It’s pretty common for some people to ask for less politics in games. Turns out, that’s not really possible, even if you’re just here to kill some zombies.
This tweet from Naughty Dog creative director and The Last of Us Part II writer Neil Druckmann reaches the heart of the matter. Writing is based on personal experiences. Everyone has politics, even the dude who sends Drake on those swashbuckling adventures.
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16 responses to “Well, That’s Settled”
So Neil would doom the world to make himself happy?
People aren’t complaining in general, they’re complaining when it’s so blatantly obvious that it feels out of place. Like Loki talking about ethnics in hammer wielding.
Agreed, there’s a fine line against having a strong message and being downright anvilicious.
Yes some anvils need to be dropped. But those works are much rarer.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Anvilicious
One of the things I did not like about the last season of Futurama was that it was simply too preachy. Every day I am bombarded by the news and stories from around the world or horrible things happening.
I know what’s going on. I watch entertainment TV shows to escape reality, not to be reminded constantly of it.
Dude.
Maybe if we had some more politics in games there’d be less of a ignorant mass who have no idea, or no interest, about economics, social policy, law or foreign affairs. Instead us with half a brain get labelled ‘liberal elite’ and punished because somewhere along the way we decided that dumb shits get the same vote as the rest of us. (Deep breaths go here).
I’d play the hell out of The West Wing: The Game
Frankly House of Cards: The Game would be more fun.
“Frankly”, I see what you did there.
That would have been nice to provide some background information for those like me who didn’t play the game.
Or even, perhaps, the tweet that he appears to be replying to.
Original tweet has since been deleted. Was essentially ‘Neil, can your writing not be so political.’
SPOILERS****
At the end of TLOU Ellie is supposed to be sacrificed to scientists so she can cure the infection thus saving the world. Joel becomes a father figure to her throughout the game, years after losing his own daughter which sends him into an emotional cocoon. So Joel says stuff you world, I’d rather have Ellie then all you other fools, saves her and murders everybody else (preferably with a bow and arrow) and promises Ellie afterwards she wasn’t the cure becoming super nice evil dad. So make of that politically what you will
Heaps common information these days but use of the spoilers tag wouldn’t go awry.
But…but….I wrote Spoilers***
Ta!
“Write what you know” isn’t a carte blanche to push agendas in your stories, it’s merely advice saying more or less that people will find it harder to identify with a story if you write about things you don’t understand. I have absolutely no idea of the context behind the comment but on its own it sounds like Neil is just trying to excuse writing his own agenda into the story instead of maintaining the fiction of the story.
You…you know that the story isn’t a thing that exists independent of the writer dont you? Like, the writer is the person who directs the fiction? Any politics that they include is part of the story.
He wrote the first games story, how is he not “maintaining the fiction of the story”? It’s HIS story. TLoU was fantastic, I’ll trust the dude who wrote it to do an equally good job of the sequel over people yelling into the twitter void about games being too political.
Fucking yes Neil. This is brilliant. Naughty Dog produces some of the most mature games out there, and part of being mature is recognizing that politics are a part of everything.