Wolverine: Gotta Hate Something
When your only way of analyzing media is trying to find things you hate it's hard to ever find something to love.
Gaming has a problem.
Yes the industry is a capitalist hellscape where AAA gaming studios keep resisting mass unionization so they can grind their contract workers into an ever finer dust and gambling mechanics or loot boxes are showing no signs of slowing - but what’s discussed far less is the culture warrior industrial complex. The grown men children who spend all day mass producing outrage porn about every single release desperately pulling apart the pixels in search of the dreaded “woke”. For years fake gaming tourists like The Quartering and Heels vs Baby Face (better known to the internet as Pronouns Guy) have been raging in front of a web cam about modern games being destroyed by diversity or gays. Either on the backend where more women having jobs is the downfall of society or the front where releases feature characters with more depth and complexity than simply “walking tits who must be rescued with bonus expanding tits but also boobies”.
When he’s not scamming his own fans for hundreds of thousands of dollars for a game he’ll never finish Mark Kern (aka Grummz) is usually one of the first to dictate that a title has unfortunately become another victim of the woke mind virus. Predictably melting down over a Black or female protagonist or worse yet if a consulting firm of any kind was hired to help with cultural diversity. If you’ve been blissfully unaware of Ghost of Yotei pre-backlash, outrage peddlers have already been castigating the title for everything from having a voice talent (Erika Ishii) who is both genderfluid and openly pansexual to the studio having to fire one of their lead artists over her audacity to make a joke in light of Charlie Kirk’s killing.
The outrage cycle is a relatively predictable one. A trailer will be released and right wing streamers will watch it until a minority or woman who isn’t traditionally attractive appears and their live chats demand blood. Immediately social media will flood with extremely secure men screeching their demands be taken seriously as yet another title has revealed itself to be on the wrong side of history. This song and dance can only produce clicks and revenue until the inevitable release because unfortunately their one shining principle of “go woke go broke” inevitably fails when the hyped AAA studio game makes the monstrously huge payload it was marketed and designed to achieve.
These parasites in the gaming community don’t care at all about the conditions of the artists and programmers who make their games. They never farm outrage about mass monopolization or exploitation - their only war is with culture itself. A distant romanticized mythic past that featured almost exclusively white men as the main protagonists and women in sparing amounts to justify the quest. Nevermind that there’s no shortage of hot and scantily clad characters in all media to this day (because it sells after all) - no, the industry is a cesspool of leftist indoctrination. Despite being the capitalist juggernaut that it is.
Enter James Howlett.
Now being a by the numbers action game featuring one of the most beloved super heroes of all time with very little in the way of rainbow flags - one would think there was nothing to find objectionable here. Yet in the immortal words of Ian Malcolm “life finds a way”.
Nevermind that Mystique is a shapeshifting mutant and will be able to look completely differently throughout the game. Nevermind that even by the bizarre standards they’re applying she’s not traditionally ugly. Nevermind that new interpretations of characters is a good thing actually and that the comics feature an endless amount of character variants. Nevermind that she’s once again: a fucking shapeshifter.
No this is clearly a travesty of the highest order and a sure sign of things to come. If they can’t get Mystique right what’s next? Jean Grey with a B cup?! Clearly the studio needs to fire the artist and give gamers what they want!
For the record I have no problem with either design. I love my shapeshifting sex goddesses as much as the next guy. But also I enjoy life. I can enjoy art. I don’t need only one interpretation of women (or shapeshifting mutants) to enjoy playing what is sure to be a badass action game featuring one of my favorite heroes. And before you call the virtue signaling police maybe you need to go back and play the Uncanny X-Men NES game.
As both a massive fan of the X-Men franchise and video games in general I’ve played through nearly every game for every console and let me tell you: there’s a lot of flaming hot trash. The NES game is a boring poorly programmed mess best left to retro gaming nerds to mock and while we all adore the X-Men arcade game, it wasn’t only fun because of sexy renditions. It was a blast to play with friends, remained true to the animated series and comics it was inspired by, and ate up your quarters faster than a sailors swear jar.
What’s worse is that yet again the game hasn’t even been released. We know so little about it and still Geeks & Gamers inspired tourists have to find something wrong. Their geocentric worldview (and economy) depends on a never ending battle between their childhoods and progress. It’s never them that’s the problem; it’s the world around them becoming more accepting of trans and gay rights or women working in the industry. Unfortunately their outrage farming does have real world consequences. From creative team members being harassed and bullied online to studios going as far as firing staff because the online backlash becomes too loud. Any film or game that is branded “woke” is often followed by numerous coordinated campaigns to downvote the trailers into oblivion proving that this relatively small collection of divorced weirdos represent the totality of a fan base.
Which is really sad considering how often these cry for therapy types show their asses.
No one is saying that there shouldn’t be variety of games and characters for everyone to enjoy. No one is trying to take away sexy mutants. People who spend so much time yelling at their screens don’t leave any to enjoy what they’re supposed to be playing. Growing up is a good thing - living in a world where characters can have more dimensions to their personality beyond the constraints of their 2D counterparts in the comic world is a fine thing indeed. Seeing a different version of Mystique won’t ruin the game (or your life).
But starting a campaign to attack anyone who works on it might.