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

Venom.

Member
Although his intentions are good, I think Neil Druckmann is being hyperbolical by crediting Anita Sarkeesian as the influence for his selecting characters based on gender. He has previously praised her work and presented her with a GDC award.

Of course there is nothing wrong with there being female characters in a story, even sexist people would not argue for their being an all male cast! So when it comes to deciding what should be the gender of the character in the epilogue then a storyteller will decide what would fit the story best - that should be the ultimate consideration. So for the writer of The Last of Us (which had a strong female lead that was also lauded for LGBT characters) for him to say he ONLY considered a male and it was ONLY after a suggestion from his character-artist that he considered a female in some parts sounds very unlikely.

I'm very happy with the female part in the epilogue, when I played it my main feeling was relief that this role wasn’t mishandled as she could have been been the stereotypical whiny kid!

As for a focus tester getting angry that the character is female not male sounds complete balony. In the real world sexist people have stereotypical views of the genders, they don’t have a meltdown when they come across a female in a work of fiction.

Neil Druckmann is an admirable writer and I completely agree with there being more diversity of characters in gaming. But his message is that Anita Sarkeesian made Uncharted 4 a better game because he was building a game that had an exclusively male cast (except for Elena and a nun) and I find that hard to believe.
 
Being less generic than other Uncharted villains doesn't mean much. That's a pretty low bar. Even then, the few elements that don't make her a complete cliche don't mean much in the grand scheme of the narrative. She's barely above the bottom of the barrel.

Still mean a lot . I can't call something generic if all the previous characters in the same situation failed yet she was one who won.
Did she need more screen time ? Yes. Is she generic ? nope
 

SomTervo

Member
Of course there is nothing wrong with there being female characters in a story, even sexist people would not argue for their being an all male cast! So when it comes to deciding what should be the gender of the character in the epilogue then a storyteller will decide what would fit the story best - that should be the ultimate consideration. So for the writer of The Last of Us (which had a strong female lead that was also lauded for LGBT characters) for him to say he ONLY considered a male and it was ONLY after a suggestion from his character-artist that he considered a female in some parts sounds very unlikely.

Not at all, man. That's the point of structural sexism/patriarchy. You don't think about it. Your brain just defaults to 'male' for characters like that.

This is changing - it's less true today than it ever has been - but it's still prevalent. I'm a male who writes a lot of fiction (some of it professionally) and 95% of my protagonists are male until I suddenly realise they're only male because it's what my brain plants in the story by default.
 

klier

Member
Their focus testers didn't pick up on many small (mostly gameplay) details. GAF should have been the focus testing group.
 

Carcetti

Member
This level of fuckery never ceases to amaze. Someone has a hissy fit of 'unequality' when a four game series where you've been playing 60 hours+ as a manly adventurer has 15 minutes of playtime as a girl. How can these people even function in society?
 
This level of fuckery never ceases to amaze. Someone has a hissy fit of 'unequality' when a four game series where you've been playing 60 hours+ as a manly adventurer has 15 minutes of playtime as a girl. How can these people even function in society?

They don't. They're the guys who post on RedPill and the like angry that women won't sleep with them, and how women are just the worst, etc.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Well at least they got the gamegate dumbasses' take on the game I guess.
 

I am not telling that Nate and other male characters are bad people because they follow their passion and push others away. I am primarily saying that all of them are either criminals or open to do illegal and questionable things pretty easily. Just because someone is a treasure hunter does not give them the right to go around cheat people, steal stuff and force themselves into situations where they have to kill others.

Nadine was working with Rafe on a mission which was legal as they were digging around the place that he had purchased and legally owned and had every right to explore. Even in the auction she came with Rafe not to illegally steal and kill others to get the artifact they needed. She was there with Rafe to legally bid and win the auction which Rafe did by outbidding everyone. So when Nate and co. stole the artifact which should legally belong to her employer/partner she got down to doing what a hired mercenary would do.

In many parts of the game she is shown to show concern that her men are dying/killed and near the end she also implores to abandon the mission as it is costing a lot of her men and any have left. From her point of view Nate and co. attacked them and then when they retaliated, started killing her men. Simply put if Nate and co. had not stolen the artifact from the auction, she and her group would not have attacked them and her men would not be getting killed by Nate and others.

Elena is lied to by Nate instead of he being honest and coming up clean about his brother and he trying to save his life. He only tells her when he is caught red handed. She only joins back with him because she loves him and wanted to save him and then save Sam not because she wanted to go on treasure hunt.

Nadine is betrayed by her men who decide to join Rafe for money. She wasn't a cold blooded killer who was out for revenge ad wanted to kill Nate and Sam for all the damage they did to her and her group and also Rafe who turned on her. She was shown to be a rational thinking person who knew to quit when it was needed. The main point is that she could very well have been shown as a pure villain and could have had a proper ending where she dies fighting but the choice was made as otherwise.
 
You're right about your analysis.

But it would be really interesting if there's someone maybe pulling her strings from behind the scenes?

There's so much potential here..As much as I love the main cast,I think Nadine DLC would be something far more interesting to me.
The best way is to humanize her like Joel in TLoU. Joel is an absolute psycho and asshole but because we see his human side via his watch and interactions with Henry, Tess, and Ellie, etc., we as an audience can see from his perspective and even justify what he did. Same with Nadine. Show her human nature and make her relateable, her legacy and the fact that she is a women struggling to be a competent military type could be made relateable and universal. Even could more general, like earning the respect of her crew.

Again, I'm not a professional ND writer but this is kinda what I think ND could work with to bring Nadine DLC. :)
 
Still mean a lot . I can't call something generic if all the previous characters in the same situation failed yet she was one who won.
Did she need more screen time ? Yes. Is she generic ? nope

It makes zero sense to only compare her within the constraints of the Uncharted franchise, though.

Just because she's a 5/10 villain in a series with historically 4/10 villains, that does not make her good or interesting. Better than her predecessor? Sure. But if anybody with any knowledge of media played through Uncharted 4, they likely would not call out that character as being unique - unless they specifically adressed her race/gender. Since those do not play into the story whatsoever, it's not anything I'm willing to credit the script with.

She's very generic, especially when you consider how every other new character in Uncharted 4 has some other defining attribute that breaks them from the mold.
 

Harmen

Member
If you think about it, there are no completely good men in Uncharted 4. All male characters are portrayed to be on the bad side of the spectrum.

Nate - Career criminal, has been to jail several times, cheats Elena in Uncharted 1, lies to her in Uncharted 4.

Sully - Similar to Nate

Sam - Similar to Nate and lies to Nate to get his help.

Rafe - Obvious

Nate's boss - Ready to indulge in illegal things for his profit

Nate's Dad - As per what was told to us in story he was bad father and husband.

On the other hand almost all female characters are good and strongly portrayed:

Elena - Obvious

Nate's Mom - Strong willed, took good care of her kids, was good at what she did, no involvement in any questionable activities (based on whatever we are told).

Nate's Mom's boss - Strong independent woman, gives Nate and Sam their Mom's property back, didn't blindly shoot them for her protection but held them at gun point and called the cops (she didn't simply shoot even hen she did not know that they were kids due to darkness) etc.

Nadine - At least from game's point of view she only started attacking Nate and co. after they stole what should legally belong to her employer/partner as they won it in the auction. So technically Nate and co. attacked them by stealing from them and she reacted like any mercenary would do. She didn't kill Nate and Sam (and Rafe) when she had the chance to in the end and left. Not completely a good person but probably justified in her actions.

Cassie - Innocent kid

So yeah, the game is a masterpiece but it is one sided when comes to character morals. Just because the main male characters are likable does not justify the bad things they do or have done while almost all females are on the good side of the spectrum.

Like the question they were asked, can we not ask them that what if Nadine was purely evil and tried to kill Nate, Sam and Rafe to get all the treasure (and died in the process)? Would that have changed anything overall in the game but only that in the end she dies as well along with Rafe?

Huh? Elena is no saint at all. She shoots (not the camera type) and steals as well. It was
her choice to go with Nate, just like it was Nate's choice to go with Sam this time around.
Nadine is the leader of a private army, going on an illegal treasure hunt while trying to off competition. We simply do not know enough about
the mother of the Drakes
, but we know her partner,
Evylin, basically left her family behind in obession of tracking treasure, and died alone because of it; her kid even hated her. Hell, she serves as an example of how Nate could've ended up without character redemption
. And on a small sidenote,
the nun sure seemed less symphatic than the priest
 
Huh? Elena is no saint at all. She shoots (not the camera type) and steals as well. It was
her choice to go with Nate, just like it was Nate's choice to go with Sam this time around.
Nadine is the leader of a private army, going on an illegal treasure hunt while trying to off competition. We simply do not know enough about
the mother of the Drakes
, but we know her partner,
Evylin, basically left her family behind in obession of tracking treasure, and died alone because of it; her kid even hated her. Hell, she serves as an example of how Nate could've ended up without character redemption
. And on a small sidenote,
the nun sure seemed less symphatic than the priest

Elena did not choose to go with Drake, she chose to go save Drake and that is what she did. Once that was done she helped him save Sam and was going back home and not gunning for the treasure. Her involvement was never for finding the treasure at any point in the game. Elena's motive to steal and shoot is from either saving her or someone's else's life. She does not force herself into situation in which she would have to do so like Nate does.

Read my reply to another user above. Most of the treasure hunting that Nadine was doing was legal as her employer owned the land where they were searching initially and later in the uncharted island which it is not clear that whether it is claimed or under jurisdiction of any country that prohibits exploring. The action by her group in King's bay were surely wrong and illegal (shooting in public etc.). I am not saying Nadine was a really good person but that she wasn't let to be a pure villain like Rafe was. What would have been impacted if it was done so? She also was almost killed by Sam if it were not for Nate. Even then she was not pure evil villainous character who decided to take revenge when she had the clear chance.

The old lady can be a bad person from her family and friend's point of view but from what we were told about her, she was surely not criminal or involved in any such acts which all the male characters in the game do.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Although his intentions are good, I think Neil Druckmann is being hyperbolical by crediting Anita Sarkeesian as the influence for his selecting characters based on gender. He has previously praised her work and presented her with a GDC award.

Of course there is nothing wrong with there being female characters in a story, even sexist people would not argue for their being an all male cast! So when it comes to deciding what should be the gender of the character in the epilogue then a storyteller will decide what would fit the story best - that should be the ultimate consideration. So for the writer of The Last of Us (which had a strong female lead that was also lauded for LGBT characters)
Um, you do realize that when he praised Anita Sarkeesian's influence, it was with regards to The Last of Us, right?

for him to say he ONLY considered a male and it was ONLY after a suggestion from his character-artist that he considered a female in some parts sounds very unlikely.

As for a focus tester getting angry that the character is female not male sounds complete balony. In the real world sexist people have stereotypical views of the genders, they don’t have a meltdown when they come across a female in a work of fiction.
So now you're calling Druckmann a liar? Saying he made it up? Why don't you believe him, anyway? It's not a stretch that Druckmann would default to "male" when coming up with characters, and then when pointed out the character could be female (whether it's by Anita or by the artist or anyone else) he'd go "oh, you're right, why not".

It's cute that you pretty much outright call him a liar though.
 
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