[No Spoilers] The Last of Us Part II should be judged | The Sopa Box

Writers Note:

The SOPA Box is deliberately designed as a blog series with little to no nuance. It was created in response long ago to a person who told me I should try to see things from the companies point of view and stop bashing them so much. At the time, in my opinion, I wasn't being unfair to companies I just wasn't making apologies or pushing their perspective so I decided to start writing The Sopa Box to show said person what a lack of nuanced really looks like. Also because it's somewhat funny to write these deliberately taking my own views to a more extreme position and with the additional idea of "Get Angry" as an additional party of the philosophy behind this blog series.

Also the Judge Dredd outfit in the header image isn't normally going to be there I just felt it funny and appropriate for this blog.

Time to get angry

So informational on The Last of Us Part II has leaked online because some-one hacked into Naughty Dog's servers or something though how they got the info to target that server who knows. Either way it's out there and I'm not planning to spoil it here so don't worry about that. What I am here to talk about is the industry reaction and some of the hypocrisy going on in the industry.

First up and a quick one Jason Schreier, a journalist who has broke numerous stories from information leaked to him, has come out mysteriously against the leak. This weirdly seems to also goes against what you'd expect to be his position having written about information leaked to him in the past a number of times.

The second is the industry itself and not just gaming but much of media industry as a whole. This isn't the first time people have peddled this line of "Judge the finished product" but with The Last of Us Part II the argument is being peddled out again with even some-one heavily connected with the game saying "you gotta play it" . It's the same argument that was used in film toward people sceptical of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call and I think when Chris Chibnal took over on Doctor Who. I'm sure it's been peddled other times too, at least when the argument "It's not for you" hasn't been deployed to defend the product. The issue is the sheer gall and hypocrisy of the media industry to pull this "Judge the finished product" nonsense. You know why it's taking the piss for companies or anyone claiming to be a consumer advocate to push the "Judge the finished product" argument? Because it's not saying "judge based on reviews from people you trust if you want to buy it" the argument is at least from the media "Buy the product them judge it once we have your money". The problem being with a number of companies tending to chase short term profit over building fan loyalty long term then it doesn't matter what you think once you've paid. Your opinion won't matter at all to them unless you're a well know person with a big following and not just some mook with blog and even if you are well know it won't matter that much to them, maybe they'll quietly blacklist you, who knows, but your feedback won't be deemed worthwhile. 

The bigger hypocrisy here is that judging in advance is what a lot of the games and other media industries exploit and rely on from customers. They literally have whole advertising and PR departments designed to get you to part with your money in advance. There's a whole load of stuff in this industry designed to even incentivise buying before being fully informed. Hell some companies have even started to give additional rewards in the form of pre-order exclusives to those who buy in advance and pre-order before they're fully informed. The games industry has seen "Vertical slices" like Aliens Colonial Marines or outright fake trailers that weren't based on actual gameplay and features in the game itself like Anthem's E3 trailer. 

For those wondering this is from the game DLC Quest

That's leaving aside games that are merely downgraded a bit from their original trailer quality. It's not just gaming that does this there was previously a teaser for Alien 3 that implied it would take place on Earth. The point of trailers and marketing is to get you to judge the product, to buy into the hype and to give them your money in advance by pre-ordering the product. It's funny when that fails like in the case of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call then we get the people pouring out going "You can't judge it based on the trailer", well you know what people should judge it, they should judge if it's worth dropping money before any more info is out. They should judge if they want to buy into the hype and marketing and call to drop money early. The thing is with The Last of Us Part II leaks they're a damn sight more honest as you can check and see the information for yourself. When the claim was that it was a disgruntled former or present Naughty Dog employee then at least the argument could have been made to take the leaks with a decent pit of salt because it could be argued it was leaked to damage Naughty Dog. Now though when it's some unknown entity who leaked it you can't even make a judgement call about the motives and those who are likely going to start up the narrative it was some hateful bigot are as much conspiracy theorist here as flat earthers. Occam's Razor suggests that the most simple explanation was a dedicated fan trying to get more info on the game, getting access to it and leaking it which if this is the case they the context of the leaks suggests the actual game may be worse than the leaks imply.

There is a judgement everyone reading this and every person claiming to be a consumer advocate should be getting their audiences to make. The Judgement of if they should buy into doing what the corporations want, dropping money to pre-order before people are able to be better informed or in this case choosing to hold on buying The Last of US Part II until after its launch and choosing to wait for others to review it, play it, stream it and then players choosing to get more information from people they trust. Then and only then once they have more information choosing to buy the game or skip it. None of this "Don't judge the game until you've played it" BS there's a reason reviewers exist and it is to make sure people are informed to make purchasing judgements. These are corporations asking for your money, they're aren't owed it and it's up to them to convince you to part with your money and preferably that would be done by making a good product so honest reviewers will be able to sing the game's praises and tell you it's worth buying it. Find a reviewer whose tastes align with yours or whose tastes are known about and they are clear about telling you about said elements of their tastes then see how they feel and let them judge and base your judgement on theirs. Also be wary of early reviews because in many cases people deemed "Wild Cards" will be blacklisted from early review copies if the company doesn't think they'll praise and help sell the product. So yes that's how far they'll go to manipulate your perception and impression of the game before launch but they're not telling you that you shouldn't make a judgement in this case until you've "Played the game" which would imply buying it day one or pre-ordering it and not waiting for more info.

You should judge The Last of Us Part II based on the leaks for now because after all the video game industry has been asking you to judge something's worth on trailers and desire for pre-order collectables for many years for many different products before they came out.

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