Naughty Dog has a pretty rich history with strong diverse female characters, like Elena in Uncharted or Ellie in The Last of Us. However, one Uncharted 4 focus group tester took issue with a certain female ass-kicker who repeatedly opens up a can of whoop-ass on Nathan Drake and friends.
In an interview with Wenner Media's new gaming website, Uncharted 4 director Neil Druckmann spoke on how Naughty Dog incorporated diversity in their games and shared a story about a sexist focus tester who got very upset with how the female antagonist Nadine Ross was portrayed in the game.
Spoilers for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End are below. Do not read any more unless you have finished the game or want the game spoiled.
"You’ve said in the past that you’ve been influenced by Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency videos and the larger conversation about diversity and representation in games. How did that affect Uncharted 4?
Druckmann: When I’m introducing and describing a new character to our lead character concept artist, constantly she will ask, “What if it was a girl?” And I’m like, Oh, I didn’t think about that. Let me think, does that affect or change anything? No? Cool, that’s different. Yeah, let’s do it.
Initially, in the epilogue, it was Nate’s son. Something similar happened with the mansion they go into. That was an old English guy’s house. She asked, Well, what if it was a woman?
You have some sexist focus testers who were really upset by Nadine beating up Nate, and really upset at the end when it was Nate’s daughter. To the point where we had to ask one guy to leave. In his core, it just affected him. He was cursing, “Not you, too, Naughty Dog! Goddammit. I guess I’m done with Uncharted, if you guys ever make another one, with his daughter. This fucking bullshit.”
And I was like, Wow, why does that matter?"
This didn't seem to be that big of an issue with anyone besides this gentlemen as the game was pretty much universally praised by gaming outlets and has become the best selling first-party game on PS4.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is out now exclusively on PlayStation 4.
