Board 8 > Is the Last of Us 2 backlash mostly political?

(+) Yeah! (+)

From what I can tell it's mostly people complaining about social justice infestations again. I REALLY hope there's more to it because typically whenever people complain about social justice ruining stuff I never find it to be that bad.

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No, the backlash is mostly because it's bad

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I think there's an element of that in a lot of the criticisms I've seen, but I don't think it is 'mostly' due to it by any means.

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i normally dont care about that stuff. but this time i can say seeing the leaks has probably stopped me from buying the game

I saw it by accident mind you, on the comments of a ghost of tsushima trailer i saw the big spoiler, which made me go "ah whatever" and look at everything else. especially now that some of them became memes, these things are everywhere.

That is not the impression I have gotten but I'm not following it super closely

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Leonhart4 posted...

No, the backlash is mostly because it's bad

That makes sense yes. It's just the way people frame it that gets on my nerves.

Also the reports on Naughty Dog's crunch time, ouch.

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40% misogynist/homophobic trolls
40% fans upset with the story choices
20% crunch-time/industry practices complaints

colliding posted...

40% misogynist/homophobic trolls
40% fans upset with the story choices
20% crunch-time/industry practices complaints

This is accurate based on what I've seen. Maybe reduce the Crunch part to 10% and spread it evenly between the other two.

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Yeah there are distinct groups here. The people who are legitmately upset at the content of the leaks, and the typical far-right losers detecting an opportunity to try and make things about them because they don't like that women and gay people exist.

I think it's much smaller than 40% though.

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colliding posted...

40% misogynist/homophobic trolls
40% fans upset with the story choices
20% crunch-time/industry practices complaints

My impression is that the middle one is by far the biggest. I'd say 10%, 70%, 20% at least.

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I don't know the contents of the leaks but it would certainly ease my mind if the reason ppl are mad is because the game DARES to claim that gay people exist.

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MechanicalWall posted...

I don't know the contents of the leaks but it would certainly ease my mind if the reason ppl are mad is because the game DARES to claim that gay people exist.

It isn't

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the trailer with ellie kissing that other girl released like 2 years ago to overwhelmingly positive reactions. its obviously not about that

MechanicalWall posted...

I don't know the contents of the leaks but it would certainly ease my mind if the reason ppl are mad is because the game DARES to claim that gay people exist.

That's not it. I'm regularly annoyed by these types of complaints. At most, its exacerbating an issue that lots of well-adjusted people could reasonably have about the leak.

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I don't understand how people can say the game is bad when no one's played it yet. It wasn't like the leaked cutscenes were bad. I think the plot summaries are skipping the journey to get to the destination and have no context.

the trailer with ellie kissing that other girl released like 2 years ago to overwhelmingly positive reactions. its obviously not about that

Surprise, different people have different opinions. Plenty of people reacted poorly in certain sections of the internet.

In the leak thread I saw, the first two pages were super misogynist, and I'm not the sort of person to say that lightly.

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I actually haven't seen a lot from misogynist/homophobic trolls, but it's kind of hard to tell because they can be lumped in to the fans upset with story choices since... the story is just abhorrent even from a logical writing standpoint.

I've talked to my trans and gay friends that this story is supposed to pander to and even they feel repulsed and that it's just not a positive representation even remotely. Even they've been popping off on a lot of the memes going around.

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banananor posted...

Plenty of people reacted poorly in certain sections of the internet.

ie the PS4 board

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Yeah anyone who thinks the anti-SJW component isn't a huge factor in the backlash either doesn't know gamers or hasn't spent some time trawling on forums that aren't B8. I envy those who haven't

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KamikazePotato posted...

Yeah anyone who thinks the anti-SJW component isn't a huge factor in the backlash either doesn't know gamers or hasn't spent some time trawling on forums that aren't B8. I envy those who haven't

Are you going to buy the game to spite them? I cant see either you or them changing your purchasing decision based on the other ones opinions.

Im not buying this because I dont like the first game. Tension turned into frustration, and the thought of having to stealth my way through the same five minute sequence for a third or fourth time made me stop playing.

The main complaint thus far is that the game is being edgy for the sake of being edgy.

For example:

https://twitter.com/deathcab4booty/status/1258272469246283777

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You will be ashamed of your actions

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The more I see about this game, the more I honestly think Neil Druckmann is some kind of fucking bizarre deviant.

What's even more hilarious about this dog thing is that I guarantee that not a single one of these people would be upset that their friends were murdered too, but they'll be sobbing over a dead dog.

Like what the fuck. Why is this a thing in this game?

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Y'know, maybe it's because I'm not into pets, but I don't see how shooting a bloodthirsty dog that clearly wants you dead is THAT much more morally reprehensible than brutally murdering human beings, especially since in the first game Joel and Ellie were pretty regularly the aggressors

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KamikazePotato posted...

Yeah anyone who thinks the anti-SJW component isn't a huge factor in the backlash either doesn't know gamers or hasn't spent some time trawling on forums that aren't B8. I envy those who haven't

This
For real

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

What's even more hilarious about this dog thing is that I guarantee that not a single one of these people would be upset that their friends were murdered too, but they'll be sobbing over a dead dog.

This is very true about people, though. Lord knows I've met people who would murder their friends to save their pets.

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can we get our dogs to fight their dogs too and make this into a Michael Vick simulator?
i mean we've already got a girl built like a football player good at golf, let's just go the whole way.

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So what is the deal with Abby being a transgender woman? Any truth to that?

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The dog thing sounds fine but the way they worded the 'feature' in the PR email is hilarious

Uglyface2 posted...

Are you going to buy the game to spite them? I cant see either you or them changing your purchasing decision based on the other ones opinions.

I'm not sure what this statement is trying to get at. My purchasing decision isn't going to be affected by anti-SJW types but I recognize that a lot of them are out there.

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TheRock1525 posted...

This is very true about people, though. Lord knows I've met people who would murder their friends to save their pets.

My point is that they will ONLY be crying about their lost pets and not lost people who they rely on in their tight circle to survive.

This adds nothing to gameplay either. Am I supposed to be upset that I murdered a dog apparently bred to hunt and murder me dead if I didn't shotgun it first? Obviously it's made to be a trap for people to kill the owner too, but the way this is written is just so sadistic.

Why is this supposed to be a selling point?

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for the abby question, no that isn't true

but her body does look ureallistically buff for someone living in post-apocalypse. she looks like a bodybuilder. which is a very strict and time consuming hobby that would certainly not be feasible in such conditions.

not verified.
the woman who Abby's modeled after is a very obviously roided up crossfit junkie so personally i'm assuming no as it'd also be an insult to the actual, real life woman, unless her secret was that she was trans all along but i don't think that's the case.

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

My point is that they will ONLY be crying about their lost pets and not lost people who they rely on in their tight circle to survive.

It's the same thing that gets played out in a lot of American media; killing dogs is somehow the ultimate moral event horizon.

Nathan Drake has a body count that's easily in the thousands and he gets to be called a 'lovable rogue' even though 90% of the time they're just mercs hired by the baddie, guarding a treasure Drake has 0 claim to and doesn't know has adverse effects until way later in the plot. Had he shot a single dog in that time, though, he'd have been called Jason Voorhees the Second.

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Nathan Drake is a colossal racist.

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Do people that train their dogs to kill other people on sight really have such an emotional bond with them that they would cry out in horror on discovering they are dead? Im thinking they would be treated as working animals, not beloved pets.

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

The more I see about this game, the more I honestly think Neil Druckmann is some kind of fucking bizarre deviant.

What's even more hilarious about this dog thing is that I guarantee that not a single one of these people would be upset that their friends were murdered too, but they'll be sobbing over a dead dog.

Like what the fuck. Why is this a thing in this game?

IIRC they actually do have names for the random enemies, who will call for their friends in combat. Same system basically. This is actually fairly impressive.

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redrocket posted...

Do people that train their dogs to kill other people on sight really have such an emotional bond with them that they would cry out in horror on discovering they are dead? Im thinking they would be treated as working animals, not beloved pets.

Did y'all not watch Return of the Jedi?

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Maybe the dogs will be poodles and pomeranians tbh. Yappy bastards.

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Wanglicious posted...

not verified.
the woman who Abby's modeled after is a very obviously roided up crossfit junkie so personally i'm assuming no as it'd also be an insult to the actual, real life woman, unless her secret was that she was trans all along but i don't think that's the case.

This is actually good to know--I had heard the trans thing so much I thought it was true.

But Abby's body model is still very different from that crossfit junkie's real body. It's honestly just so abnormal and barely looks natural at all each time I see a picture or video.

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wait this dog thing is new...did even more stuff leak?

Sharinnegan posted...

wait this dog thing is new...did even more stuff leak?

They promoted this in an email they sent to people. Not a leak, just them bragging about how they can try to make you feel bad for murdering dogs.

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Murdering prostitutes in cold blood in GTA is just some good lulz, but murdering a dog in self defense is going to MESS YOU UP MAN.

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

This is actually good to know--I had heard the trans thing so much I thought it was true.

But Abby's body model is still very different from that crossfit junkie's real body. It's honestly just so abnormal and barely looks natural at all each time I see a picture or video.

i mean it's entirely possible that it's true but i honestly think it's mostly done off of how ridiculously built she looks.
as for being very different... i wouldn't be so sure there. her name's Colleen Fotsch, she's got an instagram. sometimes she looks somewhat natural and then other times it's just obvious she's on stuff. this is full on body builder and significantly bigger than most men.

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Isn't Abby supposed to be in her late teens or something?

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Definitely not all of it, but I doubt the backlash would be as widespread and inescapable as it is months before the game came even comes out if none of the characters were LGBT. Reactionary types were already whining about this game prior to the leaks and this was a perfect opportunity to push their agenda.

This tide of backlash resulting from inclusion of characters who aren't straight white men in ANYTHING is so disconcerting, especially because there are plenty of genuine complaints to be made against the targets in question.

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Sounds like people like to complain just to complain.

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I have three main points about the reactions to the new character. Don't read these if you're avoiding plot spoilers:

first of all, people will say "oh it's totally unrealistic for her to be so built during an apocalypse" but the world of TLOU2 is such that there are things like electricity, farms, and gyms, so it's not completely out of left field.

secondly, if abby wasn't abby and was actually a burly dude named "Alex" half of the complaints about the character's role in the story would magically vanish. some people would still be upset about joel dying no matter what or how, but I think many are simply upset that a woman kills a man.

thirdly, I don't think abby is a transperson; I think that's being read into by insecure internet types. but if she is, then this is a whole different can of worms in terms of problematic representation.

SwiftyDC posted...

Sounds like people like to complain just to complain.

Also this. Outrage culture works both ways.

if it were a dude named Alex you'd get a ton of backlash in the opposite direction considering the fight with Ellie.


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