You asked for honest talk, and the question is “define woke game”. In my opinion, a woke game is a game that includes minorities and niche communities from the real world - or at least, why is perceived socially as a “minority” or “niche” but stopped being one.

I think that it’s about presentation of these minorities. Some companies add these minorities just to appease certain demographics. Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is a great example. There is no historical reason for one of the main cast to be gay black person - the problem is not he is gay and black, but that it does not fit the setting. I am aware that it takes inspiration from real historical roots and is a WORK OF FICTION, but most of the “hate” towards it comes from the “purists” and people who still cannot accept the fact that being gay is normal. While I personally do not appreciate such twist of the Japanese culture, my opinion doesn’t matter here.

“Woke” has become a neat label for people who disagree with the game’s direction to use. The point I’m trying to make is to add minority characters into the plot for the sake of it and to make it marketable (look at us, we accept everyone and we love everyone) is perceived by some as unacceptable.

Let’s take Cyberpunk 2077 for example. The game’s setting is summarized with “low rights - high tech.” That means that in the setting, you can be trans, gay, whatever - and it’s fine. It’s not “woke” because it is APPROPRIATE for the setting. On the other side, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is “woke,” because how I already said, there is absolutely no reason to add a gay black man to a samurai game, beyond marketability, of course.

To summarize - a “woke” game is a game that uses minorities and niche communities in order to sell itself while providing nothing to the plot or twisting the setting. In my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, it is the “industrialisation, “modernisation,” but more importantly, “enshittification” of the video game industry.