Woke Content Detector

Submission 269

Part of a series on Steam. [View Related Entries]

About

The Woke Content Detector or WCDetector is a Steam community group that lists video games that have been found to contain what members of the group perceive as woke content, such as overt pro-LGBTQ+ messaging and themes, pro-DEI messaging and pro-communism messaging, among other concepts. The list also collects and recommends games with what they think have no woke content and marks some games as having "informational" woke content, meaning they only contain subtle woke content. The group was founded in March 2024 and garnered over 3,500 members and 1,400 listed games by late September 2024, inspiring numerous memes and discourse on social media and videos reacting to the list in the same span of time.

History

On March 16th, 2024, the Woke Content Detector curation and community pages were created on Steam.^[1]^[2] That day, Steam^[3] user Furin made a post on the page explaining the methodology behind the curator, describing woke content as "any images, messages, characters, storytelling, dialogue, music, or game mechanics that include themes associated with the left-side of the political aisle in contemporary western politics."

They go on to further explain the offending themes, writing that they include:

Pro-LGBTQ+ messaging, pro-DEI messaging, pro-climate action messaging, pro-communism/socialism messaging, pro-abortion messaging, pro-p---philia messaging, pro-immigration messaging, pro-transhumanism messaging, anti-western society messaging, anti-human messaging, anti-colonialism messaging, anti-capitalism messaging, anti-heterosexual messaging, anti-patriarchy messaging, anti-white messaging, anti-family messaging, anti-free speech messaging, anti-gun messaging, etc.

The group also keeps a publically available Google Docs^[4] spreadsheet that lists all games that have been added to the Woke Content Detector. As of September 20th, 2024, the curator has over 1,400 games listed, with roughly 370 recommended games, 300 informational games and 750 not-recommended games.

Online Presence

The Woke Content Detector garnered significant online attention throughout the latter part of 2024, often as the source of criticism and memes.

For example, on July 23rd, 2024, X^[5] user and game developer @HenryHoffman posted a screenshot of his game Paper Trail's inclusion on the list, writing, "oh no the woke content detector found us if only we hadn't included a *checks notes* female character that goes to university," garnering over 40,000 likes in two months.

On August 4th, a Redditor posted a screenshot to the subreddit /r/Gamingcirclejerk^[6] of Room of Depression's addition to the list, along with several other games, with Room of Depression being added for containing "overly pro-DEI messaging" because the player character is "a woman with depression," garnering over 2,700 upvotes in a month.

On September 6th, Redditor u/muffinman280 posted a screenshot to /r/limbuscompany^[7] of Limbus Company's addition to the list for having pro-LGBTQ+ themes, which was reposted by X^[8] user @tanginamaran, garnering over 1,600 upvotes and 2,000 likes, respectively, in two weeks.

On September 8th, 2024, two image macros about the Woke Content Detector were posted to the subreddit /r/whenthe,^[9]^[10] the former being about adding all games on the "not recommended" list to their wishlist and the latter about avoiding a game titled Futa Fix Dick Dine because it's on the list, garnering over 5,900 and 11,000 upvotes, respectively, in two weeks.

On September 9th, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker posted a video to YouTube^[11] in which he critiques and reacts to the Woke Content Detector list, garnering over 350,000 views in roughly two weeks.