DrBroel

While the original tweet was an hyperbolic comparison probably due to the freshness of the experience, the replies are proof of lack of reading comprehension that would be put to shame by 10 years olds.

The issue is not about the theme, but the tone, and it is not about comparing Schindler's List to Last of Us 2, but that the focus on narrative and emotional impact between Last of Us 2 and most modern members of the medium (like Fortnite or Call of Duty Warzone) is comparable to the gap between John Wick and Schindler's List; which, haven't played it, but yeah... is probably right (after all, the gap in care and quality of the narrative between Last of Us 1 and other 2013 games, like DOTA, Call of Duty Ghosts or Beyond, was pretty noticeable). He could have used any other example, like The Raid and The Godfather, or Avengers and Parasite, or Avatar and The Pianist, and his point would not have changed one bit.

At this point, it is hard to say if Alexander and Schreier have a beef with TLOU2 because their recent research on the poor work conditions of Naughty Dogs colors their opinions, if they are jumping to the stereotypical "everyone is snarky and offended about everything" stance on twitter at the first thing they saw, or they just didn't like the game all that much, but they come out as bullies that don't even tried or cared to read and interpret what other people have to say before being all high and mighty.

Blizzard/Activision are a terrible company who engage in crunch, terrible consumer practices and suck up to China. Everything should be mentioned when their games are discussed. But thats a bit of a stretch to claim their awful handling of Hong Kong protests is doing more harm directly than having their own workers damage their health from overwork.

@drbroel said:

an artist at naughty tweeted this to some of the backlash already brewing over this

She has nothing to discuss with her therapist about her working conditions or what other people have gone through there, but some people reacting badly to it online is a crisis? People like her are part of the problem, I don't see why she expects anyone to come to her defence. Maybe stop being so self-absorbed that you think its ok to be proud of something that broke many of your fellow workers, or excluded others from even participating. She or at least the workers chiming in to agree with her are anti-union.

Twitter is bad and also I feel like we collectively should've moved on from making a (well-deserved) goof at a questionable take after like a day. Instead, it's just kept going and has gotten dumber as things have gone along.

I think my actual problem is the way this whole thing has escalated with the developer of the game (which has a 96 metascore and is almost precision engineered to be one of the best selling and most awarded games of this year) feeling the need to step in and defend this. Neil, you're gonna be just fine. Big studio AAA games aren't going to be crushed underfoot because Jason Schreier is calling out someone comparing The Last of Us to a holocaust movie.

It was definitely a poorly chosen analogy for Jeff, but I think it blew up in a way that wasn't really constructive for anyone. That said, it's also kinda Jeff's fault for doubling down and not accepting the criticism.