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[LectureMaster]

Rock Paper Shotgun published an article saying: Having Ciri as The Witcher 4 lead will help the game explore the Witcher world's sexism, say CD Projekt

Having Ciri as The Witcher 4 lead will help the game explore the Witcher world's sexism, say CD Projekt

The announcement of The Witcher 4 with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Ciri as protagonist has attracted a bit of discussion…

www.rockpapershotgun.com

Chinese site Gamersky reached out to CDPR for clarification on this matter, and CDPR replied that this was not true.

Original Chinese Article from Gamersky

Machine translation:

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Reports that CDPR is exploring sexism in The Witcher 4 are not accurate​

Foreign media previously reported that CD Projekt said that making Ciri the protagonist of "The Witcher 4" will help the game explore sexism in the Witcher world.

After asking CDPR about this matter, we learned that the information conveyed in this report is wrong. The report quoted eurogamer's interview with Philipp Weber, the narrative director of The Witcher 4. The interviewee, Mr. Weber, did not express that he would explore the theme of sexism through Ciri, but that The Witcher 4 would inherit the dark and complex worldview of the past three games, hoping to explore various conflicts in the Witcher world, and issues related to female demon hunters would be one of them.

At the same time, the interview also expressed that the production team respected previous works, including Andrzej Sapkowski's original novel and the previous three "Witcher" games, which naturally also included some important choices made by players in them. But how CDPR will present this will be revealed in the story of "The Witcher 4".

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[Moses85]

 

[Schmendrick]

As everyone who actually read the interview knew already....

Gaming headlines are more often baseless clickbait than not.

 

[Eimran]

Fuck these people who make these shitty clickbait articles

 

[Imtjnotu]

Fuck you Rock paper shotgun for starting this crap

 

[Plague Doctor]

I've said it before. As much as you think you actively dislike the modern day gaming journos, you do not dislike them enough. When they aren't lying, they are insufferable narcissists trying to compel companies and readers to their rightthink.

 

[Saber]

Thats good, because make people who use this as a form of ism/namecalling to insult gamers looks even more retarded. Game journo being legacy could be a thing faster than expected.

 

[LectureMaster]

 

[Mr Moose]

What?
Coming back to Ciri more broadly, there was a sense with The Witcher 3, and I think a lot of Witcher fiction as a whole - the TV series as well as the books - that this is a man's world, and that the experience of a woman is actively quite a significant theme in The Witcher in a lot of different forms. The women of this world are subjected to a lot of violence, they're heavily sexualized in different ways. There's the kind of 'deal with the devil' that sorceresses have to have to make where they lose their fertility and so on. Watching the trailer, it seemed to maybe channel this: there's Ciri, a woman trying and failing to save another woman from more of this universe's violence, right? Is that an intentional theme that you were channeling with the trailer? And also, is it something you're intentionally looking to explore in the game, the experience of a woman in particular through Ciri's eyes in this world?


Weber: I mean, I would say the world of The Witcher is a really dark one that's really inspired by, of course, dark fantasy folklore. But also medieval to early Renaissance history, and that is a world that was tough - tough for many different groups, women among them. As an example, in The Witcher, we also deal a lot with racism when it comes to non-humans, and this is something that we want to keep up with The Witcher 4. I think it's something that has always been really important. We make games for adults, and it also means that we tackle some difficult topics. We tackle them in interesting ways. We tackle them without giving easy answers, but often opening difficult questions that players have to answer. And I think some of those questions might be going in this direction as well, because, yeah, Ciri is a woman, and as a witcher in this world, this is an unusual state. So I don't think it's going to be this story everywhere, but since this is a part of this world, and we want to tackle so many of those different themes, it's definitely also going to appear there as well.

 

[Killer8]

CDPR didn't use the exact word "sexism" themselves. The interviewer did. But CDPR didn't push back on that at all - they expanded on it and Weber basically said as much that they're going to be exploring it as a theme in that very interview. Read between the lines.

Of course they're going to backpedal now that people are making a fuss about it and say it was misinterpreted and we never said that and blah blah insert PR gaslighting here. You guys are way too forgiving of this nonsense.

"It was the hecking lying game journos, CDPR (who is totally not tainted with activist writers now) would never say something like that!!"

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Anyone who read the interview knew this. But the grifters also know that the deranged mob won’t bother to read the actual interview if they just make clickbait headlines in their tweets or YT videos.

 

[PatientGamer]

Mr. Weber, did not express that he would explore the theme of sexism through Ciri, but that The Witcher 4 would inherit the dark and complex worldview of the past three games, hoping to explore various conflicts in the Witcher world, and issues related to female demon hunters would be one of them.

What?

So it will explore the theme of sexism then? Whether you call it 'witchcraft' or whatever... it sounds like it's all rooted in sexism, no?

What am I missing with this quote?

 

[Bernardougf]

It depends... when they are giving good grades and awards to a game I like they are OK in my book ... this is the gaf way.

Edit.: my honest opinion is that they want to tackle female subjects with a female protagonist.... they had a perfect very very popular male lead and chose to cast him aside so she could have her light and even made her a witcher breaking canon lore.... and I dont care about "but the previous game" if you cared you wouldn't accept her as a true witcher , so you also dont care.. they can break lore and adjust the story to make her a witcher so they could do the same thing to make Geralt the protagonist again .. easy as that

But I digress... is their choice to make her the protagonist, so be it, but what they are going to do with her remains to be seen, and I dont give benefit of the doubt to western studios anymore, specially the ones hiring woketards from Insomniac and opening their own studio on the woke capital of the world.

Woke/feminist elements will be present in the game... thats a giving... what remains to be seen is in what capacity and how will this affect the story and how "preachy wil it be".

If not ? I'll happily eat my crow... but I only eat half of it .. the other half is for if she is a better lead than geralt .. and this is never going to happen.

 

[GametimeUK]

It's lame that games have been weaponised to fight political battles as opposed to telling compelling stories. Exploring sexism or racism etc in games is actually a way to keep things interesting, but due to the blatant pandering in recent years any attempt at exploring these themes has its impact diminished and dismissed as "woke" from the get go.

It's a shame.

 

[CliffBronger]

^^^ So true my interest level in witcher 4 has gone from 10/10 to near zero.

I'll wait for reviews before even thinking about picking it up.

 

[Neolombax]

Just make the game actually good, I don't care for all this agenda nonsense. Tell me more about the game, not the agendas.

 

[Banjo64]

What about the reports where the lore lead said he wanted to punch gamers?

 

[mckmas8808]

What?

So it will explore the theme of sexism then? Whether you call it 'witchcraft' or whatever... it sounds like it's all rooted in sexism, no?

What am I missing with this quote?

You aren't understanding something or you are falling for the modern day outrage culture nonsense.

- Gender is something that's real. Males and Females are literally different in many ways.
- How people in The Witcher universe view a male Witcher vs. a female Witcher should be different. Especially since she's rare.
- Exploring these differences within the game's universe is intriguing for any creative and should be interesting for anybody that cares about this IP
- Nothing I listed above has to be about "Sexism" in the way many like to use that term these days.

It's lame that games have been weaponised to fight political battles as opposed to telling compelling stories. Exploring sexism or racism etc in games is actually a way to keep things interesting, but due to the blatant pandering in recent years any attempt at exploring these themes has its impact diminished and dismissed as "woke" from the get go.

It's a shame.

I wish you'd understand that this weaponization has happened on both sides now. You don't have to fall for the nonsense if you don't want to. Believe me when I tell you there are many Youtubers and Twitter numb nuts that are pandering to the "Anti-Woke" any and every time a game wants to approach the things that you'll find interesting.

 

[GametimeUK]

I wish you'd understand that this weaponization has happened on both sides now. You don't have to fall for the nonsense if you don't want to. Believe me when I tell you there are many Youtubers and Twitter numb nuts that are pandering to the "Anti-Woke" any and every time a game wants to approach the things that you'll find intinteresting.

Sorry, but are you implying I believe the weaponization is one sided?

 

[JayK47]

This game is toast. It could be "good", but it won't matter now. The sales were going to be worse regardless, due to a lack of Geralt. Now they will be really low. The game will be under a microscope and anything that hints of woke will get a spotlight shown on it and relentlessly ripped for it. I am now a CD Projeck Red skeptic due do Cyberpunk. I will not pre-order and I know the game will not be complete for at least 4 years after launch. I won't touch the game anywhere near launch. I am sick of beta testing for these developers and I am sick of them coddling activists.

 

[analog_future]

You mean GAF fell for more fake culture-war bullshit again!?

 

[Zannegan]

This game is toast. It could be "good", but it won't matter now. The sales were going to be worse regardless, due to a lack of Geralt. Now they will be really low. The game will be under a microscope and anything that hints of woke will get a spotlight shown on it and relentlessly ripped for it. I am now a CD Projeck Red skeptic due do Cyberpunk. I will not pre-order and I know the game will not be complete for at least 4 years after launch. I won't touch the game anywhere near launch. I am sick of beta testing for these developers and I am sick of them coddling activists.

Given the heights of the last game in both sales and critical reception, I kind of doubt it crashes and burns, even if it were to be the worst version of what people fear.

In my (admittedly anecdotal) experience, while the marketing of the curent game/movie in a series can move sales up or down, it always seems to be the next installment that suffers most from the sins of each entry.

 

[adamsapple]

What about the reports where the lore lead said he wanted to punch gamers?

Be honest, don't you want to do that sometimes too?

 

[mckmas8808]

Sorry, but are you implying I believe the weaponization is one sided?

Most seem to think it is. But it looks like you understand it's on both sides, so that's great. It's sad seeing some people being tricked into thinking it's all one-sided.

 

[JayK47]

Given the heights of the last game in both sales and critical reception, I kind of doubt it crashes and burns, even if it were to be the worst version of what people fear.

In my (admittedly anecdotal) experience, while the marketing of the curent game/movie in a series can move sales up or down, it always seems to be the next installment that suffers most from the sins of each entry.

Maybe the sales are not so low to bankrupt the company, but I doubt they will hit numbers that will call for 2 more sequels. If they are planning for 3 games with Ciri and the sales are below expectations, they are likely to cancel the next two games and I bet the first game ends on a cliffhanger leaving the story untold. People like me who have all previous games and read all the books will of course get the blame since I will not likely buy anytime near release. I may change my mind when it gets close to release and I see that they have addressed my concerns. But my expectations for this game are really low at the moment. That reveal trailer and everything CD Projekt Red has said since the trailer have not inspired confidence.

 

[poodaddy]

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell.....

 

[Banjo64]

Be honest, don't you want to do that sometimes too?

Only the fanatics…

 

[ahtlas7]

Video game journalists are worse than tabloids