The Witcher 4 & Intergalactic backlash proves sexism in gaming is only getting worse

The Witcher 4 and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet backlash stemming from their reveals at the 2024 Game Awards cements the notion that sexism in gaming is worse now than it ever has been.

The 2024 Game Awards was filled with surprise announcements, developers giving fans a taste of what to expect from the years that lie ahead. While there were dozens of trailers shown, including 10 world premieres, two particular reveals generated the most attention in the aftermath.

After years of anticipation, developer CD Projekt finally unveiled The Witcher 4, wherein Ciri takes over from Geralt of Rivia to serve as the game’s playable protagonist. 

Furthermore, The Last of Us and Uncharted creators Naughty Dog gave us a first look at their new IP, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. It’s a new space opera that will have players diving into the shoes of bounty hunter, Jordan A. Mun.

Yet among the biggest takeaways from both reveals was the fact these projects center around female protagonists. While the gaming industry has evolved a great deal over the past decade to promote inclusivity and diversity, parts of the community, a vocal section at that, are clearly unwilling to accept broader representation.

Sexism and misogyny may never have been worse, with the idea that gaming has become too “woke” a bigger and more cornering issue than ever before.

Intergalactic & The Witcher 4 among the worst examples of sexism yet

Just based on a few minutes of footage, some gamers have already decided to give Naughty Dog and CD Projekt’s next titles a miss, solely based on the claim the female playable characters aren’t attractive enough for them.

Keep in mind, this vitriolic and downright immature response emanates from brief reveals. We don’t know much of anything about the narrative or gameplay, let alone having played the full titles to experience the art as intended. Just the fact that they feature women was enough to turn thousands of sexist gamers off.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’s lead has a shaven head, wears baggy clothes, and isn’t plastered in make-up. I’ve even seen male journalists in the space talking about Jordan’s appearance and commenting on her more masculine look as justification for why certain gamers already want to riot.

Some online have even called for a boycott, claiming Intergalactic includes “an uglified female protagonist, gratuitous product placement, overall wokeness, and uninspiring art direction.”

It’s bizarre when you’ve got a character like Furiosa from the Mad Max series being praised for her look and tenacity when she too denies conventional femininity. So why is Jordan any different? Because she’s a lead in a video game and not a movie? What’s more, Jordan is modeled after the actress who voices her, Tati Gabrielle. For those making arguments that Jordan’s design is “non-realistic” to how women look, you’re dead wrong.

Many of the same people calling to boycott Intergalactic are also doing the same for The Witcher 4, professing that “deranged feminists are destroying” the franchise.

Ciri’s new, aged-up design revealed in The Witcher 4 cinematic has been called “ugly” by some, others even going so far as to apply filters over her to make her look more ‘conventional’ and ‘attractive’, by removing her scar and adding makeup.

When was the last time a male character got called out for not being a looker? I can’t think of a single example.

A list ranking the “wokeness” of gaming was created in 2024

It’s become commonplace that when a new video game is released, the community rushes to judge the project based on how “woke” it is.

Just this year, an actual list was created wherein video games were ranked based on this idea. While you may think only games including female leads or LGBTQ+ characters would be featured, it’s much worse.

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The Woke Ranking was only created in 2024.

Resident Evil 3 is considered woke due to Jill’s outfit being changed in the remaster for “practicality reasons.” Pinball FX is even included because the “Women of Power DLC features female superheroes from the Marvel Universe.”

To call this disheartening is an understatement. I’ve never had any issues playing as male characters in video games, but to now have the chance to play as a woman and have different types of women, not just hypersexualized ladies in booty shorts, portrayed in the medium fills me with pride and hope.

wokedetector

Even Pinball is considered “woke” by gamers in 2024.

I love the gaming industry but have always felt like an outsider, someone who doesn’t feel accepted or welcomed and that’s due to the games that have always been created. 

To see this kind of dialogue online is so damaging. I’m grateful that growing up social media didn’t exist in this capacity because if it did, I likely never would have fallen in love with gaming. How can young women be expected to want to dive into the world of video games when this type of messaging is encouraged by so many in the space?

This then begs the question, is the gaming community getting more sexist or is it simply because there is finally some sort of representation that this problem has become a more prominent issue?

Sexism is worse because there are finally women in games

I’ve been a gamer since the early 2000s and as a young woman, a queer one at that, the notion that female characters are too common or that women are too represented in the industry is just completely false. 

Unless I was playing an RPG and was able to create my character, I never expected to play as a woman when purchasing a new video game, resigning myself to the fact that it was simply the nature of the industry. Now that developers are finally making games with female characters, sexism and misogyny have become a more significant problem.

After all, if there weren’t any women in games, let alone in prominent roles, then it was never something men had to complain about. Now that we’ve got the likes of Ellie, Aloy, and others leading the charge, the conversation has grown.

It’s not just Intergalactic and The Witcher 4 that has been the subject of similarly disenchanting discourse in 2024. Ghost of Yotei was slammed by misogynistic backlash when it was announced and Star Wars Outlaws was similarly criticised out of the gate just for having a female lead.

Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd wasn’t even given a chance because it included pronouns and trans visibility and was review-bombed heavily as a result.

Let’s also not forget the uproar when GTA 6’s female protagonist, Lucia, was revealed. As a franchise that has always thrust a spotlight on misogyny, Rockstar looking to rightly undo these troubling foundations has been extremely contentious. 

When you’ve got a fanbase so rooted in sexism and unwilling to evolve, what hope is there for new franchises that don’t have decades of history and player loyalty to draw from?

It’s not a new idea that female gamers now make up just under 50% of the community, so why are men making it so hard for just under half of gamers to feel represented? 

Sexist gamers don’t mind playing as women so long as they fit within the male gaze

Core Design

Lara Croft has always been a contentious female character.

While there’s always been Lara Croft as the one example men draw on when making the argument that there are ladies in games, I never felt she was intended to be a role model, certainly not for young girls.

While Square Enix has done a fantastic job with the most recent trilogy to dissuade me of this notion, Croft has largely been for the male gaze. Funnily enough, now that she is less sexualized, she’s getting hated on. Interesting how that works, isn’t it?

Ciri and Jordan might not have triangular breasts and be running around in tiny shorts, but they are real women and genuine representations of such. That’s something I’ve been struggling to find since I was a young girl.

Sorry that it’s not what you find attractive, men, but to me, these are the most gorgeous women I’ve ever seen in video games. Why? Because they’re authentically women.

Women are still greatly underrepresented in gaming

Guerrilla Games

Even Aloy’s appearance has been critiqued by some gamers over the years.

A study that examined the 150 most popular video games released from 1985 up until 2022 revealed that of these titles, only 6% of them had a female character as the standalone hero at the helm. 

The games in question were Portal, Portal 2, Beyond Two Souls, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Life is Strange, The Walking Dead: Season Two, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Star Wars Battlefront II. 

While we’ve now got Ellie from The Last of Us to throw into the mix, it’s important to note that that franchise was still launched with Joel Miler as the leading character, and when Ellie did take over in the second game, there was an obscene amount of backlash.

The sexism will only get worse unless there is a big change

All I can hope for is that as more women are included in video games, the community changes its tone to understand and accept the importance of these characters.

More playable women doesn’t mean male characters are going to disappear but it does mean the content produced will more greatly reflect the audience consuming them.

I’m always optimistic and have seen the industry make much more space for women in the past few decades but it’s now up to the community to evolve too. It’s embarrassing to see sexism and misogyny growing in gaming and it needs to stop.

If you don’t want to play as a woman, then don’t. No one is forcing you. But don’t go crying on the internet and spreading manufactured hate and division when The Witcher 4 and Intergalactic release and your only criticism is that there’s a woman on the cover.