There’s been a weird backlash against Avowed recently. The usual suspects (right wing social media grifters) have been calling it woke. One reason for this is that there isn’t a white man present in the game’s pre-order announcement, and I’m sure I don’t have to explain why that logic is absurd. Another, somehow even stupider reason, is that you can choose to give your player character they/them pronouns.
We’ve seen similar backlash to Starfield, which produced a hilarious video of a streamer having an on-camera meltdown over the mere option to choose they/them pronouns. Loads of triple-A games have the same options – Baldur’s Gate 3, last year’s Game of the Year, also lets you do this. Hogwarts Legacy does too, and the player character is only referred to by they/them pronouns in voiced dialogue. Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which these people would have you believe is one of the year’s wokest games, also does this.
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Pronouns Aren’t Radical
The people who are most vocal about this are, of course, those trying to drum up controversy about video games to get more engagement on social media. Being able to choose your pronouns is considered a mark of wokeness, a sign that the DEI cabal have gotten to a game and forced its developers to include these options, presumably at gunpoint.
Of course, this isn’t true. Having pronouns doesn’t make a game geared towards radical leftists who want to institute anarchic communism in your country and sap all the joy out of your only hobby – in fact, it’s got barely anything to do with politics, apart from providing a very basic level of inclusion. Is it progressive to acknowledge that some players use they/them pronouns? Sure, I guess. Is it radical or revolutionary? Not really. It’s just two words.
In fact, many games that allow you to use they/them pronouns are entirely uninspiring and politically dull. Hogwarts Legacy is, by no means, a game with especially progressive values. Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t about politics, it’s just really gay. Dragon Age: The Veilguard has absolutely nothing radical about it apart from a few lines about your character being trans, if you choose for them to say those things. Starfield? Come on, now. What on earth is politically radical about that game?
Games Don’t Need Non-Binary Pronouns To Have Radical Politics
There are games that make far stronger political statements without ever asking you to choose your pronouns. Tactical Breach Wizards is an extraordinarily political game about political revolutions and anti-authoritarianism. 1000xResist is, likewise, about global politics and revolution, as well as Asian diaspora and the pandemic. Indika is largely inspired by how religion has been used as a tool of oppression against the Russian people. And on the non-indie side, Helldivers 2 is a blatantly satirical criticism of militarism and imperialism. Metaphor: ReFantazio is a game about a corrupt election, and we all know how loaded that topic is nowadays.
None of these games ask you for your pronouns. Only one of them (Helldivers 2) lets you do any character customisation whatsoever, and yet all of them are more ‘woke’ than the games I’ve listed that do – they’re actually political.
But you won’t see this vocal minority rage-baiting about the game online, because they can’t use pronouns as an easy gotcha for DEI intrusion into their games. These games, despite being distinctly more political and progressive than others that do allow players to choose they/them pronouns, aren’t as easy to target, because you actually have to engage with them intellectually to understand what they have to say.
So, is Avowed woke? We have no way of knowing until it launches, but I haven’t seen any indications that it has any kind of revolutionary message. We know it lets you choose they/them pronouns, which in itself, means absolutely nothing. Letting a player use a third set of pronouns has absolutely no relevance to a game’s politics, it’s just the most basic level of inclusivity. Pretending otherwise is ridiculous.
Welcome to the Living Lands, a mysterious island filled with adventure and danger. Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment.
You are the envoy of Aedyr, a distant land, sent to investigate rumors of a spreading plague throughout the Living Lands – an island full of mysteries and secrets, danger and adventure, and choices and consequences, and untamed wilderness. You discover a personal connection to the Living Lands and an ancient secret that threatens to destroy everything. Can you save this unknown frontier and your soul from the forces threatening to tear them asunder?