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Killing the IP wouldn't make any sense since there is money to be made with it. Rebooting the series is the more logical approach. Honestly, I thought the "old" Tomb Raiders were becoming a parody. This preview (and the trailer) make this lactually ook pretty cool. Hopefully it is as good as it sounds.
From the looks of it (and it looks pretty great), its a thrill ride that makes you feel real empowered before flinging you helplessly off a cliff.. And for some reason that really excites me about it.
So the whole trigger warning, attempted rape scene being a QTE is really giving me a bad vibe about this game. I was tentatively excited to see how this game handles the inherent difficulties with having the female star of an action game constantly being brutalized (as opposed to how Nathan Drake is treated), but most of that has to do with keeping the tone of the game consistent.
But I saw that attempted rape scene in the trailer, and I was instantly worried about the huge percentage of women who have been sexually assaulted, picking up this game and not expecting to have to confront those feelings while enjoying their hobby. Still though, there was a chance they could handle it carefully and use it as a slap to the face of all the objectifying, male gaze-y treatment Croft has received over the years.
This is not a good idea though. Making the player have to fight off sexual assault, mixed with murder, is something that isn't just a huge trigger for a lot of people, but it shows that the developers aren't really thinking about how their audience is going to experience the brutality they're showing.
But I saw that attempted rape scene in the trailer, and I was instantly worried about the huge percentage of women who have been sexually assaulted, picking up this game and not expecting to have to confront those feelings while enjoying their hobby. Still though, there was a chance they could handle it carefully and use it as a slap to the face of all the objectifying, male gaze-y treatment Croft has received over the years.
This is not a good idea though. Making the player have to fight off sexual assault, mixed with murder, is something that isn't just a huge trigger for a lot of people, but it shows that the developers aren't really thinking about how their audience is going to experience the brutality they're showing.
@the Company
Oh, shut up will you? Why should Crystal Dynamics have to tone down this kind of thing? Isn't that self censorship? I understand that some women may have been the victims of such unfortunate circumstances, but you're an ignorant FOOL to think that it shouldn't be represented in any form of media. A woman gets raped in A Clockwork Orange which is an amazing film otherwise and it isn't glamorous or cool. It's jarring and disgusting, terrible. There's no warning for women in that.
I'm sure there will be a warning that this game has disturbing images. People who have experienced such terrible events should be prepared more than anyone that that kind of thing exists and is represented in the media such as films, books and games. Why should any creative person have to shy away from it?
Crystal Dynamics is trying to create a dark, gritty and brutal origins story of their character. It's up to them to decide the scenario, and if in their story this kind of event comes up and is pivotal in developing their character, why the hell should they have to try and tone things down like that?!
It's a game where you take the role of an attractive, vulnerable young woman faced with psychos who are going around killing innocent people without thought. Why is rape out of the occasion? Why should it not be shown as... you know, DISGUSTING as that's what rape is? Clearly from this preview and your reaction, they ARE thinking about how their audience is experiencing the brutality they're showing. It's not nice. It's disturbing. That's what they're looking at doing and they're doing a damn good job of it.
If everyone had to tiptoe around tulips and take into consideration all these kinds of things you're proposing, we'd never really get 'realism', we'd just get all this toning down of shit for the sake of others. I'm not proposing taking away empathy from women who face such circumstance or that they should have to relive those moments, but creative people shouldn't have to tone down their vision and wider audiences shouldn't have to be hand-held into not experiencing that kind of thing.
I'm fairly sure women who HAVE been sexually assaulted have more realistic thinking than yourself that such 'triggers' will be appearing all around them, just as other people who have had to be faced with the death of a family member, maybe war, the holocaust or many other tragedies will not vanish from the world - not for their invidual and selfish sake.
Oh, shut up will you? Why should Crystal Dynamics have to tone down this kind of thing? Isn't that self censorship? I understand that some women may have been the victims of such unfortunate circumstances, but you're an ignorant FOOL to think that it shouldn't be represented in any form of media. A woman gets raped in A Clockwork Orange which is an amazing film otherwise and it isn't glamorous or cool. It's jarring and disgusting, terrible. There's no warning for women in that.
I'm sure there will be a warning that this game has disturbing images. People who have experienced such terrible events should be prepared more than anyone that that kind of thing exists and is represented in the media such as films, books and games. Why should any creative person have to shy away from it?
Crystal Dynamics is trying to create a dark, gritty and brutal origins story of their character. It's up to them to decide the scenario, and if in their story this kind of event comes up and is pivotal in developing their character, why the hell should they have to try and tone things down like that?!
It's a game where you take the role of an attractive, vulnerable young woman faced with psychos who are going around killing innocent people without thought. Why is rape out of the occasion? Why should it not be shown as... you know, DISGUSTING as that's what rape is? Clearly from this preview and your reaction, they ARE thinking about how their audience is experiencing the brutality they're showing. It's not nice. It's disturbing. That's what they're looking at doing and they're doing a damn good job of it.
If everyone had to tiptoe around tulips and take into consideration all these kinds of things you're proposing, we'd never really get 'realism', we'd just get all this toning down of shit for the sake of others. I'm not proposing taking away empathy from women who face such circumstance or that they should have to relive those moments, but creative people shouldn't have to tone down their vision and wider audiences shouldn't have to be hand-held into not experiencing that kind of thing.
I'm fairly sure women who HAVE been sexually assaulted have more realistic thinking than yourself that such 'triggers' will be appearing all around them, just as other people who have had to be faced with the death of a family member, maybe war, the holocaust or many other tragedies will not vanish from the world - not for their invidual and selfish sake.
@Kennydee
You're not very polite, are you? Despite your assumptions about me, my gender and experiences, I think the strangest thing is how you wrote all of that in response to an evaluation, when I wasn't even suggesting any form of censorship.
All I said is that making attempted rape into a QTE that the player could fail seems to me like the developers aren't taking their audience's reaction to this as seriously as they should. Not that they or any other developer shouldn't try to do it right.
You're not very polite, are you? Despite your assumptions about me, my gender and experiences, I think the strangest thing is how you wrote all of that in response to an evaluation, when I wasn't even suggesting any form of censorship.
All I said is that making attempted rape into a QTE that the player could fail seems to me like the developers aren't taking their audience's reaction to this as seriously as they should. Not that they or any other developer shouldn't try to do it right.
@Kennydee
Hi, you don't know what you're talking about. Please stop speaking for women and for victims of sexual assault. :)
Hi, you don't know what you're talking about. Please stop speaking for women and for victims of sexual assault. :)
I think Crystal D is making 'torture porn' and and don't have enough good sense not to try that just to sell more copies. This is a total tonal miss and I think they are hoping to make a splash by being gross. They may or may not sell more copies by going gross, but my guess is the whole game will lack the sort of soul it needs.
I think this game looks remarkable and the gritty deaths make me fight that much harder to survive. I personally think Tomb Raider needed this.
This looks great and i'm super pumped for it. Can't help feeling that i was more excited when it seemed like a real survival/exploration adventure though. All the human gun battling and action is starting to make it feel like just another Tomb Raider that puts action ahead of exploration and atmosphere. The very first Tomb Raider is still one of the best to me and it has the least action but had a real sense of wonder and exploration..
It's one thing when the old Tomb Raiders games are blatantly sexualizing the player character to get sales. It was obvious. It's a fact of marketing that sex sells. They weren't trying to pretend like Lara was mature or serious or anything. It was shameless entertainment. No one took that seriously.
This is just pathetic. All Lara is doing is painting and moaning and screaming and crying. It's an woman abuse simulator. Should have called this Lara Croft: Rape Escape or something. It's really tasteless to try and pretend like this is serious and mature and gritty and realistic and then parade this bullshit around as if she's still somehow this "badass chick". It's ridiculous.
I hope this fucking flops. For anyone who doesn't realize the very obvious problems with this game's new direction, I pity your blindness.
This is just pathetic. All Lara is doing is painting and moaning and screaming and crying. It's an woman abuse simulator. Should have called this Lara Croft: Rape Escape or something. It's really tasteless to try and pretend like this is serious and mature and gritty and realistic and then parade this bullshit around as if she's still somehow this "badass chick". It's ridiculous.
I hope this fucking flops. For anyone who doesn't realize the very obvious problems with this game's new direction, I pity your blindness.
@KennyDee: You're missing the entire point. The whole point of the Tomb Raider franchise was that Lara was a badass in an ocean of games with weak female leads. She stood for power and grit, making her unique among a lot of victimized female leads in both movies and video games. She paved the way for more stellar female leads such as Rayne ("Bloodrayne"), Jade ("Beyond Good and Evil"), and Alyx Vance ("Half-Life 2").
This game strips her of that trait and turns her into a terrified, borderline helpless lead who barely survives things through interactive cutscenes. She's become a whimpering wreck whose strength is defined by men and how she deals with them. In "Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation", we were given the opportunity to play as a young Lara, and she was nothing like this. She was tough, fearless, and never one to break down and cry. It had nothing to with encouragement that "she was a CROFT"; she was just naturally a cocky, headstrong badass. All this, and she was YOUNGER than the Lara we're given in this game. Just some food for thought in terms of how women in video games have devolved. As a guy, it saddens me to see a beloved heroine and touchstone for sexual equality getting treated like this.
May as well have called it "Tomb Raider: The Angel of Misogyny", or "Tomb Raider: The Last Kickass Female", or "Tomb Raider: QTE Chronicles", or... eh, you get the point. This game reeks of failure.
Also, to expand on JessicAAAH's point, shut up when you think you have any clue what it's like to be a woman dealing with sexual assault trauma. You have just about as much of a clue as I do, which is next to none, because we're both GUYS.
This game strips her of that trait and turns her into a terrified, borderline helpless lead who barely survives things through interactive cutscenes. She's become a whimpering wreck whose strength is defined by men and how she deals with them. In "Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation", we were given the opportunity to play as a young Lara, and she was nothing like this. She was tough, fearless, and never one to break down and cry. It had nothing to with encouragement that "she was a CROFT"; she was just naturally a cocky, headstrong badass. All this, and she was YOUNGER than the Lara we're given in this game. Just some food for thought in terms of how women in video games have devolved. As a guy, it saddens me to see a beloved heroine and touchstone for sexual equality getting treated like this.
May as well have called it "Tomb Raider: The Angel of Misogyny", or "Tomb Raider: The Last Kickass Female", or "Tomb Raider: QTE Chronicles", or... eh, you get the point. This game reeks of failure.
Also, to expand on JessicAAAH's point, shut up when you think you have any clue what it's like to be a woman dealing with sexual assault trauma. You have just about as much of a clue as I do, which is next to none, because we're both GUYS.
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