I loved the DLC because it let me be Ellie, and Ellie is awesome.

Indeed. I need to finish this project and fly home so that I can play the DLC. I heard it was kind of short, what was your take on it?

Naughty Dog doubles-down on character development, and there are parts that feel downright experimental in the way they use gameplay to explore character. Don't want to spoil anything, but it fills in some stuff you'd expect if you read the comic or saw the DLC reveal trailer, and some stuff you don't expect but appreciate.

As someone far removed from being a teenager, there were times when I felt like a creepy eavesdropper. They nail a unique dynamic that really only occurs among friends that age.

Short? It's all relative. I see it almost as a missing chapter for what was, for me, the longest game I've ever played outside of Mass Effect. No complaints. 2-3 hours time well spent.

I will say this, I played on hard, and the last part truly was. It was a relief to finish.

I found the Ellen Page news non-newsworthy. And actually, I think it can be argued that the kiss in the DLC might not constitute a definitive coming out.

According to Druckmann, it definitely is a coming out.

http://kotaku.com/video-gamings-latest-breakthrough-moment-1524555480

Not everyone at Naughty Dog agreed that it was a good idea to define Ellie one way or the other. "Some of the questions at the studio," Druckmann said, "and some of the arguments were like, in defining her one way or another, are we taking away something from players? It wasn't defined, so people could imagine her being straight, or gay, or whatever. And my argument was, 'Well, those are the stories that are worth telling, that define these characters more and show who they are.' But I know some people will be upset. And they would've been upset in either direction. Someone would get upset by it. So you kind of have to shrug your shoulders and say, well, this is the story that we felt was worth telling and hopefully you're along for the ride."

Any speculation otherwise is fanfiction.

Yeah, it's a stretch to say otherwise. I'm not surprised that that was their intention. What makes it work for me is that it's believable. And they're smart enough to leave some ambiguity in. I mean, she lives as a character in our imagination (more believably than any video game character I've been exposed to). Druckmann intends her to be gay [insert obligatory not that there's anything wrong with that here]. I've also known women (and even a few men) who had similar attachments and even sexual explorations at that age and don't consider themselves gay or bisexual now, so that knowledge left room for doubt for ME. But now it sounds like I have a problem with their intention, and I don't at all. I'm just saying that people are complicated, and this is the first game I've ever played that seems to really get that, and lets us write a good portion of the story in the white spaces that they generously leave for us. If I have resistance, maybe it's that I don't really want to see Ellie winning awards as the best gay character because she's the best character (period!). It's like how some people want to make TLoU Joel's story, and others want it to be Ellie's story (it's both!). I think Druckmann gets that character trumps type and even gender. I've heard him say as much in different contexts, and that approach is what makes it valuable as art, honestly. Unfortunately, in the greater world what you are still seems to matter more than who you are to a lot of people.

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I found the Ellen Page news non-newsworthy. And actually, I think it can be argued that the kiss in the DLC might not constitute a definitive coming out. What matters to me is that the character stayed believable, and she did. I loved the DLC because it let me be Ellie, and Ellie is awesome.

What matters to me is that it's DLC. That means I won't be buying it on principle. So I don't get to experience that. If it's so awesome, it should have been in the game. Not good Naughty Dog :-(

And 15 bucks? Aye-Carumba!

I paid $20 for the season pass, and I've watched the very well-made documentary that comes with that a few times now. I dig stuff like that for things that I really like. There's some multiplayer stuff (and more coming) that I might enjoy at some point, but between the documentary and the story DLC, it's worth it to me. The principle for me is I want Naughty Dog to be successful because they've made a game that respects the intelligence of the audience to a degree unprecedented. I want them to have my money and a lot of other folks' money so they can continue to make games, and with their success maybe publishers will bet on other more mature projects, and maybe that will mean more games like that for me to enjoy. Hell, to me, if Halo made buying an Xbox worthwhile, The Last of Us made buying a PS3 worthwhile.

I find your principle a little silly. Why did you play Halo 2? I mean, if they had more story to tell, why didn't they include that in the first Halo? I suppose you believe that no director's cut is better than the theatrical version. In many cases you might be right, but certainly that are factors other than a lack of principle that affect how these products are shaped.

You have narrow ideas about what a game should be, what makes games fun, and how the game industry should behave. You remind me of those "audiophiles" who, in the early days of CDs, would come into the store and insist on buying nothing but fully digital recordings, back when that included a handful of Philips classical releases and a single Ry Cooder album. My thought process then was, "Bully for you, numbskull. You just wrote off the fricking Beatles."

I found the Ellen Page news non-newsworthy. And actually, I think it can be argued that the kiss in the DLC might not constitute a definitive coming out. What matters to me is that the character stayed believable, and she did. I loved the DLC because it let me be Ellie, and Ellie is awesome.

What matters to me is that it's DLC. That means I won't be buying it on principle. So I don't get to experience that. If it's so awesome, it should have been in the game. Not good Naughty Dog :-(

And 15 bucks? Aye-Carumba!

Maybe you should adjust your expectations? Like with Mass Effect 3, I was expecting to pay $100 or more when I was all said and done. Foolish capitalist sentiments aside, did I get my money's worth? Hell yes.

I mean, not like I expect to ever see $0.63/gallon for gas ever again.