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.

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.

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.

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.

Really? Can you share them? I saw the post on lemmy complaining about wanting male/female options, but there’s also this article with gems such as below.

Even in the comments of that article though, is “DEI detected = Purchase rejected”.

So the comments are out there, probably on reddit too, but they are there.

We’re a pretty happy bubble here, which is why I’m here

And bald! Which probably reminds some of the negative anti-wokers of their current day living situations

Ah I see you too are a “true” gamer

Being loud and offensive attracts more attention than being normal

A chain is not stronger than its weakest link or something

Just because she does it in the trailer does not mean we start there in the game.

I agree it seems a little shoe-horned to make her a classical witcher. I hope it’s not just to give her the title, because she could easily be the protagonist, and/or have the job of being a witcher without the trial of the grasses. She was given the training and education of a witcher, and has magical powers of her own already. Receiving the trials would be a huge deal, narratively, to the characters, and to world building. I could easily see this being a fumbled corporate attempt at placating fans that wanted to see geralt, without any regard for the characters or world building. (Similar to “Rey Skywalker” having absolutely no business being a Skywalker). But that’s all speculation. If it’s treated as a major plot point, and not done just for the hell of it, it could still be good.

She’s wearing a feline medallion in the trailer, so it stands to reason she’s affiliated with the School of the Cat now. She probably went through their trials. And apparently CDPR has stated she is indeed a full witcher now.

Yeah I’m not sure what her becoming a witcher adds to her story. She already has a lot going for her. Now if she became a badass witch like Granny weatherwax that’s the left turn I want to see.

Ciri used headology: The bandit lies down questioning how exactly disappointed his mother will be in him when ciri gets back from the coven.

You also spend multiple chunks of the game playing as Ciri. Like what are folks expecting?

My thought was that Geralt and Ciri’s stories were over or decided, and I’m disappointed they didn’t find a way to do a Witcher story either in the future or past that enabled you to pick your own gender, appearance, Witcher school, or whatever else, maybe with creative use of the trial of the grasses or something.

I’ll happily play as Ciri to revisit the universe and maybe some familiar characters, but I just wish they’d done something newer or more original.

There is a very good Shaun video on this exact thing .

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).

The thing is though, they don’t care about women in video games, they just care about “ugly” women in video games.

Welcome to 2024, where preferring art to not be that is not ugly is despicable behavior.

I know most left leaning people aren’t this extreme, but this really gives them a bad image and puts off a lot of people. Especially when the non extreme people jump to the defense out of the feeling that opposing extremes is the same as promoting the right.

EDIT: Change wording for clarity.

From shitty YouTuber influencers.

A guy from work constantly tells me how I should feel about a game based on a YouTuber he watches. He doesn’t play it, he just parrot that shit. Often it’s the most sexist, disgusting take.

And most of these influencers are outright basement dwellers with pride.

So like, they’re getting shitty takes from shitty human beings who are proud of being shitty?

Don’t understand it as a rational thing, understand the hate as a cancer with its growth being juiced and accelerated by the ruling class because incels are the easiest demographic to scam into violently acting against their own interests.

A cancerous process is by definition irrational from the perspective of the body it acts upon, the reason the cancer exists and grows is not because of a motive, desire or need but rather because the cancerous process consumes all the space and oxygen in a room at a faster rate than anything else can compete with while remaining invisible to the body as a threat.

Toxicity towards women displaces other topics and viewpoints specifically because the men pushing those topics want to monopolize the discussion and framing and often centrist types don’t challenge that at all because of some self-perceived high ground to tolerating intolerance (not something you tend to believe in if you have experienced serious hate).

Generally speaking im absolutely for a better representation of women and minorities. However, theres on criterium for it: it must fit with the lore. If the lore makes sense with a woman, go for it. If you just replace the main character with a woman, but don’t adjust the lore in a way that its clear that its an entire new storyline or so, than I’m against swapping out the main character. Inclusion shouldn’t lower the quality of a game.

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

It’s not even that, she still looks good. They’re mad she isn’t a college girl in a white shirt anymore. She has armor and an actual woman’s face, the horror.