Guaranteed the word “woke” will be thrown around left and right
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(Lore nerd rant ahead, tl;dr: Ciri being the protag is 100% fine and I expected it but her being a full witcher is weird)
There’s exactly one somewhat valid complaint to be had here, and it’s that Ciri in the books explicitly didn’t go through the Trial of the Grasses (aka one of the main mutation processes that makes you a witcher or, as it often happens, just straight up kills you), so idk how they’ll justify her being able to use witcher potions and stuff now. And (also in the books) she has lost her access to magic at one point, so using witcher signs is strange too.
I can see her wanting to take the plunge and go through with the trials, but I’m also certain that Geralt wouldn’t want that for her bc of how much it fucks you up + most of the secrets of the trials have been lost.
I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and wait and see what explanation they come up with for her being a full witcher, but it better be good.
So, from lore perspective, I have no objections to her being the protag but I don’t love her being a full witcher. I liked what they did with her gameplay sections in W3, I hoped they’d have just expanded on that gameplay idea more.
Doesn’t Geralt basically retire at the end of 3??? Of course it’s her turn to be the protag, fuck the haters.
You also spend multiple chunks of the game playing as Ciri. Like what are folks expecting?
The kinds of people that claim “wokism” in games tend to also not actually play the games they’re bitching about, so they don’t actually know what to expect.
Guaranteed the word “woke” will be thrown around left and right
More like it will be thrown from the right
I don’t get it, Witcher already has a bunch of female protagonists.
Funny how none of them had a problem with like 10 games about Lara Croft.
Why would they do this? Why would a producer produce something they wanted to produce???
I’ve seen more posts complaining about complainers, than I’ve seen complainers.
This is Lemmy. You’re looking for reddit.
I haven’t seen a single complaint about Ciri being the protagonist of the next witcher game andI believe it’s because she isn’t a “let’s put a woman here for the quotas” type of character.
Yeah, I honestly haven’t seen an actual complaint.
Is it here, or on the internet as a whole? I have already seen a TON of vitriol in the trailer’s comments on YouTube. They’re loudly skreeeing woke, and DEI, and even the less insane ones are “so disappointed in CDPR.”
EDIT - I spoke too soon, they’re even here in this very post.
so disappointed in CDPR
Did they play the third game? Do they remember how important Ciri was, how special her powers?
I’m wagering most of them haven’t.
They just start frothing at the sight of a powerful woman
We’re a pretty happy bubble here, which is why I’m here
Nothing happy about creating your own boogy man lol.
I guess they haven’t finished the witcher 3 then🤷♂️ ciri is obv the only way foward by then.
The thing is though, they don’t care about women in video games, they just care about “ugly” women in video games. as long as they can look at an hourglass shaped woman with massive curves in a skinsuit they don’t mind.
don’t go down the rabbit hole of “fixing female characters”…
There is a very good Shaun video on this exact thing .
yes I really liked it. Even the analysis/hypothesis that it really is the moment of „not getting pandered to“ that enrages that demographic. Any moment they do not feel like the target audience they take grave offense.
Who the fuck finds game Ciri to be unattractive? She was specifically made prettier for the new medium. The books describe her as a tomboy with ashen hair, huge green eyes, young face, tall and slim. Later on, “losing on her charm” by being fed meals for what basically amounts to supersoldiers, despite being a kid and putting on weight. Even in the trailer for W4 she is depicted as the game version - no babyface, no “tomboyishness” etc. She literally is an hourglass shaped woman in a skinsuit.
What’s annoying as fuck is her being a mutant, not her being a woman. Witchers were successful because they had gone through mutations, which had like a 30% success rate for boys in the optimal moment in their life - pre puberty.
At the end of Witcher 3, she is a 20 year old woman. Post puberty, hasn’t been brought up preparing for the trials, quite the opposite - she had a relatively normal life. It’s like comparing a chess prodigy that has played the game since they were 4, and a random dude starting chess at 30 yo. Multiply that by 300x - since the mixtures were specifically made with human physiology in mind - with Ciri basically being a demigod in the universe past Witcher 3. Add in the fact that passing the trials basically slows down aging to a crawl, but she looks way older in the trailer.
The reality is, it doesn’t make sense from a lore perspective. But someone who doesn’t care about the lore made a decision that Ciri is now a Witcher, so she somehow has to be one. In reality - the trailer basically made her a Mary Sue of the universe (if she wasn’t that already). She is both a witcher and a mage and has unique bloodlines that give her additional powers.
What they could have done, is a million other things. Prequel to where witchers were created / early days of the cataclysm - conflicts between the original occupants of the universe and humans and monsters. They could’ve done a prequel with Vesemir. They could have continued wirh Ciri, but with her actual powers, instead of making her a witcher. They could’ve made a character creator letting everyone design their own witcher - with whatever characteristics they want.
People are pisses off for the same reason why the Netflix show quickly started sucking and why Cavill left it behind. Writers not caring about previous lore at all, pulling their own out of their ass because they think they know better than the author of the universe (who granted is a fucking asshole, but still).
this wasn’t even about witcher specifically… and sure, CDPR could have done all that, but they can also do what they showed in the trailer because it’s their game 🤠
Their game but not their universe. Consistency needs to exist.
How could anyone hate Ciri :c
I can’t understand hating Ciri as a chracter, but I can understand being kind of a disappointed not having Geralt as a playable character.
If you consider it as an isolated game it doesn’t matter, but when you play three games as one character and then suddenly switch to another character it can feel kind of melancholic, in absence of a better word. Especially since now there’s a non-zero chance that they’ll kill Geralt in the new game.
But anyway, Ciri was an interesting character and those parts in Witcher 3 where you played as her were great.
It’s not sudden at all. In fact there’s no way you can be a fan of these games and not have seen this coming. It was the very obvious Next Step.
and then suddenly switch to another character it can feel kind of melancholic
Its not that sudden, Ciri was playable in Witcher 3 at times and the ending that has to be canon for her to be the W4 Protag leaves Geralt alive and old, and if you count B&W the owner of a vineyard where he can chill with his girl of choice, so they don’t even need to kill him off
“He’s old and hangs out in Toussaint now, he sends Ciri letters” would be easy to do
Well obviously Geralt survives in the end of witcher 3 and most likely will be alive in 4, but what I meant is that they might kill him in the new game like they did with Vesemir in Witcher 3. They don’t need to, and I hope they don’t, but it would be kind of an easy plot device so there’s a chance. But at this point it’s just speculation anyway.
My main point was more in line that some people just don’t like change and that would be enough to make them oppose Ciri as the main character.
Someone that did not read the books. There are multiple points where the story shifts to Ciri. In a similar way Ragnarok shifts to Atreaus.
Witcher 3 literally has you play as her on multiple occasions, too
I haven’t even finished it before and I can think of at least 2
So it’d be someone who’s never read the books and has never played 3 (she isn’t mentioned in 1 or 2)
For me it’s not that I hate ciri at all. I completely understand women’s complaint that most games have a male protagonist and they can’t relate to that. I feel the same way, I like to feel at least somewhat immersed and I can never really get that with a female protagonist. It’s not like I don’t try either, I just never end up getting into the games I have tried that are like this.
I know it’s hard when the story is based on an individual, but I just wish more games had an option so everyone could play who they want to. I don’t hate them for this choice, it will just be another game that “isn’t for me” in the same way a hyper competitive PVP game “isn’t for me” which is fine.
Many Mass Effect players reported that FemShep was the better way to play the game. Many guys play female avatars in games because the cosmetic choices are usually more interesting. This actually came up in a study on MMORPG players many years ago, and I imagine it is still true today.
I’m sorry, you’re saying you’re unable to get into a game simply because it’s a female protagonist? If it was a male you’d be fine?
“It’s so hard for me to imagine myself as a mutant monster killing master swordsman in a fantasy world if said mutant has a pair of tits”
Lol
Exactly lol, it has nothing to do with some weird gender thing. It’s a role playing game. You’re playing as a role. Even in Skyrim the role you’re playing (even if you choose a white male human) is someone living in Skyrim, a fictional place fighting dragons and draugr. So I think gender is one of the smallest differences.
God forbid you play a different perspective and see what it’s like.
Female V in cyberpunk is one of the best gaming experiences. You feel being catcalled and hit on directly - and you beat the ever loving shit out of them for doing it.
But what if I play as a female character and start liking dicks? No way bro the risk is just too high!
I’m convinced that anyone who feels like they need to take steps to avoid liking dicks is actually in denial that they already like dicks.
Ha, one of the first times I saw someone playing as a woman (in third person) I asked why and he joked and said “dude why would I want to stare at a man’s ass for 60 hours?”. Not a bad argument tbh…
I mean how could you ever sympathize with a character that doesn’t look exactly like you*?
*(Or the ideal of yourself, because let’s be honest…)
I think he means he thinks women have trouble identifying to male protagonists as he has trouble identifying to female protagonists. If it was a male it’s ok because he’s a male (he can relate to).
He’s conflating women “can’t get behind a male protagonist” with women “who want more representation” and using it as his excuse. I think most gamers don’t care, and don’t think we should always have the choice. The only people who will hate this choice is people who already wanted to hate on women to begin with.
Which to that I’d say women have been able to “get behind male protagonists” for decades now.
I think choice is fun, for some games, but some games like the Witcher tell a specific narrative, and it makes sense that they are tailored for a specific character, and I think we all know the sort of abuse that Ciri is going to see in the world of the Witcher.
I think of any gender has trouble “identifying” with a character of another gender that’s 100% a them issue, they need to figure out why they have such a problem with it, because that says more about them then it does game makers. (I know not you, the original person).
Seriously all it says to me is that you’re insecure with yourself if you can’t even play a fictional fantasy game as a woman.
Definitely. It is probably in part cultural indoctrination teaching that women are weak & such. And they don’t want to feel weak. Many of my favorite games have women protagonists.
Looking forward to W4.
Many games are just better IMO by choosing the female POV. Femshep >>>> Maleshep
When logic is forsaken, turnabout is fair play.
Pretty much, yeah. Part of it is the whole “power fantasy” thing. I get, as others said, that it’s a fantasy world so how could you expect to be immersed with mutants and whatever, but that’s not the point. I don’t expect it to be a VR experience where I can’t even tell I’m not in the real world, and as others assumed no for fucks sake it has nothing to do with hating women. That’s absurd. It’s just a personal preference thing. I’m not going to write to the devs bitching or make some stupid “woke game” post, I just probably won’t play it.
You really need to look internally and analyze why you feel that way.
Is it really like that for you? Does the same thing happen with books, movies, TV? Should they have an “option”?
I have absolutely no trouble immersing myself into Aloy, Lara Croft, Jesse (Control), Red (Transistor), Bayonetta, Faith (Mirror’s Edge), and others.
Like, the character not being the same gender as me, doesn’t even register as an obstacle for inhabiting them. I’m able to mentally become them in literally the exact same way I do any other protagonist.
Since, it’s not like I need to be the same as someone in order to see the world through their perspective.
The opposite, the less they are like me, the greater the chance I’ll get to experience something from outside my own lived experience. And I like that.
I’m with women in that they should have representation in games (and stories in general), but even just for myself I’m cheering this particular progression on for the sheer variety it brings.
Jesse’s an Outlier.
Is it really like that for you? Does the same thing happen with books, movies, TV? Should they have an “option”?
It is like that for me and they don’t need to have that option, that’s unrealistic to expect. You can’t choose anything in a book or movie. It just becomes something that “isn’t for me” which is fine. Not everything has to be my taste. I was simply explaining why it had nothing to do with hating ciri for some people.
I don’t get you at all but fair fucks to you being civil about the matter. You got a lot of hate on here while simply stating a preference that you unfortunately share with a bunch of incel neckbeards.
I’m the other way, interestingly. I like playing a woman as a protagonist. Not because I’ll lust over them or anything, it’s simply more enjoyable.
One of the best things about art is it can help to share what others experience; it gives us an opportunity to “walk in someone else’s shoes”. I think this can lead to more empathy in a world sorely lacking in it.
As long as she’s not Mary Skywalker Sue then I’m all for it.
Ciri is such a great character in the books. I hope they can get a lot of that personality into her in the game, too.
It seems like it from the trailer, but I’m nervous about the voice actress, she does sound different than 3… But I’m willing to give her a fair chance
From the trailer, its clear that its ~15-20 year time skip, she is able to drink witcher potions so she passed the trial of grasses, and clearly has much more control of her powers.
The trial of grasses point is where im concerned, yes she would have plot armor for a procedure that has a notriously low survival rate, plus the school of the wolf (Geralt, Vesimier and co.) destroied their old records after the events of the first game so that noone could produce more witchers.
Witcher 4 will get a female protagonist? In that case I might even get it.
I didn’t check out what the news about it was but they announced at least half a decade ago that Geralt’s story was over and if they’re creating another Witcher game, it’s going to be Ciri
So I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that Cirilla, daughter of the emperor, the girl with elder blood, groomed by the Witchers to become one of them… MIGHT just be the next protagonist.
And I’m all for it. She’s the future, Geralt is the past. I love Geralt, but he’s so old and broken by the end of 3, it’s not even funny anymore. They could do prequel games with him or something, but not a sequel to 3 at this point.
I want to see him chilling on his vineyard though
Based on the trailer, yes, it appears to be Ciri
Add Naughty Dog’s “Intergalactic” to the pile: The protagonist is female and a PoC! The usual suspects are already frothing at the mouth and recording a bajillion outrage bait videos for their Youtube channels.
And bald! Which probably reminds some of the negative anti-wokers of their current day living situations
Like this: I woke to news of a cool-looking Witcher game?
