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.
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 dont 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.
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 wasnt 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 dont 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.