Explosive Zombie
Banned
There's no denying at this point the agenda at ND, that they have some unsavory practices like crunch, high employee turnover and so forth and that their false DMCAs don't make them look very good. All of that said, I've bought games from worse companies before. And an SJW agenda doesn't automatically make a game bad, even TLOU 1 was allegedly fueled by Neil's personal politics, the argument could be made he's going to go further down the ideological rabbit hole by the game, especially if he continues to be successful at it, but the argument could also be made that there's been not a single dip in quality in Naughty Dog's work in possibly their entire career.
Despite all the problems I give them the benefit of the doubt to deliver a stellar game experience. If it's not the exact experience I wanted from a new TLOU that's fine, I consider myself pretty open minded and even if the story comes up short I expect the gameplay to be spot on. Though, I would stress again the actual story decisions aren't the same as how they're executed, the best part of the 90 minute leak is the full introduction to the game, it feels finished and uncut and it's incredibly well done and exactly the kind of storytelling I expect from the people who made TLOU. That doesn't mean the whole game will follow that pattern and I don't begrudge anyone wanting to punish ND for their politics, their corporate policy or their aggressive DMCAs.
For all I know this is another Mass Effect Andromeda and you have every right to want to cancel a pre-order (in fact I'm not a fan of pre-order culture and wouldn't have advised getting a pre-order in the first place). Most my presence here has been in defense of the game but it's because I feel like while I can't begrudge someone having trouble with what we've seen I also feel like there's no room for the other point of view and there's no benefit of the doubt being given.
Maybe as gamers we've seen too many examples of things going wrong with franchises, companies and so forth, we've had too many Colonial Marines, Duke Nukem Forevers and Anthems in our time to not be cynical about all this stuff. I also think the current political climate informs it, it feels like there's a war going, especially in America between ideologies and it gets more vicious all the time. Personally I staked my place in that war long ago, but I never wanted my video games and movies to get swept up in it. What I mean by that is I enjoyed The Last Jedi despite its politics not being my own, I love entertainment and I want to be entertained, I hate woke culture in the sense that it seeks to destroy what I enjoy but I feel like there have been some false targets, it's one thing to be mad at woke culture for trying to get CD Projekt Red to change their game and another to be mad at Neil Druckman for inserting his own personal politics in a game. I don't want CD Projekt Red to censor themselves so I also don't want Druckman to do so.
I want a world where both sides of the political conversation have a fair shot at delivering their messages through my media, what I don't want is a board room making decisions not based on their passion but based on what will make money or avoiding controversy. Stuff like The Hunt not hitting theaters because people were sensitive about it upsets me greatly. I hate that kind of shit. Freedom of expression is the most important freedom to me, it trumps all others. Even someone not politically aligned with me like Druckman, I feel for, when his work is ruined by a leaker.
Who knows how some of us would have felt about these twists had they not been spoiled out of context? Some of us can say no matter what we'd have hated them but none of us can know our exact feelings had we only found out what happened through the natural course of playing the game. In the same sense some trailers can "ruin" a movie for someone these leaks have ruined the game for some people. An author's message was distorted by only taking certain bits and showing you them, and I respect and value an author's right to deliver you their message how they see fit, even if I don't respect and value the author. But I'm ranting... do as you want, personally I prefer to look forward to things than the opposite. That's all.
Despite all the problems I give them the benefit of the doubt to deliver a stellar game experience. If it's not the exact experience I wanted from a new TLOU that's fine, I consider myself pretty open minded and even if the story comes up short I expect the gameplay to be spot on. Though, I would stress again the actual story decisions aren't the same as how they're executed, the best part of the 90 minute leak is the full introduction to the game, it feels finished and uncut and it's incredibly well done and exactly the kind of storytelling I expect from the people who made TLOU. That doesn't mean the whole game will follow that pattern and I don't begrudge anyone wanting to punish ND for their politics, their corporate policy or their aggressive DMCAs.
For all I know this is another Mass Effect Andromeda and you have every right to want to cancel a pre-order (in fact I'm not a fan of pre-order culture and wouldn't have advised getting a pre-order in the first place). Most my presence here has been in defense of the game but it's because I feel like while I can't begrudge someone having trouble with what we've seen I also feel like there's no room for the other point of view and there's no benefit of the doubt being given.
Maybe as gamers we've seen too many examples of things going wrong with franchises, companies and so forth, we've had too many Colonial Marines, Duke Nukem Forevers and Anthems in our time to not be cynical about all this stuff. I also think the current political climate informs it, it feels like there's a war going, especially in America between ideologies and it gets more vicious all the time. Personally I staked my place in that war long ago, but I never wanted my video games and movies to get swept up in it. What I mean by that is I enjoyed The Last Jedi despite its politics not being my own, I love entertainment and I want to be entertained, I hate woke culture in the sense that it seeks to destroy what I enjoy but I feel like there have been some false targets, it's one thing to be mad at woke culture for trying to get CD Projekt Red to change their game and another to be mad at Neil Druckman for inserting his own personal politics in a game. I don't want CD Projekt Red to censor themselves so I also don't want Druckman to do so.
I want a world where both sides of the political conversation have a fair shot at delivering their messages through my media, what I don't want is a board room making decisions not based on their passion but based on what will make money or avoiding controversy. Stuff like The Hunt not hitting theaters because people were sensitive about it upsets me greatly. I hate that kind of shit. Freedom of expression is the most important freedom to me, it trumps all others. Even someone not politically aligned with me like Druckman, I feel for, when his work is ruined by a leaker.
Who knows how some of us would have felt about these twists had they not been spoiled out of context? Some of us can say no matter what we'd have hated them but none of us can know our exact feelings had we only found out what happened through the natural course of playing the game. In the same sense some trailers can "ruin" a movie for someone these leaks have ruined the game for some people. An author's message was distorted by only taking certain bits and showing you them, and I respect and value an author's right to deliver you their message how they see fit, even if I don't respect and value the author. But I'm ranting... do as you want, personally I prefer to look forward to things than the opposite. That's all.
