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Uncharted 4 play tester gets thrown out and labeled sexist by Naughty Dog after voicing concerns

“Uncharted 4” is one of those games that will be talked about for some time for many reasons. In fact, I reviewed the game recently, and I enjoyed it a whole lot. Nevertheless, sometimes it’s good to be devil’s advocate and take a different stance on what´s at hand. (SPOILER WARNING! For those who haven’t played “Uncharted 4” yet, read the rest of my article with caution). And just recently, there has been some fuss about Uncharted 4´s “diverse” cast. And it all started with a recent interview with Kotaku, where Naughty Dog´s Neil Druckmann talked about throwing out a “Sexist tester”. And down below you will find an excerpt from that interview:

“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?”

Kotaku to the rescue!

So, why does it matter? I mean, did Naughty Dog not stop and ask that question before showing him the door? Well considering how it’s been rammed down our throats nearly every week that games need to be this super diverse platform (inclusive for all). Well, okay, except for the white CIS scum of today. As it´s a popular notion to hate CIS white males nowadays. My guess is that the tester just expected something better? As Nadine is this super tough cookie, who knows kung fu and somehow holds her own against both Sam and Nath in a 2 vs 1 fight because “Reasons. However, I’m sure two men beating up a woman is “Problematic” despite her being a massive douche.

Sadly enough though, she’s pretty much a forgettable character (in fact, Naughty Dog forget to address her disappearance altogether during the end game) leaving her as a villain with wasted potential, but was this for the sake of diversity? I guess it wouldn’t have been PC to kill her off despite her being the owner of a private military who´s constantly trying to kill Nathan, I guess that’s because she’s a girl, you can’t kill girls you sexist pig!

A couple of months ago, I could never have guessed that “Uncharted 4” would end up in some “sexist”, “sexism” or “diversity” drama…(Robin).

As for the epilogue with Nate’s daughter being revealed, it did feel like the diversity box was just being ticked off again, because why wouldn’t he have a son? Why not have a brother and a sister who would have pleased everyone? Surely it would make sense with Nathan having a brother too, does he really want his kid to grow up alone? I guess he’s worried about having a boy or another girl ha!

I guess they just want to appeal to a specific audience, which makes sense because that audience is constantly moaning about games for the sheer sake of complaining “There are no people of colour in this game? LET`S START A PETITION!” (which actually happened after “The Witcher 3” released). I wonder if SJW’s sit there with a clip board in hand checking off their little diversity boxes. Ah ha! There are no Gay characters in “Uncharted 4”, no trans folks either, and there is too much toxic masculinity. So I´ll give “Uncharted 4” 3/10 grade. Trust me on this, you can put money on Sarkeesian or Mcintosh calling Uncharted 4 toxic masculine mess filled with violence; because you can never please these people, so why bother? They don’t care; they aren’t the people to go to when it comes to making good games!

anita sarkeesian damsel in distress part 2

Apparently Naughty Dog have no idea about who they are dealing with…

And Naughty Dog’s Druckmann has even said in the past that he’s been influenced by Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency videos. So he’s clearly trying to appease that audience by bending to their will and trust me, when they don’t get what they want they riot, it’s just when we (Gamers) criticize some aspects of a game we get lambasted as sexist scum or whatever. Why didn’t they question the play tester? Why didn’t they ask him what his issues were, rather than throwing him out with the sexist label? I guess it’s because the tester was a white CIS guy, so his opinion was already invalid. And he was simply supposed to nod and say “Great game guys”.

Kotaku also added their two cents on the matter (surprise):

“No matter your opinions on Sarkeesian and her work, I hope you’ll agree that getting developers to think “What if this were a girl?” rather than assuming a male default is a very good thing for gaming. It’s so easy for writers to fall into the routine of telling only stories about people who act and think like them. Pushing those storytellers to consider other options can lead to way more interesting decisions and way better stories. And hopefully we’ll get to play as Cassie Drake in the DLC.”

I have nothing against having female leads, NPCs or whatever. However, it´s a very bad idea to inject the Sarkeesian venom into the game development community. As we´ve seen enough censorship, SJW nonsense and feminism agenda as it already is (Robin).

Let’s face it. A particular group of people don’t like male leads. And they especially don’t like CIS white male leads, and more so. They want to see an end to that. Now I have no issue whatsoever with whoever is leading my game as long as it makes sense (and I can say the very same thing about the villains). And that it doesn’t feel like a box is being ticked in, just so that the game in question will appease a certain group of people. Strong male leads shouldn’t be frowned upon. Female leads have also been around for so long, but of course they have been lambasted for being “too sexy”.

I just don’t see how crowbarring gender or an orientation into games is going to make things better for everyone. We’re not some hive mind. The world is full of different people who like and hate different things, and you’re never going to please everyone. Even If I walked into my local pub and screamed “FREE DRINKS for all” someone’s going to be pissed-off, and it would probably be the bar staff. Maybe SJW’s simply want to see the alienation of a core audience and to have hairy fat blue-haired feminists as their main characters, I’m 100% sure this would certainly lead to far more interesting decisions and much better stories, right Kotaku? It would appear these days if you say, “well I’d rather play as a guy or prefer male characters” just remember that’s sexist, and you’re a terrible person.

Source:
Kotaku

Credit:
Robin Ek – Co-writer and editor

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

Sharn Daniels
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @SharnOfTheDEAD