Female Developer's Awesome Response To Negative NYT Review

[HardOCP News]

Now this is how you respond to the age old "another video game made by men, for men and about men" load of crap.

In The New York Times review of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, Chris Suellentrop criticized our studio for creating a poor representation of women in “another video game made by men, for men and about men.” While I believe that Mr. Suellentrop had the best of intentions, I am concerned with his dismissal of both the women in this studio and the accomplishment of establishing the role of Ellie, one of the most complex, playable female characters in the medium.

 

[JimmayLong]

awesome response by her.

 

[fishfreeman]

�� Perfect!

 

[Exavior]

nice response. But I also have to wonder if she didn't have to twist her reply to make the review out to be worse that it was. I want to start by saying that I have never played the game, didn't know what the

He claims the character is almost entirely unplayable, trying to negate that by saying that is wrong, she is fully playable you get to play as her for a few minutes in this single part of the story doesn't actually prove him wrong. If you have a character that you start a game as and play the game as that person for most of the game with a few exceptions that doesn't mean that the exception is a playable character for the story, just means you get to play as them for a short period of time. you still are stuck playing as the other character for most of the game. minutes that you play as somebody is more important when talking about playability than the quality of that gameplay. If you play an entire game and at the very end you get to control 1 person for the kill shot to the final enemy that doesn't suddenly make that person a playable character in the way that most people take the meaning of that phrase. they take it as can I select to play through the entire game as this person.

Also not sure I would even go as far as discrediting his comment about a game made by men for men about men. Sure women might work for the studio and have worked on the game. but who thought up the game? who wrote the game? who did the main storyline for the game? those are the main people that "make" the game not the people who physically put it all together and code and design the art, they are brining something that was created mentally by somebody else to life. While they are the ones that give us the final product and are the ones that give life to the idea they aren't the ones creating the game. I also can see where if the main character you play as is a guy then the story is about him, even if there is a very close side character that follows you around and plays a huge roll in the story they still are a supporting character, this isn't really their story.

Reading the original article, I don't see where he was really trying to be bashing of the game or the woman that might have worked on it, but was just stating how he feels it could have been "better" when you compare it to the normally things that you hear about in regards to how women are treated in media of any type. You have a game where you play as a guy, being fueled in his story about what happen to a female in their life (daughter being killed). If you are looking for the driving factors of the youtube series he based his comments off of were listing as what is wrong with how woman are treated in media you can find where those types of things were being used here in this series, based on his opinion. That said, maybe he did overlook some stuff. Maybe he was trying to hard to make the game a story about a guy.

 

[Novulux]

nice response. But I also have to wonder if she didn't have to twist her reply to make the review out to be worse that it was. I want to start by saying that I have never played the game, didn't know what the

He claims the character is almost entirely unplayable, trying to negate that by saying that is wrong, she is fully playable you get to play as her for a few minutes in this single part of the story doesn't actually prove him wrong. If you have a character that you start a game as and play the game as that person for most of the game with a few exceptions that doesn't mean that the exception is a playable character for the story, just means you get to play as them for a short period of time. you still are stuck playing as the other character for most of the game. minutes that you play as somebody is more important when talking about playability than the quality of that gameplay. If you play an entire game and at the very end you get to control 1 person for the kill shot to the final enemy that doesn't suddenly make that person a playable character in the way that most people take the meaning of that phrase. they take it as can I select to play through the entire game as this person.

Ellie's playable part only lasted for an hour or so, but they are apparently releasing a prequel story DLC diving into her story more.

 

[cageymaru]

I've watched my nephew play The Last of Us. Sure the guy is protecting the young teen age girl, but she also has his back the entire game. As the original editorial stated, most of the time you play as the guy. But he's just as fragile as the girl in the game. He's not Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's a regular guy with a notion to save humanity by getting Ellie safely to her destination as she holds the key to the problem presented in the game.

Ellie helps during shootouts. Her tongue is a little brash, but I could imagine it fitting the story as it's set 20 years after a plague has hit the earth. Both characters are tough willed and lean extensively on each other. Mentally they are equals even though they aren't physically.

I think of The Last of Us as a watershed moment in the evolution of the gaming industry. I don't think men and women can be portrayed more equally than they are in The Last of Us. I would buy and play this title if it were to come to PC. Now contrast this with the game "Shadows of the Damned" where you climb through a woman's genitals to get to the next level and rest the butt of your shotgun on your crotch to shoot. That's what I would call stereotypical male game industry trash.

 

[ravx25]

I would buy and play this title if it were to come to PC.

I think this studio made a huge mistake making this a PS game only. As much as I have heard about this game I would love to play it. I momentarily contemplated getting a PS3 to play it, but, obviously, that is pure lunacy to buy a console based on one game. Hopefully their contract will allow them to port this game to PC after a while b/c I will be there to buy it.

 

[Exavior]

I think this studio made a huge mistake making this a PS game only. As much as I have heard about this game I would love to play it. I momentarily contemplated getting a PS3 to play it, but, obviously, that is pure lunacy to buy a console based on one game. Hopefully their contract will allow them to port this game to PC after a while b/c I will be there to buy it.

Game was published by Sony so I wouldn't expect to ever see it hit the PC.

 

[Ducman69]

In his defense, working for the NYT I'm sure there is a lot of pressure to meet quotas on furthering anglo-saxon male guilt, and they simply don't have the manpower... err I mean personpower... to fact check every piece of left wing propaganda.

 

[Exavior]

Actually now that I think about it, Naughty Dogs is owned by Sony now so actually it is a game made by Sony, published by Sony, for their console. So that makes it even more unlikely. This isn't some 3rd party game, it is a first party game.

 

[Terpfen]

I think this studio made a huge mistake making this a PS game only. As much as I have heard about this game I would love to play it. I momentarily contemplated getting a PS3 to play it, but, obviously, that is pure lunacy to buy a console based on one game.

It's not lunacy at all, and it wasn't a mistake to release it on the PS3 only.

 

[temujin987]

all the forced discussion about misogyny and discrimination against trans and other gender confused people (wtf is a pansexual?) makes me sick. don't we have to think about and discuss more important things as a society? yes, there are legitimate issues raised by women about gender equality and the general parameters in society should be equal for men and women (minus things that just can't be equally treated such as giving birth). however, it's up to the individual what you make of it. if women like to play games, play them. you like to make games, apply for jobs and get good at it and you'll be taken seriously. also, why are male video game characters always seen as macho? that guy goes through a lot of crap to save Ellie and puts his life on the line for it even though he could have had an easier life as exactly that, a macho.

 

[Jonnyy]

It's not lunacy at all, and it wasn't a mistake to release it on the PS3 only.

Agreed, I definitely buy consoles for specific games and I'm sure it weighs into console buying decisions for alot of other people too.

 

[Semantics]

It's not lunacy at all, and it wasn't a mistake to release it on the PS3 only.

iirc naught dog is one of their 1st party developers so like halo sony wouldn't let things like this go. Intersting thing about the difference between 1st party exclusives is microsoft tends to focus on multiplayer and sony seems to like story driven single party games. Might just be the difference between what Japanese and American audiences like.

 

[Croak]

Shame the game part of TLoU sucked so hard I couldn't bring myself to play more than about 4 hours (and the last three hours were pure effort, no enjoyment in the gameplay at ALL). I just ended up watching all the narrative bits on YouTube for closure.

I should have done that from the start and saved myself $300...had to buy a new PS3 to play the game, and it's not been turned on since.

 

[Deleted member 204526]

I think this studio made a huge mistake making this a PS game only. As much as I have heard about this game I would love to play it. I momentarily contemplated getting a PS3 to play it, but, obviously, that is pure lunacy to buy a console based on one game. Hopefully their contract will allow them to port this game to PC after a while b/c I will be there to buy it.

I was tempted to get a PS3 just for it as well. Instead I just watched a full play through on YouTube since it was the story I was interested in, and that sufficed.

 

[sas_simon]

I'm not sure if it was just me but i really wasn't a fan of Ellie at all throughout the game and just say her as the secondary character to Joel, i much preferred the character of Sarah, Joel's daughter who you only see at the beginning of the game, and feel that the game play and scenes with Sarah and Joel together are so much more powerful and well done.

 

[Gorankar]

I watched an entire play through on You Tube, great story, the game play seemed meh, to me but not really bad. I did not really see classic males chauvinism in the game, except in parody from some NPCs. It was certainly no Duke Nukem. Not that I consider it a big deal if it was anyway. Men and women do have differing interests. If games that appealed to women sold, they would make them.

I was tempted to get a PS3 just for it as well. Instead I just watched a full play through on YouTube since it was the story I was interested in, and that sufficed.

LOL that may be why various parties are trying to kill game walk throughs on You Tube.
Why buy a story driven game, when you can sit back and just watch the cut scenes, or a play through?

Anyway, I have a PS3 and refused to buy Last Of Us, and the last Uncharted because they are not on my preferred platform. Not giving my money to those that don't give me what I want is all I can do. In fact, since I have a launch PS3, and all three games that I purchased for it, I bought used, Sony prolly lost money on me.

 

[Terpfen]

iirc naught dog is one of their 1st party developers so like halo sony wouldn't let things like this go. Intersting thing about the difference between 1st party exclusives is microsoft tends to focus on multiplayer and sony seems to like story driven single party games. Might just be the difference between what Japanese and American audiences like.

Naughty Dog games aren't developed for a Japanese audience, nor is Naughty Dog a Japanese developer.

Single player/offline games statistically dominate multi-player/online games. It's something like a 90/10 split.