"You can't just have Geralt for every single game" says his voice actor, and if you think The Witcher 4 making Ciri the protagonist is "woke," then "read the damn books"

Why can't the game let people choose either one of them to play?

The reactionary women-hating alt-right gamer-gate neo-nazi losers should just be ignored at this point.
- To be fair, this post is the first I’ve heard of people upset about it
  
  The thing about them is that they are loud, directed, and often affect the first impression a game gets. If this wasn't with The Witcher fame, the effect would be more notable, and oftentimes they don't admit why they really have a problem with the game directly.

I've never read the books, but... It was clear from game 3 that she was going to play an important role in the future. The entire plot of the main campaign in Witcher 3 was about HER powers. The Wild Hunt wanted her, not Geralt.
Plus also she's awesome anyway. What the fuck is wrong with people? Oh I can't enjoy my vibeo game with a wahmen as main character, it'll ruin my mood!
Honestly I'd rather be looking at a cute girl dashing around than an old man, even if I identify more with the latter. Video games are for exploring things. Fantasy worlds, dragons, wraiths... And the biggest problem with suspending disbelief is playing a character who isn't the same gender as the player? lmao.
Maybe I'm just not enough of a gamer. Only been two and a half decades or so since I first touched a computer and played games.
- I’m trying to remember the first game I played with a female lead and I think it was portal. And that woman didn’t speak. Strangely the next was transistor and she technically didn’t speak either.
- She is great in the books. One of the most unique characters in fiction imho. CDProjekt did really well adapting the continuation of her story in the games.
- I didn't played the game or read the books but I think if you are playing a game that is called Witcher and the Witcher himself is missing that is a big issue.
  Normally you would get a new game with a new title but big companies want to use the IP and think using a known title is always better than coming up with a new title.
  As I said I didn't played Witcher 3 so dunno if it makes sense, but I wouldn't be surprised if people are unhappy when their main character is missing in the game.
  
  Ciri is a Witcher. The Witcher isn't missing at all.
  
  I guess if they didn't read the books, watch the show, or play the most popular and most recent game in the series, then it is fairly reasonable for them to be confused as they won't know shit.
- Plus also she’s awesome anyway. What the fuck is wrong with people? Oh I can’t enjoy my vibeo game with a wahmen as main character, it’ll ruin my mood!
  That's what I don't understand, like, have people not played the Horizon games? They're awesome, they're fun as hell.
  
  Also, Tomb Raider. One of the most well known videogame characters is literally an ass-kicking woman.
  
  The main bullshit complaint I've seen about the Horizon games boils down to "Aloy doesn't make my peepee hard". There are dudes out there who only want to see women they can goon to.
- People like Geralt, they like his brooding attitude. Making. Game about ciri means they don’t get a game with Geralt. And they really want another game with him for some reason.
  Idk why they blame woke though
  
  Cranky brooding swordsman is kinda a one trick pony. It's brilliant and hilarious to respond to everything no matter how threatening with just a grunt or dismissive comment, but after 3 major games, it's time for something else
- I've only played Witcher 3, and I thought it was obvious that it's Ciri's story being told from the perspective of the supporting cast, and that is an incredibly cool literary device.
  
  Honestly the longform books take a similar approach, telling several very important people's stories from the perspective of how their stories intertwined with Geralt's and later Ciri's
  
  Yeah. I haven't played 1 much beyond the first 10 minutes, was too janky. 2 was mostly focused on the war, with Geralt being the most important character IMO. In 3 he was no longer THE most important character, but he was a close second - out of a large cast of supporting characters that aided them on the way.
- Tomb Raider. That's all I'm gonna say.
  
  Tomb Raider is not a woman protagonist game though, at least in the first game they wanted to have Indiana Jones but didn't got the rights to it. So the developers replaced the assets with a female.
  In whole series there is not much that makes her a woman, more like an American gun-maniac guy that looks like a girl.

Reading is also woke
- Well I have had dreams of reading books. They’re weird. Like, I know it’s a dream and the sentences don’t make any sense. But I keep reading it anyways.

If a game is deemed "woke" by right-wing shitheads, that's like a seal of approval for me. Now, the game might still suck, but it's not because of being inclusive and diverse.
- This is the first I've heard of this game being deemed woke.
  
  If a game has a non-white or non-male protagonist, it's automatically "woke."
  
  Didn't you hear? Ciri is older and therefore ugly now. The worst offence that a designer could make for a female character.
- It's a lot easier - if Americans don't like what Europeans are doing, then it's a great thing they're doing!
  
  Plenty of American developers are making "woke" games. This isn't a country-specific thing. But in general, yes!
- If it does "flop", they undoubtedly would chalk it up to it being inclusive and diverse though. Otherwise they just quickly move on to the next target.
  
  Yup, with movies and games alike if it's "woke" and flops they always say that's why, when the truth is it just sucked.

People are complaining of having to stare at a female's body while playing? They prefer looking at at male's butt? That's soooo gay!
- I’m a straight male who is very secure in my masculinity. But I’ve gotten shit from people when I use female characters in games. Never understood why that’s a problem.
  
  I usually play as a female character in games too. I prefer to look at pretty things.
- Can we stop with this stupid and homophobic argument?
  
  This seems sarcastic. I can tell by the punctuations i am seeing.
  It's abit gay tho
  
  Have you considered that the comment could, in fact, be a joke?

Not gonna lie, I was hoping they'd use some Law of Surprise stuff to give Geralt a new ward and let you create your own Witcher. But, if instead I get to do teleport strike bullshit with Ciri's powers, I'll be content.

They should do a Last Of Us prequel with Joel, but he dies in that one too due to time travel shenanigans.
- Can we have a Joel from another universe be the one to kill him? Multiverses are so hot right now.

You’re not going to play Witcher 4 because of woke Ciri, I’m not going to play because I don’t like the games. We are not the same
- For real, the battle mechanics are just so clunky and slow. And the magic is just 5 times the same spell but with different colors.
  Not to mention that you are shoehorned into a character that you don't get to decide, and the NPCs laugh at you if you choose dialogue options that don't fit this characters mold.
  Rather play an actual RPG than this action adventure akin to Tomb Raider.
- You're not going to play Witcher 4 because you don't like the games, I'm not going to play because my PC is aging and I feel new GPUs are so ridiculously overpriced, I don't want to replace my RTX 3060 ti anytime soon.
  
  I feel that. Still rocking a 1080. And I’ve got a series s for new releases.

Unpopular opinion:
Witcher 4 won’t be as good as Witcher 3 cause the third one was very good.
So no matter who they chose, it’s probably gonna be underwhelming.
- Nah, if the next Witcher MC was Dandelion, that would absolutely be the best one.
- This is why we'll never see elder scrolls 6
  
  Eh, I didn't like Skyrim as much as Morrowind, so I think there's some room for ES6 to improve on ES5.
  
  Oh we will see it ! I'm confident it's going to be shit, but who knows
- I thought the same thing about Cyberpunk, they couldn't make lightning strike twice. But in the end, once the issues were fixed, it's also one of my favorite modern games.
  
  Although I really liked cyberpunk and I’ve finished both that and Witcher 3 and cyberpunk is my favourite…
  Really? I thought Witcher 3 was iconic, like it broke out of the regular gaming culture and into the mainstream, idk if cyberpunk did that.
  My world would be better if Witcher 4 is better than 3 but I have doubts
- also the formula is starting to feel old so it won't have as much lustre as long as they don't reinvent themselves
- It can be better
  If they fix the horrendous gameplay
  
  People downvote you but I feel you.
  The gameplay just doesn't hold up, the combat is too basic, has no depth and become stale really quickly
  
  Fix two things:
  The weird loot range issue, where if you’re not standing in juuuuust the right angle, you won’t be able to loot certain corpses or containers.
  The fact that, outside of combat, controlling Geralt feels like driving a boat. Weird large turn radiuses, slow start and stop, etc… The devs did this to make his movement look more natural, but it feels like the game is constantly fighting against or trying to correct your inputs.
  Combine those two things together, and you get a consistently frustrating experience outside of combat. Installing a ranged loot mod was one of the biggest quality of life upgrades. You walk near a corpse or container, and it automatically gets looted.
  The combat can also get repetitive at times, and the difficulty scaling is weird too. But as long as those two things and still deliver a good story, I think players will ultimately walk away happy.

Any person who unironically uses "woke" is a complete douche canoe and can go get fucked. Change my mind.
- Wrong way round. The unironic woke is the BLM socially aware activist.
  It's since around 2020 woke is mostly used as an insult by douche canoes.
  
  Woke is now a synonym for Social Justice warrior.
  A person or movement prioritizing moralizing outrage about minor grievances over actual effective societal change.
  As my half Nigerian cousin likes to say on issues like white people wearing dreadlocks: “That’s something only white privileged women care about.”
- Don't let the alt-right dictate what "woke" means
  
  I think that ship has sailed. That word is at the moment a clear sign the person using it is an asshole. It can be reclaimed, but right now I don't see that happening.
  
  I would love to not let the nazis dictate how the swastika is used, but their perversion of the original meaning has permanently altered how it's seen by the rest of the world. Claiming the moral high ground by trying to force something to mean what it no longer does is a pointless exercise.
  
  Let Doechii do it for you 😛
- I won't. Nobody is able to define what "wokeness" really means to them because it's mostly code for "subset of people I don't want to exist around me".
  Surprisingly, that doesn't sound very good when said out loud.
  
  "Woke" has had a consistent meaning since its introduction into the English language almost a hundred years ago. It means "Aware of systemic racism."
  When blues legend Lead Belly ended a show in 1938 by saying, "Stay woke," he meant: "Stay aware of systemic racism."
  When some chud on YouTube in 2025 says "'Woke' is ruining gaming," he means that awareness of systemic racism is ruining gaming. For him.
  And when an American politician calls himself "anti-woke", he's saying that he opposes the awareness of systemic racism. Not that he denies the existence of it, but that he'd prefer no one talk about it, so that it can continue.
- Woke means being aware that an interaction with a cop is a life or death situation. Cops aren't your friends, they're not here to protect you. They're a threat, motivated by cruelty and love of power. When dealing with a cop, you have to speak gently, keep your hands visible at all times, and declare your intentions for every action. Or you could die. You could still die even if you do all that.

I'm sorry, but I still can't help but laugh about the anti-woke Asterion flat-butt mod, and now in my head I just see all anti-woke gamers as jealous flat-butters.
- They hate us cause they anus
  
  Woah... Is that a... A Triple entendre?
  Aint us (the original idiom)
  They're anuses/assholes/jerks (the pun)
  No cheeks, just anus (literal)
  
  E pluribus anus

hot take: i fucking hated the way ciri and every single other woman in witcher3 was written/portrayed...
they all felt like they were written by incels who have never met or conversed with an actual real woman. they were shallow game of thrones/fantasy tropes and felt like walking talking cliches. i literally cringed through every interaction...
- These types of comments ignore the fact that Geralt is written in the exact same way.
  The "romance" dialog options tend to be god awful.
- And if I'm honest the books are similar. I like them, but all the women are super sexy super hot and they exist for Geralt to have sex with
- I get this somewhat but including ciri? I feel like there was none of that with her character. What about her struck you as that?
  
  she was basically wesley crusher, without the character growth.... she was a plot device, not a character.

Oh boy the only issue I have is that I'm going to be unstoppable, Ciri is literally a broken main character nearing her full potential.
Bitch can fucking dimension travel, trained in sword and fight by other witchers and IIRC Yennefer trained her in some sort of sorcery arts as well so it'd be like having an OP mix of Geralt+Yennefer
- Yennefer trained her in some sort of sorcery arts
  So I recently devoured the book series and can clarify, she was first trained as a Witcher, then as a sourceress by Yennefer, but after she was teleported into the middle of the desert and tried to use fire as a source of power out of desperation, she gave up all magical abilities as the fire was trying to consumer her. So shes a brilliant swordswoman, has partial Witcher mutation (some of the mutations come from the secret Witcher diet which she was fed at Ker Moren while being trained) and depending on when in the timeline the game takes place she would have incredible reflexes and some interdimensional travel capabilities.
  There's also some really interesting opportunities for storytelling given how Ciri's background is just soaked in trauma. On that note, I am also curious if they intend to play down the salaciousness for this entry or not. In the books Ciri was definitely curious (and heavily implied to be bi) but remained a virgin, and by the end of the series she was still a minor by modern standards. I want to say she was 16 or so at the end of the last book.
  I'm super excited to see where this game goes, because if its worthy of being released after the masterpiece that was The Witcher 3, it's going to be brilliant
  
  With regards to Ciri's age, she's 21 during the main events in The Witcher 3.
  At the end of the books she's 17.
  No idea if they'll play down the salaciousness or not, but given when the game will likely take place that at least won't be any issues with the main character being a minor.
  
  Don't forget the carnivorous unicorns
- I mean, she couldn't even counterattack in W3.
- Bitch
  Why?
  
  Is there an interpretation where it means somebody who is shockingly audacious?

I can't play games anymore because of nonsense like this. I changed hobbies to writing Chinese poetry and watching ballet. The last Ballet I saw was Swan Lake in China. Absolutely beautiful.
- Swansea is too woke. It has a female lead role.

What ISN’T woke to conservatives/republicans anymore?
Please don’t answer that, I know the answer, but come on. Pick up a book.
- Perfection
- Reading is woke
  
  I’m not reading that.
  
  According to these CHUDS, having sex with girls is gay. I'll leave it up to you to research that logic.
  
  It's how they getcha! That dang "Thinking for themselves!"
- Having a consistent definition of "woke" is too woke for some fossils.
- I mean, if you look up "gamergate" and see the real reason why these little whiny bitches had such a shit fit. You can see that a lot of male gamers are a bunch of whiny little bitches who throw idiotic tantrums whenever anything highlights women in the gaming world.
- Woke did not exist before 2015, so everything created before that year is, in fact, absolutely based. Including all those apolitical masterpieces I grew up with, such as Metal Gear Solid and Bioshock. I wish they still made fun games instead of insisting on shoving leftist commentary down out throats. I really want to enjoy gaming again but developers are woke leftists now :(
  Lucky for us, the glorious Nippon country is untouched by woke. No, I don't know Japan and I've never visited it, but i play a lot of VNs, which is basically the same thing.
  EDIT: In case it wasn't clear... /s
  
  If Legend of Zelda first came out today, you can bet your ass these people would be complaining about Link not being 'manly' enough.
  
  the massive increase of "woke" by conservative began around the time trumps 1st term, it only amplyfied just befored the pandemic, and during the pandemic. when disney shows, movies, trek made all these right wingers all uncomfortable.
- Cleaning your ass after shitting is woke.
  
  No no o no no no. It's FEMININE to not have shit all over your asshole all the time.
  
  I hope my simple annoyances of painting my nails as a man gives these type of people high blood pressure.
  The fucking Secretary of Defense doesn’t wash his hands either
- The only books these dumdums pick up are the ones getting thrown onto the fire
- woah a book, sounds "woke"
- https://ioi-xd.net/files/wokeornot.html
  As it turns out, not a lot.
  
  Many diverse characters all fighting back against their unfair economic situation.
  "... and that's terrible."
  I also remember Portal 2 being on that list for "Most male characters are being depicted as incompetent compared to female characters" or something.
  Dude. There are 4 characters in the whole game, counting one that's dead but probably has the most characterization. Two are male. One guy is definitely a moron by design, but the other was definitely not incompetent. Mad, evil, sure. But he certainly achieved stuff.
- Anything that vibes with the voting base is woke.

I'm mad about Ciri being the main character, however the reason I'm mad is not because of her character or her being a woman. What I'm upset about is that I thought this game would take place in a completely different time period or region. Like maybe during the first witchers? Maybe in the future? But no, CDPR is just force extending existing characters and a story that clearly ended. Zzzzz
- Exactly my opinion as well, last game ended perfectly for a new story.
  
  Yes. The games already retconned the ending of the books, which was pretty finalized. But whatever, the games were good. But now they're just force extending an already forced extended storyline rofl. I was hoping for completely new characters in a completely new settings/time period. Such a fucking shame.
  They made such a big deal about the witcher 4 not being about Geralt and being it's own story, and now they're just extending Ciri's storyline. Pretty braindead decision in my opinion. It feels like they are just lazy and gave up on making a new character.
- Quite the opposite for me. Having only random ass characters in the story would kill all my hype. Also I wished for Ciri as MC in the next game ever since I player W3, so for 10 years now.
  
  My dream witcher game is set like 150 years in the future (early industrialized time period of the witcher universe.) And there could be tension as guns are invented and witchers aren't needed as much. How great would that be?
  Wanted to mention - The Season of Storms Witcher book has a short flash forward to around 150 years in the future, and they're starting to burn fossil fuels or oil for fuel. That's where I got the 150 years.

How in the heck would Ciri not be the main character after the events of Witcher 3? Did anyone actually think she wouldn’t be?
- anyone who has read the books was likely surprised that ciri wasn't the main character of any of the games when they first started coming out :::especially since geralt dies at the end of the books :::
  ciri was more the mc than geralt for most of the books. she's the child of destiny. she's the young character that grows up as we follow their journey. she's the one that finds herself and shows major character development throughout the books. the only character development geralt goes through is accepting his bond with ciri.
  the first two games never mentioning ciri was outright bizarre tbh. only even remotely possibly because geralt lost his memory. like, with where geralt as at by the end of the books the only thing you could possibly expect him to do on regaining his memory is frantically search for signs of his adopted daughter
  to a longtime book reader my reaction to ciri being the protag of the next game was "FINALLY"
  my only curiosity at this point is how much she'll be like book ciri. does she know magic? in the books ciri goes to sorceress school and then gets trained in primal magic by unicorns and immortal space elves. can you fuck a horse? that was one of the more... questionable scenes in the book.
  tangent: sapkowski's politics occasionally bleed through in weird ways in the books. like three's a scene where a woman finds out she's pregnant mid way through a literal war that our band wades through on their journey to save the world. the party basically needs the woman to proceed. she does not want the child. i believe it was the product of rape. yet for some reason geralt and a literal fucking vampire convince her that abortion is wrong and she should keep it instead of drinking a potion about it. it was so randomly out of character for everyone involved. but hey, that's catholics for you i guess... /tangent
  i think they generally said that ciri lost her elder blood powers after the king of the hunt was killed right? otherwise I'm gonna be really curious how handle that as well. she should be sort of the world's greatest sorceress otherwise. ooh, i wonder if she'll make quips about cyberpunk and/or other worlds she's traveled to. like, she spent Decent bit of time in Arthurian legend. she shows up briefly in Victorian London.
  also, what will the world at large look like? they can't do it like the last time where your previous save could alter the new game based on your decisions. you were simply able to do too much. they'd need to make like 3 entirely separate stories at the very least. like, who rules the north? are you the empress of nilfguard? is the church burning all the nonhumans at record pace? you can basically decide the entire fate of the northern realms and all of its people in multiple ways... unless it just takes place elsewhere. maybe we'll be in zerrikania this time or some shit. there are many distant lands that the games never take us. it would be much more doable that way. then you'd just have to change dialogue and maybe swap out a few characters.
  aaaanyway... yeah, anyone mad about her being the mc is a dumbass that doesn't know shit about the story.
  
  can you fuck a horse? that was one of the more… questionable scenes in the book.
  Uhhh which book is that? If it's the section I'm thinking of with Kelpie the horse, she's entranced by its beauty and it's rider/owner tries to use that to get into her pants (and ultimately died before he was successful) but I don't believe she ever expressed sexual attraction at all to it by my memory from reading the books a couple of months ago.
  the party basically needs the woman to proceed. she does not want the child. i believe it was the product of rape. yet for some reason geralt and a literal fucking vampire convince her that abortion is wrong and she should keep it instead of drinking a potion about it
  The party is trying to find Ciri after her disappearance. Geralt and Cahir are having visions indicating that she's presently in great danger and suffering (and at that she was!). Finding out while practically at the front lines of the great war that their incredible archer, Milva is pregnant completely derails their entire journey because she can't ride, shouldn't travel, and will need to rest in a safe area for a while (which they are at this point constantly far from anywhere safe), plus they can't exactly bring a baby onto the battlefield they're actively crossing. It's one moral quandry wrapped in another. Ultimately Geralt and Cahir leave it to Milva's decision, as does Regis the barber-surgeon/vampire who created the abortion potion.
  Also it wasn't rape. While guiding a group of elves to safety, they hid in a thicket for a night with Nilfgaurdians surrounding them and searching for them. The elves decided that since they were likely to die a horrible death at any moment that they should take the time they have to find what enjoyment they can, and Milva decided to join in. It just so happened they did not die that night and now Milva is carring a halfling for whom she does not know the fathers name (for safety no names were shared with the elves she guided)
  i think they generally said that ciri lost her elder blood powers after the king of the hunt was killed right? otherwise I’m gonna be really curious how handle that as well. she should be sort of the world’s greatest sorceress otherwise.
  She gave up her magic after trying to use fire as a source of power out of desperation while navigating out of the "Frying Pan" desert. She wanted to save Little Horse the unicorn after an unfortunate battle with a monster she hadn't yet learned of, but no other sources were available. My understanding is fire as a magical source is all consuming so it is forbidden to pull from for safety reasons, but that was largely left up to interpretation.
  Upon pulling from fire, she saw the imense power that presented her, the ability to rule the entire world, but also how that would hurt those she cared so deeply about, so she instead gave up her sourceress' powers.
  If you want anything to complain about in the books it should be Milva's winging about being an illiterate farm girl that honestly was out of character and just seemed written in so she wouldn't outshine the others
  Edit: Cahir's attraction to Ciri is also creepy as hell the way it's written, but that might be intentional, since that's at a point where she's coming to realize that everyone wants something from her, everyone will tell her why she should want to give them what they want from her but nobody ever seems to care or ask what she actually wants.
  
  hold up… ciri fucked a horse?
  
  I was under the impression that it wasn't Victorian London, but The Plague Year. IIRC she, canonically, brings a blanket infested with plague lice from here to there, and ends up dropping it next to the ship Catriona, which is how the Catriona plague actually gets started. It was one of those "oh shit, yes, that explains everything" moments for me when I first read the books.
- She is the main character toward the end. The story was great and I need to replay it
  
  She's not just the main character towards the end, she is the main character of the story. We play Geralt, who is a side character in Ciri's story.
- Came here to say this. Anyone that's played Witcher 3 should have already known that Ciri was going to be the protagonist in the next game. I can't wait. Ciri is badass.
  
  Someone who can tame unicorns and jump through time and space is much more interesting than a berserker monster slayer.
- I mean, I prayed to the nether gods that we'd get a Letho game. He's the perfect protagonist if they wanted to move away from the books and more firmly into their own OC. Always had huge main character energy, and would be perfectly suited for exploring the morally grey areas of the Witcher world.
- Well, unless you fucked up the choices near the end. Really not fond of CDPR's habit of that.
  
  Yeah, there were a couple of tiny decisions, any of which failed you out if you got them wrong, and several of them had deceptive descriptions during the QTE.
- If anything, Ciri's the character whose story is wrapped up by the end of Witcher 3, she saved the world and fulfilled her destiny. Unlike Geralt or the sorceresses, she does get old too.
  It's definitely understandable that a lot of players would feel betrayed at having Ciri becoming the MC after 3 games of Geralt. People would riot if you made someone else than Lara Croft the MC of tomb raider. A better solution would probably be a character creator for a new generation of witchers. Ciri is too powerful to be the MC.
  
  Isn’t the good ending geralt giving her a Witcher blade and calling her an official witcher? That to me sets up part 4. End of the day im glad geralt gets a rest. Besides they’re remaking 1 and 2 so the geralt fix will come

Witcher 4 devs adjusting to Unreal Engine after years of REDengine:
- Damn you. I will never not upvote this! It perfectly encapsulates conservatives and maga freaks...

Honestly I think W3 jumped the shark when it added a fifth faction for Gwent, and I know I'm not alone in this opinion.

Everything should be woke actually. If you complain about wokeness I don't think you deserve to enjoy things
- Imo there are two types of "wokeness".
  There is a diverse inclusive story by someone with an underrepresented experience who partially lived that story and has a unique perspective and ideas.
  And then there is a "diverse" story constructed by an all white male board of execitives who think "wokeness" is trendy.
  Movies like I Saw The TV Glow, Parasite, Sinners, etc are fantastic "woke" stories coming from the former group.
  The latter group comes up with stories like "Ghostbusters but all women" or "Oceans 11 but all women" which I think should rightly be criticized.
  
  The problem with Ghostbusters (2016) didn't have anything to do with having an all female cast, it was more about the timing of the jokes, the lack of slow quiet scenes to build atmosphere, and the effects being crappy unmemorable CGI

Hey, anybody remember when MGS 2 came out, and the mass of NA gamers were raging about having to play as Raiden, because he was a ... well in modern parlance, a beta cuck soyboy?
Kinda flew over all their heads that Raiden was basically a more realistic reflection of the NA target demo for MGS games, and oh he also goes through legitimate character development, gains maturity and confidence, oh well now, more lately, he's basically a badass fucking cyberninja.
... Passing the torch off to Ciri fucking entirely makes sense within the world and lore of the Witcher series... and I thought we liked having an attractive gal booty to ogle at in third person?
Or is that now gay?
- Passing the torch off to Ciri fucking entirely makes sense within the world and lore of the Witcher serie
  It's also literally what happens in the books. Ciri grows as a person and becomes a badass swordswoman while Geralt eventually swears off taking monster contracts and later actually stops killing monsters. He even goes to donate his sword before getting pulled into one last battle to protect his friends and chosen family
- No, apparently it's even worse; woke!
  _:DDDD

I want to believe this is just s straw man argument but sadly I know there are enough jerks out there who absolutely call everything that doesn’t cater precisely to toxic masculinity wOkE.
I think it‘s a bit of a bummer that the ending of Witcher 3 that does make the most sense in-universe isn‘t canon in favor of what I think is pure fan service. I will probably still play the shit out of this though because all of their games have been hitters for me. Even Cyberpunk at launch. Even Witcher 1.

I don't believe there are people who seriously throw the "woke" argument out there. I think it's a sort of rage baiting by the journalists. Ffs there were 3 games with Geralt as lead. Enough is enough.
- Maybe not here in the fediverse, but there are dozens of youtube channels that are all about whining about "the woke" ruining the gaming industry, "explaining" how every spectacular failure we've seen in the last few years (Starfield, Concord) are because of DEI wokeness, etc.
  
  Yeah, I guess as long as there are people that want to hear it, there will be people willing to parrot it.
  
  Yeah and they're all fucking losers, it really feels like the vast majority of people don't care about whatever these online people say 'woke' is. It's the same as complaining about "political correctness gone mad", affirmative action, etc, the same complaints they've had about social progress for decades. Nothing about these youtubers is new or worth dignifying with a response.
  
  Searching for Dustborn on YouTube is the best way to get introduced to those channels.
- it must be out there enough to be brought to his attention. if thats the case i feel like ive started to distance myself from being online enough to not notice this shit anymore.
  
  Journalists can simply assume it's out there, or be even less serious and just bring it up to stir the pot.

I don't know if I have met anyone complaining about Ciri being the protagonist of Witcher 4. Even the most conservative people I know who are fans of the series are pumped about her being the main character because they love the story and it's the only logical way forward. The only complaints I have heard are that in universe she's kind of overpowered for a video game protagonist. I think people whining about this are fake fans or just agitators who don't even play these games.
- just agitators who don’t even play these games.
  Duh, however, they get millions of views across YouTube and X and hundreds of thousands of followers on Steam.

Good to know the VA isn't a dickhead chud here. I'm not aware of him beyond this, but that's at least a small win in my book.

Thanks, I find the winky a much better option than the cold monotonous /s

It's about time women got more accurate representation in games. How many games have you play as a man compared to playing as a woman? Technically it should be 50/50 to more accurately represent the real world.
- Video games are not the real world. They do not have to follow the rules of the real world. Even if parts or all of the game model the real world, video games are artwork, and artwork invents its own rules. Trying to enforce rules onto art has not worked well in the past, and will likely not work well in the future either.
- I don't think representation is the main issue, it is more about how they are presented.
  Striding for a perfect 50/50, doesn't really sense if they are all just stereotypes and sexual objectified. Also there are many other underrepresented population groups.
  IMO, it is more important to focus good well written and complex characters, that represent real circumstances right.
  I don't complain that AAA studios have gone 'woke' because they now include choices to select from marginalized groups, I complain about them because they are often do not offer a deeper perspective of people in that group and are just different skins.
  In some way, I can understand, games often happen in a Fantasy world, but I would wish that selecting different characters would do more than just exchanging the player mesh, texture and voice pack.
  
  Unless you are also complaining about it when white male characters are also surface-level, 2-D, copy-and-paste characters then all you are saying is "Only white male characters are allowed to be simple or a stereotype/trope." Lets be honest, not every game needs a complex and well written character, and that is fine. If they choose to go that route it doesn't matter what race, religion, or gender the character is in the first place. So it doesn't matter if they are a white male, a latina woman, or a black non-binary person.
  Now I'm also not gonna shut down your solution without being constructive and providing my own solution, cause I don't think quotas are the answer either. Instead we should be uplifting and empowering marginalized creators and game designers so that they can make more characters that they want to make. Which is generally characters they can relate to. If people want more characters that are women, then the game industry needs to become a safe space for women and empower them so they can provide more representation for characters. Same thing for any other demographic. That will make sure that these characters are being made in an aethentic and organic way, and not just being pumped out to meet a quota, but also isn't restricting when marginalized demographics can be used as characters.
  
  That's why the trailer has me so hyped for this game. It looks like the game is going to be different because Ciri is the protagonist. Her experience, reactions, and approach to saving a young woman from being sacrificed are totally different than what Geralt's would be. I hate it when games like Mass Effect are like "Oh! You can play as FemShep! That totally counts as representation!" even though it changes literally nothing about the story.
  I want more games that actually address the real and significant differences in the experiences and perspectives of different characters. I'm always disappointed when there's a "female" option that's just a re-skin of the male character with no changes in how the character interacts with the world and the story. (This happens a lot in non-video game media too.)
  
  The well written part is my concern. Or we will get the same quality as a lot of recent movies and shows. Where the characters are stereotypes, poorly written, poorly developed. With plot points that are just randomly forced into the story, and that plot point has nothing to do with the rest of the story. You know the ones, where something has been added to the story and has no reason or meaning or benefit to being part of the story.

Lots of respect for Doug Cockle, the VA. He could use the outcry to try to get another big deal and make more money as the main character, but instead he recognizes the witcher is bigger than him or his character and is happy to have another person take the lead role and the spotlight.

ROFL I guess these dudes want to live a power fantasy through Geralt instead of accepting the natural next step; since they are following the Witcher Books for the most part, Ciri was bound to be the lead character. I feel the Witcher 4 will be an excellent game, there's interesting ground to cover with Ciri. The only bad thing will be if there is no first person mode, as I tend to avoid games with women as leads...I like to look at men from behind, not ladies. I hope the art team chose a design that doesn't try to make her into a thirst trap (as that low-key makes me not want to play games with female leads).
- i promise you'll be able to trace her ass crack through her jeans
  
  Thong customization.
  
  hurls a little in my mouth ROFL I hope not.
- I like to look at men from behind, not ladies.
  I'm the exact opposite, but nothing wrong with your preference.
- Hope you didn't skip tomb raider
  
  I 100% did, as the weird torture porn-esque deaths bothered me. I could've played if that questionable design choice wasn't made...
- I have a friend that's the same. She refuses ro play witcher 3 because you cant pick a female character.
  I think it's ridiculous.
  
  This is understandable if someone has a strong gender identity. Most people don't have much of a gender so it's less important to them.
  
  In first person, there is no issue playing a female lead for me. I just have an issue with the common thirst trap design which has been a default design choice in games. As a gay dude, I find that sort of objectification is gross (the same is true for lead men in games. Except in the games that's the point).
  Especially when the camera does that pan to that lady lead's ass in third person...Its not the vibe I seek when playing a game. 🙃
  Any game with a leading lady that is serving cunt without the objectification I can easily play. Bayonetta is an example of one such game, she's a force of nature, it feels as if she has a strong sense of agency. She's not been made just for the male gaze.
- I guess these dudes want to live a power fantasy through Geralt instead of accepting the natural next step;
  I thought this was going to say something about looking inward or something. Like being inspired to be the best self you can.
  That's on me.

What does reading the books have to do with the game. The books take place before the game series. Or am I mistaken.
- Yeah, Geralt and Yen "dies" and may or may not be saved by Ciri's power at the end of the series. Ciri is the pivotal character in the story, Geralt is really just there trying to find her.

Americans telling Polish how to write their books and make their games, lol. Fuck off!

i love woke, keep it coming

Them books are woke.
- Tldr?
  
  Females characters who live independently.

"Im happy to work with whatever the creative team comes up with." is that a safe statement, or could that backfire, professionally?

I didn't like Witcher 3. I played the main storyline to Skellige and after a while of adventuring there, I just could not bring myself to continue the game.
I've read all the books, perhaps that has something to do with it.
- As far as fantasy goes, are the books good?
  
  Yes, I think so. There's are interesting large scale trends in the book's world, and even though the protagonists are powerful beings, they're forced to mostly just witness and react to the events. The characters are deep and interesting and the overall plot is rewarding.

honestly though, calling it woke makes me want to check it now...so 🤷. I am not sure woke is the insult its intended to be.

"You can't just have Geralt for every single game."
I mean... Yes. You literally can.
Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby... You can create infinite video games with the same main character over and over again. Its like an infinite money glitch if the character is popular and well liked.
- The difference is that none of those characters had their stories wrapped up.
  Geralt's story was wrapped up in Witcher 3. That was the whole point.
  
  They need to release a fake "Witcher 4" that's just an older Geralt moping around his vineyard bitching about how his knees hurt. All of his quests would be things like pestering his workers about how badass he used to be, going to town to return a watermelon to the fruit vendor because of a mushy spot he didn't notice when he purchased it, shit like that.
  All the while, the townsfolk would slip idle chatter about crazy shit that Ciri's doing off camera.
  
  Witcher 4 starts off with Geralt waking up realising witcther 3 was all a dream and he has plenty of story left to monitize.
  
  I felt similar about people wanting MC back in Halo.
  
  Geralt could go on a Gwent tour.. but what's this? Upon entering this new land of Walachia, some bandits stole his Gwent deck while he was asleep in his camp. And he had the ultra rare nude Triss card in it, too! Open, The Witcher 4: a quest for cards and vengeance.
  
  What happened to him in the end? I remember her sacrificing herself to the winter, but all I remember is Geralt living and then the post game DLC. Maybe I got the really weird ending, haha
- someone missed the story in breath of the wild
  
  Pisses me off really. At best it's few centuries of peace and negligence.
- Yeah I think we all know what he meant when he said "can't"
- All of those games' characters are essentially just mascots though (other than samus). So they're not really an applicable comparison for continuing a character long term in a story focused world that tries to be somewhat grounded in terms of consequences and passage of time.

How is "woke" an insult now? What am I supposed be? Asleep?
- conservatives use it to shut down arguements, of things that they are potentially wrong about, which includes everything they dont like. but mostly refers to traditional male and female roles(no lgbtq+)
- Ikr, idiots would rather be asleep at the wheel of life.

- No pre-orders. This should be the No.1 rule for any gamer.
  You dont even know what you get, why would you pre-order?
  
  If pre-orders ever made sense, it was when you still needed a physical cartridge or disc and the game wouldn't get patches anyways. But those days are long gone.
- I really enjoyed cyberpunk 2077, I bought it a year after release on sale.
  Now talk to several people who bought it day 1 😅
  In all seriousness though, pre-ordering is bullshit
- Eeew

Low lifes

I've said for years that one or more of the main characters should be prominent, but you play most of the game as a custom character and you get to choose your witcher school. So I'm sort of hoping that she's the protagonist and main character in a similar way to how she is TW3.
- Eh, idk. The Witcher universe has a framework for an RPG, but the books have always been about Geralt and Co. You could do something different in that universe, but I think the story and the games have some very strong structure that comes from the player being Geralt and living his story.
  Witchers are a rare dying breed. Trying to shove another new generic Witcher in would force you into writing a whole new series of stories, and backgrounds, just for that one character, which would make it get lost in the mix imho.

This comment is woke

Why complicate things ? Games are not books. I see Witcher game I expect Geralt. What is wrong with this thinking ? Do I need to think everytime I play Horizon ? No when I play Horizon I expect Aloy.
There is nothing to do with woke. If you expect people to read books before they play a game there is something wrong with you not with people who want to play a game with their favourite character.
- The Witcher game series is based on the book series.
  The post criticizes not the expectation of players that haven't read the books, but of the subset of people that think making Ciri the protagonist is a political message, when it's just staying true to its source.
  Your critique has nothing to do with this post.
  Expectations differ from person to person. You see the games as a separate thing. They are obviously not. But it's totally fair to want another witcher game with Gerald with his story continued. If the original creator of the story didn't write it that way, then CD Project Red would have to come up with their own story. Straying too far from source material can end badly - see Game of Thrones seasons 6-8.
  
  Nah the author of article asume that all people that say that Ciri can't be a witcher it's because they claim it's woke and tries to turn those who disagree to say it's political. I clearly state it's not. I don't want Ciri in Witcher because I want to play Geralt. That's all. The author puts books to afirmate his claims that only people who read books are worthy to say something about Ciri being a Witcher protagonist and that everyone else says it's woke. No I disagree. Books are not Games.
- Geralt needs retirement. The ending of Blood and Wine expansion, tells you that loud and clear, and agree with that. It was a perfect ending for the Trilogy.
  Ending with Ciri following the Witcher path, is Canon now. I dont agree with the decision of Ciri becoming a Witcher (not making her the protagonist, but her taking the Mutagens), but i want to see how they explain that turn of events.
  
  Ending with Ciri following the Witcher path, is Canon now
  It's canon in the books too. She was trained at Ker Moren, then trained by Yennefer but ultimately she gives up her magic entirely after pulling from fire as a source out of desperation. She remains an extremely skilled swordswoman with partial mutation
  
  That's the problem, they want to put Ciri in same gameplay but different story and say that's new Witcher. I would more likely play as Yenefer sorceress and slay monsters in a Witcher game than play as Ciri that somehow becomes a Witcher just to slay monsters with as sword. We already have character that slays monsters with a sword in Witcher game, he's called Geralt.
- I dont think its necessarily to complicate things but more that we've had Geralt as a main character for 3 games. His time is ending, and if you love him as a main character there are those 3 aforementioned games you can play to get what youre looking for. Switching up the main protagonist to another character that we as gamers have learned to love and accept through the series is probably the best move, both for business and canonically.

As long as they remake the original Witcher(and maybe the 2nd one too) so i can experience it in a similarly cinematic way to The Witcher 3... I will be happy and excited to see what a Ciri-based game or even trilogy would look like.
Will definitely miss the masculine indulgences of TW3 in the Ciri game though...
- If you’re avoiding the first two Witcher games because they’re somehow not cinematic, you’re sorely mistaken.
  Both of those games are incredibly atmospheric to the point of mastery. (tbf you have to be able to forgive the character models in the first game and that can be admittedly difficult because HOLY HELL ZOLTAN ARE YOU OKAY)
  also wtf do you mean “masculine indulgences?”
  
  Definitely not OP, but I wouldn't mind remasters of the first game to address the wonky controls. Witcher 2 was fine, but trying to go from Witcher 3 back to Witcher 1 for the first time was not a great experience for me.
- They are remaking the first game, but I don't know if there are enough details about it yet to know how extensive the overhaul will be. The second game doesn't need one.
- Ciri has a relationship with a woman in the books, so I’m not sure you will miss what I assume you’re referring to as “the masculine indulgences” as much as you think you will.
  On the other hand, CDPR retconned a shedload of that book so we shall see.