailer, may have contributed a lot to the failure of Concord. Let's hope that Intergalactic is at least given a fair chance and isn't dismissed from the outset because of baldness and the "wrong" skin color.
According to the trailer for Witcher 4, instead of gender or appearance, there are a lot of absolutely valid reasons to criticize the decision for Ciri as the main character. After Geralt's departure, for example, many fans wanted a new story with a fresh character. Ciri is of course an extremely disappointing choice. Especially because she was already the central character in the plot of Witcher 3.
In terms of lore, Ciri's choice also raises questions. How do the three endings of Part 3 fit into the upcoming plot? How did Ciri pass the herbal test that usually kills 8 out of 10 monster hunter trainees? At least according to the novel, a woman has never survived the process, which is why Witchers are traditionally male. Seems like CD Projekt Red wants to stir up a little dust in the Witcher world. So it will be extremely exciting to find out what Ciri's path to becoming the first female Witcher looked like. All of this can, may and should be discussed. But if Witcher 4 isn't a good game, it's definitely not because the main character is an "ugly" woman.
In the end, I can reassure everyone who finds Witcher 4 too “woke”. I'm sure it won't be a week before the first PC naked patch for Ciri comes out. That's how it's traditionally done in video games with strong, female heroines. Then, as a reward, you can drool and objectify again. Unfortunately, the Internet does what the Internet does.
CD Projekt RED officially announced The Witcher IV at the Game Awards with a long cinematic trailer.
