I have to say that I am quite disappointed in how the gaming community handled the launching of The Last of Us part 2 by Naughty Dog. There has been a mixture of reasons for the backlash that the game was getting, but none of them were a real reason to be upset with the game. Whether you were upset that Ellie was lesbian or that Joel isn’t the main character like in the first game, it doesn’t mean the game was going to be bad.
First off, the homophobia thing is absolutely ridiculous and there are barely any scenes that represent the connection between Ellie and Dina. Aside from The Farmhouse and that one part in the beginning when they were on their scavenger route, it is not shoved in your face or utilized at all. It is a non-factor to the story and doesn’t change the way that things went down either.
Secondly, they NEVER showed any remote possibility that you would play as Joel in this game. From the very first trailer, they have made it very clear that you will be playing as Ellie. So why is anybody surprised and upset that Joel isn’t the main character? The idea that “maybe he was going to be the AI character this time” is ridiculous because then you would complain that they didn’t just let you play as Joel since he went with Ellie. I thoroughly don’t understand this upset.
Now, moving on the gaming community reputation as it is. We have spent the last few years finally making a good name for ourselves. Raising millions of dollars for charity, popular streamers stepping up for great causes, the whole #TeamTrees thing that we supported with gaming and streaming, all of these good deeds that were building up the way people looked at gamers is thrown away because you all can’t behave.
It was one thing to review bomb the game on Metacritic, but you guys then started attacking people online about it. It even got so bad that the face model for Abby, Jocelyn Mettler, was cyberbullied so bad she deactivated and privated her social media. And she isn’t the only one receiving hate mail either because Laura Bailey, Abby’s performer, is reported as getting plenty herself. Neither one of them had anything to do with who Abby’s character turned out to be and was just doing a role yet there’s enough of you out there attacking them for no reason. It is disgusting.
Perhaps many of you just hopped on this train while it was heading towards its own wreckage and didn’t realize that you were pulling the gaming communities reputation with you. Maybe it just seemed funny to join in on the bandwagon because it might get you a few likes and laugh reacts on Facebook. But none of you seemed to consider the consequence of your actions and now we, once again. look like a bunch of out of control children that aren’t to be taken seriously.
It is okay to disagree with a game and a story, but you can simply just not play that game or get to know the story. There is no reason for the actions many of you have taken over the last couple of weeks and it’s honestly vile behavior that needs to be avoided in the future. As a fellow member of the gaming community, I implore you all to hold each other accountable and don’t let the many great actions that bring the communities reputation to a positive light be dragged back to a negative and toxic status.
