There are few human emotions that burn so vividly distinct as that of of injustice; take my word on that. Just ask me anything about my school-life, literally any part of it, and I'd likely have trouble sharing even the most remote of details; such as classes I took, names of folk I knew or even teachers that tolerated me. However, I can still recall with specific clarity that moment during my tenure at nursery when I patted someone on the back and got in trouble when he ratted on for 'hitting him'. (I also remember that he grew up into one of those kids you wore earrings in one ear, so I guess he proved to be his own worse enemy in the long run.) the moment of feeling as though you've been dealt a sour hand is the sort of emotion that writhes in your gut like a pit of worms, and it will set there if you let, and maybe even lead to an... irrational response.
Now by this time this will hardly be any news to you, but here it goes; The Last of Us Part 2 has undergone a huge leak and folk who've looked it up seem pretty certain that this was an inside job from a developer. Now personally I haven't seen this footage, not because I particularly care about experiencing TLOU, the franchise never grabbed me, but because I disagree vehemently with 'leak' culture and thus wanted nothing to do with these materials. But there are those who don't share my thoughts on that matter and they say the case of where this leak came from is pretty cut and dry; there are developer messages littered over all of it and it's pretty clear to see that this all comes from a March build. Now the entire story hasn't been leaked, I'm told, but there were key story junctions dropped, alongside some cutscenes and maybe even a twist or two, I'm not too clear on the specifics in that case. Either way the prevailing question that we come away from after this dump is the usual; why?
In order to answer that question we have to delve into the world of speculation, as unfortunately our leaker didn't leave a manifesto with the materials. (Certainly would have helped clean things up, keep that in mind, future leakers.) As far as I am aware it is speculation that is accompanying this news, however the original leak did occur on a forum somewhere (before being promptly deleted) so it's possible that the poster could have elucidated some folk before his inevitable ban. Either way the narrative is going like this; all of this headache that Naughty Dog, Sony and the fans are having to deal with is due to a payment dispute. (So that's fun.) Whether there is any truth to that, or if it's just folk extrapolating upon stories that are already known regarding Naughty Dog and their practices, I think it's a topic worth looking into.
I say that because; surprise, surprise, this isn't the first time that our favourite action game developer has been in the crosshairs for the way that they treat their workers. (Or 'mistreat' to be more accurate.) As seems to be the case with practically every triple A company working in the world today, (even those who specifically say that they don't/won't) Naughty Dog are known perpetrators of hard employee crunch for months on end. Basically time in which the staff are subjected to day after day of elongated work days and overtime in the hopes of squeezing all the possible development hours out of them. It's a brutal practice in any creative field and obviously leads to burn-out and disgruntled folk across the board, thus sowing the seeds for disgruntled retribution, however Naughty Dogs reputation does go one step further even then that.
There is a story revolving around one fellow who was an animator for Naughty Dog who left the company over the worrying mandates that were falling upon his office. Eventually this led to him being hit with a really insulting foul ultimatum from the team; his last paycheck would be withheld if he didn't sign a contract promising not to reveal 'production practices'. (Which seems like overkill in order to stop what exactly? Are they worried about a bad PR moment? Because their 'solution' just created a worse one.) Now, of course, this animator was quick to point out that none of this was the will of Naughty Dog itself but rather a reflection of practises that Sony were imparting on all their partner studios; but that doesn't exactly put ND in the clear as it does betray an inability to keep their own staff safe from gross corporate machinations.
Now could the same thing have happened with this whole 'Last of Us Part 2' situation? Maybe, but it's hard to know for sure now that the raging ocean of Internet speculation has picked up the story. Either way, I think it's safe to assume that our mysterious leaker did hail from the animation team as that would explain the sort of materials that got dropped, but then this opens a curious question: what was the end goal for this move? If I've deduced the probable origin of this leak without any inside knowledge of the company, then you'll bet it'll hardly take ND more than a few moments to see who within the animation department threw up fuss about payment, (And likely immediately quit) so that leaves me wondering; what was so abhorrent to this fellow as to warrant them torpedoing their entire career in the gaming world (heck, maybe even the entire corporate world) whilst opening themselves up to a significant 'breach of contract' lawsuit? The hell was this guy/girl going through?
Whatever the incentive, I do wonder if this was in any way the correct way to go about things given how this splashes back against unintended (I assume) victims. Sure, in a payment dispute the leaking of classified documents is going to hurt the money men significantly, but that's not even nearly the extent of the damage. This hurts ever single developer who has worked tirelessly on this game for years, every voice actor and writer who put their hearts into bringing this story to life and every animator who put up with the same nonsense that this fellow did. (Assuming they are who the Internet assumes them to be.) And at the end of the day it also hurts the fans who have been patiently waiting to experience the story of TLOU the way it was meant to be experienced; so who wins out of this messy affair? (I sure don't know.)
But I suppose that brings me back around to the head of this blog, because folk don't tend to be rational when struck with an emotion as passionate as injustice. Perhaps there's no point searching for the logic behind this retaliation as there was none, someone was just hurt and wanted to hurt back. (Also, is suppose it's hard to think about long term prospects in a climate such as our own.) With that in mind, and assuming that the Internet's assumptions are accurate, I find it hard to either laud or condemn anyone's actions here. No one's a winner and everyone's a loser. What I do know is this; of you're a TLOU fan than this quarantine just got a whole lot harder to bear.
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