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UC4 Director Says They Had To Ask One 'Sexist Focus Tester' To Leave [Spoilers]

The article has spoilers so don't read if you haven't finished the game.


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Druckmann sat down with Kotaku friend Chris Suellentrop for an interview in the newly launched Glixel, an upcoming gaming website by Rolling Stone. (I would make fun of the name Glixel, but hey, ours is Kotaku.) There are a lot of interesting nuggets in there, including Druckmann’s answer to a question about game critic Anita Sarkeesian and how her work has affected Naughty Dog. Read this:

Druckmann: When I’m introducing and describing a new character to our lead character concept artist, constantly she will ask, “What if it was a girl?” And I’m like, Oh, I didn’t think about that. Let me think, does that affect or change anything? No? Cool, that’s different. Yeah, let’s do it.
Initially, in the epilogue, it was Nate’s son. Something similar happened with the mansion they go into. That was an old English guy’s house. She asked, Well, what if it was a woman?

You have some sexist focus testers who were really upset by
Nadine beating up Nate, and really upset at the end when it was Nate’s daughter.
To the point where we had to ask one guy to leave. In his core, it just affected him. He was cursing, “Not you, too, Naughty Dog! Goddammit. I guess I’m done with Uncharted, if you guys ever make another one,
with his daughter.
This fucking bullshit.”

And I was like, Wow, why does that matter?

http://kotaku.com/uncharted-4-director-says-they-had-to-ask-one-sexist-fo-1778198178
 

dLMN8R

Member
I absolutely loved that
the epilogue was their daughter instead of a son. There were few enough female characters in the game as-is (and I don't think it even passed the bechdel test until Elena talked with her, despite being a massive epic story taking 14-15 hours to complete with hours of cutscenes along the way).

It was just different enough that it made me love it even more. LOL @ MRAs who are so offended by the presence of female characters. It's like MRAs need a safe space :)
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Look at this child. I probably would've physically booted his ass out the building at that point.
 
Not sure why you put a spoiler tag on that one line when it says it again just underneath :p
But yeah, best to get rid of people like that. Diversity is usually a good thing and it's best to consider it instead of just going straight to the default white dude.
 
Those people's true colours are so transparent it's not even funny. It's like nowadays they don't even try to hide what they stand for. Good on Druckmann for having a cool attitude about this kind of thing.
 

Sir TapTap

Member
I'm not surprised someone said those things, but that they'd be willing to say them in person, directly to Naughty Dog personnel, is rather depressing/astounding(ly depressing). It's another nail in the (stupid) "internet fuckwad theory" though, some people are just genuinely terrible.

The scariest thing is this notion that making someone female is a choice. Like people are naturally male and every included woman is a political move, as if half the human race weren't female.

Glad they threw him out rather than "use" his "feedback" of course.
 
I'm not surprised someone said those things, but that they'd be willing to say them in person, directly to Naughty Dog personnel, is rather depressing/astounding(ly depressing).

The scariest thing is this notion that making someone female is a choice. Like people are naturally male and every included woman is a political move, as if half the human race weren't female.

Seriously. Every character needs to have a decision made by the creators on their gender, individually, every time. They aren't white male by default. Making them a black female isn't pandering.

A shame so many people lack a brain that allows them to understand this.
 

pizzacat

Banned
old English man would have been dumb, it was pretty awesome when that old lady had a gun bout to shoot some kids up
 

GamerJM

Banned
I legitimately don't understand why people would elect not to play a game because it stars a woman. Like, how childish do you have to be? I can at least kind of wrap my head around casual sexism but acting like that guy? Why?
 

ultrazilla

Member
Man did I just read a freaking huge spoiler in the OP? WTF? I'm only half way through the game!! :( WTH, I wasn't expecting spoilers in here. DAMN.
 
I've never understood why there are people who care if they play as a man or a woman in a game. I've heard this exact same kind of thing from people before where they will flat out not buy a game if they have to play as a woman at any point. Like its weird.


Also yeah that tester sounds like an ass, so good riddance they threw him out. Also
Nadine is obviously a trained badass at fighting. It makes perfect sense she beat Nate up.
 

Kyne

Member
need NG to just recreate Y: The Last Man in videogame form.

ALL THE FEMALES.

Seriously though.

Y-The-Last-Man-Yorick-and-Ampersand.jpg
 

SeanTSC

Member
Super glad they kicked that manbaby out. The characters that they went with are fantastic, and imo better, because they are women. Nadine is amazing.
 
I legitimately don't understand why people would elect not to play a game because it stars a woman. Like, how childish do you have to be? I can at least kind of wrap my head around casual sexism but acting like that guy? Why?

Woman/LGBT/Non-white person: *breathes*

WTF...... THE SJW AGENDA STRIKES AGAIN....... THIS IS TRUE OPPRESSION...... SMH.........

The worst part is there are people out there who are actually like this.
 

kenta

Has no PEINS
Sad.

I read the interview and agreed with his take on the Anita Sarkeesian review -- I also thought they addressed that in the game itself. Keep on truckin', Druckmann
 
I also loved that it was Nate's daughter and not a son. How insecure does one have to be in order to get so angry about an otherwise male centric game making you play as a girl for the last half hour of a 17 hour long game?
 
I could see where he's coming from in that he feels maybe that they did this by force because people have been talking about sexism in games for the past few years where as maybe they wouldn't do it if nobody ever talked about such issues? However, here's the thing, nothing feels forced in that game so I don't know what he's on about.

I love it when developers genuinely do something. Not do it after people rail on them for months because I feel by then whatever they do loses it's meaning. This is a case where it's the former, obviously. Good on ND.
 

Quonny

Member
He was cursing, “Not you, too, Naughty Dog! Goddammit. I guess I’m done with Uncharted, if you guys ever make another one, with his daughter. This fucking bullshit.”

This just...kinda sounds unbelievable.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
You have some sexist focus testers who were really upset by Nadine beating up Nate, and really upset at the end when it was Nate’s daughter. To the point where we had to ask one guy to leave. In his core, it just affected him. He was cursing, “Not you, too, Naughty Dog! Goddammit. I guess I’m done with Uncharted, if you guys ever make another one, with his daughter. This fucking bullshit.”
Boofuckingwho. What a child.
 
I know someone who reacted similarly about the ending and the possible implications of that for the franchise moving forward.
He said, "We already have fucking Tomb Raider, we don't need a female lead in the future."
 
The scariest thing is this notion that making someone female is a choice. Like people are naturally male and every included woman is a political move, as if half the human race weren't female.

Glad they threw him out rather than "use" his "feedback" of course.

I've been told by people online that they consider everyone else online to be a (usualluy straight, white) man uness that person explicitly says otherwise so idk it's not that surprising to me.
 
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