
Whatever your opinion on Naughty Dog's recently announced sci-fi adventure, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, it's received an overwhelmingly negative reaction from certain online circles.
So strong has this wave of negativity been that these people are now spinning up their own rumours about the game and its story and sharing them around as though they're fact.
Originating on 4chan of all places, a purported story synopsis of the game is doing the rounds, but the alleged details of how this "leaked" is frankly ridiculous.
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"Plot and gameplay details revealed below was sent to a handful of gaming Journalists, the most notable of whom includes Jason Schreier, but they are debating whether or not to share it," it reads. The so-called leaker says the information stems from a "disgruntled" Naughty Dog employee who's displeased with Intergalactic's direction.
"My friend in an exclusive gaming journalist discord server sent me this summary of the leak," the post continues.
The synopsis itself is barely worth talking about, as it's clearly fake, but Bloomberg's Jason Schreier — name-dropped in the "leak" — has already debunked the whole thing, replying to the below post with a simple "No".
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet has attracted an unusual amount of animosity, forcing Naughty Dog to turn off comments on the trailer. We're sure things will eventually calm down, but for now, be careful — people are purposely spreading misinformation.
[source bsky.app]





Comments 169
This is why social media is a bad thing, everyone can spin their own tales.
Didnt even realise 4Chan was still a thing. This level of hate over a reveal trailer is just insane.
The bigger issue here is that people take this misinformation and run with it. Not because they believe it, but because it fuels their agenda against the game.
The rate at which this happens is mind-blowing these days. YouTube, for example, is absolutely riddled with copy-paste channels that do nothing but spurt hate towards certain things — they're purely there to farm clicks from the "culture war".
We live in dangerously stupid times!
How many articles a day does one game need?
The game won't be for me personally, I strictly prefer a male lead character; however, I have nothing against the game itself and I don't understand the hate towards it. If I don't like something, if that something is purely optional in my life, and especially something as unimportant as a game, I simply move on.
Saying that, I hope it turns out good for whoever is looking forward to it.
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Some people are so bloody toxic. The amount of abuse i've seen on the internet around a female lead in a trailer is unhealthy. Get help.
What's even more crazy is the number of seemingly more sane people being brainwashed and repeating the nonsense they read online like sheep. E.g. Talking about the TGA trailers one guy asked.
Did we even watch the same awards? We listed all the AAA trailers with male protagonists (far more than women, in case that wasn't obvious) and they have no answer. Apparently women are still taking over. Terrifying stupidity when even facts can't get through the social conditioning.
Just leave ND and team etc alone and let them get on making an amazing AAA game.
It’s the game that counts and how it plays etc.
Not sure that their problem is, I thought it looked really good.
The game hasn't even been revealed for a week and it's receiving literal garbage truck load of unwarranted hate. And why? Cause of the protagonist's lack of hair, or does it still stem from people being salty about Last of Us 2's story?
Whatever it is, people are so pathetic. It's a video game, if you don't like the way a character's hair (or lack thereof) looks, then don't play it. There's thousands upon thousands of other games.
Pathetic people stirring up nonsense because of misogyny on 4Chan? Why is it always the worst things that never change?
It really is sad how women with muscles triggers these losers so much.
Making fake news is LAME af but as expected from place like 4chan.
Muppets. Muppets everywhere.
@Jimmer-jammer
Yeah here you go. I got this tablet from some guy named 4 Chan.
These clowns should spend more time actually playing games, and less time crying about them on the internet.
The upside is that these certain online circles will probably never contribute to the gene pool
What agenda do these people have, honestly have no idea why people are upset with this. Because a female is bald? Or am I missing something??
The irony here is these people scream "woke" because of an "agenda" and simultaneously pull stuff like this.
How "woke".
This is all so silly. I thought the trailer including the main character looked rad.
I don't get all the hate on the character. Is it because he's bald? I don't remember people hating Nathan Hale from Resistance or Cole from Infamous. Is it because he's Asian? That would just be straight up bigoted.
Besides being obviously bigoted, it's so extremely shallow how that group of people are so fixated on outward appearance.
@xDD90x The character is a She...... 😅
@UltimateOtaku91
@Pete_Stooge
Oh... My bad. Didn't watch the trailer yet. Was going based on the image at the top.
They learn nothing from the fake leaks about the last of us 2?
Imagine being so pathetic and vindictive to spend time making up fake leaks and imagine being so stupid that you just believe anything you hear. Tools tools and more tools
Source: 4chan.
The rest of us: 😂 so it’s bs cool
The discourse around this game is off to a swimming start......
I do wonder about the opening though.....
The head shaving was a calculated scene, ND knew it would bring out the mobs screaming " 😱 Woke" and the other mob screaming " 😱 Incel" while rational civil discourse drowns in the corner.
Hell of a way to stay in the conversation
I'm in what feels like a weird, lonely place where I think all sides are being ridiculous at best and nearly terminally toxic at worst.
You can't complain that you don't like video games because protagonists don't look like you and they need more diversity, and then get upset when other people complain that they don't like the diverse protagonists that don't look like them. If it matters, then it matters to everyone, right?
At the same time, neither side seems to refrain from downright abusive posts and arguments. It seems like an absurd thing to need to say, but I'll go out on a limb here - death threats should never be involved in any discussion in civil society.
This is a lesser layer of that - trying to ruin the joy of playing a game with spoilers, true or not. I'm not sure if it's worse if they made up the spoilers or if they're real - but attacking a studio like this is just offensive. Let them make the game they want to make, and criticize it - or enjoy it - based on what they actually release.
If you don't like the directions their games go, don't buy their games, and they'll have to adjust to the market. It ought to be that simple.
"Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet has attracted an unusual amount of animosity, forcing Naughty Dog to turn off comments on the trailer."
Naughty Dog had the comments turned off right from the start. What you are suggesting is that they had comments turned on and then got a lot of hate, so they were forced to turn comments off. This is not true. You can see it on the WayBackMachine.
Anyway back on topic. I agree, misinformation is a bad thing.
@RobN Frankly, I don't see many people who are upset by those who oppose DEI (look at Harry Potter). Only some media strongly feel about it. Saying 2 sides is just simply wrong here.
It is not that simple, those mob don't just hate the games, they want it to fail, hence sprouting hate and resting in every articles. Those who like don't read/ react every article. Even what they say is clearly fake, it does have impact on the general audience, as mob mentality. This has seen in many elections, and even in games happened with TLOU 2. What started as an anger because of a certain character's death, it quickly turns into woke accusation. I played that game there is nothing woke in there. Not just TLOU2, these people accuses wokeness in every games they hate/ want to fail.
Just bored by it all, don't care, if it's good I'll play it.
Its a shame that people want to hate on something based of a trailer that didnt give much away. The only thing i was potentially disappointed about was that for a game called intergalactic it is apparently set on only one planet. So i cant fly around in my space porsche.
Honestly I'm not interested in this game at all, everything around it screams "generic modern sci-fi with retro aesthetic"
I can see why people would attack this game, but honestly I'd rather forget this thing exists
@CielloArc yet u know nothing about the game yet u want to make up something in your head lol
Amazes me this sort of stuff.
With a full time job and life to live outside of work, I find it difficult enough to play games, let alone have the time for this cobblers...
"My friend in an exclusive gaming journalist discord server sent me this summary of the leak. Trust me bro." 😂
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So many people think that half of the population hates the intro to this game because of a female lead. That is so silly. Ghost of Yotei had a very favorable reveal. The like/dislike ratio on that game is tremendously positive.
The lead in this game doesn't even look like the actor who is leading her role. Naughty Dawg has purposefully made this character look much less attractive than that actor. The hate this game is getting is because the lead female character looks like a man.
This decision is either terrible or genius. Part of me wonders if this argument/debate the community is having is actually a clever way for the game to be advertised. Maybe down the road, naughty dawg has a plan to entice the people put off the game with a unexpected reveal.
I'll laugh my ass off if in two years we find out this plot synopsis was mostly correct, but that Schreier was also technically telling the truth when he simply said 'No' because it was never sent to him as claimed in the rumor.
Edit: And I notice y'all are still sticking with that lie that negative reception forced ND to shut down comments when that simply never happened. Comments were never open. Seriously, do some honest reporting, please. There is plenty to critique about toxic discourse without resorting to false narratives and cause/effect that never occurred.
@ChimpMasta You've got absolutely no idea how many people "disliked" the video, YouTube does not publicly expose that data and any add-ons that claim to are making estimates and extrapolations only. But then, the sort of people who cite YouTube dislikes aren't usually concerned with facts and accuracy to start with.
People will argue that there were always hateful, ignorant, dimwits in this world and social media/tech has merely amplified and distributed their voices to the masses but I'd argue social media/tech has also created a lot more people like this. Narcissistic, inconsiderate cretins. It's why I tune out the news and don't go near social media in my (hopefully) middle years. Makes for a happier life, trust me!
@Treestar "The lead in this game doesn't even look like the actor who is leading her role."
Why is this an issue only when people don't find the character design attractive? It isn't remotely uncommon; the actors are selected to deliver a performance, not necessarily a particular aesthetic. Joel doesn't look like Troy Baker, Ellie doesn't look like Ashley Johnson, and believe it or not James Arnold Taylor is not actually a yellow Lombax.
I do not care about these so called "leaks".....there IS too much already existing problem around this project:
played tlous part 1 multiple times through the years.....preordered part 2 when it came out the first time, played only once....
there is no chance I will preorder this new game or even buy it at full price at launch, I even recomend to others to do same.
ND has peaked with U4, they are on a downslide since, and its all thanks to Druckmann.
Firewalk has been closed due to Concorde
If this Intergalactic game will flop, Druckmann surely get Fired or fail upward like after part 2, + even a the studio get closed.
@MrHabushi the character is clearly based off of Tati Gabrielle. They are approaching this game the same way Kojima did with Norman Reedus. The other games you mentioned are not doing the same. In those games the actors are solely voice actors playing the role of a developer designed character.
@ChimpMasta Let’s not forget, a ton of people didn’t hit dislike because of the trailer itself, but because they’re still bitter about Joel’s death. Honestly, it’s both childish and beyond pathetic. I’d bet they’ve been waiting for months, just lurking, so they could spam dislikes the second Naughty Dog posted anything. Clearly, they don’t have much else going on in their miserable lives.
The Last of Us Part II, no matter what anyone says, is an absolutely brilliant game. The story is intense and full of twists, the graphics are stunning, and the gameplay is top-notch. Oh, and let’s not forget—it sold over 10 million copies. If a few tens of thousands of bored haters didn’t like it and decided to spam Metacritic, that’s on them, not the game.
@xDD90x best comment of the evening 🤣
@MrHabushi Sure thing, bud. Dislikes that the video got are all lies. Lol.
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@matekomlosi Sounds like a lot of what you want to believe vs the reality. Lol. Sure, I'd imagine there are plenty of people who are upset of what happened in Last of Us 2, but to pretend that the dislike of their newest title is because of that, is a stretch. Unless you have evidence of that, please cite it. Otherwise, it just appears to be your disdain of those who hate on games you like. Last of Us 2 being a brilliant game is an opinion, regardless whether it's a popular or unpopular one.
Well, even if it is fake (and if it's real I've spoiled it for myself 😅) I decided to read through it and honestly... SOUNDS PRETTY AWESOME, albeit a bit generic/predictable.
They say it's basically "Open World Uncharted with Sci-Fi Elements", well a lot of my favourite parts of the Uncharted Series are the big open areas in U4 & UTLL (and the segment in TLoU2) and it's basically what I was expecting when we heard NDs next game was gonna be more open anyway 🤷♂️
Looks real to me
Naughty dog is probably one of my favourite developers and I'm looking forward to seeing what this game is like. However part of me thinks that Naughty dog is a big part to blame for this too. It is like they are being deliberately arrogant on purpose if that makes sense. This is their first now IP in a decade and they chose to reveal it with a girl shaving her head to look like a man 🙄 i miss the days when games had amazing positive reveals. And before anyone suggests, no I'm not against women. It is naughty dog I'm pointing the finger at here for causing this. Although the Internet is full of idiots anyway regardless 🤷♂️
@JustMyOpinion I'm genuinely curious, why only male protagonists? I had a mate who had a similar thing - he couldn't bring himself to make a female avatar in MMOs or RPGs - but he passed before I ever got a coherent reason from him.
@Mintie Must be eating you alive, huh?
That seems like it has a stronger story than what Neil Druckman could come up with, my guess is that it's fake.
@ChimpMasta Nice to see PS isn't a complete echo chamber. Well said.
I stated this previous on YT but my take on it is this.
I hope/pray the main character (I assume she is/will be the main character in the trailer) turns out to be as well written as for example Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs or Ellen Ripley in Alien and she doesn't turn out like a Mary Sue that Rey is in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Make a lead character that faces challenges we can relate to or imagine ourselves in her shoes. She grows as a character during the game, she is human so once in a while doubts her decisions and overcomes them.
Please don't let the people creating and writing this character use the character as a reflective image of what they believe/in their eyes a model human should be.
She doesn't have to be perfect, far from it. That will make her far more interesting if the world she operates in makes her (or us as the player) make decisions we would find tough to make ourselves. This is my take on it. ´
And I must say: I don't care about her looks, her shaved head, her appearance, the way she talks. I care what the creators make her out to be in this game. The creators can make or break this character.
As of this point, honestly I am quite excited to see more of Intergalactic and looking forward to future trailers.
Only thing I'll say is that's a pretty involved leak to be entirely made up...
It always weirds me out when people pull the “looks like a man” card. And then point at lack of hair. Because that for one ignores a women’s fashion statement as bald/shaved/cropped hair isn’t new in women’s fashion (it isn’t even edgy anymore) and for two ignores that women have genetics that factor into hair growth including length. My 4c hair doesn’t go past my shoulders (not that one can tell because I wear it naturally and my hair is in an afro). Is it body type? Because both the character and obviously the actress she is based on look like women. I know the plastic surgery industry has made it hard to recognize natural female physical characteristics but geeze this is insane. We have no gameplay no nothing to be this up in arms about and the crazies are having strokes about hair? Apparently men are way more fashonistos than I am. Because not even mean girls in high school sound like this.
@ChimpMasta From my point of view, the discourse surrounding this game/trailer is so mind-bogglingly out of pocket, that I'm having a hard time even understanding what people are mad about.
How can a video game trailer stoke such immense vitriol?
Sure, you can say that the trailer didn't do anything for you and that you're not interested in the game, but plenty of people are really going full tilt with spewing hate towards Naughty Dog, towards Neil Druckmann, and towards Tati Gabrielle. These same people seem to be heavily invested in actively sabotaging the game, which I think is the crux of this article. Why? What could you possibly gain as a person in the destruction of someone else's creative vision or in ruining the experience for a gamer who just wants to play that creative vision?
I'll grant you that plenty of people have swung too hard in the other direction, calling anyone who doesn't like the look of the game as a racist, misogynist, etc. The same was true when Hogwarts Legacy came out and morons on the internet were using it as a litmus test for your support of trans rights.
However, I still just can't wrap my head around how anyone could make a judgement on a game or it's social commentary (if there is any) by the demographic of the lead character and a 5 minute trailer.
Is there any reality where the folks crying "DEI" and "woke" would have been satisfied if the protagonist wasn't white and male? Is there a more "palatable" appearance for a black woman to have in the year 3000?
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@commentlife 😂 ok this made my afternoon
@Treestar "The lead in this game doesn't even look like the actor who is leading her role. Naughty Dawg has purposefully made this character look much less attractive than that actor"
I just check Tati Gabrielle photos from her instagram and Jordan face definitely looks 99% closed to her irl face. Heck, irl Tati even has very thin hair that makes her head looks like bald.
https://www.instagram.com/tatigabrielle/p/DA6llNKz_1p/?img_index=1
So what you said about ND "purposely" make her character looks much less attractive is nonsense. I even dare to say big chance it could be Tati herself who proposed her character with bald head.
@PuppetMaster I clearly stated that she is based off of that actor. The lack of hair was never referenced to her looking less attractive.
I wish Pushsquare didn't cover nonsense like this. Sorry I clicked on this story. C'mon Pushsquare you can do better. 😀😀
@Treestar Then what are you talking about with "ND purposely made this character looks much less attractive than that actor" when her character face and figure are very similar to Tati irl? She even has tattoos just like Tati. What do you want ND to do exactly, makes her skin white and give her some big melons?
As someone put it in a tweet to you, I can only but agree with them.
"What is it about your website fawning over this game.
You can’t accept that people just don’t like it.
I suppose all this obsequious flattery is due to you being concerned you won’t be sent a review copy when the time comes.
Even your own readers have had enough…"
God the build up to this game is going to be nothing but hassle isn't it from incels and chuds.
Whenever a behind-the-scenes kind of leak pops up that mentiones someone being "angry" or "frustrated" or "disgruntled", I just assume that it's the leaker being all pissy about it.
@J_e_f_f__D On the otherhand why don't people like it? So far we have seen zero gameplay and we don't even know what kinda game it is yet. No one can form much of an opinion on it yet so those hating are no better if not worse.
@Treestar Its interesting that when a male character doesn't look 100% like their face model no one gives a damn but when a female character doesn't look 100% everyone loses their minds. If you need a video game character to be super attractive then i feel that says a lot about you and your experience in a certain area in life.
@ChimpMasta I'm in 100% agreement, it's why I love games that have character creation. Given the choice I'll always plays as someone different to myself, my choices usually go with what has the coolest armour.
I think my main question is, given a game with a set character, why someone would deny themselves access to an amazing experience purely because of how the main character is presented? It'd be like someone who loves treasuring chasing adventures and playing Uncharted but turning up their nose at trying Tomb Raider because of Lara.
Misinformation huh? Like Push Square willfully lying about WHEN Naughty Dog turned the comments off on their trailer? Hmmm...
@PuppetMaster you are kidding yourself if you think that the character in the game is a an accurate portrayal of Tati Gabrielle.
@DennisReynolds unfortunately what you said is false. In fact here on this very site their were arguments pertaining to the face used for Peter Parker. Over 16,000 people shared their opinion in a push square poll
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/09/poll_which_peter_parker_face_do_you_prefer_in_marvels_spider-man
As far as your last comment, that seems rather off topic and certainly assumes a lot.
@Treestar What's false? Polling which Spidey face model we prefer is a completely different thing 🙄
Its not assuming its knowing. If someone needs a bunch of pixels to be super attractive then it most likely means they need to spend more time off VG's and more time having a social life. Who cares if the character is hot or not its the personality and writing that actually matter. You don't have to date her she ain't freaking real.
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@ChimpMasta Were you making up 4Chan posts, throwing insults and being toxic around Aiden?
Also how is she toxic and a jerk? We know nothing about her, she barely had any dialogue.
@Snick27 How is it woke explain?
@matekomlosi Wait Joel dies?!!?
@DennisReynolds you are not very good at having a conversation with people who have different views. You become too emotional and begin to insult others instead of respecting other opinions and views.
@JustMyOpinion I get that, but let's face it: it's not that simple. If you're a fan of videogames, a new ND release used to be one of those rare special moments worth of savoring.
To see the studio descend into a dark path of bad business decisions is quite depressing, to be frank. There is an ongoing cultural shift that will leave many behind, and it worries me that one of Sony's crown jewels might be among them.
@ChimpMasta I'm not going to touch the accusational part of your comment. Because meh.
But I do find this 'aspirational character' argument interesting, especially since you're not the first I saw say it. I'll even address the 'appealing character' angle here: why does a video have protagonist need to be aspirational or appealing? There's a lot of narrative art that revolves around terrible, hideous protagonists. Often times, that's what makes them compelling. That's really the key word: compelling. That's what makes a character good. Joel was kinda a PoS, but his pain and how it manifested is what made him a compelling character. It even lead to one of the greatest endings in gaming, where the player is forced to be accomplice with his horrible actions. Scrooge and Grinch are all about being unappealing; that's why you get invested in their redemption arc.
To me, it just seems really limiting — and outright boring — to expect your protagonists to be pillars of excellence. Vegeta is interesting because he spent most of his life being a murderous monster. The Penguin was all about the extend of terrible the villain could reach. Braid is subversively brilliant because it turns out your mans was the villain the entire time.
@DennisReynolds This was the main thing that had me going in the previous article.
The Intergalactic trailer contains nothing of substance, in the same way that the negative reception is unreasonable given what we've seen, there's no reason why anyone should be so positive on it.
"Game looks so interesting, story is full of promise" I've heard. Does it really? All we've seen is some bald bounty hunter chick have a drawn-out stilted conversation with her agent, which competed in run time with a truck-load of superficial references to the 1980s... and most importantly - NO gameplay. This trailer sucks as a first impression to whatever world they're trying to introduce us to, and it should go without saying that no it absolutely does NOT look like an interesting game, because there was NO GAME shown.
I feel like I keep on having to tell people to expect and demand better from these multi-million dollar games, including their trailers. The longer our collective standards for media are so low, the longer we will keep on receiving slop that is mediocre at best and dysfunctional at worst. And at the budget that these games are made, that should not be acceptable to anyone.
These cringe ass culture war arguments do nothing but play on the ego of the reader and ultimately only distracts us from that wider issue.
@Kingy See, I think there would be much more interesting conversations to have if a subgroup of the Internet didn't decide the protagonist's shaved head was the most important thing ever.
Like I said in the other article, I really miss just talking about games without this culture war nonsense. I don't even mind political clashings about entertainment, but I really wish it wasn't all consuming and so often revolved around such nothingness as a shaved head and mild unlikability.
I frankly didn't think it was that impressive of a trailer, either. And I'm actively against reveal trailers without at least an implication of how it'll play. Though I still like the direction they're taking the world. And would be really into a ND space fairing open-world. If that's what this ends up being — I dunno.
@RoomWithaMoose Aspirational? Not necessarily, that I agree. Breaking Bad is the best TV show ever. But appealing? C'mon, man.
Look, you're entitled to your opinion (obviously). But when your opinion doesn't align with the vast majority of gamers, it makes for very bad business decisions.
Like it or not, games need to sell. If there's one thing that Concord taught us, is that creative intent needs to meet market demand.
The real problem with Intergalactic's lead character doesn't have anything to do with identitary characteristics, and it's not about Joel either. The issue here is that it's pretty stupid for a studio to design a game around a protagonist that comes across as being so damn smug and obnoxious.
That won't fly in 2026 or so, pardon the pun.
@Treestar Not emotional at all i've just giving up entertaining BS this past year. This constant "these bunch of pixels isn't hot enough" talk has been relentless this year to the point even Ciri a character clearly hot to any normal person is being called ugly. No one cared that much about the looks of female VG characters until far right chuds decided it would make a good grift and made it a big deal for those who need to be told what to be outraged at. The character in this game looks fine, the rough marine bald look is pretty common for characters like this in this setting and you only need to look at the Alien franchise as proof (this years Alien film even had a bald chick who is a dead ringer for this character). The character is designed around existing tropes and she hasn't been designed around being hot or not but the setting and whatever her role is in this universe.
@Treestar You needs to check your eyes to the doctor if you think the character face & figure doesn't look similar to Tati.
@Kingy To be honest i think the trailer just exists to say yes ND are working on something, are working on a new IP and that its sci-fi based. The game is years away i bet and the trailer was shown to throw PS5 players a bone who want more news on what Sony is making and to give Geoff another big reveal for his show. I expect Sony will show something better for it later this year in a showcase or State of Play.
Damn! The game was just revealed not even a full week ago! Can the hate squad at least chill until it's a bit closer to launch? I mean good God. I get it. You didn't like TLOU2's story. It's been almost 5 years ago. Let it go!
@DennisReynolds I saw some comments that said Ciri in Witcher 4 looks ugly and i like WTF are these people losing their mind or something?
@DennisReynolds you still assume I need a character to be hot. Desire to play as a character is vital in character design. Many will decide not to play this game because of the poor choices when designing this character.
@DennisReynolds i'm excited for this , but there is still sony bends new ip , the rumored uncharted game , rumored until dawn sequel , san monica's game corey is working on , bluepoints new ip , a full reveal of wolverine with release date just to name a few things. as for naughty dog if this is more in line with a jak and daxter type action style i'll be more then happy.
Why can’t we live in a world where you watch a trailer for a new game and either think it looks good and I’ll keep an eye on it or I don’t like the look of it and just move on? Instead we have a world where if you don’t like the look of a game it’s now your mission to force your opinions on others.
@RoomWithaMoose It's why I deliberately never entertain any arguments about it one way or another, it's just a ***** slinging contest from two castes of deranged ideologues, there's literally no reason to ever get mixed in with that crowd.
Some contingent of gamers don't want to play as a bald chick for reasons that have nothing to do with the content of the game itself. Who cares.
What sites like Push Square are doing is using this controversary as a smokescreen to label ALL detractors of Intergalactic as toxic man-children, because anything south of a positive reaction is unacceptable to them. It's the kind of dishonest journalism I've come to expect here.
To me, the game's main character is currently just generic. Design is pretty uninspired, maybe an indication that there will be selectable costumes, and the personality on display is a plucky hero / antihero who's headstrong to a fault. Nothing wrong with that per se, but devoting the majority of four and half minute trailer to establish an incredibly basic character archetype... well, there's the reason why there isn't much to say about the trailer beyond the MC's appearance and the studio making the game.
They should've waited until they had gameplay to show, at least then we could judge Intergalactic as game and appeals to the character being ugly really would be entirely irrelevant.
@Art_Vandelay Everyone really needs to define what they mean when they use general words like "unappealing." I would say George Costanza is generally unappealing as a "person." But you can also say that's what makes him appealing as a character — or compelling, because I'm really pushing that as being more meaningful than alternatives.
Other than that, I don't know where you're getting the consensus of "the vast majority of gamers" from, nor do I know how a short, barely trailer would be indicative of this game's possible success. And also Seinfeld is better than Breaking Bad.
@DennisReynolds True, there's more than likely an element of "we need to have something to present at Keighley's big show", the same kind of pressure I assume came with having something ready for E3.
That could be an explanation why so many of his world premiere's were exclusively cinematics.
@PuppetMaster most of the community agrees that naughty dawg did a poor job if their goal was to create an in game model of her. Most conclude she looks too manly.
There are zero pictures where Tati Gabrielle looks manly.
Wow, do they not realize how sad and desperate they look? I hope it does amazing just to spite those whiny neckbeards.
Push Square perpetuating woke and anti-woke hysteria again. Move along, nothing to see here.
@IntimidatedDoggo but but but... The article says the posted synopsis is barely worth talking about, as it's clearly fake??? Not sure what to believe now...
@InsertUsername i'll drink to that. i love pushsquare but the comments these days........ yikes. it almost makes twitter look progressive.
@underthegun hey its christmas. slow news period. also where else can i go to tell these people they suck.
@PuppetMaster I saw a post not long back saying the girls of Baldur's Gate 3 were ugly and i'm like WTF that whole games entire cast is pretty much supermodel level in looks.
@IntimidatedDoggo likenesses? you must hate movies
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@Treestar If you don't care about the characters looks then why bring it up? The fact you care enough that this discussion is even taking place means you care more then you think.
@jedinite do explain
@Treestar that's a fallacy btw. just outspoken loud nerds think that. the likes of this opinion means nothing to the average gamer, which still makes the sales. that opinion is not a majority. you care enough that you've pooped your nonsense all over this comments section, so explain that please?
I really don’t understand the hate on the trailer. Can someone explain what’s driving so many people to hate this so passionately?
@IntimidatedDoggo Same. I read it thinking there was nothing overly outlandish or obviously fake. It seems as plausible as any other Sci-fi story ND may have conjured up.
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@__Seraph what?
@__Seraph As an example - The Witcher 4 looks great. Ciri is the main protagonist not Geralt. She's female. The overwhelming view is positive and people can't wait to play it.
The hate for Intergalactic is not due to the protagonist being female.
@jedinite such a common sense statement. It is similar to the overwhelming positive response to Ghost of Yotei as I referenced earlier.
Please stop covering YouTube comments brigading as news
@Treestar Sorry, you've been spouting so much nonsense i should've specified what comment i referring to.
'Desire to play as a character is vital in character design'
No thats not true at all. Take that from a gamer since 90.
That's not what makes a game popular, nor does it pertain to the quality of the game itself. Your community response is a blip on the scale of things mate, no offense. This game will sell a load and no one will care about the nerdy opinions on a site like this and I'm sorry if that hurts you. Also, positive response to Ghost of Yotei?? You must be kidding. You should realise that opinions on games around the world are far beyond your pseudo- intellectual opinions. get over yourself and your community
@IntimidatedDoggo I actually kind of agree with this to be fair. It's the very exact reason that the likes of Mary Jane in Spiderman 2 and Angela in Silent Hill 2 got so much hate, despite the actresses being beautiful. So yes, thanks for that one, i agree.
@jedinite So explain further? you can criticize a game we know almost nothing about or is it because we now know nothing that you're so perturbed?
@underthegun plenty to see, if your multiple comments are anything to go by
@Treestar Lol. There's no survey but somehow you claim "most of the community agrees that naughty dawg did a poor job was to create an in game model of her". FOH with your nonsense.
And Tati has plenty of photos where she looks quite manly with her very very short hair and masculine clothes. Like i said, i think you need to check your eyes to the doctor.
@__Seraph are you insinuating that Ghost of Yotei has a more negative reception than this game?
@PuppetMaster can you share one link to a picture of her on here where that is true? I don't know much about her, but I have yet to see a picture when searching that she looks manly at all.
@DennisReynolds It's just madness and those people are the ones who claim every western devs never makes beautiful female characters 🤦♂️
@Treestar I already gave you her instagram photo where she looks quite masculine. But you're blind af like a bat and claim she never looks masculine.
You should go to the doctor first and fix your eyes.
@Kingy I mean, i agree with a lot of what you're saying, but you're definitely entertaining a lot of what you say you don't, and being awful judgmental for someone who says not to judge; the point of the article is to denounce unwarranted criticism, you can't truly judge anything until the game itself comes out. You can criticize a trailer, sure, but you can't criticise the game. It's like judging a full album on a clip of a song or a movie on a teaser, you simply don't know.
Games get held to different standards, because ts now the biggest industry in the world and I kind of understand that, but the fact remains, you don't know. Nuaghty dog also get held to different standards because of the weird backlash to Last Of Us 2. I'll never denounce constructive criticism, but that was just off the scale in terms of strange behaviour. would never happen with movies or music, which is weird because they are arguably true artistic mediums. And the point of art is subjectivity. Tell me that's not backwards.
@Treestar No, but that's besides the point of what I've said. You talked about community backlash, and Ghost of Yotei had plenty, as did The Witcher IV. Or maybe you're just not part of those communties? Naughty Dog get held to a different standard and that's a fact. Blame on UNcharted, blame it on The Last of Us, whatever. The reaction to The Last of Us 2, proves everything.
@PuppetMaster I guess you think she looks masculine because of her short hair? Wild.
@__Seraph I certainly do not search out the hate for those games. The top comments on YouTube for those games are all positive and express excitement. The top comments for Intergalactic reference Will Smith's wife and Concord.
It's not difficult to see the contrast in reception for this group of games.
@Treestar They don't have to overcome anything because most normal people don't give a damn.
@DennisReynolds I'm sure developers at naughty dawg are hoping that. I hope they have some great future reveal that does eventually convince the normal people the character design can be overlooked and even fits this game.
@Treestar Yes, because the cesspit of YouTube commenters is the absolute authority of all of gaming worldwide. There's unwarranted backlash to absolutely everything. Usually the words, 'trash' 'garbage' or 'dogshit' are involved, any sensible human who can think critically should switch off at the mere mention of such words, unless they are indeed describing actual garbage, or ya know, the actual feces of a dog.
@DennisReynolds I mean i've disagreed with you elsewhere, but i could not agree with you more on your last comment here, and in this discussion in general.
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@underthegun I appreciate your downplaying of this discourse, but as far as the online gaming community is concerned; the word hysteria is apt!!
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@Treestar Dude no one cares about characters designs as long as the game is great. You don't even have evidence that people don't like her design you're just going off a handful of comments from right wing chuds the same chuds who are also calling Ciri ugly as well.
Fun thing "everyone" hyped up Eve from SB saying she's what people want and is a perfect designed woman yet last sales numbers were at 1M. Horizon has Aloy a character the internet hates and calls "ugly" because she has peach fuzz (said so much about those who were complaining about that) and both games have sold over 10M each with ZD at 20M+.
@__Seraph I haven't criticized this game.
And to try and explain why the controversy and why this title will fail would be akin to trying to explain why water is wet.
People r tripping I'm these comments and to caught up in your feelings there was literally nothing of substance in that game to make an objective decision about whether u want to support it or not 😅
@DennisReynolds it's not a handful of people. Right wing "chud"? I'm not even sure what that means.
I am not trying to convince you that most people think that the character design is bad, but I will leave you with this. You will pretend, but even you truly know yourself that if they made that character look like a typical female and not a masculine one, there would be little to know hate on the reveal of this game.
That is not a smart business move, which is what naughty dawg is. They are not here to pander to either political side. Their number one goal should be to maximize sales and I'm sure higher ups at SIEA at least notice this negative reaction from the fans.
@__Seraph I generally do not engage with politically motivated arguments for the reasons I stated before. That is unless they're actually relevant to another point I'm making, which in this case would me attacking Push Square's poor attempt to deflect criticism and intentionally lying in two articles relating to this topic. I understand you may have a more charitable view of this site or the author of the article, but I do not.
I also never said not to judge, that would be ridiculous. I'm clearly judging this trailer negatively based off the shallowness of its content, and specifically my point was that any positive reaction to that trailer is equally superficial to the negative ones.
Guy A hates it cause she's bald, guy B loves it cause 80s nostalgia and Naughty Dog. There's no superior take here, they're both bereft of substance, and that's mainly due to the trailer being bereft of substance.
To your next point, anyone can criticize whatever they want for whatever reason, which includes others people's perspectives and arguments. This trailer is the first ever look at this game and it reflects poorly on it, I am currently less inclined to buy this product than when I didn't even know it existed and Naughty Dog now has an uphill battle to convince me to. That's not a direct criticism of the game (because there is no game to criticize) but the result is effectively the same. You say you can't judge an album based off the clip of a single song but what if the clip is the only thing available and it sounds like ass? Should you be expected to retain neutrality until the full album is released? I don't think so, obviously a negative impression will be carried on until you're presented with something better from the artist.
And I agree, studios get held to different standards, I hold Naughty Dog to a higher standard than most because they're one of the most prolific studios in the industry and have access to resources most other studios do not. Currently what I do know is they're not meeting that standard.
Finally you're gonna have to be more specific about TLoU2 if you want me to understand your point about it. It was a controversial game that received all kinds of criticisms, some better than others. Idk what would be backwards about that.
@jedinite If you think this is gonna fail, then I'm sorry, you're gonna be super disappointed. Might as well assume water is sand mate
@Kingy I mean, come on man, Is it really criticism when people are crying about playing as a female, or specifically one with a shaved head? not in my opinion. When people are attacking race, sexuality and the likes of Elon Musks 'anti-woke' agenda? because that's what this kind of thing amounts to. I know what you said about politics, but i think it's disingenuous of you to suggest that's not where a mountain of this criticism comes from, whether it's outright suggested or not.
I mean your Guy A/B argument is extremely reductive, It's ok to enjoy the trailer for the very fact that it's a AAA sci-fi game, which one might find intriguing, if you found it shallow, that's fine, but just like anything subjective it can be read differently, it doesn't boil down to hot and cold like you've suggested. The wor;d isn't black and white after all.
In my opinion, Yes, you should absolutely retain neutrality until the final product. That goes for absolutely any piece of art. like a painting, you don't judge it on a square inch or two. There'll be more trailers, there'll be a vertical slice. Maybe we can talk more then, a straight up judgement of a teaser is totally unfair in this case, and i'll argue that all day, til the cows come home.
I mean we're talking discourse over the way a character looks and teaser witha song for eff sake. Anything positive to say? The fidelity or the engine, or anything, or did you come in negatively? not to downplay your feelings or *****, i feel like you've been slightly disingenuous.
I will fight to the end of the world to judge them based on the final game whether they have more resources or not. they're only human after all, that's honestly a nothing point to me.unfair in my opinion. we know nothing about how difficult it is to make a game like this.
As for The Last of us 2, you're being disingenuous again. Come on. The critics roundly praised TLOU2 yes, but a lot of the backlash comes directly from Ellies sexuality or the way Abby looks, and if you deny that, I'm sorry, but i think you are being naive.Thats definitely filtered through to this game. You know what i mean, and if you deny it, i know you're having me on.
@themightyant I’m late to the post here. But I know exact why they say “Where are all the male protagonists?” even though they’re still 99% of protagonists in games. It’s because you have a group of people who are so entitled and are so accustomed to always being the lead that when 97 out of 100 times, they get the spotlight, they only focus on the 3 times they don’t get the spotlight.
They see themselves at the “default”, and if developers stray from this default, it’s obvious a conscious decision was made to not include them. This pisses them off every time!
Also, it’s hilarious how this lot love to call people “snowflakes” when some object to blatant objectification of women (like in Stellar Blade). Yet, the folks who object to this type of thing don’t go on crusades like this to try and destroy the game. These people are so insane and incredibly stupid!
@DogPark welcome to pushsquare...
@DennisReynolds "God the build up to this game is going to be nothing but hassle isn't it from incels and chuds." Indeed its going to be immense fun reading all the comments 🤣
@Treestar Yeah is is a handful. A bunch of Youtube comments and social media comments are pretty much a very very small minority. Internet people are always the most "passionate" yet always the smallest percentage of sales numbers. The people moaning about this characters design are grifters, chuds (google it) and incels. Funny though because clearly stuff like this matters to you so guess what game won best Game Awards game in the recent PushSquare poll? By your own logic people are hyped for the game it seems.
@__Seraph
1. (is it really criticism) Yes, it is definitionally criticism. That isn't an opinionated matter either, something is either criticized or it isn't. What you're wanting to say is that it's bad criticism or irrelevant criticism (which is something I've already expressed).
2. (where the majority of criticisms are coming from) Never once did I insinuate the majority of the trailer's backlash was or was not coming from a political angle. I have no idea how many people are criticizing the trailer for baldie's baldness vs how many people are criticizing / praising it for other reasons. This is your perspective that you're expecting me to have and idk why you'd even bring it up because it doesn't have anything to do with what I've said. Are you attacking my criticism of Push Square? They lied in both articles and I believe they engage in manipulation to paint an exclusively positive image of games they're financially incentivized to promote. You're welcome to disagree with the latter but the former is a fact.
3. (GuyA/GuyB) All you're doing here is picking which guy you agree with. Agree or disagree with whichever, I disagree with both. I'm sure the guy who thinks the video game industry is being torn apart by the woke agenda finds you to be extremely reductive with your constant moralizing of his opinion. You can have whatever perspective you want on anything and I'm allowed to agree or disagree with it and vice versa.
4. (Retaining neutrality til the final product) Agree to disagree. Trailers are representatives of their product and are meant to be judged, preferably positively. I judge this one negatively, maybe the next one will move me in the other direction but for now that is my impression of Intergalactic. Sorry if you're not happy with that impression but that's why I'm me and you're you.
5. (TLoU2) I've never played the Last of Us 2, I have a limited perspective for that game. I'm aware of criticisms levied against Elie's sexuality and Abby's appearance, just like I'm aware of several more criticisms like it's generally poor writing, mistreatment of characters from the previous game, shoehorned gameplay mechanics and so forth. If you want to zero in on those two points and say how horrible they are you're welcome to do that. But just like with the bald brigade I don't really care about those, they're empty criticisms and I'd rather move on to something more substantive.
I find it very tiring how in one breath you'll exclaim that everything is subjective, and the next establish a moral high ground against anyone who disagrees with you. Your repeated accusations that I'm lying are also not appreciated. Please don't waste my time with bad faith arguments.
I wonder if this game will cause more controversy than The Last Of Us Part 2.
Ugly comment section for this one
It was a teaser and it looked pretty cool. Naughty Dog make fun stuff
It's all well and good posting an article about toxic detractors on Push Square, but the sad reality, as evidenced by this very comment section, is that the situation on here is just as bad as anywhere else. The comment sections have become cesspits.
This is no longer a fun and welcoming space to talk about video games, and that's pretty depressing.
@AhmadSumadi 100% right. The amount of entitlement expecting all leads to be male, or fit their desires, is crazy.
The fact that they call people snowflakes while getting the most triggered themselves is the height of irony. And let’s not forget they claim to hate censorship yet they are the ones applying pressure through hate to change and censor what devs are making.
You can’t make it up. How can you be so willfully blind of your own actions? Dangerous hypocrites
RobN wrote:
I can understand wanting to be empathetic to both sides and feeling stuck between the extremes on each side, that is to your credit... but they really aren't the same, and it's really not that complicated.
On one side people are just asking for SOME representation, whether that be some female characters, more ethnicities, female characters that don't look like supermodels in lingerie, a gender choice, or more. They don't kick up a fuss and try and stop games with male leads being popular. They don't complain about options for straight white male characters in character creators, and they aren't trying to ruin everyone's fun just to get what they want.
On the other is people saying virtually EVERY main character needs to be straight, white, male. Women need to fit their objective beauty standard. You can't have choices in character creators like gender, pronouns or other choices they don't like - which crucially they don't even have to use. If there is a woman protagonist, or if a woman doesn't fit their 'hot' meter, they kick up a hornets nest just to try to get what they want. And they are ruining everyone's fun in the process.
They are not the same. One is inclusive - trying to make games more accessible to a wider group. The other is exclusive - trying to make games just for "me" and no one else. It's extreme entitlement. Can you GENUINELY not see the difference between the two? Because frankly if you can't, and with all due respect, you are part of the problem.
I guess the only real valid thing I can personally say is that these female leads are often quite ugly and masculine (not all of them I know), this character imo is not attractive and could be argued as a stereotypical girl boss looking character which can put off a lot of guys, there's nothing wrong (or right) with that but I'm not feeling the world either so far so currently I'm not likely to buy it, I'm happy to have my mind changed by ND as development progresses and that would be a great thing. If you're playing as the opposite sex in a game most people would prefer them to be attractive, games and movies are fantasy after all. For me I hold this opinion but it stops there, the issue is the internet allows people with a similar opinion but a more uncentred/trolling mindset to then go on some sort of war path often targeted at real people i.e. VA's which is just plain wrong and bordering on psychotic. They must not be very fulfilled in their lives, if we perhaps realise this a bit more and give these people less space/time/attention then we don't have to take them so seriously all the time, they are probably mostly very sad people after all likely many of which have some serious personal issues they need to work out, touch grass and all that. If the games does turn out to have extremely forced/crowbarred politics and agenda's in it whether left or right then vote with your wallet, don't buy it and move on with your life.
@Oram77 Social media s a good thing. The problem is the amount of stupid people readily taking anonymously posted stuff at face value.
@ShogunRok
Some "reporters" starving for a good buzz will report rumours as actual news without even double checking anything.
I don't rely on rumours, so thanks for always making it clear. It's not the case on every websites.
@DennisReynolds there you go insulting again. You are not a very pleasant person to conversate with.
@Treestar What insult? My last comment had zero insults aimed at you.
@DennisReynolds you insulted everyone who has a different opinion than you.
You have opinions that I disagree with. I would never insult you. I still think your opinion is valuable. You view opposing opinions as "right wing".
@Treestar If a bald chick is enough to put you off a game then 9.5 times out of 10 you fall into those three labels i said.
@DennisReynolds clearly you are not interested in having conversations with others who have varied opinion. I'm thankful that my liberal friends do not assume in the same way in which you do. It's nice debating and hearing their varied opinions. I wish you happy holidays.
@Mintie Why? It’s quite simple, really. Gaming is a form of escapism for me, and when I play specific types of games, I like to immerse myself in that fantasy as a character I can personally identify with. A female lead character breaks that immersion for me.
It’s similar to how most boys would typically choose a male action figure, while girls might prefer a Barbie doll—it’s about identifying with the character you’re engaging with. Gaming, in this sense, isn’t much different for me when it comes to choosing what to play.
It isn't always black and white for me and the type of medium may dictate my decision. I hope this helps explain my perspective.
As for the game itself, I’m sure it’s excellent in terms of gameplay, graphics, and other elements, and I recognise I’ll be missing out on those aspects. However, I’m okay with that decision.
There's plenty out there for me and everyone else to enjoy, than to wast time complaining over something I personally consider as trivial as a game.
Edit: I'm sorry to hear about your friend.
@InsertUsername Where in my comment did I say they were all lies? If someone is going to cite data from a third-party browser add-on at least have the common sense to find out how they work first.
@Mintie I'm in agreement with @JustMyOpinion, in terms of video games being an immersive, interactive form of escapism. If I'm given the option to chose a male or female avatar, I'll almost always chose male, at least for the first playthrough. It's as simple as wanting to feel like I'm the protagonist and not someone else. I'm a big fan of when developers still have a scripted protagonist, but give you a boy/girl option (like Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6, etc.). That way, no matter your persuasion or preference, there's something for you. That said, I respect the developer's intent and if there's no option, like Intergalactic or the Witcher 4, I'll still play what I'm given and be thankful for the experience.
Im not put off because this one single game has a minority woman lead character. That's fine. What IS getting annoying is that Sony Studios seems to have to decided that they wont make games with straight white men as leads anymore. I could be wrong, but the only new character one of their studios has made in the last two console GENERATIONS was Deacon from Days Gone, and they seemed unhappy about it, and cancelled any chance of a sequel. In that same time I believe they have introduced 4 or 5 leads that are lesbians (or appear to be) (Aloy, Selene, Rivet, Ellie, now this. I could be forgetting others too). I believe the only lead as a white man left is Kratos, and I think they've backed him into a corner going forward, and would expect the next game to either be a new IP or a new lead character.
@TurboTom
Right. No other reason to shave one's head. If you're a girl with a shaved head, you want to look like a man! Heard it here from TurboTom himself!
They're all damn Muppets! Like, do we really need to know Gonzo's take on this game? Who's next? Fozzy Bear?! SMH!
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