No this has nothing to do with James Rolfe, lol.
When you look at a woke game <insert whatever relevant example springs to mind here>, it seems nonsensical that they would target an audience that, frankly, has no interest in games in the first place, while alienating the core demographic of gamers who will practically break down the door to buy the game on launch if they think it's worth it.
But there's an old internet adage that covers why they do this;
Please don't feed the trolls
think about it, they wind us up ruining a perfectly good franchise, and inevitably some gamer or group of gamers go off on the game, crap-flooding the dev/publisher's social media with abuse. (I know, not every gamer is like that, but let's just be real, every group has its members that the rest would like to distance themselves from, and gamers are no exception.)
the dev/publishing team then play the victim, and inevitably this gets the "modern audience" of woke sycophants, who wouldn't otherwise be caught dead in a gamestop or KB Toys, to buy the game, just to own those evil, racist, mysogynistic, yada yada gamers, making angry gamers free advertisers to the target demographic.
The only problem with this strategy is it doesn't seem to be working anymore, at least not to the degree it might have ten or fifteen years ago. maybe people are wising up? I dunno, or maybe the economy is so bad the virtue signalling crowd can't actually afford to own the gamers anymore.
I guess what I'm saying is if instead of getting angry, we all reacted with indifference and moved on, the devs would have nothing to sell their games on, because core gamers wouldn't buy it, and there's no shitshow to sell it to woketards.
i realize it's not a perfect strategy, but it is something to chew on.
Three things:
Most importantly, they're not targeting an audience, which is one of my biggest issues with the whole scam. They're getting ESG funds from unaware investors via BlackRock/Vanguard and the like. They're trying to skirt the free market, and not be beholden to the people who actually purchase their products. They're trying to cheat, and take money directly from people who aren't consuming product.
Secondly, it's often a desperation move. There's the old 'get woke, go broke' line, and there's truth there, but as more and more people have been pointing out, there's often also a 'go broke, get woke, then croak' line; i.e. the company was already failing, and needs to reach out to the aforementioned ESG slush fund to try and stay afloat...but ends up ruining their products and reputation in the process, and thus not being able to stave off their demise.
Lastly, and this one is unfortunate...these freaks, while not per se interested in games, are interested in conquest, and are - again, very sadly - a growing population. Or at least were, I think the culture is changing. But yeah, freaks and their Allies are a pretty big chunk. Not as big as they want you to think, but they are around. I mean, most remaining liberals support the trans stuff, and definitely the gay stuff, and all that jazz. So you're just talking about libs, it doesn't have to be the actual trannies, and libs are a much bigger percentage of the market than the alphabet people.
the raz0rfist formulation is finally making the rounds...
but yeah, I see your point.
...and the ESG funds are definitely a deal with the devil kind of thing... too many people really don't understand the value and importance of reputation anymore...even though we see the consequences of it being irreparably damaged all around us...
Mr Rage is probably the most consistently correct over long term out of any commentators at least that I'm aware of.
hey, his alter ego styxhexenhammer666 is pretty good too, lol.
This is the winning play here. The long game. Market capture via attrition.
You're absolutely right that it's sadly working; if you mention something is "woke" within a complete normie circle, there are enough younglings within that demographic who will recoil at any negative connotation associated with "woke".
They're ignorant, uneducated, and have practically no knowledge of anything, but they regurgitate the Leftist talking points because you can tell they have been inundated nonstop with agitprop. Since they aren't very bright, you can easily dismantle any kind of rebuttal they offer, but there's the unfortunate realisation that they are already converged.
This was always the play -- capture the education system, academia, and the top-town corporate culture and force-feed it to the Westerners until they adapt, adopt, or quit. We're seeing generation of zombies adopting their ideology, and this is going to be the real problem going forward. That's why Trump winning isn't quite the win some people think it is, because once those four years are up, every other Western nation is still occupied by Leftist culture capture.
Much as I like razorfist's pithy reformulation of 'get woke go broke', and your 3 points, it's missing one last element. Or at least, an additional reason to why going broke makes them go woke:
2.5) The individual's cultural tribe incentives to go woke, once the company is already going broke, with this being particularly relevant for editors of failing newspapers and websites and the like. Slate star codex hit on this one, basically it's not (just) the ESG money that makes them do it at the individual level, it's cultural capital that comes from going down a 'hero'. You're already going broke, so you may as well publish that 'heroic' crap, provide positive coverage for those crappy games companies, and in so doing secure your next job at some ESG infested shithole, even if you aren't a true believer yourself it is in your interest to make a name for yourself as well as curry favour and cultural capital with them on your way out of your current failing job.
I don't think they plan it as a strategy for individual gamers but a way to increase the ESG score. Most of these companies were already in financial trouble, so they "go woke" to get the up in social credit.
Yup.
Go broke, get woke, ultimately croak.
it's probably both honestly. they know this shit is gonna piss off their audience, so they use that in hopes of selling more units, while collecting fat ESG checks at the same time...
Its been proven time and again that the "chuds" will spend money on the stuff that pisses off the gay commies, while the gay commies won't bother buying the stuff that "pwns the chuds".
You talk about even a mild provocation like hogwarts legacy which has a tranny npc, irrational diversity, body types, etc, and still did great because of the sperg out by the NPCs on the other side over JK not kissing the tranny ring.
Based Mods -> Browse -> Hogwarts Legacy -> Historically-acurate 1800's Hogwarts.
It was never about money, it was always about waging a holy war.
I"m so tired of having to explain this. Everything they do they because their god commands it of them. Money is never a consideration at any point. Their behavior is dictated solely by their moral framework. That's it, that's the entire fucking puzzle solved.
A perfect marketing slogan 👌
free advertising via culture war is a thing, yes
Rage-vertising makes no sense for AAA games though. It's only a valid strategy for games with no traditional marketing budget, since there's no need to raise the profile of a game like Assassin's Creed, for instance.
The idea of bashing the chuds in order to drum up normie support sort of tracks, but nowadays you're more likely to get traction by positioning your game as anti-woke. e.g. Wukong getting free advertising by telling off Sweet Baby.
In any case, the left isn't that clever. Gays and cat ladies destroy things men love because they want to destroy things men love, that's all there is to it. They're evil and sick and they want everyone to suffer as much as them.