BW Media Spotlight

NOTE: Swearing in the trailer below and in one of the other videos in use

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet has already had its share of controversy before the box is even constructed to come right out of. Many critics pointed to all the product placement. While Sony pushing it’s own product is no surprise, there’s also the Porsche spaceship (on a space bounty hunter’s income?), Adidas sneakers, and that gaming chair she’s using as a pilot seat probably came from somewhere but I missed it. I guess this is what we do to push AAA games since it’s less clear if such games will be successful.

One of the reasons for that lack of success is the other controversy: the character. In the first trailer she comes off as the trendy “girlboss” warrior woman in a medium that has been trying to blank out attractive women. At least in the western gaming sphere. Marvel Rivals out of China (of all places) and Stellar Blade out of South Korea have featured powerful women looking sexy and kicking butt not like a male character would but as a female character would. It’s not the gender, it’s the depiction, and gamers are getting tired of unattractive women, especially the ones who were attractive in the first game (Mary Jane in the Insomniac Spider-Man games comes to mind). I’m not really here to talk about all of that, but it does lead into our discussion topic.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tati Gabrielle, who is the model and voice of Intergalactic‘s player character, Jordan A. Mun, discussed her roles in the TV and movie versions of other Naughty Dog properties, but it’s when she discussed how Neil Druckmann, creator of the original The Last Of Us games and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, prepared her for backlash from this game based on his experience…and when I read it I got the impression he was already trying to tell her what all the negative responses “really” were, which got me to thinking: is this going on in Hollywood all over? Note that Druckmann is part of the Hollywood culture even though he’s making video games, only know he’s put the pseudo-zombie horror game franchise on pause to focus on the HBO retelling of the first two games, so I’m counting him. And I believe he might not be alone.

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