GTA 6 is Beyond Woke

[MrPeery]

In a shocking turn of events, the highly anticipated GTA 6 is shaping up to be a prime example of excessive "wokeness" in the gaming industry. Recent leaks suggest that the game is going to extraordinary lengths to cater to the overly sensitive ideas of the modern players, and it's anything but good for those of us who appreciate the based nature of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Firstly, GTA 6 introduces a pronoun system, supposedly to make "all players feel comfortable." This move reeks of pandering to the politically correct crowd. Gamers should be able to enjoy a game without being burdened by a pronoun choice. We're here to play, not to be constantly reminded of the social justice agenda. Most of us already deal with this daily in the corporate world.

They've also included a trans character. It's becoming painfully clear that this inclusion is driven by a desire to check boxes rather than to enrich the narrative. It's like they're using characters as tokens to gain approval, which is just plain insulting to the gaming community.

The main protagonist, a Latino woman, is now referred to as "Latinx." This absurd linguistic concoction is forced political correctness at its worst. Why mess with a perfectly fine and widely accepted term like "Latino"? It's unnecessary and irritating.

Worse yet, the game is heavily censored to avoid offending modern players. The beauty of GTA was its willingness to push boundaries and challenge players to confront uncomfortable themes. Now, it seems like they're more interested in playing it safe in a "safe space" than delivering a truly immersive experience.

[BORG]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

Originally posted by BORG:

@Iggy Wolf You don't truly understand woke and PC culture. I can't really explain it any better than I did. You really need to dig and research the stuff. Please know I don't mean that in any condescending or disrespectful way. It's just something you're not truly familiar with. If you do the things I said you should do (research, etc.), I believe you will have a better understanding and be able to truly understand. There is a agenda movement being pushed across nations. Please take the time to learn and do the research.

Everyone says to do "research". There is NO "research" to do because there's nothing about something being "woke" that is based on any kind of "empirical evidence" or facts. It's all based on pure OPINION and SPECULATION. And I do NOT take opinions and people's personal biases on subjects and arguments seriously. They have NO validity in terms of empirical evidence or research because there is nothing "scientific" about the use of the term "woke".

Look, I was polite with you, I wasn't aggressive, I was thoughtful trying to explain it all to you in a way I thought you may be able to understand, but instead I am only greeted with your aggressive responses. You don't want to dig knowledge for yourself and I can't nor wouldn't make you so it. So, here's what I'm going to do. I can see this is going nowhere so I'm gong to respectfully agree to disagree with you and we can move on. OK? Lets be chill.

[Iggy Wolf]

Originally posted by BORG:

Ah hell.. here comes the profanity. Chill @Iggy Wolf. We were having a civil discussion. There's no need to start cursing. This discussion has been highly constructive. Please don't turn it into a war zone the moderators have to shut down.

I apologize, but I do get really annoyed when people resort to using these terms in bad faith and just start abusing them. And it's because of how often I've seen them being abused. They're rarely valid criticisms of whatever they're leveled against. Instead, they're merely "I don't like this thing so I'm gonna label it with a term I have no understanding of so that other people will agree with me". It's annoying, but worse, UNCONSTRUCTIVE because you just know it's going to invite all the conspiracy freaks and theorists who are gonna start railing against whatever political ideology they disagree with. And THAT gets the moderators involved, since it quickly derails the entire thread. I've seen it happen on here all too often.

[BORG]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

Originally posted by BORG:

Ah hell.. here comes the profanity. Chill @Iggy Wolf. We were having a civil discussion. There's no need to start cursing. This discussion has been highly constructive. Please don't turn it into a war zone the moderators have to shut down.

I apologize, but I do get really annoyed when people resort to using these terms in bad faith and just start abusing them. And it's because of how often I've seen them being abused. They're rarely valid criticisms of whatever they're leveled against. Instead, they're merely "I don't like this thing so I'm gonna label it with a term I have no understanding of so that other people will agree with me". It's annoying, but worse, UNCONSTRUCTIVE because you just know it's going to invite all the conspiracy freaks and theorists who are gonna start railing against whatever political ideology they disagree with. And THAT gets the moderators involved, since it quickly derails the entire thread. I've seen it happen on here all too often.

Well I hope this discussion doesn't end up there. it was going so well...

[NetshadeX]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

There is NO "research" to do because there's nothing about something being "woke" that is based on any kind of "empirical evidence" or facts.

The best evidence is that "woke" content is objectively making large companies lose money but it's still being pushed. The entertainment industry at large is the clearest example.

"The Marvels" is, to absolutely noone's surprise, the biggest flop in the history of the Marvel franchise. Why did that even get made if all prognoses point to the fact it will cost them money. The only logical explanation is people that are willing to lose that money for an agenda, nothing else makes sense.

[FRISH]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

Originally posted by BORG:

Ah hell.. here comes the profanity. Chill @Iggy Wolf. We were having a civil discussion. There's no need to start cursing. This discussion has been highly constructive. Please don't turn it into a war zone the moderators have to shut down.

I apologize, but I do get really annoyed when people resort to using these terms in bad faith and just start abusing them. And it's because of how often I've seen them being abused. They're rarely valid criticisms of whatever they're leveled against. Instead, they're merely "I don't like this thing so I'm gonna label it with a term I have no understanding of so that other people will agree with me". It's annoying, but worse, UNCONSTRUCTIVE because you just know it's going to invite all the conspiracy freaks and theorists who are gonna start railing against whatever political ideology they disagree with. And THAT gets the moderators involved, since it quickly derails the entire thread. I've seen it happen on here all too often.

The biggest mischaracterization of wokeness is from those who pretend that it means to be aware of social injustice when thats obviously not what it actually means and many of the people who play dumb know this. The interesting thing about conspiracy theories is that a lot of them seem to be actually true. Sometimes the government will throw some wild ones into the mix to discredit "conspiracies" as a whole when what they really want to do is hide some uncomfortable truths. Sometimes a good thing you can do is not ask whether something is or isn't happening, but whether it'd be a good thing.

[Iggy Wolf]

Originally posted by BORG:

Well I hope this discussion doesn't end up there. it was going so well...

Me neither. But unfortunately such topics as the one the OP used for this one always tend to lead there. Case in point, the most recent game to come out was Alan Wake 2. And while it's Epic Game exclusive, people resorted to using the Alan Wake 1 forums to discuss.

Not a problem of course, but it didn't take long for the "Alan Wake 2 is woke!" topics to start popping up. Now, was it because it actually IS woke? No. They called it "woke" because it starred a black female protagonist. Mind you, she's an FBI agent, and shares half the game with Alan Wake himself, who's a white guy and the protagonist of the 1st game.

Their reasoning was that apparently at one point, they had considered a white female, but that was either all rumors or hearsay. Point is, NOTHING else about the game, gameplay or story even indicated that the game was going in a "woke" direction or trying to push such an agenda.

Some people merely needed an EXCUSE to criticize it as such because of their dislike of either certain races, genders, or nationalities. Maybe that's not what the OP meant by his/her use of "woke", but that's how it's going to be perceived by most people. Because that's been the way to describe a lot of things people merely didn't like. At this point, I half-expect people to start calling the WWE "woke".

[Iggy Wolf]

Originally posted by FRISH:

The biggest mischaracterization of wokeness is from those who pretend that it means to be aware of social injustice when thats obviously not what it actually means and many of the people who play dumb know this. The interesting thing about conspiracy theories is that a lot of them seem to be actually true. Sometimes the government will throw some wild ones into the mix to discredit "conspiracies" as a whole when what they really want to do is hide some uncomfortable truths. Sometimes a good thing you can do is not ask whether something is or isn't happening, but whether it'd be a good thing.

Sure, but that wasn't my point. Also, like I said, "woke" will mean a different thing to different people. My point was that when one decides to use the term to criticize the latest movie or game, they're inviting all the people who have a political agenda or bone to pick with some particular subject or topic.

And that quickly tends to derail a thread because now people aren't really discussing the game itself or whatever shortcomings they believe it might have, but instead are talking about the nature of political correctness or what the country, President, or "x" political party is trying to do, which is NOT the point of these topics or the discussion at hand.

[BORG]

@Iggy Wolf it's not the topics that tend to lead to these kinds of discussions to being shut down. It's the way some people approach them with either hostility and/or aggression to express themselves moreover being civil, kind, respectful and mindful of other people's views and information they may offer. That is where the real problem lies. Aggressive people with aggressive responses create conflict which in turn devolves discussion into a meaningless and bottomless echo chamber of spitting and hissing at one another. If you look back through the discussion, more than 90% of it consists of productive, mindful, meaningful and respectful discussion.

We're all gamers on the same team. We don't need to be going at each other and that happens way, way too often on Steam discussion boards. Honestly, I'm pretty impressed the discussion has made it as far as it has. That's extraordinary on Steam. XD

As for Alan Wake 2, I can't comment on that as I haven't really followed the games direction or development cycle it had. Maybe one day I'll have a look at it and see what my take is on it.

[FRISH]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

Originally posted by FRISH:

The biggest mischaracterization of wokeness is from those who pretend that it means to be aware of social injustice when thats obviously not what it actually means and many of the people who play dumb know this. The interesting thing about conspiracy theories is that a lot of them seem to be actually true. Sometimes the government will throw some wild ones into the mix to discredit "conspiracies" as a whole when what they really want to do is hide some uncomfortable truths. Sometimes a good thing you can do is not ask whether something is or isn't happening, but whether it'd be a good thing.

Sure, but that wasn't my point. Also, like I said, "woke" will mean a different thing to different people. My point was that when one decides to use the term to criticize the latest movie or game, they're inviting all the people who have a political agenda or bone to pick with some particular subject or topic.

And that quickly tends to derail a thread because now people aren't really discussing the game itself or whatever shortcomings they believe it might have, but instead are talking about the nature of political correctness or what the country, President, or "x" political party is trying to do, which is NOT the point of these topics or the discussion at hand.

I don't think that it does mean different things. I think it's always been an extreme focus on intersectionality and that some people are more sensitive to it than others and may at times jump the gun prematurely. I also think that there's probably a large amount of people who don't fully realise that's what they mean by woke.

[Mu'Ammar of Carthus]

K, don't play it, then.
Oh you can't, can you? Guess you're just gonna have to stfu, then.

[BORG]

And if everybody ignores comments like the above one, everybody still gets along and the discussion continues on. :)

[Maviba]

Originally posted by BORG:

Originally posted by Maviba:

GTA has always been 'woke' to a certain point. So why do you bother now?
GTA San Andreas, GTA vice city or GTA 4 have been one of the best GTA games so far.
And all of them dealed with 'woke' stuff.

Understand it's not just about the game being progressive woke / PC. There are many other reasons behind people saying F Rockstar and closing their wallets.

Most of them are going to buy or steal the game Regardless. So i bet: most of that 'i won't play because of wokism' is just empty words anyway.

[Cpaw]

Originally posted by Maviba:

Originally posted by BORG:

Understand it's not just about the game being progressive woke / PC. There are many other reasons behind people saying F Rockstar and closing their wallets.

Most of them are going to buy or steal the game Regardless. So i bet: most of that 'i won't play because of wokism' is just empty words anyway.

I wont be buying it.

[bane420]

Originally posted by Maviba:

Originally posted by BORG:

Understand it's not just about the game being progressive woke / PC. There are many other reasons behind people saying F Rockstar and closing their wallets.

Most of them are going to buy or steal the game Regardless. So i bet: most of that 'i won't play because of wokism' is just empty words anyway.

Guarantee you I won't be giving them a cent for a woke game especially after how support has treated their customers with game issues. No empty words for me.

[BORG]

Originally posted by Maviba:

Originally posted by BORG:

Understand it's not just about the game being progressive woke / PC. There are many other reasons behind people saying F Rockstar and closing their wallets.

Most of them are going to buy or steal the game Regardless. So i bet: most of that 'i won't play because of wokism' is just empty words anyway.

I will say people who aren't going to buy it will probably end up pirating it moreover buying it - or simply ignore it all together. I think a lot of these people saying they are done are sincere, really mean it and that Rockstar has distanced them so far that these people just don't give a damn anymore. People are tired. Tired of the state of the industry and video games in general. People are getting burned out from this nonsense. It's exhausting.

Just the other day I spoke with a fellow named Rob and he was telling me about how he's tired of all the game politics, agendas, check listing, half baked games and so on. He's exhausted from it all and really not having much fun anymore. It's so much to the point that he doesn't even want to upgrade his PC build to a new build because the interest is withering away due to the way the industry is operating. Myself, I'm starting to have the same sentiments. Why build some amazing bad ass rig to play garbage games? The industry is driving gamers away.

He had a fantastic solution to the problem though. He's been thinking about taking up carpentry again because it makes him happy and he enjoys it. I think if a lot of people did the same thing with their own hobbies, stepped back from video gaming for a while and let the industry stand alone, a lot of things would change. I too have been leaning towards getting back into making music for the same reasons and cut back on gaming.

I've stopped buying games a while go too. I collect free games that I might play someday though. The money I'd spend on these mediocre agenda pushing checklist games could go toward music equipment.