The last of us part 2
The evil that surrounds The last of us part 2 It seems to have no end. Naughty Dog’s follow-up to critically acclaimed The last of us It has been one of the most praised games of the year, breaking sales records and achieving an impressive 94 on Metacritic. And yet, its success has come with a dark hidden part, which brought the same reactionary forces into the gaming world that Gamergate brought us. Director Neil Druckman has recently featured on Twitter with some of the abuse he’s been receiving, with a variety of homophobic, trans-phobic, and anti-Semitic slurs thrown at his Twitter address.
This comes after Laura Bailey, the actress who played Abby in the game, shared some of the death threats she has been receiving just for playing a character.
A certain crowd on the internet reacted violently to Naughty Dog’s decision to move female characters and LBTGQ + to the center of the story, reacting with a rare level of trolling and abuse, even in an industry riddled with it. The game was also the victim of a metacritical review blitz campaign, where large numbers of users left negative reviews in an unsuccessful effort to harm sales or public opinion.
Naughty Dog condemned the behavior on Twitter:
“Although we welcome critical discussion, we condemn any form of harassment or threats directed at our team and cast. Their safety is our top priority, but we must all work together to eradicate this type of behavior and maintain constructive and compassionate speech.” .
While the toxicity surrounding The last of us part 2 It may differ from what surrounds other games in terms of quantity, unfortunately this is not a new phenomenon in the gaming industry. It is endemic in every corner of what we might call “geek culture”, just ask anyone involved in Star Wars: The Last Jedi—But particularly interested in the world of video games, where designers can face death threats for characters players don’t like, patches that are lagging, balance issues in multiplayer, or really … anything. It’s been a problem in the industry for years, but it’s only gotten worse with direct access to creatives offered by the Internet.
Meanwhile, many writers have managed to provide a thoughtful critique of The last of us part 2But the overwhelming cloud of toxicity has a way of overwhelming speech: If you don’t like the game, you risk aligning yourself with the worst elements on the Internet. If you do, you risk incurring your anger. Even if one tries to dismiss bullying campaigns like these, taken en masse, they have a way of flooding the Internet with their hatred as they become difficult to ignore.
Hopefully, sales of The last of us part 2 They speak for themselves, a powerful argument against the idea that you can’t break sales records with a woman on the cover. But as messages like these show, we still have a long way to go with the industry at large.
