Ciri takes charge: A step forward or fanboy fallout?

The internet seems to be very divided on CD Projekt Red’s decision to make Ciri the protagonist of The Witcher 4. Some have drafted eloquent essays and “open-letters” to CD Project Red for their defiance of the lore by making Ciri a witcher while others simply refuse to play “as a girl”. Even the support for the game only seems to be the occasional comment surrounding the visuals. It’s clear that this discourse reveals deeper issues with the way female characters are perceived in games.  

The reaction to Ciri’s character shows a recurring issue with female characters in gaming, that they’re “less engaging” to play as and that their storylines receive less attention are compared to male characters. With that, there are also people arguing about how The Witcher 4 has gone “too woke” by making Ciri the main character of the game. This implies that the only reason for a female character to be the protagonist of a game is so the game developers can appeal to a modern audience by waving the flag of pseudo-feminism. Even as someone with limited knowledge of The Witcher plotline, I am fully aware of the fact that this is where the story was heading. It has always been inevitable for the game to hand the reins to Ciri, who has her own set of amazing skills as a fighter and an enchantress. As one of the main characters in the books, is it really that shocking that her character comes into the spotlight in the new game?  

I personally think this discourse becomes sexist, demeaning and frankly absurd

Going back to Geralt, as a lot of people pointed out, he also seems to have had the perfect retirement with The Witcher 3. After years of battling monsters and endless turmoil, the game offers a sense of resolution to Geralt’s storyline. His relations with key characters like Ciri are the only way that the storyline can progress, with her taking over Geralt’s legacy and forging her own destiny. CD Projekt Red also fully supports this idea and are convinced that making Ciri a lead “opens up many exciting opportunities from both the narrative and gameplay perspectives.”  

There is also a divided opinion of Ciri’s character design, with a lot of people complaining that her character isn’t “physically attractive” and that the game would be a lot better if she were more “conventionally beautiful”. There are people comparing her to how her character looked before and how it was “cuter” and “more innocent looking”. Now, this is where I personally think this discourse becomes sexist, demeaning and frankly absurd. Ciri’s character looks older and more mature simply because she has aged. And while I personally don’t see the unattractiveness in Ciri’s big bright eyes and straight nose, I think the main issue lies with people’s outdated and regressive views of female protagonists in games. 

Calling a game “too woke” for promoting diversity and inclusion is becoming a dangerous trend

The trend of people hating games with female protagonists isn’t new. Many players argue that they “can’t relate” to female protagonists, but in a game like The Witcher, where the setting is fiction, relatability shouldn’t be a concern. This mind-set reinforces the idea that male characters are inherently neutral, while female characters are viewed as catering to a specific audience or agenda. Through a bit of research, I found that this mind-set has an impact on the sales as well – games with only male leads sold 75% better than games with only female leads. But then further research also shows that the reason for this is because female-lead games only get about half of the marketing budgets that male-lead games get. The lack of budget then ends up making a self-fulfilling prophecy of female-lead games not doing well because they’re not funded as well as they should be.  

Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which was also shown at the Game Awards, has faced similar backlash with players already writing the game off for having a female protagonist. Calling a game “too woke” for promoting diversity and inclusion is becoming a dangerous trend in the gaming industry. And let’s not forget that players don’t mind playing as female characters as long as they are hypersexualised and fit the standards of the male gaze. Not wanting to play as a certain gender is a choice, but dismissing games because they have female leads is clearly sexist, and the criticism that these games are now facing reflects the biases that continue to persist and are frequently noticed in the gaming community.