With the release of the new Silent Hill 2 remake, a tidal wave of controversy follows in its wake. This is not the controversy most would expect as there was nothing inherently wrong with the game, its IMDB score of 9.3 out of 10 and its 10/10 on Steam would demonstrate the approval. The controversies surrounding the game are from a completely different type of complaint, one that’s been plaguing the video games industry in recent times: the game is “too woke”.
“The woke virus destroys everything it touches” said a user on X when referring to the more realistic character design of Angela Orosco. A comparison picture followed the tweet, showing the character as seen in the remake, and an edited image next to it of the same character with very unrealistic proportions and bone structures in order to follow downright misogynistic female “beauty” standards. Because trolls like this believe the only purpose a female character serves in video games is merely eye candy, and that any deviation from that is “woke pandering”.
The backlash that the Silent Hill 2 remake received isn’t the first of its kind, far from it. This is a pattern that’s been seen in new releases going back to early 2020, with some examples even going as far as 2013 with #Gamergate.
One notable example of this was with the release of Starfield, the long-awaited new IP of Bethesda. I’ll be frank, the game had some real flaws. It was somewhat unpolished and there were bugs galore, but otherwise I think it was a fairly decent game. But that wasn’t even an afterthought in the minds of the anti-woke brigade. Their real complaints? The small window that opens in the character creation screen that asks for your character’s pronouns. That, and the appearance of several LBGTQ+ characters caused outrage among the anti-woke crowd, believing that Bethesda was “pushing an agenda” against them to try and ruin their games.
There was also the recent release of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, where the game contained a black Space Marine and an Indian Cadian, which also caused backlash among the anti-woke community, which hit especially hard because this same crowd previously praised the franchise for its apparent lack of wokeness. Although there has been and still are themes and diversity in the franchise, they just never saw it, probably because they never actually play most of the games they complain about.
These reactions and this kind of behavior is childish and extremely inappropriate. Although groups like this are a minority, their behavior makes the gaming community at large seem as though they are all misogynistic and homophobic. It perpetuates the stereotype of gamers being bigots and unsociable people, which ultimately undermines the community and even potentially the industry as a whole, which hurts everybody. It needs to be further understood that these people are the minority, and absolutely do not represent the gaming community as a whole. In recent times especially, the gaming community has been extremely inclusive, bringing in people of all backgrounds, sexualities, and genders in a place where they can feel like they belong. The diversity in games helps people feel seen in their favorite genres and franchises, while also creating a sense of realism in these games by bringing a more realistic variety of peoples as characters in games, which has been long overdue in games.
All in all, the “anti-woke” crowd who complains and whines about even the slightest amount of diverse inclusion in games should be seen as they are, annoying. They hold little actual power over the industry, and they aren’t going to change the status quo, so we shouldn’t let them anger us in any meaningful way. But that doesn’t mean that they should be ignored, as they still have platforms that could be worrisome or even potentially dangerous, as was shown with the death and rape threats sent to media critic Anita Sarkeesian and other women in the video game community during #Gamergate. If trolls like the ones we see today are given a bigger platform, these actions could very well be repeated to an even more organized and terrifying degree. So while these trolls may not be an immediate threat, we should still see them as the annoying bigots they are and that their baseless claims shouldn’t be given any legitimate thought. Let’s remind people that the gaming community isn’t the toxic, hateful cesspit that it used to be, and that it’s a far more inclusive place, like it should be.
