This past week,The Last of Us Part 2voice actor Laura Bailey shared some of the harassment she’s received online. But Bailey isn’t the only target for harassment on Naughty Dog’s team, it seems.The Last of Us 2creative director Neil Druckmann posted a message on Twitter this Sunday including photos of messages the game developer had received, including death threats and extreme bigotry.
“You can love or hate the game and share your thoughts about it,“Druckmannwr0te on Twitter. He goes on to say that an unfortunate amount of the messages he receives are “vile, hateful, & violent.” The reason he shares them is, much like Bailey before him, he feels that it’s important to expose what’s happening. Druckmann, to his credit, adds a trigger warning for hate speech to the end of the tweets.
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Without going into detail regarding what the tweets say, they focus largely on Druckmann’s race and his perceived social and political beliefs. Specifically, the assumption thatevents that occur inThe Last of Us 2lend themselves to certain views. Then, because of his views, Druckmann deserves to be talked to in a hateful and violent manner. These comments and the perspectives behind them are obviously disgusting and deserve to be condemned, but nevertheless they do exist.
This isn’t the first time Druckmann has addressed the subject of game developers being harassed on social media.Druckmann also retweeted Bailey’s original poston harassment, saying clearly that, “Laura doesn’t deserve any of this.” He goes on to say that he hopes the people sending these messages, “get the mental help they so clearly need.”
Druckmann does add one somewhat controversial though, however. He says, “Unfortunately this is now the cost of making popular entertainment that challenges conventions.” While Druckmann may believe that and accept that, it doesn’t seem fair for someone likeLaura Baileyto have to live with it. Or that everyone at Naughty Dog has accepted it either.
The good news is, like with Laura Bailey’s tweet on the same subject, Druckmann’s post on Twitter has resulted in a wave of support for him, for Bailey, and forNaughty Dog. As Druckmann’s tweets say, it’s perfectly fine to love or hateThe Last of Us 2itself. But the kind of harassment some share is unacceptable. And the best way to counteract that is to make it visible, condemn it, and spread support instead.
The Last of Us Part 2is available now on PS4.
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