The above video is from a South Park episode called ‘Joining the Panderverse’ from a few years ago. I haven’t watched this episode but the phrase that I’ve used as the title of this post became a meme simply because of how accurate it has been with regards to forced diversity in media over the last decade or more. Apparently it also criticised obsessive fandom but I have expressed similar disgust with fandom previously and this doesn’t take away from the clear mockery of social justice convergence found in the clip above. As hard as it may be for binary thinkers to comprehend, I can simultaneously dislike man-children complaining on YouTube while still substantially agreeing with what they’re complaining about.
Video games have naturally not been left alone and there is no shortage of examples to choose from. The character Ellie from the vastly overrated Naughty Dog series The Last of Us was made gay in the ‘Left Behind’ DLC released after the original game. The heroine Aloy from Guerrilla Games’ Horizon series was also made gay in story DLC released for the sequel. I do not believe it is a coincidence that both of these are PlayStation Studios franchises and that both of these “revelations” happened in DLC that is generally played by a smaller percentage of people who buy the base game. I also deliberately use “made” because I think these decisions are generally made further along in the creative process than any of these companies will ever admit.
There are three upcoming releases with female protagonists including two more to be published by PlayStation Studios that have female protagonists as well as The Witcher IV which will likely not release until at least 2027. I expect that all three of these female protagonists will either be lesbian or bisexual as in the meme. This post will briefly go over these games and should I be proved wrong on any, I will update the post admitting this.
The game nearest to release is Ghost of Yōtei from Sucker Punch Productions which is set for release in October. This is a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima though set hundreds of years later. I did play the latter and it was a decent though typical AAA open-world game. The sequel will take place in 1603 and has a female protagonist named Atsu. As ridiculous as it may be for the setting, I expect that this female warrior will also be an open sodomite. This already happened this year in Assassin’s Creed Shadows which has the same historical setting so it is not a stretch to expect the same thing here.
I should add that I am not against having female protagonists in games. In a fantasy or science-fiction setting, it is generally fine as it is in setting that eschew realism like most video games used to do. As quick examples there is the Metroid series where the female protagonist has a power suit that significantly enhances her abilities. Then there is the Tenchu stealth series that doesn’t aim for realism and where the object is usually to avoid direct combat with foes; making a female assassin more believable.
An additional prediction is that this game will be well-reviewed, nominated for ‘Game of the Year’ at the “Game Awards” but will also be typical open-world slop.
The next game is the more notorious Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet which was revealed at last year’s Game Awards. The once great Naughty Dog has spent most of the last twelve years on The Last of Us with one sequel and at least three re-releases of the original. It is quite a contrast to look at how their output has changed since Israel-born Neil Druckman took over the company with only 2016’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and a short standalone sequel interrupting more than a decade of The Last of Us. This is the first new IP Naughty Dog has developed since The Last of Us all but consumed the company and even the fourth Uncharted game felt like something made more out of obligation. The protagonist is unsurprisingly female and named Jordan A. Mun. From the trailer, she is revealed to be bald, black and a typically obnoxious girl-boss. That she will also a sodomite is all but a certain.
The only interest I have in this title is that it could be the beginning of the end of Naughty Dog. Getting hold of exact sales figures can be difficult but The Last of Us Part Two has sold more than ten million copies which would be great if it wasn’t considerably less than the total sales of the original. There are no shortage of Snoys (Sony Fans) who will buy anything they release but I expect this will have less appeal to the mainstream audience. And given that the game has been in development for years, it likely has an enormous budget that will require many millions of units sold just to break even.
Whatever happens, I expect it will be in most ways a very typical third-person action game that will still receive wide critical praise and awards.
The Witcher IV was also revealed at last year’s Game Awards though developer CD Projekt had previously announced a new game in The Witcher series was in development. Unlike the previous two games, this is a sequel to 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the new lead protagonist Ciri was playable in a few story missions in the previous game. It really wasn’t surprising that she was chosen as the ending most players most players who saw it to the end would have seen was her choosing to become a witcher.
Ciri is also a major character in Andrzej Sapkowski’s dark fantasy novels that the series is based on and even in those books was given witcher training though without going through the same mutations. Of all three characters, I would say she is most likely to be “bisexual” based on some dialogue options found in The Witcher 3.
CD Projekt is not the same company it was and most of the talent behind the first three games have left the company. It wouldn’t surprise me if this game ended up in development hell or even got cancelled as things are changing fast in the industry and there is less and less appetite for this forced inclusion. There have been multiple high profile games that released to both disappointing sales and critical reception. CD Projekt’s previous game Cyberpunk 2077 had a disastrous release and the product still fell far short of expectations even after multiple significant updates. If The Witcher IV is ever released, I doubt it will come anywhere close to the success of the previous games.
Before finishing, I want to note something that really should have come first and that is why the sexual proclivities of any of these characters should be relevant at all. These are supposed to be video games and it wasn’t so long ago that characters were simply avatars to be controlled by the player. Including “romance options” is becoming as common as progression systems though it is generally completely irrelevant to games. Much like forced diversity, these are “features” mostly included to pander to certain audiences and are ultimately superfluous to both story and gameplay.
It is my hope that all three of these games (and any like them), are financial failures.