Baldur's Gate 3 publisher warns of industry "division" as Naughty Dog's new game trailer faces backlash

[Ohnooze]

Give me a break. When people create books, music and even games they are going to have their own narrative, right? Since no one is forcing you to read, listen or play their content, no one is forcing anything down anyone's throat. Don't like the game, don't play it. No one owes you anything.

This I agree with. Clearly lots of others do as well because overly woke stuff is failing pretty well atm.

 

[dualkelly]

This I agree with. Clearly lots of others do as well because overly woke stuff is failing pretty well atm.

Not true. Its not overly woke stuff that is failing. Its overly pandering woke stuff that is failing because its fake. Plenty of knock off woke stuff that is not infact woke. Its just pandering. for example Highest grossing film of all time. Avatar is woke AF. But the recent marvel movie failed because it lacked any story it was just 3 women together.

 

[wrenchturner]

non-white people flaunted in unlikely environments.

Gotta love it when the the fash tell on themselves.

 

[Ohnooze]

Not true. Its not overly woke stuff that is failing. Its overly pandering woke stuff that is failing because its fake.

I agree. But the fake pandering virtue signaling stuff is really what I consider to be woke anyway.

 

[Nobina]

That is one ugly mf

 

[Crabjuice]

So this is something I've been thinking about, because you're right, if people don't like it, they don't buy it, Dragon Age hasn't done well, Star Wars has done very badly"

Did these games do badly because of "woke" or just because the gameplay sucked? I've played neither but reviews on Star Wars are all about the terrible gameplay, not the fact that the character you play is ugly. Didn't read the reviews for the new Dragon Age, but a close friend mentioned the dialogue being bad, not about it being "woke".

 

[Ohnooze]

Did these games do badly because of "woke" or just because the gameplay sucked? I've played neither but reviews on Star Wars are all about the terrible gameplay, not the fact that the character you play is ugly. Didn't read the reviews for the new Dragon Age, but a close friend mentioned the dialogue being bad, not about it being "woke".

I think it's a combination. Dragon Age was bad and woke. The writing was especially bad in the woke scenes. But the game was mediocre all around imo.

 

[Crabjuice]

This I agree with. Clearly lots of others do as well because overly woke stuff is failing pretty well atm.

Ok, I don't know how to define "overly woke", so I don't know if I can agree or not. Sure, I agree there are ham-fisted attempts to portray less represented race, sexualities, etc. The thing I have a problem is that there often isn't any exceptions made by people screaming "woke". There are people claiming Ciri in the Witcher 4 trailer looks like a dude, when she looks nothing of the sort.

 

[hover389]

Let me translate that for you: Any trailer that didn't involve a white guy, and ONLY a white guy, was going to get attacked by you because it doesn't push your narrative.

This is a pretty stupid and ignorant response

 

[NumberNine]

Making a fun video game is enough and the rest is theatrical decorum to generate publicity, like this very article. TechSpot has the numbers on how we respond to things so they know slipping in some culture war garbage will get more clicks than most real tech news now and then. Remember, the goal here is content engagement.

 

[Ohnooze]

Ok, I don't know how to define "overly woke", so I don't know if I can agree or not. Sure, I agree there are ham-fisted attempts to portray less represented race, sexualities, etc. The thing I have a problem is that there often isn't any exceptions made by people screaming "woke". There are people claiming Ciri in the Witcher 4 trailer looks like a dude, when she looks nothing of the sort.

What I mean is when it stands out like a sore thumb. When the devs really go out of their way to make sure everyone knows how inclusive they are....virtue signaling if you will.

Unfortunately because media has gone over the top with a lot of their virtue signaling a lot of people have no tolerance for it anymore. I was actually surprised at the backlash over intergalactic...other than the girl bad *** boss at the end I thought it was ok.

 

[WorthySK1LLZ]

Question: How do you know how said character is written when all we have is a trailer? Its sounds to me like you've already made up your opinion.

Gamerk2, obviously he's not saying all those things for this particular game. He's ranting in a general way about the overall problem in the storytelling industry, which is true!

 

[Endymio]

The reason games are made from the ["woke"] perspective lately is that it sells more. Gamers aren't just young boys/teens anymore. Those of us who are aware of social injustice are moving forward....

You just proved his point. These games are being crafted to further ideas about "social justice" -- rather than to entertain gamers. You're so obsessed with proving DEI is "the right thing" that you miss the point. Ending world hunger is a worthy goal ... but how many will buy a game hyperfocused on this message, rather than on exciting gameplay?

You can argue that a strong political message and good entertainment are simultaneously possible, and while this is true, it's orders of magnitude more difficult to create such a balance. It's true not only in games, but in film and novels as well. "Message pieces" die a quick, thankless death.

I'll let slide the absurd notion that "woke" game sell better among the core gaming demographic.

 

[Ohnooze]

This is a pretty stupid and ignorant response

Ha....that's almost word for word what I said about that comment.
Then he/she calls others wackos. Go figure...

 

[Burty117]

The nostalgia of old studios sure is powerful. It’s just a shame that essentially every studio sh!ts the bed and fuċks it up or gets bought before that happens and gets fuċked up.

It sucks everywhere and I hope you can find a game to enjoy.

There's plenty of games I enjoy, I never said there wasn't, I was pointing out I dislike games that remind me of real life politics.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure I recently played through and really enjoyed it, I can list plenty of games I enjoyed this year. Still doesn't change the fact developers I grew up with like Bioware, making stuff like ME2, now produce stuff like Veilguard.

Since this is a pattern, doesn’t that point to the fact that the people making these games, who are generally younger, because who else is willing to spend 60-100 hours crunching, wants this content? I mean eventually content gets targeted at the younger people and we all move into the “back in my day” crowd.

I get the logic and ordinarily, you'd be right, that is how its normally worked, this isn't the case today. Bare with me here as this might sound crazy but based on sales numbers, I think it holds some truth. I have two younger brothers, one of them substantially younger than me, he's recently started at University and I got the strangest request from him one day, he asked to borrow my PS2 and PS3 if they still worked (sadly, my PS3 killed itself). Him and a load of friends are playing only retro games these days as "there's not many good games these days".

It was almost weird talking to a bunch of people close to half my age about Timesplitters 2, that was a game I grew up with, I digress, what I'm trying to get at is, based on sales numbers of games that cater to the "modern audience" vs games that don't overly cater, and my own very small slither of contact with "the youth", I really do think the people making those games are targetting nobody, or a very small, very loud minority.

Did these games do badly because of "woke" or just because the gameplay sucked? I've played neither but reviews on Star Wars are all about the terrible gameplay, not the fact that the character you play is ugly. Didn't read the reviews for the new Dragon Age, but a close friend mentioned the dialogue being bad, not about it being "woke".

I will let you judge purely from some video footage, these don't even have gameplay in them, just similar cut scenes:

Just looking up Veilguard, I didn't realise how many cringy cutscenes there are:

 

[axiomatic13]

You just proved his point. These games are being crafted to further ideas about "social justice" -- rather than to entertain gamers. You're so obsessed with proving DEI is "the right thing" that you miss the point. Ending world hunger is a worthy goal ... but how many will buy a game hyperfocused on this message, rather than on exciting gameplay?

You can argue that a strong political message and good entertainment are simultaneously possible, and while this is true, it's orders of magnitude more difficult to create such a balance. It's true not only in games, but in film and novels as well. "Message pieces" die a quick, thankless death.

I'll let slide the absurd notion that "woke" game sell better among the core gaming demographic.

America is not the only market, friend. Other countries are far further to the left than America, so I doubt your ascertation that "core gaming demographic" is center/center right. What's in every JRPG, and I mean damn near every? DEI. They aren't knuckle-draggers like the right in America.

 

[Crabjuice]

What I mean is when it stands out like a sore thumb. When the devs really go out of their way to make sure everyone knows how inclusive they are....virtue signaling if you will.

What? This basically prevents any dev from including anything that doesn't fit the "non-woke" metric, whatever the hell that is. It's basically don't ask, don't tell. How could you tell the difference between "We just want to tell this story" from "Let's jam a gay in there somewhere"? Sure, I admit there are some low hanging fruit like the Netflix Cleopatra "documentary", for example. Nowadays though, it seems that ANY inclusion is automatically considered "woke".

 

[Endymio]

America is not the only market, friend. Other countries are far further to the left than America, so I doubt your ascertation [sic] that "core gaming demographic" is center/center right.

That's not my assertion. My assertion is that the core gaming demographic is young(ish) males primarily interested in gaming for entertainment, not virtue signalling.

...They aren't knuckle-draggers like the right in America.

More proof you view these games as salvos in your own political war.

 

[Ohnooze]

What? This basically prevents any dev from including anything that doesn't fit the "non-woke" metric, whatever the hell that is. It's basically don't ask, don't tell. How could you tell the difference between "We just want to tell this story" from "Let's jam a gay in there somewhere"? Sure, I admit there are some low hanging fruit like the Netflix Cleopatra "documentary", for example. Nowadays though, it seems that ANY inclusion is automatically considered "woke".

No, you're missing what I'm saying. I'm not saying they can't have a gay character or anyone of the sort. It's when they go over the top to shoehorn it into a game or movie and it comes out totally inorganic.

 

[godrilla]

I think it's a combination. Dragon Age was bad and woke. The writing was especially bad in the woke scenes. But the game was mediocre all around imo.

The non woke movement is gaining traction. So let the beta testing publishers/devs/gaming studois who are addicted to the woke poison pill take infinite hits/bumps/lines to bankruptcy. Tensen is waiting in the background for a buyout Ubisoft style!
We simply just noise to their virtue signal high!
How else would you replace the workforce with generative ai?