10 Fan Controversies That Dominated Video Games
1. The Last Of Us 2's "Leaks"
If you're looking for a "lightning rod" game in the last few years about fan controversy, look no further than 2020's The Last of Us Part II. Even typing this, I know calling it a "great game" is going to provoke some outrage.
But even before it came out, it was getting horrendously review-bombed on Metacritic. The level-headed logic behind it?
Purported script leaks alluding to the death of a main character, the new protagonist(s) and a "woke plot" regarding LGBT+ issues. Yes, in this day and age of tolerance, fans were upset about them being "shoehorned" into video game narrative.
As such, TLoU2 still gets touted today as "the woke game" if anyone so much as mentions any new game tackling similar themes. Never mind that in the game itself, a game that spans multiple narratives and issues, these aren't even massive focal points.
In fact, they're treated as just everyday things despite the apocalypse. Naughty Dog aren't shoveling it in our faces, just putting it out there as commonplace.
And yet... this "debacle" still carries on. Look at any comment section to a "woke game" and this will be mentioned, rarely in a positive light.
The real kicker? A lot of the naysayers won't ever play the damn game.