Open Letter To HLG

[TheEldritchGod]

Dear HLG,

 

Stick with me for a bit here. I want to explain the situation first. I'm a fan of The Last Of Us and I have tried very hard to avoid spoilers, but I used to do suicide prevention. I quit a few years ago when it got too much to handle, but I left my personal phone number to a few of the clients I worked with the most, just in case. You work with someone for years and you feel an obligation, you know? I had an old client of mine call up over the weekend. A young trans-person and he needed to talk because he read the spoilers for TLOU2 and he never felt more betrayed. After the conversation with him, I was compelled to look up the spoilers and read them for myself, since I could not believe what I had heard.

I often said that Disney was the worst company ever, but now, they must give up that title to SONY. The spoilers for TLOU2, if even half of them are true, are horrifying. I have never read a more anti-homosexual/anti-trans story EVER. It is... an abomination. What Disney did to Luke was terrible, but they didn't make me personally beat him to death with a golf club. Dealing with this mess over the weekend, I realized something...

HLG is awesome.

Thank you for making a game that is a game. Thank you for making a story that is about people and not about politics or an agenda. Please keep doing what you have been doing because it works. Thank you for not feeling the need to destroy your franchise. Thank you for not subverting my expectations. I love the work you have done so far and I look forward to how the story ends. Even without the story, you have created an amazing game that I have spent 1000's of hours enjoying.

In a world where many gaming companies have decided to attack their own fans, HLG has been a rock of stability and sanity in a maelstrom of madness. I haven't always agreed with all the choices that your company has made, but they have been trivial disagreements. A few issues with game balance and story structure... a matter of preference, if you will. Even when I have disagreed with HLG, you have always been polite and respectful and what choices you have made, whatever they were, were clearly intended to be in the best interest of the fan base.

HLG is a rare gem. You are one in a trillion. I said back when you did Redux that you completely transformed the game and made it infinitely better, and I stand by that. I love the direction you are taking the game and I feel compelled, after reading the Spoilers to TLOU2, to get down on my knees and beg you, please, for the love of all that is holy, to never change. Keep being just as awesome as you are right now. It is only when one witnesses a great tragedy that one remembers the things in one's life that have been taken for granted. I feel I have taken HLG for granted.

Thank you very much for being the professionals you are. I appreciate all the hard work you do.

 

-Bob

[Hotzn]

Hi, I am not familiar with the story leaks of TLOU2, but personally find it hard to believe that an established producer like Naughty Dog in collaboration with a huge company like Sony would actually make a statement against any specific sexual orientiation in any game they develop/produce. Considering that apparently only parts of the game's story have leaked and people do not yet have the full picture, can you already deduct with certainty what the game's message is?

[-Silo-]

Looks like this angle came from a post by www.sausageroll.com.au on the subject. Interestingly enough (or not), I've never heard of the game until I saw the above mentioned. :-)