SPOILERS The Last Of Us P2 SPOILERS

[sales2099]

JWeinCom said:

RolStoppable said:

Not exactly comparable situations because the method of replacement differs, namely that the previous main characters die in The Last of Us Part II (Joel confirmed, Ellie unconfirmed). That means that those characters won't return in future games, so the replacement has something final to it instead of being a temporary state like in your examples.

But on the other hand, you are correct that there's more to it on top of the replacement. I mentioned it in a previous post of mine in this thread that the current controversy provides a platform for people who push their own political narrative. They don't account for the majority of people who complain right now, but they are going to be very vocal about it, so the whole issue grows into something really big.

One amplying factor in this is that the medium video games is basically the last bastion of entertainment that is largely free of political messaging - movies, TV and the internet in general are already infested by it - so this creates more paranoia, fear and hostility in response to Naughty Dog's story-driven decisions.

I don't think that video game is free of political messaging.  I think there are tons of political decisions in gaming.  For example, the creator of missile command has discussed how he intentionally made the game about defending bases rather than having the player use missiles offensively.  That's a political statement even in that simple Atari era game.

And there are political messages in pretty much every story driven game.  FF7 for instance is very pro-heterosexual (aside from that obvious sexual tension between Cloud and Barett).  That's a political message... but since it's a message that nearly everyone agrees with nobody takes much issue.

People mainly take an issue when it's a political message they happen to not agree with.  And I'm sure a lot of people are going to say they just don't want any controversy... But it kind of seems like the people who don't want controversy are also the ones most involved in the arguing. So I kind of wonder.

Well now you have to think about degrees. Some political messages aren’t subjects of controversy in video games. A simple game about firing missiles isn’t cause for outrage. Just protest the real thing. Military interventionism is not up there on the list of outrage as other things like say race and religion. 

Your FF7 message is simply demographics. It’s not pushing hetero agendas it’s a game made by Japanese developers who recognize certain realities. That the vast majority of the human population is straight. There would be an issue if it made being gay problematic by comparison...but we all know that’s not the case. I wouldn’t call Japanese people an overly sexist and racist bunch....remember the Resident Evil 5 controversy? Since when do Japanese people exhibit white supremacy? Chris Redfield is a fan favourite and the game took place in Africa. People look for problems that aren’t there. 

Just like western society is mostly comprised of Christians. Not just white people but Hispanics who are just as devout. A big chunk of western society is also conservative. Again not just Christians but the millions of the growing Muslim population. So when you make anti religious messages and overly left leaning messages in western catered games of course you will get blowback....know your demographics. 

Or in LOU2s case one may argue Joel was killed off because ND politics dictate that gaming needs less straight white males. That’s real ramifications of injecting a political bias into video games...causing a fan favourite to die because of the color of his skin. And having you play as his killer...how does ND expect people to get on board with this? 

Final point and I want to make perfectly clear I’m talking about stats. There is little fruit in making a political statement that appeals to a statistical minority while potentially pissing off the majority of the fanbase. It ignores the stats in favour of personal virtue signalling. ND literally put their agenda ahead of fans and profits. Sony won’t be happy about this. 

You said there were other factors at play then gamers merely wanting to keep their fan favourites, hope this answers the question. Any actual racists, sexists and homophobes joining in on the conversation are a vocal minority. Their views are deplorable but they do not define nor represent the concerns of the majority.

Last edited by sales2099 - on 03 May 2020