Intergalactic, the Latest Game to Be Gamergated

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Some people weren’t around for what happened in 2014, and the “initialization” of “gamergate” that would, seemingly, never go away (see this link for more information). But I was there (and this is why I say that Twitter was never actually good), and I remember what the discourse and shitposting looked like. And it looked … a lot like what we’re seeing today, when new games are announced, and it’s starring a woman. Words have evolved a bit, since then, and we mostly call these guys incels. But, what’s the problem now? What games are the never-gonna-get-laid guys worried about?

First, we have The Witcher 4, where Ciri will be taking up the lead role.

Pretty awesome right? The best character in The Witcher 3 is getting her own game? Frick yeah, bro!

But, this is, apparently, a problem now?

These people don’t want to “play as a woman”, or they think Ciri looks old now. Honestly, I think she looks like she’s in her thirties, and that’s … uh, fine?

CD Project Red addressed these people, and I think even their response is a bit too tame for my liking. Quoted via Gamerant:

Regarding those fans who simply don't want to play as a woman, the narrative director noted that the lore of The Witcher 4 will continue to follow the dark fantasy themes already present in the series. He pointed out that past games have addressed tough times for marginalized groups, such as non-humans, and said while Ciri's gender will play a factor in the story, it won't be the main focus.

And, in order to back up what I’m talking about, I had to go dig up an example of the bile from Twitter, because I don’t inherently save screenshots of every nasty thing I see online. But, I mean, this is what I’m talking about, that CDPR very luke-warm-ish, are addressing:

All the shills are out hyping up Witcher 4. All the honest people saw they made the main character a woman who breaks lore in her new role AND who was made significantly uglier than she used to be. Both are red flags for an extremely woke game. pic.twitter.com/tVPRkssFBT

— Mr. Reality (@MrReality_sp) December 13, 2024

It’s true, some people might be uncomfortable with Geralt giving up the helm to the series, but also? This woman isn’t ugly? I mean, I would never go so far as to call anyone ugly, because bla bla bla, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But, if we’re talking brass tacks here: Ciri is hot, and very not “ugly.”

The biggest thing I’m worried about in regard to Witcher 4, is whether or not it’s going to be a buggy mess on launch.

And this isn’t even close to the backlash Last of Us game director’s next new IP is receiving. Yes, you’ve probably heard about this already. It’s probably all over every feed you visit on a daily basis.

“Naughty Dog’s new game starring a woman or nonbinary person, who is bald and sips a soda, now has larger dislike ratio than Concord.”

I’m a big fan of space and scifi games. Not sure I’m a fan of hack and slash as much though, unless we’re talking Diablo. I love Diablo.

But, again, the shitcourse continues. This actually took me more than ten minutes to find, on Twitter, which says to me that the backlash may be slightly manufactured. And this isn’t even the worst thing I’ve seen being said (maybe I do need to start saving screenshots of the nasty bile people spew about games and women within them):

Intergalactic's lead chick looks like a recovering addict. Sunken eyes, bad teeth and skin, ghetto outfit, nasty attitude.

I get wanting to be realistic, but this is also fiction. A character on the run doesn't have to look like they just got hit by the Whomping Willow. Her… pic.twitter.com/DlG3qT2fqk

— Leon @ RPG Haven (@rpg_haven) December 19, 2024

Again, I don’t really see it. I don’t see what the issue is. You know what I see when I look at this protagonist?

Don’t get me wrong, maybe Intergalactic will just be an unfun game, or maybe it’ll be a new classic! I don’t know. What I do know, is that a character’s appearance, like, physical appearance, has never been the reason that a game has failed or succeeded.

Do you know why Mass Effect Andromeda bombed? It wasn’t because Sara Ryder wasn’t wearing pink lipstick. It wasn’t because Peebee didn’t resemble Liara enough.

It was because these same types of mother-frikkers rallied against the game for having very very slight mentions of transgender-related themes, and some flubs in animations that somehow made it past QA. And because these types operate in crypto-fascist, hide-the-motive style of language, and posting, it was painted as an issue with the game, overall, just not working and being bad in-general. Some even went so far as to edit footage from the early game, before its release, in order to manipulate public perception of it.

You may have seen things like this on Tumblr and Twitter back in 2017 (and no, there is no way I’m going to be able to find reference for this anymore, especially since Tumblr staff nuked my account). Choppy cuts in video form of animations that appear to be backwards or wrong, in every cut, unless you had a good eye, and could see where images and cutscenes were being misrepresented. I’m talking intentionally slowing down silence between narrative, cutting back and forth between multiple characters in the midst of a conversation to give the appearance of amateur design.

I’m still mad about this, because it was this backlash, this manipulation of perception, that caused BioWare to abandon the game shortly after release, and immediately jump to work on the also now abandoned, Anthem.

The real issue with Andromeda, was that a lot of the game’s polish was sacrificed to make pointlessly open-ended planets that were far too large. That’s it. It was actually an alright game, if you ignored that part.

But, I don’t think it’s diverse characters that are or will destroy the gaming industry. I think it’s these guys. I think the smoldering remains of gamergate, or incels, as most would say, are going to singlehandedly kill the entire industry. Much the same way they’ve killed Twitter, alongside their new boss, Felon Busk. We can’t just have games with women in them. We can’t just have games where making sure a chronically online right-wing extremist has masturbatory material isn’t the main goal. No.

Nuh uh.

Every game has to be fappable to people who have bad taste in beauty aesthetics, or it’s the gaming apocalypse.