Overused tactics:
- White men posing as persecuted victims to justify their angry attacks and cruelty.
- Fabricate enemies to amalgamate them in hating and get distracted/blindfolded from their real problems and enemies.

Prez wrote on May 10, 2025, 13:54:

Riahderymnmaddog wrote on May 10, 2025, 12:43:
Serves them right for not sticking to canon injecting the W0Ke, had they only replaced Ellie with a young cisgender straight Muslim black boy named Tapfuma I mean, white Christian Patriot named Travis, they would have for sure gotten nothing but five star reviews.

Again, no mention whatsoever of the disabled. Are you an ableist dude???? We deserve to be joked about as well; I won't be silent!!

yeah, I'll work on being more inclusive of the disabled.

Wait a second... does this make Emiem a W0Ke DEI rapper? I am smashing my CD's, and purging my hard drives right now!!

This comment was edited on May 10, 2025, 15:05.

Riahderymnmaddog wrote on May 10, 2025, 12:43:
Serves them right for not sticking to canon injecting the W0Ke, had they only replaced Ellie with a young cisgender straight Muslim black boy named Tapfuma I mean, white Christian Patriot named Travis, they would have for sure gotten nothing but five star reviews.

Again, no mention whatsoever of the disabled. Are you an ableist dude???? We deserve to be joked about as well; I won't be silent!!

tl;dr: outrage about stuff that doesn't affect people in any way, that they have to choose to watch or play, when the content is about underrepresented/abused portions of the population. Look up any complaints about woke and you always come back to this. Lately the same group has been crying about how white men are now the most abused group, as if they have been kicked out of stores or pulled over or had job applications denied just for being white.

Serves them right for not sticking to canon injecting the W0Ke, had they only replaced Ellie with a young cisgender straight Muslim black boy named Tapfuma I mean, white Christian Patriot named Travis, they would have for sure gotten nothing but five star reviews.

This comment was edited on May 10, 2025, 12:54.

My problem has never been that they *spoiler* *killed Joel off very early inthe sequel* Game of Thrones shockingly *spoiler* killed off an extremely popular character very early on. The difference was two-fold: 1) in Games of Thrones It was a completely logical and clever script that presented a clear sequence of events leading up to it. It worked because it was done correctly. And... 2) Game of Thrones did not rely on lead character chemistry between the top two leads. It was chock full of interesting characters with many very interesting plots to follow. The game and the show of the Last of Us cannot make up for the lack of arguably the best actor in the show. Bella Ramsey is fantastic (I am less sure about the girl playing Abby, but I am told she is great) but the chemistry was THE strong suit of the show and the game before it and just for the sake of "subverting expectations" they threw that away while lacking the expertise in script-writing and not understanding why the first is one of the most beloved stories in gaming. If you just wanted a mindless zombie and bad human murder simulator then you probably loved the second game. (Not throwing shade; that's perfectly fine). But if you were here for the story, it's hard to overstate just how awful the second game was in the context of taking it with the first. I am almost impressed that they went all in on the same narrative beats even given how terrible it was in the game. But I guess that's what you get when all of the reviewers were falling over themselves telling us how it was the best game of all time because Ana Sarkeesian advised on it.

***DISCLAIMER*** Calm your tits- I do not hate Ana Sarkeesian and in fact I think she kickstarted an important shift in gaming despite thinking that her individual examples were dumb. Overall she was a net positive. [Also see: how to piss off both extremes in one post]

This comment was edited on May 10, 2025, 12:19.

jacobvandy wrote on May 10, 2025, 06:51:

VaranDragon wrote on May 10, 2025, 06:39:
Well written. Don't let yourself get beat down Prez, there are a lot of us out there who feel the same way. We don't hate for hate's sake, we don't LIKE because it's really stupid and shite. The show can't succeed with Bella Ramsey alone, the narrative depended on the father-daughter relationship, without that it's just like the second game. Souless, and shite.

You say that as if the narrative of the second game wasn't STILL almost entirely about that same relationship... Even though you don't play as Joel, he still appeared throughout the whole thing. I'm sure the writers are so sorry you were asked to consider the dynamic from a different angle than in the first game (and a third angle which eventually converges with the first in every way except that it's a strong female, instead).

Whatever dude. I have my opnion, and it has nothing to do with any kind of agenda. The writing of the second game was absolute dogshit.

VaranDragon wrote on May 10, 2025, 06:39:
Well written. Don't let yourself get beat down Prez, there are a lot of us out there who feel the same way. We don't hate for hate's sake, we don't LIKE because it's really stupid and shite. The show can't succeed with Bella Ramsey alone, the narrative depended on the father-daughter relationship, without that it's just like the second game. Souless, and shite.

You say that as if the narrative of the second game wasn't STILL almost entirely about that same relationship... Even though you don't play as Joel, he still appeared throughout the whole thing. I'm sure the writers are so sorry you were asked to consider the dynamic from a different angle than in the first game (and a third angle which eventually converges with the first in every way except that it's a strong female, instead).

Prez wrote on May 10, 2025, 01:11:
My problem is what it usually is when this sort of thing comes up. It would be ridiculous to assume that all of the reviews are genuine negative reviews by people who hated the lazy writing and complete disregard for the characters as established in the first game (I'm speaking specifically of the game here.) You can find plenty "0 out of 10 because the gay" reviews in skimming the user review section. I haven't watched the second season of the show, because I heard what direction they were taking the story (i.e. more or less how the game's story went). I was immediately out at that point. But to assume the opposite extreme, that all of the reviews that are knocking the score down are by incel manbabies who haven't watched the show seems equally ridiculous to me. We are all aware of the 2 narratives set up by the culture war "This show must be stopped and downvoted because of "wokism"/anyone who gives this show a negative review regardless of their stated reason is an incel neckbeard misogynist" but where does that leave someone who legitimately hated the second game because of how stupid and emo they had to make the characters just so the terrible plot could happen? I'm not talking a cursory glance at some of the user reviews, and I'm not interested in the typical ideological extrapolation that both parties love to do. Simply show me the evidence that proves it one way or another. Because by my analysis, as incomplete and amateurish as it may be, hints that the second season sucks compared to the first. I'm not a bigoted misogynist or a tree-hugging snowflake (I'm kidding - put down your pitchforks), I am just a guy who, if I take the time to write a comprehensive, in-depth review, doesn't want to have his opinion dismissed because you label me one of the enemy without trying to understand a word that I wrote. I fucking hate where we are right n

Well written. Don't let yourself get beat down Prez, there are a lot of us out there who feel the same way. We don't hate for hate's sake, we don't LIKE because it's really stupid and shite. The show can't succeed with Bella Ramsey alone, the narrative depended on the father-daughter relationship, without that it's just like the second game. Souless, and shite.

Prez wrote on May 10, 2025, 01:11:
My problem is what it usually is when this sort of thing comes up. It would be ridiculous to assume that all of the reviews are genuine negative reviews by people who hated the lazy writing and complete disregard for the characters as established in the first game (I'm speaking specifically of the game here.) You can find plenty "0 out of 10 because the gay" reviews in skimming the user review section. I haven't watched the second season of the show, because I heard what direction they were taking the story (i.e. more or less how the game's story went). I was immediately out at that point. But to assume the opposite extreme, that all of the reviews that are knocking the score down are by incel manbabies who haven't watched the show seems equally ridiculous to me. We are all aware of the 2 narratives set up by the culture war "This show must be stopped and downvoted because of "wokism"/anyone who gives this show a negative review regardless of their stated reason is an incel neckbeard misogynist" but where does that leave someone who legitimately hated the second game because of how stupid and emo they had to make the characters just so the terrible plot could happen? I'm not talking a cursory glance at some of the user reviews, and I'm not interested in the typical ideological extrapolation that both parties love to do. Simply show me the evidence that proves it one way or another. Because by my analysis, as incomplete and amateurish as it may be, hints that the second season sucks compared to the first. I'm not a bigoted misogynist or a tree-hugging snowflake (I'm kidding - put down your pitchforks), I am just a guy who, if I take the time to write a comprehensive, in-depth review, doesn't want to have his opinion dismissed because you label me one of the enemy without trying to understand a word that I wrote. I fucking hate where we are right now....

Sometimes both can be true. "The Acolyte" was absolutely review bombed because "woke lesbian force witches." At the same time, it was definitely a poorly written show that was propelled forward "because the plot said so" instead of naturally through character motivations. The fact that it was well produced, cast, and acted with some of the best fight scenes in Star Wars made the poor writing even more frustrating, like having a bird shit on a beautiful steak you just pulled off the grill at a picnic. There's no way to scrape the shit off and enjoy the steak after that.

Toxic positivity is as much of a thing as traditional internet trolls.

The Last of Us original game was one of the best games I played upon the playstation.

I didn’t mind the first season of the show, but don’t consider it worthy of a re-watch, and I’ve rewatched Fallout season one three times at this point.

I haven’t watched season two, because I have yet to beat or play part two of the game. I’m also a bit demotivated to do so at this point, just because all the drama I am aware of going into it will taint my perception of them at this time.

With the direction of the flow of money, I’d say the creators (seeking profit) need to pay attention to the audience more than the commercial artist’s vision. Hire people better able to meet their target market’s desires, and let those who want to evangelize figure out their own source of income.

- The Last of Us 1 game, stunning, one of the very best ever done.
Miniseries ?, excellent !.

- The Last of Us 2 game, wow, I liked it even more than the first, didn't think it would be possible.
The Steam score of TLUS2 as of now, is higher than that of TLUS1, just saying.

- Now hoping they will make The Worst of USA, featuring the Trump cabinet

This comment was edited on May 10, 2025, 02:53.

My problem is what it usually is when this sort of thing comes up. It would be ridiculous to assume that all of the reviews are genuine negative reviews by people who hated the lazy writing and complete disregard for the characters as established in the first game (I'm speaking specifically of the game here.) You can find plenty "0 out of 10 because the gay" reviews in skimming the user review section. I haven't watched the second season of the show, because I heard what direction they were taking the story (i.e. more or less how the game's story went). I was immediately out at that point. But to assume the opposite extreme, that all of the reviews that are knocking the score down are by incel manbabies who haven't watched the show seems equally ridiculous to me. We are all aware of the 2 narratives set up by the culture war "This show must be stopped and downvoted because of "wokism"/anyone who gives this show a negative review regardless of their stated reason is an incel neckbeard misogynist" but where does that leave someone who legitimately hated the second game because of how stupid and emo they had to make the characters just so the terrible plot could happen? I'm not talking a cursory glance at some of the user reviews, and I'm not interested in the typical ideological extrapolation that both parties love to do. Simply show me the evidence that proves it one way or another. Because by my analysis, as incomplete and amateurish as it may be, hints that the second season sucks compared to the first. I'm not a bigoted misogynist or a tree-hugging snowflake (I'm kidding - put down your pitchforks), I am just a guy who, if I take the time to write a comprehensive, in-depth review, doesn't want to have his opinion dismissed because you label me one of the enemy without trying to understand a word that I wrote. I fucking hate where we are right now....

Prez wrote on May 9, 2025, 23:13:
Wasn't there a gay couple in the first season? If this was 'review bombing due to woke culture', why did the user score drop only this season?

Oh, they certainly tried to review bomb it. Lots of half-star reviews for season one. They just didn't manage to overcome the postive reviews. The fact that season 2 hasn't completed airing, yet there are tons of half-star reviews already should tell you something about the agenda of the reviewers.

Wasn't there a gay couple in the first season? If this was 'review bombing due to woke culture', why did the user score drop only this season? I might not be in possession of all the facts, but my initial feeling is that this is Gamespot engaging in some dishonest reporting. It wouldn't be that surprising, as inexplicably the media has seemingly chosen this property around which to circle the wagons ever since the release of the game sequel. Is it that hard to believe that fans hated the narrative direction? That's still allowed, right?

LOL trolls that never played the game, and probably did not watch the series either.

Give it the ole Snow White treatment!