General Gaming TLOU show runner calls the game the best video game story ever, kotaku writes an article about it

[Paperclyp]

Last Of Us TV Show Head Calls It 'Greatest Story Ever' In Games

KOTAKU.COM

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Naughty Dog’s beloved adventure game doesn’t need this weird praise to warrant an HBO show

Listen. 
 

I have been known to defend video game websites against petulant or needlessly exaggerated criticism. 
 

But this author needs to chill out. He gives two pieces of advice to the show runner, and I’m not sure if I was gonna pick two pieces of advice to give to someone in an industry I’m not in I’d go with the second point he went with! 
 

He then goes on to assign feelings of desperation and worry to Mazin (the show runner in question). He waxes more about how there’s a trend among some who try to “elevate” TLOU above other games yadda yadda, which I’m sure is true in some way. And he wrings his hands the entire article about how silly it is to call anything the best in a category (while his story is surrounded by dozens of year-end rankings lists produced by kotaku). 
 

Perhaps this is a statement by a man who is passionate about his project and used some hyperbole that most people barely batted an eye at?

 

I dunno maybe I’m the sensitive one, but woo boy the content of this one really did a number on me, just had to vent. 

[stepee]

Just now, Paperclyp said:

Last Of Us TV Show Head Calls It 'Greatest Story Ever' In Games

KOTAKU.COM

---

Naughty Dog’s beloved adventure game doesn’t need this weird praise to warrant an HBO show

Listen. 
 

I have been known to defend video game websites against petulant or needlessly exaggerated criticism. 
 

But this author needs to chill out. He gives two pieces of advice to the show runner, and I’m not sure if I was gonna pick two pieces of advice to give to someone in an industry I’m not in I’d go with the second point he went with! 
 

He then goes on to assign feelings of desperation and worry to Mazin (the show runner in question). He waxes more about how there’s a trend among some who try to “elevate” TLOU above other games yadda yadda, which I’m sure is true in some way. And he wrings his hands the entire article about how silly it is to call anything the best in a category (while his story is surrounded by dozens of year-end rankings lists produced by kotaku). 
 

Perhaps this is a statement by a man who is passionate about his project and used some hyperbole that most people barely batted an eye at?

 

I dunno maybe I’m the sensitive one, but woo boy the content of this one really did a number on me, just had to vent. 

 

No man, this article is fucking  insane. I almost wrote about it too but didn’t know where to put it. I’m glad you posted this.
 

It’s the article that confirmed that I actually actively hate Kotaku now. The way they phrase and report everything it’s such a fucking buzzkill the entire site. It’s all aimed at getting clicks via negativity and trying to be cool by bashing everything.

 

I enjoy video games, report on the bad stuff like crunch culture, but don’t overwhelm it with all this needless negative bullshit and focus some on the fun and joy that gaming brings for fucks sake. 

[TheLeon]

Well, this is the first time any creative person has used hyperbole to hype their upcoming project, so this is definitely worth this attention. 

[Mr.Vic20]

Try not to take Kotaku seriously, is will annoy and stress you. Its click bait.

[stepee]

5 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Try not to take Kotaku seriously, is will annoy and stress you. Its click bait.

 

Its sad because after IGN they were my site for a long time, everyone I liked is long gone now of course, and it was always clickbait, but it didn’t used to be so nasty. And negative articles were usually real reporting that was worth reading like from Jason. And they had fun things like Snacktaku from rip Mike Fahey, who was really took the last bit of sunshine on that site with him when he passed.

 

Now I don’t have a gaming website really which sucks, because I hate videos. resetera is the closest thing to a news website for me now. Though I end up going to a lot of dsogaming articles and they seem to be pc tech focused so I might frequent them more.

[stepee]

There’s just so much bad already that’s in the world. The last thing we need are people digging in and creating negativity out of nothing just to put more of it into the atmosphere. Yeah, I’ve been wanting to rant about how much I hate this site now for awhile. 

[Mr.Vic20]

1 minute ago, stepee said:

 

Its sad because after IGN they were my site for a long time, everyone I liked is long gone now of course, and it was always clickbait, but it didn’t used to be so nasty. And negative articles were usually real reporting that was worth reading like from Jason. And they had fun things like Snacktaku from rip Mike Fahey, who was really took the last bit of sunshine on that site with him when he passed.

I feel the same way! Kotaku use to have the occasional "out of left field" articles in the past, but I loved their game reviews and they had a fun culture. Now its just a paint by numbers curve ball factory with an unhealthy fixations on streamer personalities and finding a way to be angry at explotation, yet always keeping cleavage shots of females up as front page articles far longer than other, less boob related things...weird that. 

[stepee]

Just now, Mr.Vic20 said:

I feel the same way! Kotaku use to have the occasional "out of left field" articles in the past, but I loved their game reviews and they had a fun culture. Now its just a paint by numbers curve ball factory with an unhealthy fixations on streamer personalities and finding a way to be angry at explotation, yet always keeping cleavage shots of females up as front page articles far longer than other, less boob related things...weird that. 

 

YES they always find the right images for that , even if the article is about someone being exploited, they try to find the cleavage picture to put up front. 

[Ghost_MH]

10 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

He waxes more about how there’s a trend among some who try to “elevate” TLOU above other games yadda yadda, which I’m sure is true in some way.

 

Kotaku going over the top? Well, this is new.

 

That said, I think where the misplaced anger or whatever it is Kotaku has going on about is that there are some games that legitimately tell great stories, but they're ignored for the big AAA games that tell stories that are no better than your MCU film. TLoU isn't really a better story any randomly picked Marvel TV series. However, it gets attention an outsized amount of attention due to its presentation and voice acting. I mean 2013 gave us Papers, Please and Little Inferno and both of those are better stories.

 

That all said, faux-outrage over fairly innocuous hyperbole is silly. There's a reason I dropped Kotaku from my RSS feeds. All the writers that made the place great left thanks to G\O driving it into the ground, same as they did Deadspin. Nowadays, they have a bunch of scab writers whose job it is to write articles that, on the surface, sound like something Schreier or Totilio would have written during their tenure at Kotaku without actually understanding what it is that made their articles meaningful.

[Bloodporne]

Clickbait garbage. If you have any eyes on you at all at this point, you can't even have the slightest of opinions anymore without some jerkoff writing some AKSCHUAAALLY "opinion piece" shitting all over you and assuming the most malicious of intents possible. 

[skillzdadirecta]

Again videogame "journalism" is in a sad state of affairs. These are kids who grew up on message boards and writing blogs on social media and have zero idea what objective journalism even means. Also they exist in perpetual echo chambers so not only are they sure they are right... they are sure everyone AROUND them is right too. it's silly as hell... none of these sites should be taken seriously at all. The only time they're worth visiting is for trailers, game footage and MAYBE some interviews. Outside of that ignore them. You'll be a lot more saner.

[Mr.Vic20]

4 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Again videogame "journalism" is in a sad state of affairs. These are kids who grew up on message boards and writing blogs on social media and have zero idea what objective journalism even means. Also they exist in perpetual echo chambers so not only are they sure they are right... they are sure everyone AROUND them is right too. it's silly as hell... none of these sites should be taken seriously at all. The only time they're worth visiting is for trailers, game footage and MAYBE some interviews. Outside of that ignore them. You'll be a lot more saner.

But enough about Resetera... 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I am in full agreement with the author of the Kotaku article and applaud them for having the courage the write exactly what I was thinking when Mazin made his original statement.

[stepee]

8 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I am in full agreement with the author of the Kotaku article and applaud them for having the courage the write exactly what I was thinking when Mazin made his original statement.

 

Well it IS the well done steak of video game articles!

[stepee]

13 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

But enough about Resetera... 

 

yeah but in that case he forgot the widespread unearned arrogance that seems rampant there!

[skillzdadirecta]

ok I just read that "Opinion piece" and yeah... it's a silly piece of unnecessary clickbait. Of course Mazin would praise The Last of Us they way he did in the Empire interview... why wouldn't he? it's his opinion and he's trying to hype his show. Doesn't make it true and it doesn't slight other games that have been released that would argue that point. Also Mazin's statement is aimed at non-gamers, trying to get them interested in the show. I also think that the reason why it touched an nerve with this writer and probably other gamers (more on that in a second) is because while it is one man's opinion that the original Last of Us is the "greatest story ever told" in videogames, it's objectively one of the greatest stories ever told  for the reasons cited. Videogame stories have definitely gotten better in the last 15 or so years and are starting to mature, but for a LOOOONG time, what gamers considered to be "good stories" in games were pretty much B-movie dreck at BEST. I think Mazin's statement was seen as a thumb in the eye from this writer who by his own admission wants to be a Hollywood writer himself. He is rallying the gamer troops with this article to basically prime the pump to hate on this show before it even comes out and attack it by lowering audience score on RT and other review aggregators (He all but threatens this in the first paragraph) THIS is why articles like these and the sites that publish them shouldn't be taken seriously... this guy took an innocuous statement made during a press tour personally and is attempting to make a mountain out of a mole hill... JFC 

[Bacon]

IDK, weird 2nd paragraph aside, the article didn't seem that bad. 

[DarkStar189]

I used to like Kotaku years ago.  Now it's a bunch of bullshit headlines with clickbait images.

[DarkStar189]

Just read the article. It's pretty ridiculous what people will make a news story about these days.

The tldr version:

Craig Mazin: The show I'm making is going to be the best. Best story ever told!

Kotaku: This is an outrage!

[Ghost_MH]

35 minutes ago, Bacon said:

IDK, weird 2nd paragraph aside, the article didn't seem that bad. 

 

That's because, aside from being overly offended by what should be perceived as nothing more than promotional hyperbole aimed at an audience that likely doesn't know the source material and only knows games as CoD and saving princesses, nothing the writer wrote is all that wrong. TLoU isn't really all that remarkable of a story, it does get far more praise than it should, and the end of the first game is a cop out because the devs didn't have the fortitude to end the first's story properly.

 

The praise of stories in AAA games is overblown because there are so many smaller games that tell actual great stories, many of which are telling stories that couldn't be told in any other medium. Undertale, as a interactive game, tells an amazing story that wouldn't be possible in any other format. There's no book or movie or graphic novel that would do it justice since it needs to be experienced. It's no different than the first time gamers went up against Giygas in Earthbound without a strategy guide or Internet to spoil the ending. TLoU isn't doing anything unique.

 

However, that's not really worth writing a whole essay about. This is where even a half mocking tweet would probably be a bit much. If Kotaku has a slack, this is where the writers there could poke fun at the statement before moving on to something else. That's about the correct level of energy that should be spent here, and that's FAR less than the lazy energy I just spent writing this.

[stepee]

If they needed to say something on it they should have just poked fun at it with a line or two and then moved on to making a list of ten games with better stories than TLOU or something, instead it’s just pure vitriol. 

[Paperclyp]

5 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I am in full agreement with the author of the Kotaku article and applaud them for having the courage the write exactly what I was thinking when Mazin made his original statement.

I’m fine with an article about how if a person believes TLOU is the greatest story ever told in a video game it might suggest a certain ignorance about the medium. He doesn’t so much focus on that rather than assign weird emotions to Mazin. He comes off needlessly defensive and irrational when he didn’t need to go that way. 

[skillzdadirecta]

3 hours ago, stepee said:

If they needed to say something on it they should have just poked fun at it with a line or two and then moved on to making a list of ten games with better stories than TLOU or something, instead it’s just pure vitriol. 

Vitriol that smacks of professional envy in my humble opinion.

[stepee]

Sonic Advance 2 Perfected The Series 20 Years Ago (Maybe Video Games, Too)

KOTAKU.COM

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Designed by geniuses who'd worked on Street Fighter and Fatal Fury, Sega's GBA sequel brought new joy to the hedgehog's speedy movement

 

this article might be even more offensive 

[johnny]

the thing is that mazin’s statement shouldn’t even be controversial because TLOU 1 and 2 ARE fantastic stories. but gamers poop their diapers anytime somebody says something they don’t agree with.  

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 minute ago, johnny said:

the thing is that mazin’s statement shouldn’t even be controversial because TLOU 1 and 2 ARE fantastic stories. but gamers poop their diapers anytime somebody says something they don’t agree with.  

 

Which 95% of the time occurs when someone has the "audacity" to suggest that the TLoU series is anything less than God's gift to storytelling.

[stepee]

Bad tlou takes are a dime a dozen but fucking Advance 2? Like it’s fine, it’s not bad, but even compared to the rest of the Advance series it’s a basic hold right ass game.

[Xbob42]

Everyone in this thread seems just as outraged about the article as the article is about the statement, which tells me gamers are doing fine!

[best3444]

I just booted up the PS5 remake and it looked pretty nice. The story is incredible!!!

 

[Paperclyp]

I already admitted I was triggered in the OP 

 

But although I like TLOU’s story quite a bit, I haven’t played 2 and I don’t hold it up as some kind of holy grail. 
 

I wasn’t offended by the author saying it’s not the best story in video games, i was just taken aback by his assignment of emotions to this show runner. Hope that’s clear.

 

Like those are objectively weird, juvenile things to say, right?! To write in like a published piece on a site that is supposed to be somewhat intellectual? That the show runner “seems desperate” because he’s using hyperbole for the quality of the plot of the medium he’s making a show of? That’s insane!   

[Xbob42]

Intellectual?

This is Kotaku, man.

[DarkStar189]

3 hours ago, best3444 said:

I just booted up the PS5 remake and it looked pretty nice. The story is incredible!!!

 

Dammit best....Now I'm going to be up until midnight typing out 20 paragraphs on why you are wrong.

[Ghost_MH]

17 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Intellectual?

This is Kotaku, man.

 

I think the problem is the old Kotaku writers didn't go out with enough fuck yous and middle fingers held high, the way the Deadspin crew did. They allowed the site to sleepily transition into whatever it is nowadays after the full G\O takeover.

[johnny]

6 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Which 95% of the time occurs when someone has the "audacity" to suggest that the TLoU series is anything less than God's gift to storytelling.

there’s also a loud minority that wants to commit crimes against trans people when you say anything positive about part 2. 

[SuperSpreader]

Anything Naughty Dog is insufferable, gag