Yeah, it would not fit this game, and it would make it a frustrating mess. Just because an element works great in one game, it doesn't mean that "every game should have that" (McShea)! I know that Tom must have been joking or exaggeratting, because that's simply bad reasoning.
If I remember correctly, he also said that the story focuses on females dying so that Joel could progress as a character. It's in the spoilercast. And I want to say that he brought up sexism in his Metroid:Other M review, but don't hold me to that.
Not that I am against what I am about to mention, but I think it may be an interesting observation: Who thinks the next few "Awesome User Blogs" will be on this subject and will be close to the line of thinking presented in the article?
Spoilers:
Anyway, I agree with most users who point out the death of females AND males in the game that also advance Ellie's character. And why does every story have to be critiqued based on character development? Why can't the death of Joel's daughter be an important event to advance the story, that plays a role in establishing the connection he later has with Ellie? Why is this seen as only benefitting Joel's character? What about the hardness of heart Joel developed after the death of his daughter? Why cannot this be seen as a natural reaction of a man who has been hurt over a traumatic event? Maybe he is emotinally distant, but it is because he has endured many dark events.
Again, as others have mentioned, what about the deaths of Henry and Sam? The final cutscene shows us that their deaths--as well as Tess's--affected Ellie very much, and led to her desire to want to be the catalyst through which humanity is saved. Deaths do change people, and if we were to translate the loss of life in The Last of Us into a real-life scenario, we'd recognize that, and we wouldn't say that those people died so that a grieving family member could experience character development. Yes, this is a game, but the characters felt so real to me in how they reacted to certain events, and that is a strength, not a sexist weakness.
Only my sister can I speak for, but she loved Joel, disliked Tess, and took a little while to warm up to Ellie, but ended up valuing her as well. It's one of her favorite games, she has told me.
I think that is what makes the ending and story so great, that so many of us have different views and interpretations on what happenened. I disagree with what you said about Joel, but that's okay. Anyways, we need to be careful with sharing potential spoilers here before people form a mob and maul us.
Nothing wrong with sharing philosophical ideas on gaming, but I am sure glad that the Last of Us tells its own story only, for it was one of the most satisfying experiences I had ever had with a game in that regard. It would be SO frustrating to have one character die in that game permanently. How would that even work? You would have to create a bunch of different cutscenes that follow the unique scenarios that occurred while you were playing, and that is asking a lot, especially considering the phenomenal character interaction/development and the top-notch cinematics already in place. What if I wanted to see the ending with both characters but lost one? Boy, I'd be mad, especially if it were at the very end.
And I think it's bad argumentation to say that since perma-death works well in an RTS such as Fire Emblem, that it could translate into a game like the Last of Us. No way. The Last of Us, as the one man said (Tyler, I think?) focuses on telling the story of two characters:Joel and Ellie. It is not littered with characters that can be easily replaced or who do not play a major role in the plot. Games like Skyrim work for telling your "own story" because it is a game designed for that. It's highly customizable, but I bet you'd not get the depth of the interaction and development as you do in the Last of Us. If some of the ideas mentioned were implemented into Naughty Dog's latest, it would be an absolute frustration in the gameplay department and nowhere near as impactful in its storytelling.
Yikes. You are equating what types of video games someone plays with how successful they are in life? Perhaps you should lay off the games altogether. You should realize that while you criticize a person as having "no life" (I sure do not want the life you described!) based on the games they play, other "successful" people would say you have no life for playing games at all, and especially for making some dopey argument like you jist did. Do you see how that works?
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