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Naughty Dog wanted to "change the industry" with The Last of Us

P

Poetic.Injustice

Member
Naughty Dog wanted to "change the industry" through its presentation of a "non-sexualized" female protagonist in The Last of Us, creative director Neil Druckmann has said.

"I had this secret agenda," he said during a recent talk at the Toronto chapter of the International Game Developers Association attended by The Verge. "I wanted to create one of the coolest, non-sexualized female video game protagonists. And I felt that if we did that, there's an opportunity to change the industry. I know it sounds pretentious, but that was my goal."
Click to expand...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/naughty-dog-wanted-to-change-the-industry-with-the-last-of-us-6414758
 
N

Neiteio

Member
Just wanted to say TLoU is an excellent game and not nearly as pretentious as the game's creators now conspire to make it sound.
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
She is pretty cool.

But they forget something. Must game developers have trouble making cool characters period, regardless of gender. So we gotta get to that point first.
 
S

Salex_

Member
There's many non-sexualized main/leading female characters in recent games but no one mentions them and only talk about characters like Quiet. It's pretty sad.
 
M

mishakoz

Member
I mean, Naughty Dog are making big waves and everyone is watching.... And listening. So its not a stretch to think some developer somewhere has seen Ellie and recognized that it made the game matter on a whole nuther level.
 
P

Perkel

Banned
Industry won't change until there will be more women working in it.
Same with black protagonists or any other race.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Respect to them, they certainly did a job on that front (presenting a non-sexualized frmale protagonist) from everything I've seen
 
G

Guevara

Member
They wanted to create a cool new non-sexualized female character but that was hard so instead they just copied Ellen Page.
 
K

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
Didn't they say TLoU sold waaaaay more than they expected? How were you going to change the industry when you didn't even expect a lot of people to play/see it? Seems like they're just saying things just to say things at this point.

Guevara said:
They wanted to create a cool new non-sexualized female character but that was hard so instead they just copied Ellen Page.
Click to expand...

Outside of her earlier design, what exactly about Ellie's entire character screams Ellen Page? Or do you think a character is only as good as their design?
 
S

Salex_

Member
Perkel said:
Industry won't change until there will be more women working in it.
Same with black protagonists or any other race.
Click to expand...

I agree. I'm in the minority but I understand that people in those higher positions will create characters that are similar to them, It's just that simple. However, that doesn't mean that every single character has to be white males.
 
V

VanWinkle

Member
Guevara said:
They wanted to create a cool new non-sexualized female character but that was hard so instead they just copied Ellen Page.
Click to expand...

ok

KoopaTheCasual said:
Didn't they say TLoU sold waaaaay more than they expected? How were you going to change the industry when you didn't even expect a lot of people to play/see it? Seems like they're just saying things just to say things at this point.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it sold more than they expected, but that being said, they are still a very influential studio and a really big part of the games industry, so his point still makes sense. And obviously they didn't think it would bomb or anything like that.
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
Perkel said:
Industry won't change until there will be more women working in it.
Same with black protagonists or any other race.
Click to expand...

Plenty of well made female characters in books and movies made by men. Hell, the designs for Code of Princess was made by a woman. That's not a given for either suggestion.
 
Reave

Reave

Member
The Last of Us might not change the industry, but it changed the shit out of how I look at BioShock Infinite.
 
S

Spring-Loaded

Member
Ellie was a metaphor for the game itself and its potential to save the industry. Humanity was the game industry. Joel was the populace's belief that violence is the only way
and that belief took away the industry's last hope.
 
J

- J - D -

Member
It's a cumulative effect. I won't argue with their efforts, but they aren't the first to attempt to do something like this. The difference is they are lucky enough to be in positions that would allow their intentions to reach a bigger audience.
 
N

Neiteio

Member
Kintaro said:
Must suck to try to change the industry just to see GTAV set records. =/
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TLoU did extremely well for an all-new IP, and it wasn't because the market was secretly starving for 14-year-old girls. It did well because it was an excellent game where the mechanics were great AND tonally appropriate, and they existed in a top-notch narrative that didn't compromise the gameplay.

Well, that and Sony actually marketed the damn thing, unlike Puppeteer. [/bitter]
 
I

imBask

Banned
those 10/10s really got to their heads huh

I don't think we're about to call everything from now on as "post-TLoU"
 
E

Endo Punk

Member
oh gawd I was hoping ND wouldn't go all high and mighty. Just once I want to see a developer keep his cool after making a critically acclaimed game.
 
R

razoftblend

Member
Well, it DOES sound pretentious since there have been a lot of non-sexualized female characters before in games. Resident Evil games have a few of them, even as lead characters. Samus is a pretty popular one. Her tight-suit doesn't really make her a sexualized character; Nariko has an interesting outfit, but she's also a female lead in a serious story, and Valkyria Chronicles also works well here.

I see Ellie in the same vein as Ashly from RE4 but a little more independent. I'm not trying to talk down on the devs, but that kind of comment sounds a little bit arrogant here. If he really believed this, they would've made her the lead character rather than having her hide behind some dude.
 
E

Esura

Banned
Salex_ said:
I agree. I'm in the minority but I understand that people in those higher positions will create characters that are similar to them, It's just that simple. However, that doesn't mean that every single character has to be white males.
Click to expand...

But every character though? A decent creator is able to create characters that are not only similar to them but characters that are different from them as well so its not really that simple. Over the years there has been many non-white characters created by white people or white person in charge whether in movies or in books and vice versa.

I have half the mind that its really the publishers pushing the status quo on developers with this because I find it hard to believe that all these creators in gaming are that creatively bankrupt. Publishers probably find it safe to use "generic white male" to prevent any controversy. Not that I think developers should be forced to create a character they aren't comfortable with creating mind you but the logic that people only want to create things that are similar to them is a bit faulty.
 
N

Neiteio

Member
razoftblend said:
Well, it DOES sound pretentious since there have been a lot of non-sexualized female characters before in games. Resident Evil games have a few of them, even as lead characters. Samus is a pretty popular one. Her tight-suit doesn't really make her a sexualized character; Nariko has an interesting outfit, but she's also a female lead in a serious story, and Valkyria Chronicles also works well here.

I see Ellie in the same vein as Ashly from RE4 but a little more independent. I'm not trying to talk down on the devs, but that kind of comment sounds a little bit arrogant here. If he really believed this, they would've made her the lead character rather than having her hide behind some dude.
Click to expand...
You didn't play the full game, did you?
 
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