Daniel Vávra, the Czech game developer behind Mafia and Kingdom Come: Deliverance, has revealed that during the development of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, he feared being fired due to his political views and public reputation. The remarks—originally made in Czech—were translated and shared by Reddit user u/AboveSkies in a detailed post on /r/KotakuInAction.
From Defiance to Fear
Back in 2018, Kingdom Come: Deliverance was hailed by many as a rare, uncompromising RPG experience. Rooted in authentic medieval Bohemia, it emphasized realism, masculine themes, and immersive gameplay—without the performative identity politics that had infected much of the AAA industry. Players embraced it. The press did not.
Vávra was attacked by mainstream games media for his refusal to include people of color in a historically white 15th-century European setting. He defended historical accuracy and was smeared as a reactionary. Despite massive sales, the attacks stuck—and they lingered as a warning.
With Kingdom Come II, that pressure became internal.
Sensitivity Readers, Internal Fear, and Narrative Caution
According to the Reddit translation, Vávra admitted that his team consulted sensitivity experts—especially around the depiction of Judaism and Islam—to avoid offending modern audiences. He confessed to self-censorship and noted that even the game’s publisher, PLAION, considered firing him due to fears he’d become a PR liability.
“They were afraid that the media backlash would be so strong it could damage the studio or the game.”
—u/AboveSkies (translated from Czech)
“He admits to self-censoring… being afraid of cancellation… being criticized for being too harsh or too soft… afraid of media again. That he’s no longer fighting the culture war because he knows he can’t win.”
—u/AboveSkies
Despite trying to preempt criticism, the game still drew fire from multiple directions.
A Jarring Gay Romance and Signs of Concession
Fans began raising concerns months ago when they encountered a gay romance subplot involving the male protagonist—something not teased in marketing and at odds with the tone of the first game. Combined with the more politically cautious handling of religious themes, it became clear: Kingdom Come II was shaped not just by creative ambition, but by fear of offending critics.
The dissident media saw the shift immediately. Independent commentators and outlets widely reported on the game’s tonal change and speculated—correctly, as it turns out—that studio leadership had chosen to avoid another media firestorm by proactively conceding ground.
The Clair Obscur Comparison: A Pattern Emerges
This isn’t an isolated case. The same pattern is now visible in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a stunning, French-made RPG currently enjoying widespread praise—but which features a conspicuously large number of black NPCs. The game draws heavily from early 20th-century Parisian aesthetics, yet presents a racial makeup that is wildly disproportionate to the actual demographics of the time.
In that era, the black population in Paris was extremely small. Yet Clair Obscur showcases an environment that appears tailored to meet modern DEI expectations, rather than reflect the setting’s historical or cultural reality. The message is clear: many developers are now front-loading performative representation to fend off criticism, even at the cost of immersion and believability.
But here’s the reality: a good game doesn’t excuse ideological posturing. In fact, the better the game, the more glaring these compromises become—and the more disappointing the intrusion feels.
3 Takeaways for Developers
🔹 Appeasement Doesn’t Work
Vávra tried to play it safe. He still got criticized. Once you start compromising, the critics just push further.
🔹 Corporate Ownership Is a Pressure Point
PLAION’s fear of reputational damage shows how publishers can become ideological enforcers within the creative process.
🔹 A Good Game Isn’t a Get-Out-of-Woke-Free Card
Kingdom Come II and Expedition 33 show that strong design and rave reviews don’t make up for shallow, ideological insertions that break immersion.
Conclusion: Conformity Is the Enemy of Creativity
What happened at Warhorse Studios is not unique—it’s a symptom of a broader cultural illness infecting game development. Even those who once resisted, like Daniel Vávra, are now publicly confessing to fear, self-censorship, and compromise. And even great games like Kingdom Come II can feel tainted when they bend the knee to ideological expectations.
The dissident media saw this trend coming years ago. We reported it, we criticized it, and we warned where it would lead. Not because we demand counter-narratives—but because we believe in creative freedom. The freedom to make games without ideological shackles.
If the industry keeps choosing conformity over courage, we’ll keep losing the very voices that once made gaming bold, immersive, and real.
—Wolfshead
Oh see. Not even the creators are safe within their own company any more. Vavra got forced by the publisher. He could still have rejected. It is easily said, on the other hand. The project would just have been out of his hands entirely and he fired.
Marek Tymiński, CEO of the makers of the Soulslike game “Lords of the Fallen”, got banned from the very subreddit of his game for replacing body type 1 and 2 with male and female after a user poll. The mods went on rampage and banned other mods and any non-woke people, so basically sane and informed people.
Regarding KCD2, I didn’t play it, already beforehand I knew that the first one had a great story, but honestly was not very nice to play, the combat and overall sluggish gameplay were not really enticing. I rather play Mount and Blade 2.
But lo behold, how the game gets praised! It has still a lot of the flaws of KCD1 but there is no discussion nowadays anymore but blind praise if a game is woke. For literature, such works usually get nominated for the Hugo/Nebula.
Another case is Larian Studios. Swen Vincke is now apparently the all-knowing figure of game design. Yet just like many other games his game thrives on deception and medial hype, to the point of enticing and bedazzling people who might be new to gaming, and even those who are not, veterans, will just fall prey to “everyone says this is great, so it is great” and find reasons to agree to this narrative.
Baldur’s Gate 2 has a better combat system than the very strange elemental vs physical damage system that shoehorned players of Divinity 2, the predecessor, to focus on either elemental or physical damage to overcome the separate defense bars of various enemies.
Then there are the terrible writing and the really awful NPC and companion characters. They are not interesting, they are mental and deranged! And on top a huge load of wokeness.
The best author nowadays apparently is G.R.R. Martin… really? I love Game of Thrones, but the TV show surpassed the books around “Feast for Crows”, this is when Martin totally disintegrated and wrote only “The Winds of Winter” and the rest is still in the air. Both books are so bad that one should see the criticism of the later Game of Thrones seasons in that light: It was a miracle how well Benioff and Weiss and their writers turned that into something that is even good.
And now it is still good, even if it is rather lackluster. House of the Dragon has enough quota blacks and minorities involved to continue receiving praise, heck even the queen is now played by a non-binary person… hooray!
Anita Sarkeesian had and has about 0% game design influence, but Cosmopolitan praised her and as late as 2022 she still got the Peabody Award for “Digital and Interactive Storytelling”, though I am unsure what story they are talking about… I am not aware of even one.
Wokeness is still not dead. Canada elected Trudeau’s successor and the new conservative German government abandoned their whole political agenda and doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on the demands of the socialist losers of the vote to form a coalition with them.
I can understand criticism of Trump’s tariffs, his usual style and manner, but I am horrified that people seem to focus on all that and not on the scandals that DOGE uncovered, for main stream media they are simply not worth reporting.
This is annoying me so much. I still find games and entertainment of all kinds that isn’t touched by wokeness and vote with my wallet. KCD2 gets no penny, still no penny, sorry Vavra and studio, but I simply do not want to pay a dime to get suddenly lectured by a moor how great islam is and how they learned us to wash ourselves and all that.
I am afraid Amazon will now inject wokeness into Fallout, there are already traces in the first season, but they usually go even harder in subsequent seasons, they did so in every of their shows so far.
German judges and lawmakers want to enforce conformity, a chilling video with a smiling Sonja Eichwede, just read her Wikipedia page in German, shows how much convinced socialists are that people must be able to easily report non-conformity (!) and hate in the internet. Judges in the USA and Germany seem to become more activists than adherents of the law by now.
Well, China, take notes, that is how it is done.
Thanks for reporting what happend to Vavra. It is a prime example and warning how even a good man can be brought down to bend the knee to wokeness.
Critics and Journos love it: Andor didn’t and doesn’t cut it, nobody is interested in it, but a lot of online buzz around it that is totally out of proportion.
I am afraid we will see ever more online propaganda of this kind, woke journalism is subversive.