Devs Had to Demand Female Focus Testers for The Last of Us

[IamQ]

Female here, not sure I understand the problem. Why do they need to specifically find out what women think, they're not specifically finding out what men think of the game, are they?
Surely they were going to get a random sample of gamers to beta test the game and give feedback which, being from a random sample, would include female gamers views.

I think it's more that the random selection process isn't as random as one would think. Since they had to request females getting it, it would seem like they didn't get to test games at all before, which is the issue here.

 

[cikame]

I'd like to suggest maybe planning to have males test the game was more of a decision based on this market, where males predominantly play the hardcore video games.
Yes females do too of course, i just haven't seen any during my life so far as opposed to the many thousands of males i've come into contact with through games.

These companies need money to survive, businessmen might not care about what is good for games, but they do keep these companies floating.

 

[Epona]

Well Naughty Dog is certainly cashing in on the "what about the women" craze.

 

[Burninator]

Well Naughty Dog is certainly cashing in on the "what about the women" craze.

Yes, because treating both genders with equal respect is ~just a fad~. It's not like it's common and basic decency or anything.

 

[Epona]

Well Naughty Dog is certainly cashing in on the "what about the women" craze.

Yes, because treating both genders with equal respect is ~just a fad~. It's not like it's common and basic decency or anything.

You know what, 2 years ago Naughty Dog wouldn't have publicized this.

"My big surprise during this process is that the research group wasn't planning on focus-testing female gamers - it's something we had to specifically request. I hope this is a relic of the past that will soon go away."

So simply asking now equals demanding?

I guess for lunch I DEMANDED a Big Mac.

 

[Reyold]

Now, I'm not saying smart and strong characters don't happen, and that they should't. But every time I hear about making female characters, I always - ALWAYS - hear the words 'smart and strong' in the same breath. Now, of course we shouldn't blindly latch onto stereotypes, like 'big strong person is also dumb', but I find it kind of disconcerting how women, unlike men, aren't allowed to be strong and dumb - a bit like, say, the Hulk or your hypothetical badass viking. It's like women can't be allowed to have flaws or something. Which I find to be a stupid idea, because flawless characters are also pretty damn boring and, to me, kind of creepy.

It's bad enough when women are sexualized, but when they (or any other character, for that matter) are "flawless," it's pretty bad in it's own right. Any good character is going to be imperfect. Ironically, for a character to be flawless is in and of itself a flaw.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Naughty Dog have done a lot to earn my respect as a company.

While I was never the hugest fan of them, and I was never quite interested in Crash Bandicoot being the mascot for Sony. Nor was I a huge fan of the games as many people in general. There's no denying that Crash Bandicoot games were incredibly solid system sellers that influenced the industry.

I miss the days when platformers we an industry norm. By the way, Naughty Dog certainly aren't perfect, and the Crash Bandicoot games contained the Damsels in Distress trope(also Crash Bandicoot is guilty for having terrible looking American box art that will forever haunt my dreams. Don't put creepy psychopathic grins on your heroes!).

But that isn't to say they don't deserve praise for being different in an industry that has problems. Their stance on The Last of Us is pretty terrific.

 

[deadish]

Hmm ...

Lets hope the game is from the ground up designed to appeal to both sexes, else having female testers is a waste of time and could be detrimental to the product.

You test against your target audience and no one else.

I mean you don't ask for a male test audience for a show like "Twilight".

 

[SAMAS]

That tears it!

I wasn't gonna get this game at first (I don't even like Zombie horror), but now I am.

While I applaud NG for fighting this BS, the fact that said BS exists at all is embarrassing.