Can I weigh in? Oh dear GOD, can I weigh in, pleeeeeaaaase??
Most people have responded to the OP with at least some level of minimization. The campaign against this game has been by far the largest and most extreme I've seen in my entire life. I mean by a margin of like 10 to 1. It's not even close. Could this uniquely insane reaction have something to do with the fact that The Last of Us Part II happens to be the first AAA release to narratively center a lesbian character, I ask you? The thought has more than crossed my mind.
When I read these messages we're referencing, the fact is that most of them feel like they're attacks on me personally as a woman, as a lesbian, for being a woman, for being a lesbian, not just the staff. WHY do these people want Neil Druckmann and the women dead? Because..."cuck", "bitch", "twat", "radical feminist", "gay", etc. etc. (also Abby is "trans" for being gender-nonconforming), it's strikingly consistent. There is definitely a specifically anti-female/anti-gay vibe to them overwhelmingly.
Don't get me wrong, I get that this game would be controversial even in a world without bigotry. Not ANYTHING like this though. Not like surpassing the Grand Theft Auto level of controversy by a factor of a thousand percent. Jesus fucking Christ!
The game is emotionally challenging to me (it's supposed to be). Not anything like the response though. That's been much more exhausting because it feels personal. It feels like hate most of the time to me. You can say that it's not, but it feels like it is. I'm just saying. I mean I feel like my brain is probably exaggerating the volume of actual hate there is among this game's detractors, but I can't help it. There's simply so...goddamn...much!! So I mean I'm sorry if it ever comes across like I'm lumping people in with something they're not a part of, but in this context it can be a challenge not to.
No one should be threatening anyone's life over a video game, and least of all for reasons like these. That's all.
Last edited by Jaicee - on 07 July 2020