• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Druckmann / Naughty Dog Derangement Syndrome - Colin Moriarty Commentary

Madflavor

Member
If you think TLOU2 is objectively a 5/10 game like the userscore, you need some serious help. It went on to win GOTY awards, sold over 10M in a single year. It's not a 5/10 game.

The review scores are a small blip in the ocean compared to the people that enjoyed it. A vocal minority that was upset that Joel was killed early on. Same people that smash the dislike button on a trailer.

It took two years for it to reach 10 million.
 

hinch7

Member
It took two years for it to reach 10 million.
Tablitsa-s-prodazhami-igr.png


95061-222-playstation-first-party-game-sales-revenues-leaked-bloodborne-at-7-5-million-as-of-2022-fu.webp

From the Insomniac leak. The drop off was pretty substantial.

Granted it is a sequel, so numbers are expected going to fall somewhat.
 
lol i always think about those times and find it funny as shit how roles have been replaced.
I don't think the roles have reversed at all. We still have 'progressives' who bitch and moan on Twitter or Bluesky when a character is not gay and we still have companies listening to them and altering their (future) products to cater to them. That video is still entirely relevant.

Didn't think years later, I'd be saying the same fucking thing to the opposing side lol Its so fucking funny, that it seems many don't even see they are now making those same wild claims and supporting those same views, merely from another perspective.
Monkey see, monkey do. For years progressives have been influencing companies by whining on the internet about stupid shit. Why wouldn't others use the same tactic then?

I get your perspective, and perhaps in time I might agree with you entirely. But that time is not now, because we haven't returned to a state of normalcy yet. Identity politics still run rampant in the industry. We might disagree on individual cases (like Intergalactic), but the trend is still clear to see. People are rightfully skeptical IMO.
 

Illyria

Member
ND was super petty about TLOU Part 2 leaks. Even just talking about it or sharing memes they'd strike Youtube channels or get social media accounts banned. A good chunk of vitriol came from that & persists plus ND never addressed those take downs. I realize Youtube, Twitter 1.0, etc. complied with those requests so they share some blame too.

I doubt such a takedown campaign attempt would get the same compliance these days.
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
Nobody complained about Nathan Drake having similar confidence/snark all the time. I guess it's not appropriate for women to have that kind of personality according to some.

Confidence isn't some unique trait, it's what basically every main character in every game has. Beyond that her personality is nothing like Nathan Drake. He's more warm and relatable.

Point of clarification. What this ND character displays is not "confidence." It is arrogance. People with genuine confidence do not feel the need to advertise how "above it all" they are or condescend to others. That is actually a sign of insecurity, not confidence.

Nathan Drake's character was very different. His wisecracks usually came when he was overwhelmed or getting his ass kicked. It was his way of trying to keep his spirits up in a bad situation. It wasn't arrogance.

Nathan Drake wasn't arrogant, and that's part of why he was likeable and relatable. This ND character is arrogant (or at least she appears so), and that's part of why she is not likeable or relatable. Very different personalities.
 
Last edited:

Dick Jones

Banned
ND was super petty about TLOU Part 2 leaks. Even just talking about it or sharing memes they'd strike Youtube channels or get social media accounts banned. A good chunk of vitriol came from that & persists plus ND never addressed those take downs. I realize Youtube, Twitter 1.0, etc. complied with those requests so they share some blame too.

I doubt such a takedown campaign attempt would get the same compliance these days.
A studio were taking down people posting stolen data before the release of a story driven game sounds petty to you?
 
ND was super petty about TLOU Part 2 leaks. Even just talking about it or sharing memes they'd strike Youtube channels or get social media accounts banned. A good chunk of vitriol came from that & persists plus ND never addressed those take downs. I realize Youtube, Twitter 1.0, etc. complied with those requests so they share some blame too.

I doubt such a takedown campaign attempt would get the same compliance these days.
I kinda see where they're coming from to be frank. This industry is ultimately competitive and a business. Those leaks were severely damaging, to such a degree the studio has developed a certain sense of paranoia now.

If you were a game studio, working away and sculpting your next big multi-million dollar thing in secrecy, the last thing you'd want to see is someone to compromise that and risk losing your revenue. Current AAA model is a high stakes game in itself. One dud can have a severe impact. Both financially and reputationally.

The leak crackdown had an negative outcome in the public perception, but it had to be done.
 
Last edited:

Madflavor

Member
Tablitsa-s-prodazhami-igr.png


95061-222-playstation-first-party-game-sales-revenues-leaked-bloodborne-at-7-5-million-as-of-2022-fu.webp

From the Insomniac leak. The drop off was pretty substantial.

Granted it is a sequel, so numbers are expected going to fall somewhat.

I'm very confident that Part 3 is going to have smaller launch sales than Part 2. I'm not saying it'll "flop", I think it'll do good, but there will be a drop off. I think the only way it does better is if the economy take a positive turn over the next few years, and if the premise of the game during it's trailer and marketing is really interesting. But if the economy remains tough, and the game has you play as Ellie again, Abby, or a grown up Lev, I can see inferior sales overall. People don't hate-watch or hate-play like they used to. A lot of them aren't going to spend $70+ dollars on something they know they'll hate. Enough people got burned by Part 2.
 

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
Point of clarification. What this ND character displays is not "confidence." It is arrogance. People with genuine confidence do not feel the need to advertise how "above it all" they are or condescend to others. That is actually a sign of insecurity, not confidence.

Nathan Drake's character was very different. His wisecracks usually came when he was overwhelmed or getting his ass kicked. It was his way of trying to keep his spirits up in a bad situation. It wasn't arrogance.

Nathan Drake wasn't arrogant, and that's part of why he was likeable and relatable. This ND character is arrogant (or at least she appears so), and that's part of why she is not likeable or relatable. Very different personalities.
Well said.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
" Niel Druckmann is not woke " - Colin Moriarty

Colin simping for cuckman it's actually kinda sad, backstabbing his own audience.

His own audience? You act as if Colin's audience is supposed to have some kind of hivemind way of thinking about every topic. Why is that?

Its still fixating on a single high-profile individual as a hate object.

I first noticed it when Azz, the moron who runs "Heel Vs Babyface", blamed Druckmann *personally* for the DMCA takedowns following the TLOU2 leaks. As if he's the emperor of Sony//Playstation/Naughty Dog and literally nobody else could possibly have a hand in the decision making process! And he's still going on about this bullshit claim as if its proven truth 4 years on!

Classic "derangement" syndrome!

People need to stop picking sides and instead engage in some basic crttical thinking;
its the only way out of this insanity.

100% perfectly said!

Morgan Freeman Applause GIF by The Academy Awards
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
It took two years for it to reach 10 million.

Not correct! It was 1.5 years. That story is explaining how in February 2022, the game hit 10 million sales. The game came out on June 2020.

Tablitsa-s-prodazhami-igr.png


95061-222-playstation-first-party-game-sales-revenues-leaked-bloodborne-at-7-5-million-as-of-2022-fu.webp

From the Insomniac leak. The drop off was pretty substantial.

Granted it is a sequel, so numbers are expected going to fall somewhat.

This is using data for only 1.5 years worth of sales for TLOU2 versus 5 years worth of TLOU sales. So I'm not sure why you and others love lying so much about "HOW" the game sold. GAF does a great job understanding console sales relative to release dates. But when it comes to TLOU2 all of a sudden half of GAF becomes stupid and doesn't understand this simple concept.

Some of yall want to be REEEEE so bad when it comes to this game. You wanna be the Ying to their Yang that it's disgusting.
 
There we go with "modern audiences" when all we know is the game features a female lead with a shaved head.

If the game is quality - which I expect it will be - the arguments about some vocal minority yelling at the cloud because the game isn't 100% one demographic go completely out the window. It'll do well.
You're just making up a reality in which you will be proven right. This 'golden path' in which the game is stellar and there is no controvertial social justice narrative is so narrow that it almost does not exist.

It's ok to look at certain indicators or markers for a game and conclude that it is likely not to end well. If the chicken is past its expiry date, it looks off and it smells off, I do not then need to eat it to conclude that it is indeed rancid.
 

hinch7

Member
Not correct! It was 1.5 years. That story is explaining how in February 2022, the game hit 10 million sales. The game came out on June 2020.



This is using data for only 1.5 years worth of sales for TLOU2 versus 5 years worth of TLOU sales. So I'm not sure why you and others love lying so much about "HOW" the game sold. GAF does a great job understanding console sales relative to release dates. But when it comes to TLOU2 all of a sudden half of GAF becomes stupid and doesn't understand this simple concept.

Some of yall want to be REEEEE so bad when it comes to this game. You wanna be the Ying to their Yang that it's disgusting.
Or people trying too hard to defend a game or developer. Even with actual data straight from the horses mouth. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/busin...anchise-has-sold-37-million-copies-in-9-years

Just going by facts not feelings.

To add, if TLOU 2 had legs and sold significantly more or reached another big milestone we would've seen some sort of update by now. Even if we count time of release for both games and how long a product has been on the market.
 
Last edited:

Madflavor

Member
Not correct! It was 1.5 years. That story is explaining how in February 2022, the game hit 10 million sales. The game came out on June 2020.

Where are you seeing that? I'm seeing both on the IGN Article and the source (Playstation Blog) that the quote is "We’re happy to share that The Last of Us Part II has sold through more than 10 million copies globally, as of this Spring." I'm not seeing any mention of February.
 

W11d

Member
Does anyone remember Returnal?

Selene-Returnal.jpg


There were very little complaints about her looks and this is considered one of the best games of 2021 and of the generation by many people, and that's because the gameplay was important.

And Colin is right, most gamers don't know the discourse that's taking place online. My only complaint is that the trailer wasn't one of their best and that's why they need to go all out with their next one.
Selene was kinda likable. She wasn't trying to be this annoying trying to appeal to gen z bitch
 

Spitfire098

Member
Does anyone remember Returnal?

Selene-Returnal.jpg


There were very little complaints about her looks and this is considered one of the best games of 2021 and of the generation by many people, and that's because the gameplay was important.

And Colin is right, most gamers don't know the discourse that's taking place online. My only complaint is that the trailer wasn't one of their best and that's why they need to go all out with their next one.
Than why are people crying over ciri getting older?
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Or people trying too hard to defend a game or developer. Even with actual data straight from the horses mouth. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/busin...anchise-has-sold-37-million-copies-in-9-years

Just going by facts not feelings.

To add, if TLOU 2 had legs and sold significantly more or reached another big milestone we would've seen some sort of update by now. Even if we count time of release for both games and how long a product has been on the market.

Sony doesn't release numbers based on "milestones" all the time. They are random with the data they release. This is known. This is a fact. Not feelings. The data you are seeing for TLOU2 there is from one year BEFORE the Last of Us show premiered. The TV show helped sell both games since. We know this to be a fact.

Not emotion, no feelings. And we know for a fact TLOU2 generated more money for Sony than TLOU overall. FACTS no FEELINGS.

Where are you seeing that? I'm seeing both on the IGN Article and the source (Playstation Blog) that the quote is "We’re happy to share that The Last of Us Part II has sold through more than 10 million copies globally, as of this Spring." I'm not seeing any mention of February.

My bad, the leak showed that it "shipped" 10.3 million by Feb 2022, but sold 9.6 million. So it looks like it took another 2 month to "sell" over 10 million.
 

Madflavor

Member
Where did Selene show she was kinda likable to you? Was it before or after you played the game?

If I remember correctly, there wasn't a backlash against Selene when the reveal trailer came out. But I played Returnal and goddamn did I have a great time with it, and I liked Selene.

My bad, the leak showed that it "shipped" 10.3 million by Feb 2022, but sold 9.6 million. So it looks like it took another 2 month to "sell" over 10 million.

No problem, I was genuinely asking.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
Selene was kinda likable. She wasn't trying to be this annoying trying to appeal to gen z bitch

That still doesn't change the narrative.
People think the game will be fixed if they make her attractive. No one knew anything about her story until they played the game. This also doesn't stop Ciri from being called ugly.

Than why are people crying over ciri getting older?


Because people think they want to make her look uglier. Ciri in The Witcher 3 looks more like a cartoon character than an actual person. So if you go from a cartoon like character to a more realistic one, there's obviously going to be some changes in the character's appearance.
 

Woggleman

Member
It is correct that what you see today is a backlash to the wokism of the 2010s and I hate when the left tries to act blameless and innocent.

That being said the end goal should never be just doing the same thing but in the opposite direction. The cycle never ends that way which was ironically a main theme of TLOU2.
 

Dick Jones

Banned
If I remember correctly, there wasn't a backlash against Selene when the reveal trailer came out. But I played Returnal and goddamn did I have a great time with it, and I liked Selene.



No problem, I was genuinely asking.


No backlash at all. I remember all the posters commenting on how they can't wait to play as a middle aged woman.

You played the game and made a call. This game is in teaser stage so the multiple threads all complaining that a woman doesn't look like a woman (even though they actress looks like that).

I'm just saying just wait to see the gameplay trailer at least and you'll get an idea of the game and the character. ND main characters tend to talk alot so we'll know then if she is as unbearable as people claim she is.

I wasn't too gone on Returnal at reveal stage but the more the showed the more I was interested. I even preordered it at the end.

The above comment is aimed at more people than you
 
Last edited:

Madflavor

Member

No backlash at all. I remember all the posters commenting on how they can't wait to play as a middle aged woman.

You played the game and made a call. This game is in teaser stage so the multiple threads all complaining that a woman doesn't look like a woman (even though they actress looks like that).

I'm just saying just wait to see the gameplay trailer at least and you'll get an idea of the game and the character. ND main characters tend to talk alot so we'll know then if she is as unbearable as people claim she is.

I wasn't too gone on Returnal at reveal stage but the more the showed the more I was interested. I even preordered it at the end.

The above comment is aimed at more people than you

Yeah Gaf being Gaf isn't a real measure of a backlash in my book. You look at the like/dislike ratio of Intergalactic vs. Returnal for their reveal trailers, and it's a night and day difference. On the Playstation channel, Returnal has 31k likes and 1.3k dislikes, whereas Intergalactic has 96k likes and 250k dislikes. Selene wasn't being meme'd to death, nor was she ground zero for the gaming culture war at the time, like the MC of Intergalactic was.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
If I remember correctly, there wasn't a backlash against Selene when the reveal trailer came out. But I played Returnal and goddamn did I have a great time with it, and I liked Selene.

There was a backlash on GAF because some said she looked old and didn't look pretty. That was in the early days of "Get DEI out of games" converstations here on GAF.

No problem, I was genuinely asking.

And more leaks showing that it sold 6.4 million units digitally by June 2023. It was Sony's 3 highest revenue generated game digitally of all time (after Spider-Man 1 and GoW: Ragnarök).

5O7Jw50.png




And we know as of Feburary 2022, TLOU2 sold 41% of all its game sales digitally.

tlou2-sale-is-disastrous-based-on-the-leaked-sales-from-the-v0-zlg2g1cp1c7c1.jpeg



If the digital to physical ratio remained the same, that would mean the total sales as of June 11, 2023 would be 15.6 million sold world-wide! Keep in mind........TLOU2 Remaster didn't come out until January 2024. TLOU2 was already selling well in 2023.....but it charted better in Europe for the first half of 2024.


Best-selling games in Europe for first half of 2023​

PositionTitle
1Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
2Diablo 4 (Activision Blizzard)
3FIFA 23 (EA)
4The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)*
5Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
6Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard)
7Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
8Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (EA)
9NBA 2K23 (2K Games)
10Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
11God of War Ragnarok (Sony)
12Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
13Dead Island 2 (Deep Silver)
14The Last of Us: Part 2 (Sony)
15Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft)
16Final Fantasy 16 (Square Enix)
17Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft)
18Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo)*
19Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)
20Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar)


European GSD H1 2024 Top 10 (Digital + Physical)​

PositionTitle
1EA Sports FC 24 (EA)
2Helldivers 2 (Sony)
3Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
4Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros)
5Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
6Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)
7Fallout 4 (Bethesda)
8It Takes Two (EA)
9Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft)
10The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered (Sony)




There's good reason to believe TLOU2 is at a minimum of 16 million games sold by the end of 2024. Potentially at 17 million max, I'd say.
 

Dick Jones

Banned
Yeah Gaf being Gaf isn't a real measure of a backlash in my book. You look at the like/dislike ratio of Intergalactic vs. Returnal for their reveal trailers, and it's a night and day difference. On the Playstation channel, Returnal has 31k likes and 1.3k dislikes, whereas Intergalactic has 96k likes and 250k dislikes. Selene wasn't being meme'd to death, nor was she ground zero for the gaming culture war at the time, like the MC of Intergalactic was.
Unless the dislikes button is public then we are basing it off sketchy evidence at best. Assuming these figures are correct we have two outcomes. The fact the number keeps increasing substantially is either people are watching it well after reveal without knowing about the game and disliking it or people using multiple accounts to dislike it to increase the hate.

Most people don't like or dislike videos on YouTube. Who goes out of their way a week after the reveal to like or dislike a clip? The fact it's still happening (presuming the numbers are correct) is likely skewed by the same people and multiple accounts. Yes people are that pathetic.
 

Illyria

Member
A studio were taking down people posting stolen data before the release of a story driven game sounds petty to you?
Frame it however you want.
The leak crackdown had an negative outcome in the public perception, but it had to be done.
I sympathize with them but I disagree "it had to be done". I'm not for censoring or taking down anyone unless they are being violent. Once it's on the net, that's the end of the road. It has to be accepted. Taking people down will just trend those people towards strongly disliking ND.

I would've put out posts & videos to trust that the game will deliver & not to take things out of context.

I don't recall but did Sony come out with posts and/or videos backing up ND & their crafted story?
 

Zacfoldor

Member
Is there evidence the man isn't woke? I just checked and he still has an X account. So it hasn't been deleted.

Is Colin saying that he is friends with or knows someone that is friends with Druckmann that can confirm(even if just to Colin himself) that Druckmann is indeed not woke?

I want to know what the argument is here, actually.

Is it that he is woke but we should just not care and be better people? Or is the argument that we just got Druckmann all wrong and he's secretly not interested in being woke and is just kinda a probably left leaning hipster that considers himself too cool for woke and non-woke alike? Most arsty types are like this, tbh. They are left leaning but actually are smarter than everyone else and knows it so they just look down on wokeism too(they look down on everything).

I'll be honest, I actually do know a guy in the press who is not woke but rather a hipster(like I described above) that is totally insufferable but actually insufferable to both sides and not woke(and no one would ever believe that, and I didn't say gaming press). If that is true, I would actually change sides on this, but it is a hard thing to express. Like, it is sad if true because there really is no good way to let that become known without destroying his reputation. Wokism is like the mafia, if they even think you joined you can never leave.
 
Last edited:

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Is there evidence the man isn't woke? I just checked and he still has an X account. So it hasn't been deleted.

Is Colin saying that he is friends with or knows someone that is friends with Druckmann that can confirm(even if just to Colin himself) that Druckmann is indeed not woke?

I want to know what the argument is here, actually.

Is it that he is woke but we should just not care and be better people? Or is the argument that we just got Druckmann all wrong and he's secretly not interested in being woke and is just kinda a probably left leaning hipster that considers himself too cool for woke and non-woke alike? Most arsty types are like this, tbh. They are left leaning but actually are smarter than everyone else and knows it so they just look down on wokeism too(they look down on everything).

I'll be honest, I actually do know a guy in the press who is not woke but rather a hipster(like I described above) that is totally insufferable but actually insufferable to both sides and not woke(and no one would ever believe that, and I didn't say gaming press). If that is true, I would actually change sides on this, but it is a hard thing to express. Like, it is sad if true because there really is no good way to let that become known without destroying his reputation. Wokism is like the mafia, if they even think you joined you can never leave.

Colin knows him personally. They talk directly from time to time. He considers him a friend. And yes, Colin is saying Druckmann isn't woke and people just have a misunderstanding. Probably closer to what you said, that I bolded.
 

Dick Jones

Banned
Colin knows him personally. They talk directly from time to time. He considers him a friend. And yes, Colin is saying Druckmann isn't woke and people just have a misunderstanding. Probably closer to what you said, that I bolded.
We need to know Druckmann's stance on the International Women's Day tweet. This will be ground zero for the Woke Wars

Edit: Adding /s just in case
 
Last edited:
I'm personally am one of the rare few that are happy that TLOU2 was spoiled prior to me playing the game. It reduced the anger that I would have had towards Naughty Dog. If I experienced that game without any spoilers, my disdain towards the studio would have been crazy high. Playing it with the knowledge of what was to come created a sort of indifference towards the whole thing. Now, it's more apathy I guess.

For me, Naughty Dog represented peak Sony especially in the PS3 days. Uncharted 1, 2, 3, TLOU. They were all great games for the most part. However the transition to PS4 has taken Naughty dog in a direction that is not palatable to me. Their games are less fun, they're less replayable, they're more depressing, they have much more creator lead politics, etc. I cannot deny that the quality their games have in terms of graphics and animation, however in terms of gameplay, fun factor, and story, they're becoming less and less relevant to me. Uncharted 4 while having some fun segments is generally hard to replay because of pacing. Lost legacy is a really weak game that is the uncharted equivalent of oceans 8. TLOU 2 is depressing in terms of setting, it's bloated, ham fisted in story, poor in level design and generally hard to replay.

To me, this represents a general shift in Sony's portfolio and it's not surprising as their headquarters is located in the heart of edgy politics(California). Just for reference, here's how Sony's portfolio looks.

Uncharted - retire ND and replace with daughter (supposedly)
Ghosts - female in new game
Ratchet - bring in Rivet, maybe we get a game just for Rivet?
TLOU - kill Joel, move story on with Ellie
Returnal - female
Horizon - female
Intergalactic - female

There's nothing wrong with playing as a female in the game but as a male, I'm more likely to find male characters more relatable to me. As it stands, we have Spiderman and God of war left as the active big games with male leads. Wolverine I guess should be included in this list but it's not a game I'm going to play. I've played all the games listed and have no plans on playing another Ratchet game(story is too safe and boring), TLOU, Horizon(both games are unbelievably boring), Intergalactic(a product that looks completely disconnected from it's audience), and finally no more Insomniac games due to their safe and boring writing. So that leaves Ghosts of Yotei, and God of war along with any potentially new ips that might launch for story driven games.

I think people don't like Naughty Dog for a variety of reasons but for me personally, they represent Sony. The direction they're going in also coincidentally represents the direction Sony is going in and I personally don't like that direction. So in a way, they're forced to bear the burdens of my frustration with Sony as a whole.
 
Last edited:

Illyria

Member
For what it's worth Neil had a chance to go full on virtue signal/Avowed around TLOUII's release but didn't. He just praised his game & came off humble. I'm sure he was pressured to. He would have faced no resistance & would've recieved massive praise had he but he didn't. His communication spoke volumes.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I'm personally am one of the rare few that are happy that TLOU2 was spoiled prior to me playing the game. It reduced the anger that I would have had towards Naughty Dog. If I experienced that game with any spoilers, my disdain towards the studio would have been crazy high. Playing it with the knowledge of what was to come created a sort of indifference towards the whole thing. Now, it's more apathy I guess.

For me, Naughty Dog represented peak Sony especially in the PS3 days. Uncharted 1, 2, 3, TLOU. They were all great games for the most part. However the transition to PS4 has taken Naughty dog in a direction that is not palatable to me. Their games are less fun, they're less replayable, they're more depressing, they have much more creator lead politics, etc. I cannot deny that the quality their games have in terms of graphics and animation, however in terms of gameplay, fun factor, and story, they're becoming less and less relevant to me. Uncharted 4 while having some fun segments is generally hard to replay because of pacing. Lost legacy is a really weak game that is the uncharted equivalent of oceans 8. TLOU 2 is depressing in terms of setting, it's bloated, ham fisted in story, poor in level design and generally hard to replay.

To me, this represents a general shift in Sony's portfolio and it's not surprising as their headquarters is located in the heart of edgy politics(California). Just for reference, here's how Sony's portfolio looks.

Uncharted - retire ND and replace with daughter (supposedly)
Ghosts - female in new game
Ratchet - bring in Rivet, maybe we get a game just for Rivet?
TLOU - kill Joel, move story on with Ellie
Returnal - female
Horizon - female
Intergalactic - female

There's nothing wrong with playing as a female in the game but as a male, I'm more likely to find male characters more relatable to me. As it stands, we have Spiderman and God of war left as the active big games with male leads. Wolverine I guess should be included in this list but it's not a game I'm going to play. I've played all the games listed and have no plans on playing another Ratchet game(story is too safe and boring), TLOU, Horizon(both games are unbelievably boring), Intergalactic(a product that looks completely disconnected from it's audience), and finally no more Insomniac games due to their safe and boring writing. So that leaves Ghosts of Yotei, and God of war along with any potentially new ips that might launch for story driven games.

I think people don't like Naughty Dog for a variety of reasons but for me personally, they represent Sony. The direction they're going in also coincidentally represents the direction Sony is going in and I personally don't like that direction. So in a way, they're forced to bear the burdens of my frustration with Sony as a whole.

All of those studios had males as the lead for all of their games, until 2016 or so. It's more than likely that those studios wanted to change. That was also around the #MeToo movement, so it's not a surprise that most wanted a fresh change in gender for the lead.
 
All of those studios had males as the lead for all of their games, until 2016 or so. It's more than likely that those studios wanted to change. That was also around the #MeToo movement, so it's not a surprise that most wanted a fresh change in gender for the lead.
That's fine if they want to do so. They should have put those franchises on ice and created new ip's with new worlds for the new characters they have in mind. At the end of the day, they're free to do what they want and I'm free not to give them my money.
 

MacReady13

Member
That was also around the #MeToo movement, so it's not a surprise that most wanted a fresh change in gender for the lead.
What does real life have to do with who the main character of a game should be? Harvey Weinstein was a monster so lets get rid of Nathan Drake in Uncharted for a lesbian in TLOU2?
 

PeteBull

Member
For such a short post, this fucking goes places. All straight men dominate, all women submit? Anything else is letting the gay in? Kudos, that is some weapons grade sexual insecurity on display right there.
The only exception would be when woman is pegging a man or this perverted dominatrix shit.
And that is super weird shit 99% of straight dudes arent into.
That is one of many reasons we want our women to have low bodycount while women for the most part dont give a damn about how many chicks dude plowed, but add to that gay sex for dudes and chicks imediatelly have problem with that, while for us, guys lesbian sex women had is 0 problem.
TLDR: Men and women arent equal, we are actually opposite in majority of characteristics.
 
Last edited:
What does real life have to do with who the main character of a game should be? Harvey Weinstein was a monster so lets get rid of Nathan Drake in Uncharted for a lesbian in TLOU2?
I think a lot of times, people forget that games are a form of escapism. If I could drive an F1 car in real life, I wouldn't play F1 games. If I could go to a city like Night City and live with all the advanced technology, I wouldn't play Cyberpunk. I don't know very many people who play games to do things they could easily do in the real world. It's weird that some creators would ruin the escapism aspect by trying to drag the real world into the game.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
What does real life have to do with who the main character of a game should be? Harvey Weinstein was a monster so lets get rid of Nathan Drake in Uncharted for a lesbian in TLOU2?

No that's not the direct connection. I think it's very clear that creatives started to ask themselves, "Why do we always (80% of the time) need to star our AAA game with a male? Why not a woman next time?" The #MeToo movement comment was used as more a commentary on the timeline of when it happened.

I think a lot of times, people forget that games are a form of escapism. If I could drive an F1 car in real life, I wouldn't play F1 games. If I could go to a city like Night City and live with all the advanced technology, I wouldn't play Cyberpunk. I don't know very many people who play games to do things they could easily do in the real world. It's weird that some creators would ruin the escapism aspect by trying to drag the real world into the game.

Because for some games, that's the best form the have to express their work. Sometimes art and real-life intersect. It's been the same way with movies and TV shows too.
 
Last edited:
The same could be said to the whole western part of the industry when it was decided that it was important to have a constant push for more dei/woke content.
It’s just video games. Right? Why is any of that important?

Ask them. They're the ones doing it.
 
Because for some games, that's the best form the have to express their work. Sometimes art and real-life intersect. It's been the same way with movies and TV shows too.
One would hope that when these intersections occur, it's a happy incident and not a forced intersection. The problem is that TLOU2 for example is that it doesn't feel like a happy incident. It appears to be a concerted effort to trend chase the current political movement. The problem with trend chasing is that what's seen as in trend today may not be in trend tomorrow.

In many ways you could argue that the creators were inspired by a political movement which is no longer relevant today. A new wave has arrived whether we like it or not and the sentiments of yesterday no longer strongly resonate today. This is the primary reason not to trend chase. Even more so in game development due to the long time lag between the initial occurrence of the trend and the release of a game. A happy incident intersection for example is death stranding. That game came out during the covid era but, it's not like Kojima could forsee the occurrence of covid.
 

Fess

Member
Ask them. They're the ones doing it.
I would if they were here but they either lurk in silence or are at Reseteta where it’s an echo chamber.

But as long as they don’t cry about the games not selling or getting low user scores there isn’t much to say about it. It’ll correct itself through cut jobs and closed studios unless they start listening.
 
I don't personally dislike Druckman. I just think that the Last Of Us 2 was not as good as the first in all areas. I also think Uncharted 4 was worse than 3 and definitely 2. My opinion of the games he had most control over being not as good, existed long before I knew anything about his character. If their next game is worse again, then he just simply isn't very good or at least shouldn't be in a position of control. Their sales have been downhill since the first Last of Us so it will be Sony who will get rid of him if it sells millions less again.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
In many ways you could argue that the creators were inspired by a political movement which is no longer relevant today. A new wave has arrived whether we like it or not and the sentiments of yesterday no longer strongly resonate today. This is the primary reason not to trend chase. Even more so in game development due to the long time lag between the initial occurrence of the trend and the release of a game. A happy incident intersection for example is death stranding. That game came out during the covid era but, it's not like Kojima could forsee the occurrence of covid.


I Dont Think So Hot Coffee GIF by Aurora Consulting - SBA EIDL Experts



:messenger_winking_tongue:
 
Top Bottom