Insensitive Racial Prejudice? Classic Tomb Raider Games Re-Released With “Trigger Warnings”

Was the world more racist 28 years ago compared to today?  Or, are people today simply more inclined to see “cultural insensitivity” where none exists?  We all know the answer – Diversity and inclusion now infect every aspect of our society and every form of entertainment.  They are no longer a matter of academic discourse, but a matter of political imperative.

Why?  Because a tiny group of obsessed cultists demands it.  In the west we’re supposed to walk on eggshells whenever minority issues are at play.  In fact, we’re supposed to place minority issues above all else and beg for forgiveness for every imagined trespass, even when it comes to video games.

If you grew up in the 1990s the notion of “harmful stereotypes” was probably furthest from your mind.  You didn’t care if a movie or video game starred a female or minority character, you only cared if the product was fun, exciting and well made.  This was before the dark days of woke entitlement when race was usually meaningless, jokes were just jokes, words were just words and if you robbed an ancient tomb in a game that didn’t mean you would ever do something similar in real life.

Leftists have no grasp of this concept.  In the 2020s, words are violence, feelings are reality and playing the wrong game could conceivably get you canceled.   This seems to be the attitude of software developer Crystal Dynamics, the license holder of the beloved Tomb Raider video game franchise.  

The classic IP launched by Eidos Interactive in 1996 just after the premier of the Sony Playstation became an immediate hit.  The 3D graphics were cutting edge for the time, including cinematics, beautiful environments and an emotional musical score.  However, it was the character of Lara Croft that had gamers hooked:  A sexy female version of Indiana Jones who lusted after adventure and treasure.  

Crystal Dynamics abandoned and erased the old Lara Croft not long after they got their hands on the licensing, making new games featuring a dark and depressing anti-Croft.  She was a short, stumpy, grumpy and decidedly less flirtatious feminist desperate to make amends for her grave robbing past and white privilege.  The company made it clear with their story changes as early as 2013 that the original character was “problematic” to them.

Though feminists derided Tomb Raider as a fantasy for teenage boys rather than an empowering symbol for girls, the early games had a decidedly large female fanbase with 30% to 40% of players (depending on the poll) being women (a large number for the action/adventure genre).  Both men and women loved the old Tomb Raider, and this led to a call from consumers for a remaster of the first three classic games.

Fans asked for a remaster for years with almost no feedback from Crystal Dynamics.  People began to suspect that, perhaps, the company hated the old franchise so much due to their politics that they were refusing to acknowledge its existence and even willing to lose money.

This now appears to have been confirmed.  Crystal Dynamics was purchased by Embracer Group in 2022 and the new owners jumped immediately on the prospect of remastering the old games for a highly anticipated re-release.  While CD is owned by Embracer, they still retained some control over the development rights to Tomb Raider.  

Most likely, the re-release of the originals was not their idea nor something they agreed with, but they had no choice.  Instead, they decided to sabotage the remastered versions by including “trigger warnings” at the beginning of the games.

 

“The games in this collection contain offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices. These stereotypes are deeply harmful, inexcusable, and do not align with our values at Crystal Dynamics.  Rather than removing this content, we have chosen to present it here in its original form, unaltered, in the hopes that we may acknowledge its harmful impact and learn from it.”

The company does not specify what instances of racial prejudice or stereotypes they’re referring to.  They also don’t explain what harmful impact the old games could have possibly had.  One wonders if they ever played the original games, because their trigger warnings make little sense.  

The problem with leftists is, the violations of their social justice sensibilities never need to be specific, they can be vague or even imaginary.  When woke gatekeepers decide that a franchise is bad, for any reason, the collective follows without question.           

As we witnessed with the turbulent release of the Harry Potter themed ‘Hogwarts Legacy,’ leftists are rabidly insistent that all popular media and creators conform to their DEI ideology.  After Harry Potter writer J.K. Rowling spoke out openly against the insanity of the trans movement and men pretending to be women, Hogwarts Legacy was targeted for destruction. 

The planned boycott failed in hilarious fashion, with Legacy becoming one of the best selling titles in recent gaming history.  Leftists were livid, and for good reason; they had stuck their necks out too far too fast.  Their egomania made them vulnerable and their failure made the public realize that the reach of woke activists was far smaller than many people assumed.  The woke left was a paper tiger, an astroturf movement backed only by corporations but not by a large percentage of the population.

In the case of Tomb Raider, it feels as if Crystal Dynamics is asking gamers to boycott their own product.  Or, perhaps they’re afraid that the classics (under the oversight of new management) will outsell their newer feminist catalog and make them look foolish.  The woke movement is in many ways nothing more than a war on nostalgia and our love of the past.  They don’t have to have a logical reason to hate a particular pop icon.  It doesn’t matter if the vast majority of people love a thing, if it’s not modernized and DEI dominated then leftists want it gone.