https://www.cybersport.ru/games/articles/mnenie-sovremennye-geimery-sjw-naoborot-the-last-of-us-part-ii-podsvetila-problemu

The question is not at all that mass accusations of harassment or total wiretapping of streams is something good. In some places this, of course, is a skew – a desperate, and therefore hypertrophied attempt by the infringed party to change the world. Often, after the start, such movements slip into overt persecution of the opposite side, which causes a backlash in society – and together these two waves, hitting the public agenda, fix it in a new, slightly more (but not too!) Progressive position.

The process comes out painful, but in the end it pushes our civilization forward – after all, most of these movements fundamentally hope to change the world for the better: to update local ideas about morality or at least draw public attention to hidden problems. The mechanics are not new. I chose only the most memorable protests of recent years for our industry and the world as a whole, but once in the same way there were fundamental changes in literature and music (with a shocking counterculture that seeks to change authorities) or even in society (no one canceled the sexual revolution )

But in the gaming industry, the mechanism for some reason broke down! After the resonant #GamerGate in 2014, the community began to discuss current issues. They affected everything – from discrimination to the sexual objectification of female characters. And even if the reason for starting the discussion was a scandal, the situation itself became evidence that the industry is growing, developing and emerging from the shadows.

In the period from 2000 to 2015, the portrait of the average gamer was constantly changing. During this time, the industry has lost its niche status and has become a favorite pastime of people with very different demographic characteristics – and even outside the gaming community at that moment they began to talk more actively about the problems of the oppressed (and yes, someone can argue with the previous word – this is normal) social groups. And therefore there is nothing surprising in the fact that the archetype of the game hero began to change, no. Another question is that soon absurd excesses began to occur in this movement.

Instead of fighting for scripted equality and the correct portrayal of characters – representatives of minorities in games, those who are now commonly called SJW have started a painfully absurd war with logic. For me, the culmination of this process was an article in Polygon, which criticized The Witcher 3 for the lack of black characters. And all right, the claim was only to CD Projekt RED – well, the journalist didn’t get to Sapkovsky. But the critic went further and blew all the neighboring media for it:

It’s hard to argue, this is a completely insane view of things, which jeopardizes the part of the movement that advocates inclusiveness. The idea of ​​the journalist Polygon went against the logic: this is no longer a struggle for social justice (in the best sense of this phrase), it is a witch hunt and an attempt to forcibly tie to the work something that simply does not have a place there.

This is a comfortable position. It opens before every warrior a wide scope for criticizing absolutely any games, films and books, because in any work someone is clearly unrepresentative, right? Somewhere there will be no blacks, somewhere there will be no representatives of LGBTK +. And even if the events of the game take place in fascist Germany or in the mysterious bunker at the North Pole, in which the Aryans are grown according to the plot, a hat for the lack of inclusiveness can still overtake the game contrary to any logic, and bring the author of the critical opus even if it takes five minutes, but still glory on the net.

It is not surprising that this “agenda” provoked a backlash in society and led to the emergence of a very close-knit group of gamers who began to defend traditional ideals and, conversely, oppose the inclusion of any values ​​promoted by the SJW movement in games. And up to this point, everything went according to plan: some went too far, others went too far — and we were about to reach a compromise. However, the release of The Last of Us Part II showed that something went wrong in the industry.

Instead of finding a balance by slightly raising the degree of inclusiveness, but chasing away all those who just haypit on a relevant topic with smelly rags, for some reason we turned around and began to fight in the opposite direction.

The fight against the absurd is normal and correct. For example, I can understand why the community rushed to dig trenches after the first Battlefield V trailers – there they drew a variegated politically correct veil on the serious and still painful topic of war, hiding behind inclusiveness and the intention to “make it more fun”, and then also cut out some of the controversial from the game new products, thus admitting that they are wrong.

DICE stepped on the already rake already disgusted and tried to include in the game something that simply could not look organically there. And got what she deserved! It is unlikely that a shooter would be blamed for the “agenda” if he adhered to the spirit of the series and did not try to change something in it. The only irony is that this – the right way, no matter which way you look – chose Naughty Dog to create The Last of Us Part II, but it blew up the community anyway.

“Weak character motivation,” “scenario holes,” “meaningless empty story” is, of course, interesting, but we will be objective: in fact, these are reviews that players in Part II are annoyed by the “agenda” – Ellie’s orientation, the presence of transgender character (which a good half of the audience will not even notice) and, apparently, the very existence of Abby. And all would be fine, but the first part of the game and the DLC with the subtitle Left Behind also raised social issues – and did not hurt the fragile psyche of the conservative audience at all, because then the hunting season for socially fair witches had not yet been opened.

However, since 2013, a lot of water has flowed into the industry, and the balance has not been found – and now anti-SJWs have replaced SJW, which fight the dissenters with the same infernal stubbornness, resolutely do not give a damn about any logic. The situation with The Last of Us Part II in this regard is certainly the culmination of an absurd process, but this is far from the first such case, because conservative gamers have finally successfully mastered the tactics of the “enemy”.

Gamers recently criticized CD Projekt RED for changing the logo on Twitter – the company added a flag to it in support of the LGBT movement. And some people rushed to cancel the pre-orders of Cyberpunk 2077! Under the news about Spider-Man: Miles Morales, there were critics who accused Insomniac of “playing the SJW audience” – only black Miles Morales was painted in comics ten years ago. Critics didn’t get to the source … Hmm, doesn’t it remind you of anything?

Blizzard had previously been criticized for revealing the orientation of Soldier 76 – and this is in Overwatch, which was originally designed with the goal of maximum inclusion. But what is it – I saw how Life is Strange 2 was scolded for promoting SJW ideals, and it is hardly possible to find something more absurd.

In the fight against the crazy manifestations of SJW ideology in gaming, the conservative audience did not notice how they themselves took the forks and torches, turning into a caricature of their enemy. Instead of upholding their ideals and pointing out to industry blatant mistakes in logic, these people began to fight at all with everything that does not fit into their picture of the world.

Black characters? Damn #BlackLivesMatter! LGBT in the plot? Wow, SJW! The female hero is not in a tight tights? Caved in under the feminists, everything is clear with you! But this is a war with windmills – conservatives began to see attacks on their beliefs and precious orientation in every statement about pressing social problems. How is it that the players who once laughed at the very phrase “insulting feelings”, now hid in their comfort zones and began to brand the enemies of all those who disagree?

Until now, the discussion in the gaming community has remained within the bounds of decency, but the situation with The Last of Us Part II worries me. I remind you that a bias in one direction always causes opposition from the crowd, and instead of finally finding some kind of balance, we again rocked this pendulum on the agenda – it is not very clear where it will bring it now.

It’s not that everyone is bound to love The Last of Us Part II. Video games are an art and, by definition, cannot be objectively evaluated, so if you really think the game is the worst in history, then the flag is in your hands. But right now, each of us should look back and see if he holds a pitchfork or a burning torch in his hand. Otherwise, one day a news article will be published on this site with the headline:

“Players criticized San Andreas: Remastered for Cj’s skin color”