My position isn’t rooted in a denial of history but in the belief that games, music, and films are creative, self-contained domains to be enjoyed on their own merits—not as platforms for political messaging.
The issue here is that every time I see someone complaining that a game is “woke” is when suddenly there are gay people, or people of colour, or women not looking like a hooters waitress in the game. And the reality here is that this isn’t being woke, it’s that the game is being based on reality. Gay people exist, always have, so do people of colour, and women of all types and men too. The people that make it political are the people that don’t want to see the real world and the people in it.
Now, I don’t know what you feel is “woke” and I’m not saying this is directed at you, but just because there are people that don’t fit some preconceived mold, and they are included in a game, doesn’t make it magically political.
A combination of: Marxian economics—specifically the framework of oppressor and oppressed—applied to social categories such as gender, race, and sexuality + Critical Theory from the Frankfurt School.
bro who is putting that in video games
Oh look, the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory.
I think you’ve been consuming too much Jordan Petersen.
That whole theory was rooted in anti-semitism and some weird mistrust that Jews were imposing culture on them. It’s the biggest load of baloney.
Marxian economics—specifically the framework of oppressor and oppressed—applied to social categories such as gender, race, and sexuality + Critical Theory from the Frankfurt School.
These have always been present in history, both in fact and fiction. Greeks vs Persians, Amazonians, China vs Western world (think Opium Wars and Boxer revolution), etc… These issues have always been there, this isn’t something new to the modern world and there are stories that have been around just as long with these same subjects.
This sudden overcompensation of swapping the gender, sexuality or race of characters in movies and games, under the guise of “celebrating diversity,” often feels less like a meaningful or thoughtful inclusion and more like a superficial, performative gesture. This trend is widespread and politically charged, driven not by genuine artistic intent but by a desire to align with current cultural trends.
Or it matches the more modern world. Today, more people can travel and move to different countries. More and more places have more and more people of different backgrounds, race, gender, sexuality that are in the public view. To not put these people in is to not understand today’s world and the people in it. Go outside and really look around, see how many people now don’t look like you, don’t dress like you and/or don’t act like you. Also, keep in mind where the games you are comparing them to are made, and understand what the developers see in their day to day life because that is more in line with what they’d know.