Inspired by another post

I can't understand hating Ciri as a chracter, but I can understand being kind of a disappointed not having Geralt as a playable character.

If you consider it as an isolated game it doesn't matter, but when you play three games as one character and then suddenly switch to another character it can feel kind of melancholic, in absence of a better word. Especially since now there's a non-zero chance that they'll kill Geralt in the new game.

But anyway, Ciri was an interesting character and those parts in Witcher 3 where you played as her were great.

Someone that did not read the books. There are multiple points where the story shifts to Ciri. In a similar way Ragnarok shifts to Atreaus.

For me it's not that I hate ciri at all. I completely understand women's complaint that most games have a male protagonist and they can't relate to that. I feel the same way, I like to feel at least somewhat immersed and I can never really get that with a female protagonist. It's not like I don't try either, I just never end up getting into the games I have tried that are like this.

I know it's hard when the story is based on an individual, but I just wish more games had an option so everyone could play who they want to. I don't hate them for this choice, it will just be another game that "isn't for me" in the same way a hyper competitive PVP game "isn't for me" which is fine.

This is Lemmy. You're looking for reddit.

I haven't seen a single complaint about Ciri being the protagonist of the next witcher game andI believe it's because she isn't a "let's put a woman here for the quotas" type of character.

Really? Can you share them? I saw the post on lemmy complaining about wanting male/female options, but there's also this article with gems such as below.

Even in the comments of that article though, is "DEI detected = Purchase rejected".

So the comments are out there, probably on reddit too, but they are there.

We're a pretty happy bubble here, which is why I'm here

And bald! Which probably reminds some of the negative anti-wokers of their current day living situations

Ah I see you too are a "true" gamer

Being loud and offensive attracts more attention than being normal

A chain is not stronger than its weakest link or something

Just because she does it in the trailer does not mean we start there in the game.

I agree it seems a little shoe-horned to make her a classical witcher. I hope it's not just to give her the title, because she could easily be the protagonist, and/or have the job of being a witcher without the trial of the grasses. She was given the training and education of a witcher, and has magical powers of her own already. Receiving the trials would be a huge deal, narratively, to the characters, and to world building. I could easily see this being a fumbled corporate attempt at placating fans that wanted to see geralt, without any regard for the characters or world building. (Similar to "Rey Skywalker" having absolutely no business being a Skywalker). But that's all speculation. If it's treated as a major plot point, and not done just for the hell of it, it could still be good.

She's wearing a feline medallion in the trailer, so it stands to reason she's affiliated with the School of the Cat now. She probably went through their trials. And apparently CDPR has stated she is indeed a full witcher now.

Yeah I'm not sure what her becoming a witcher adds to her story. She already has a lot going for her. Now if she became a badass witch like Granny weatherwax that's the left turn I want to see.

Ciri used headology: The bandit lies down questioning how exactly disappointed his mother will be in him when ciri gets back from the coven.

There is a very good Shaun video on this exact thing .

Who the fuck finds game Ciri to be unattractive? She was specifically made prettier for the new medium. The books describe her as a tomboy with ashen hair, huge green eyes, young face, tall and slim. Later on, "losing on her charm" by being fed meals for what basically amounts to supersoldiers, despite being a kid and putting on weight. Even in the trailer for W4 she is depicted as the game version - no babyface, no "tomboyishness" etc. She literally is an hourglass shaped woman in a skinsuit.

What's annoying as fuck is her being a mutant, not her being a woman. Witchers were successful because they had gone through mutations, which had like a 30% success rate for boys in the optimal moment in their life - pre puberty.

At the end of Witcher 3, she is a 20 year old woman. Post puberty, hasn't been brought up preparing for the trials, quite the opposite - she had a relatively normal life. It's like comparing a chess prodigy that has played the game since they were 4, and a random dude starting chess at 30 yo. Multiply that by 300x - since the mixtures were specifically made with human physiology in mind - with Ciri basically being a demigod in the universe past Witcher 3. Add in the fact that passing the trials basically slows down aging to a crawl, but she looks way older in the trailer.

The reality is, it doesn't make sense from a lore perspective. But someone who doesn't care about the lore made a decision that Ciri is now a Witcher, so she somehow has to be one. In reality - the trailer basically made her a Mary Sue of the universe (if she wasn't that already). She is both a witcher and a mage and has unique bloodlines that give her additional powers.

What they could have done, is a million other things. Prequel to where witchers were created / early days of the cataclysm - conflicts between the original occupants of the universe and humans and monsters. They could've done a prequel with Vesemir. They could have continued wirh Ciri, but with her actual powers, instead of making her a witcher. They could've made a character creator letting everyone design their own witcher - with whatever characteristics they want.

People are pisses off for the same reason why the Netflix show quickly started sucking and why Cavill left it behind. Writers not caring about previous lore at all, pulling their own out of their ass because they think they know better than the author of the universe (who granted is a fucking asshole, but still).

The thing is though, they don't care about women in video games, they just care about "ugly" women in video games.

Welcome to 2024, where preferring art to not be that is not ugly is despicable behavior.

I know most left leaning people aren't this extreme, but this really gives them a bad image and puts off a lot of people. Especially when the non extreme people jump to the defense out of the feeling that opposing extremes is the same as promoting the right.

EDIT: Change wording for clarity.

You also spend multiple chunks of the game playing as Ciri. Like what are folks expecting?

My thought was that Geralt and Ciri's stories were over or decided, and I'm disappointed they didn't find a way to do a Witcher story either in the future or past that enabled you to pick your own gender, appearance, Witcher school, or whatever else, maybe with creative use of the trial of the grasses or something.

I'll happily play as Ciri to revisit the universe and maybe some familiar characters, but I just wish they'd done something newer or more original.

From shitty YouTuber influencers.

A guy from work constantly tells me how I should feel about a game based on a YouTuber he watches. He doesn't play it, he just parrot that shit. Often it's the most sexist, disgusting take.

And most of these influencers are outright basement dwellers with pride.

So like, they're getting shitty takes from shitty human beings who are proud of being shitty?

Don't understand it as a rational thing, understand the hate as a cancer with its growth being juiced and accelerated by the ruling class because incels are the easiest demographic to scam into violently acting against their own interests.

A cancerous process is by definition irrational from the perspective of the body it acts upon, the reason the cancer exists and grows is not because of a motive, desire or need but rather because the cancerous process consumes all the space and oxygen in a room at a faster rate than anything else can compete with while remaining invisible to the body as a threat.

Toxicity towards women displaces other topics and viewpoints specifically because the men pushing those topics want to monopolize the discussion and framing and often centrist types don't challenge that at all because of some self-perceived high ground to tolerating intolerance (not something you tend to believe in if you have experienced serious hate).

Generally speaking im absolutely for a better representation of women and minorities. However, theres on criterium for it: it must fit with the lore. If the lore makes sense with a woman, go for it. If you just replace the main character with a woman, but don't adjust the lore in a way that its clear that its an entire new storyline or so, than I'm against swapping out the main character. Inclusion shouldn't lower the quality of a game.

It seems like it from the trailer, but I'm nervous about the voice actress, she does sound different than 3.... But I'm willing to give her a fair chance

It's not even that, she still looks good. They're mad she isn't a college girl in a white shirt anymore. She has armor and an actual woman's face, the horror.

In general English usage I think you may be right.

In the world of "The Witcher" (which is translated from Polish) there are both male and female mages with inborn abilities. Sometimes they are called sorcerers and sorceresses, sometimes they are called mages, sometimes they are called something related to their specialisation of magic, and sometimes wise women who do magic but didn't go to the academy are called witches.

Witchers, however, are not mages. They are made from ordinary humans and are gene manipulated and highly trained to be monster hunters. They have some witcher powers that are related to runes, and they make potions that have side effects only they can survive thanks to their manipulated bodies. Witchers at birth do not have special potential. Though a lot of little witcher trainees die, so you could argue they are artificially selected in that way.

Ciri is kind of neither of those, but she has special abilities related to space and time manipulation. In the new trailer it seems she drinks a witcher potion, but from what we know she never underwent the manipulation that witchers did.

I don't think so.

I think being a Witcher is a distinct moniker In universe for the training/vocation of hunting magical monsters.

The usual male analogues in media for witch are wizards and/or warlocks

that implies that men are witch-er than a female witch? :D

No, but being disappointed you don't play as Geralt means you missed half the point of 3.

Let the dude retire to his life of cheating on his girlfriend, damn

Metroid FTW

Yeah I don't understand why people want to play themselves in a video game honestly

The ugly comments are fucking hilarious. She's a perfectly attractive older woman at this point, and quite honestly, if I'm going to be forced to take up her mantle as the player character, I'll have a much easier time identifying with a hardened older woman as a Witcher than a young adult girl with perpetually running mascara.

I didn't enjoy playing the Ciri bits at all in TW3, but this version of Ciri is about as palatable as it could have been, and I'm open to it. Especially if I can customize her playstyle like I could Geralt, so that it's not just fast, whippy, lightning zippy-zappy whatever-the-fuck that was in TW3.

I didn't check out what the news about it was but they announced at least half a decade ago that Geralt's story was over and if they're creating another Witcher game, it's going to be Ciri

So I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that Cirilla, daughter of the emperor, the girl with elder blood, groomed by the Witchers to become one of them... MIGHT just be the next protagonist.

And I'm all for it. She's the future, Geralt is the past. I love Geralt, but he's so old and broken by the end of 3, it's not even funny anymore. They could do prequel games with him or something, but not a sequel to 3 at this point.

Various comment sections on German IT news sites. Cesspit of incels and horny old men that complain about the ass they'll have to stare at not being plump enough.

Don't look at Steam discussions huh

Probably smart

One-handed

The games take place after the books, so it's green field. Although it sounds like I canonizes the ending of witcher 3, (but honestly there was only one "correct" ending to the witcher 3 unless you're a heartless bastard)

The canonical answer to "can girls become witchers" is no one properly knows. Citi was raised and trained by them but they didn't do the other stuff (the mutagens, trial of grasses or special diet) because they both didn't know what it would do to a girl because it had never been done to a girl and because even if it worked exactly like it would for a boy it causes sterility and she's the last member of the royal line of Cintra.

But the time of The Witcher 3, she's already older than it's normally done, so any attempt to do it would additionally have unknown results because presumably they usually start changing them from childhood for a reason, rather than taking in adult trainees.

Yeah they play the loser and we play the woke angel, it's kind of win-win because they get whatever it is they get, and we get to feel smart and superior.

AI has kind of taken the fun out of it, though... like for real, convincing sounding, dog whistle sprinkled, trollish duck speak is so easy to generate, I struggle to care about interactions on main socials. I mean I don't go there, but if I did...