@coded_artist I've thought about the idea of a database/web site for this, or just woke games in general. Right now, this web site is for "DEI involvement". I find this a bit limiting; many studios and publishers are plenty woke without needing any assistance from a so called "DEI" company. It's a broader phenomenon having to do with western universities and public schools, who stock the western AAA industry, and who are usually occupying all the positions of power (or are gatekeeping non-western studios, etc). I think in the future, more of the DEI stuff will be in-house, and any external contracting/consulting will be hidden, since these DEI companies are activist entities for which profit is secondary, and there's already an incestuous relationship with the publishers/studios, so they won't need their names in the credits of anything or on any web sites.
A better idea would be approaching it based on the games themselves. It's better to judge a tree by its fruits. Each game should have "woke" attributes listed (if any). Starting from zero (no woke detected), each thing causes the woke score to go up. Games with the highest score show how bad it is. Companies don't have to be "based" or attempt to label themselves (or be labeled), they simply would not want to appear on the list, or have a woke rating close to zero.
I've also thought another Web site idea could simply be the inverse, with "based points". That would be from the perspective of positive re-enforcement, and also because the pool of "based" games - especially AAA - is very small in the last 5-10 years, making the site easier to manage.
A better idea would be approaching it based on the games themselves. It's better to judge a tree by its fruits. Each game should have "woke" attributes listed (if any). Starting from zero (no woke detected), each thing causes the woke score to go up. Games with the highest score show how bad it is. Companies don't have to be "based" or attempt to label themselves (or be labeled), they simply would not want to appear on the list, or have a woke rating close to zero.
I've also thought another Web site idea could simply be the inverse, with "based points". That would be from the perspective of positive re-enforcement, and also because the pool of "based" games - especially AAA - is very small in the last 5-10 years, making the site easier to manage.
@miketruk Regarding woke studios, I doubt they will produce anything of worth, at least nothing that isn't blatantly woke such as Tchia.
But I hold no ill will to projects like that.
Grassroots Tumbler art and lesbians aren't the problem.
Subversions of values and established stories is.
Tchia is a good example:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1496590/Tchia/
It may have wahmen power and lesbians, but the bad guy is black despite there being literal white (French) colonizers in the setting, and men, even white western men, aren't all presented as evil or incompetent.
FYI: There's a site for based mods:
https://basedmods.eth.limo/browse/
@coded_artist Firstly, thanks for recommending BasedMods. It was a great idea, and whoever started it deserves credit.
To me, any game that has a particular demographic(s) in mind, or any artistic vision driven by passion rather than activism, develops for it, and advertises for it, is not a woke thing at all. I like to use the term "freaks" to describe the woke activist mind-set, not people's traits or preferences, as it is extremely twisted. It defies logic, or even dogmatic conviction despite its comparison to religion; contradictions are frequent. It seems more like Machiavellian political warfare than anything coherent.
What else would make a publisher or gate-keeper like Apple, etc, aggressively and arbitrarily censor a game made for mature audiences? And why would it only be certain things, but others are allowed to stay? In addition, who would insert things into a game made primarily for pre-pubescent kids, that have no bearing on them? Who would they demand something like neo-pronouns that haven't existed for thousands of years of human history, and that is used by less than 1% of the population even in the west, be put into a game made for a mass market? Why remove things like "Male" and "Female" from a character creator? It's absurd.
The freaks want it though, and they're in charge. Freaks are not homosexuals, or a race, or anything like that. They are people with an inane set of hyper-emotional wants, and who have somehow taken over large, multinational corporations and their decision making, because for the largest companies, there's never been more apathy to the axiom of maximizing profits, and they're staffed by the "freak" factories that are western university and increasingly, primary education. The companies simply have more (inflated) money than god, and don't give a fuck apparently.
What can save AAA in the future? Independent studios that have a vision of developing something that can compete with a large studio, without falling under the control of a gatekeeper. There would be a snowball effect if one burst onto the scene. Right now, there's lot's of AAA development that can be done with open source tools, but not all of it. There's still chokepoints. AI voice synthesis is a major step forward for a game needing generic dialogue, but things like mocap and a lack of an engine that can compete with things like Unreal which can be expensive. Also, people who are non-woke in the industry are smaller in number, and decentralized. More of them fly solo on projects. Marketing has never been easier though, especially now that Twitter/X is free up some from gatekeepers. You can develop a rep, then you don't need to release with a game gatekeeper like consoles or Apple. But it takes courage, and seed money up front.
If there's ever to be a truly based AAA game studio/publisher with broad appeal that pulls no punches, the way I see it would be some extremely wealthy guy who's tired of woke slop starts a studio, or buys one like an Elon Musk type situation. It was odd to see what the Saudis did with KOF, etc. Wild times.
To me, any game that has a particular demographic(s) in mind, or any artistic vision driven by passion rather than activism, develops for it, and advertises for it, is not a woke thing at all. I like to use the term "freaks" to describe the woke activist mind-set, not people's traits or preferences, as it is extremely twisted. It defies logic, or even dogmatic conviction despite its comparison to religion; contradictions are frequent. It seems more like Machiavellian political warfare than anything coherent.
What else would make a publisher or gate-keeper like Apple, etc, aggressively and arbitrarily censor a game made for mature audiences? And why would it only be certain things, but others are allowed to stay? In addition, who would insert things into a game made primarily for pre-pubescent kids, that have no bearing on them? Who would they demand something like neo-pronouns that haven't existed for thousands of years of human history, and that is used by less than 1% of the population even in the west, be put into a game made for a mass market? Why remove things like "Male" and "Female" from a character creator? It's absurd.
The freaks want it though, and they're in charge. Freaks are not homosexuals, or a race, or anything like that. They are people with an inane set of hyper-emotional wants, and who have somehow taken over large, multinational corporations and their decision making, because for the largest companies, there's never been more apathy to the axiom of maximizing profits, and they're staffed by the "freak" factories that are western university and increasingly, primary education. The companies simply have more (inflated) money than god, and don't give a fuck apparently.
What can save AAA in the future? Independent studios that have a vision of developing something that can compete with a large studio, without falling under the control of a gatekeeper. There would be a snowball effect if one burst onto the scene. Right now, there's lot's of AAA development that can be done with open source tools, but not all of it. There's still chokepoints. AI voice synthesis is a major step forward for a game needing generic dialogue, but things like mocap and a lack of an engine that can compete with things like Unreal which can be expensive. Also, people who are non-woke in the industry are smaller in number, and decentralized. More of them fly solo on projects. Marketing has never been easier though, especially now that Twitter/X is free up some from gatekeepers. You can develop a rep, then you don't need to release with a game gatekeeper like consoles or Apple. But it takes courage, and seed money up front.
If there's ever to be a truly based AAA game studio/publisher with broad appeal that pulls no punches, the way I see it would be some extremely wealthy guy who's tired of woke slop starts a studio, or buys one like an Elon Musk type situation. It was odd to see what the Saudis did with KOF, etc. Wild times.
@miketruk I doubt there will ever be a based AAA game, and I don't think the AAA part of the industry can be saved.
At the current rate, given how game dev tools are advancing, AA and indies will displace AAA in the coming decade or two.
Simply due to economic reasons.
No corporate layer draining money, and the tools allow a few dedicated people to create tons of content.
Asset creation is the only advantage AAA had, with their massive teams, but now you can buy / get for free / generate with AI all the assets you can dream up.
Games like No Man's Sky, and Pal World, were very successful, despite having tiny teams.
AAA is already experiencing decline as their whole sector shrinks, and jobs are cut.
Good riddance, I say.
@coded_artist The term AAA to me just means:
1. Fully 3D rendered.
2. A level of graphical fidelity and high quality 3D models/textures.
3. High (sound) quality voice acting, if there's spoken dialogue.
4. Motion Capture.
It's more just a particular market that doesn't necessarily compete with, say, a top-down turn-based RPG or something. There's ambiguity at the lower end with AA, etc.
AI can help with a lot of generic work in a lot of the things like you mentioned, but something like mocap as an example for a visually realistic conversation or interaction between two 3D rendered characters is still out of range of all but large studios. This may change in the future (and there's been some stuff done with rigging using 2D videos), but for now, games of this complexity and realism are unfortunately the property of the freaks, whether directly or through being a gate-keeper like Sony was to Shift-Up (Stellar Blade)..
1. Fully 3D rendered.
2. A level of graphical fidelity and high quality 3D models/textures.
3. High (sound) quality voice acting, if there's spoken dialogue.
4. Motion Capture.
It's more just a particular market that doesn't necessarily compete with, say, a top-down turn-based RPG or something. There's ambiguity at the lower end with AA, etc.
AI can help with a lot of generic work in a lot of the things like you mentioned, but something like mocap as an example for a visually realistic conversation or interaction between two 3D rendered characters is still out of range of all but large studios. This may change in the future (and there's been some stuff done with rigging using 2D videos), but for now, games of this complexity and realism are unfortunately the property of the freaks, whether directly or through being a gate-keeper like Sony was to Shift-Up (Stellar Blade)..
