How to make gaming less WOKE?!

[Vasilevsy]

Any idea will be helpful.

P.S. No, I don't need to define "woke". If the word is controversial for you or you don't know the meaning, please avoid commenting. Also avoid commenting if you think woke is good for gaming, thank you!

[miakisfan]

Ignore those trying to make you think it is so. They can do all the talking they want but at the end of the day is you paying for and playing the games.

They can call games I love woke all they want. They aren't the ones paying for them or playing them or using their imagination while doing so.

If the developers start making games that way on purpose then I vote with my wallet and don't buy it. Simple as that ... otherwise all I do is play into their hands by complaining about something I am likely not going to get changed anyways.

It is up to me to wear the grown-up hat just as much is it is theirs. All kinds of people play games and the adults in the room let them play them their way ... not force them to play them another way.

[Paratech2008]

IMSHO there's a subtle difference between games like Stardew Valley, My time at SandRock, where woke behavior isn't shoved down your throat and other games where it is shoved down your throat and you can vote by not buying such games that offend you.

[BJWyler]

Publicado originalmente por D. Flame:

Publicado originalmente por BJWyler:

Better than some. Not as good as others. Same as it always has been in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. So I guess woke isn't really part of the equation for most people.

Better than most? Both were a commercial flop, and Volition (the studio that made the Saints Row games) got shuttered following it.

If that is "better than most," I would hate to see what you think worse looks like.

I guess you haven't been paying attention then. The Day Before says hello, by the way. And if you think grossing over $1 billion is a flop, well I don't know what to tell you.

[D. Flame]

Publicado originalmente por BJWyler:

Publicado originalmente por D. Flame:

Better than most? Both were a commercial flop, and Volition (the studio that made the Saints Row games) got shuttered following it.

If that is "better than most," I would hate to see what you think worse looks like.

I guess you haven't been paying attention then. The Day Before says hello, by the way. And if you think grossing over $1 billion is a flop, well I don't know what to tell you.

The Scam Before was just a scam. The studio that made it went under 4 days later, Steam delisted it, and Steam is offering refunds for it to anyone that asks, even people with 30+ hours in it.

Seems like a pretty big flop to me.

https://videogames.si.com/guides/the-day-before-refund

[BJWyler]

Publicado originalmente por D. Flame:

Seems like a pretty big flop to me.

Yes, my point exactly - and wokeness had nothing to do with it. There are studios and games that didn't even make it that far - with nary a woke in sight, so once again:
Better than some and not as good as others.

[Stiletto]

Publicado originalmente por AlucardNoir:

By not buying woke game. It really is that simple. Not boycotting, not telling other to not buy them, not complaining. YOU, personally, just stop buying any game you perceive as woke. If everybody that complains about woke games did that the problem would solve itself out.

Why do you seem opposed to people gathering as a group to assert that opinion? Do you also oppose groups of people demanding representation based on whatever demographics they identify with?

[D. Flame]

Publicado originalmente por BJWyler:

Publicado originalmente por D. Flame:

Seems like a pretty big flop to me.

Yes, my point exactly - and wokeness had nothing to do with it. There are studios and games that didn't even make it that far - with nary a woke in sight, so once again:
Better than some and not as good as others.

Ah, so it was a strawman fallacy, got it. You can't win on the facts, so you are making up new arguments in your own head to argue against instead.

[Sleepy Yoshi]

Publicado originalmente por BJWyler:

Publicado originalmente por D. Flame:

Better than most? Both were a commercial flop, and Volition (the studio that made the Saints Row games) got shuttered following it.

If that is "better than most," I would hate to see what you think worse looks like.

I guess you haven't been paying attention then. The Day Before says hello, by the way. And if you think grossing over $1 billion is a flop, well I don't know what to tell you.

I think they were specifically talking about the sequel 'The Marvels' as the flop rather than the 1+ billion grossing Captain Marvel. This would make more sense as The Marvels is the worst grossing movie in the Marvel Universe and was released this year.

[Kapitein Gnapmans]

I am militantly anti-woke but I don't think "go woke go broke" is a good argument. It does sell and become popular for various reasons, see BG3 or the Barbie movie or whatever. Lots of people out there who either love it or just don't care.

[D. Flame]

Publicado originalmente por lankaras:

I am militantly anti-woke but I don't think "go woke go broke" is a good argument. It does sell and become popular for various reasons, see BG3 or the Barbie movie or whatever. Lots of people out there who either love it or just don't care.

Nah, there is a difference there.

BG3 doesn't try to soap box.
Barbie was a woke product from the beginning, and so it was playing to its own base, which is perfectly fine.

Now compare that to something like the Saints Row reboot:
1.) The reboot tried to inject soap boxing into their new product
2.) They alienated their own base in an effort to chase more modern political correctness
3.) It made zero sense since the cast was already highly diverse, and the most popular character was an asian man.

The "Woke" product that fail, and that so many people take issue with, are NOT trying to make a good product as their main priority. They are trying to make a soap box that they can use a platform to preach at people.

[OctoberFox]

There is a systemic issue with a lot of new blood coming in with progressive values, including many college grads that bring the ideology from the campus to the work force more than before. Many people that do this are on autopilot, many do not think independently of what's considered socially approved ideas, including creativity, which is part of why creativity is stifled and/or older ideas rehashed. It's like this in all forms of entertainment, and curiously enough one of the best examples comes from one of the least "woke" countries, Japan.

Hayao Miyazaki has expressed strong disdain for modern anime for a long time, the ideas were broken down rather elegantly in a YouTube video talking about why anime looks the way it does, particularly at and since the later 90s. The summary was that instead of originating from external passions (in Miyazaki it was planes, iirc), it is being built and rebuilt on anime; anime inspires anime inspires anime, until the original art style becomes a dull, samey, characterized version of itself.

Political correctness, or "woke" is the same path. It isn't enough to have a single idea, it must be distilled into a finer version of its former self until, instead a strong female character, we must have muscular women, and instead of thoughtful males, they must be emasculated and milquetoast. Everything unremarkable so that everything fits in or is agreeable until it becomes pure homogeneity.

Publicado originalmente por lankaras:

I am militantly anti-woke but I don't think "go woke go broke" is a good argument. It does sell and become popular for various reasons, see BG3 or the Barbie movie or whatever. Lots of people out there who either love it or just don't care.

It's like a pack of sleeping bears and the stick poking hasn't been enough to rouse enough of them into saying or doing anything about it.

[Stiletto]

Publicado originalmente por lankaras:

Lots of people out there who either love it or just don't care.

Much less the former than the latter. People who like video games will put up with a lot of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to keep playing, just as with movie fans, sports fans, TV show fans, etc...and companies count on that in order to get away with shoehorning content that is only in the game to satisfy large corporations that will provide capital investment as a reward for virtue signaling. Look up ESG and DEI. The people who subscribe to "woke" ideologies don't understand how much they're being exploited, much less how much damage is being done to the industry by these tactics.

[Kapitein Gnapmans]

Publicado originalmente por Stiletto:

Publicado originalmente por lankaras:

Lots of people out there who either love it or just don't care.

Much less the former than the latter. People who like video games will put up with a lot of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to keep playing, just as with movie fans, sports fans, TV show fans, etc...and companies count on that in order to get away with shoehorning content that is only in the game to satisfy large corporations that will provide capital investment as a reward for virtue signaling. Look up ESG and DEI. The people who subscribe to "woke" ideologies don't understand how much they're being exploited, much less how much damage is being done to the industry by these tactics.

True, my feeling is that these people who don't care are mostly ignorant of what is going on. They are brought up thinking that this is "normal". There is a saying that liberals are just young conservatives, and conservatives are just old liberals. I don't think that is actually accurate, but it does show a general tendency.

[Kapitein Gnapmans]

Publicado originalmente por D. Flame:

Publicado originalmente por lankaras:

I am militantly anti-woke but I don't think "go woke go broke" is a good argument. It does sell and become popular for various reasons, see BG3 or the Barbie movie or whatever. Lots of people out there who either love it or just don't care.

Nah, there is a difference there.

BG3 doesn't try to soap box.
Barbie was a woke product from the beginning, and so it was playing to its own base, which is perfectly fine.

Now compare that to something like the Saints Row reboot:
1.) The reboot tried to inject soap boxing into their new product
2.) They alienated their own base in an effort to chase more modern political correctness
3.) It made zero sense since the cast was already highly diverse, and the most popular character was an asian man.

The "Woke" product that fail, and that so many people take issue with, are NOT trying to make a good product as their main priority. They are trying to make a soap box that they can use a platform to preach at people.

True, but this difference gets ignored a lot I think.

[Paratech2008]

I don't find either My time at Portia/Sandrock or Stardew Valley woke.

Having LGBTQ characters or strong female characters doesn't equate woke IMSHO.

Pushing the politics behind woke is what I don't like. I don't want to be preached to in a game.