In The New Tomb Raider, Lara Croft Gets Woke

Forbes: We spoke to the narrative director of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the new game in the Lara Croft series, to find out more about how Lara has matured alongside her audience.

[yarbie1000]

Ah, so that's why sales are so bad

[nyu1]

Ah, so you didn't read the article

[lxeasy]

he's just trolling don't get worked up over it. I beat the game earlier this week and enjoyed it.

[Inzo]

"how Lara has matured alongside her audience."

There is only one problem with that, this isnt the Tomb Raider her "matured" audience wants.

[nyu1]

They can make Lara however they see fit. If they want to go realistic and serious, let them do that. Although it is difficult to pull off for sure.

[Gh05t]

"They can make Lara however they see fit."

No one said they COULDNT, they simply stated that a portion dont WANT what they are making. Two totally different things.

[Hungryalpaca]

They did let them make it. They just didn’t buy it.

[rainslacker]

Saying she matured implies that the character had some sort of growth throughout the trilogy. My question is, did that maturity come with the same suddenness as he getting over being assaulted and turning into a killing machine? The first couple games i wouldn't really say she matured at all, just kind of kept going on about her way, with some shallow "growth" to make the story passable.

[starchild]

Hmm that's funny, I've been playing Tomb Raider since its inception and Shadow of the Tomb Raider has been a great experience for me. It has the right mix between the older and newer Tomb Raider games.

[Gh05t]

"...it was important to us to use an element and emotion that video games can do very well: guilt."

Yes because that is what I want in my "games" that I play for FUN.

Also I expect more from "respected" publications than slang words like woke, have a little pride in what you do.

[letsa_go]

What else would you expect from a feminist, liberal writer like this journalist? They seem to have infected the media.

[nyu1]

"Yes because that is what I want in my "games" that I play for FUN. "

Precisely, I really hate that they try to make Lara a believable character with a serious narrative. Video games are supposed to be FUN. No serious emotions, because that defeats the point of the video game.

Similarly, all video games should just ditch any serious narrative. That's Mass Effect 2 sucked - it was dragged down by all those serious emotions. Why would we want that ? After all, we play games for FUN. Same for Uncharted 4 and The Last Of Us, especially the latter. It's supposed to be FUN, I have no idea why Naughty Dog tried to include a serious, believable story arc for the characters.

Same shit for the Bioshock series. Give me FUN, not complicated emotians. It's meant to be FUN.

:P

[Gh05t]

Mock all you want, I either didnt like or didnt play any game you just mentioned.

I dont like heavy story driven games, and I dont usually play them.

I focus on the gameplay and I prefer my drama and thought provoking art to not be my games.

It was clearly stated that is what "I want" and "I play for FUN." You can play for whatever reason you want, I dont want something im doing to relax to give me a guilt trip.

[nyu1]

Okay, so that's clarified. You don't like the decision because you don't like story driven games in general.

It's still a bit weird seeing n4g circle jerking around this. Most people say they want story driven narrative focused games. If you talk about Anthem, everyone here will bitch about that (and I agree with them).

For some reason, now it's the opposite. I suppose it's because of the title using the word 'woke'. That's my only explanation.

[Gh05t]

Not all story driven games need to (or do) make the player feel guilty. My issue is that particular emotion. If a game has a plot that is meant to make you feel upset at an event so you blast through the "enemy" with righteous indignation, cool, I get it, but guilt... That is like playing a game that is depressing and leaves you depressed... how is that a good thing in something called a "GAME"?

"Most people say they want story driven narrative focused games."

Most gamers (on N4G anyways) do, I am not one of those gamers.

"For some reason, now it's the opposite."

Hardly, I am one very minor voice who stands up for gameplay over story everytime. Most gamers still want story driven games, but as I said not all stories need to elicit a feeling of guilt for playing the game and not all gamers want a dev to make them feel GUILTY for being a TOMB RAIDER.

That in and of itself is the issue. Its cognitive dissonance at its core. You make a game where you raid tombs and then slap the player in the face with guilt for doing what the previous games were based off of, because all the sudden we grew a bleeding heart. At that point they should just stop making the game or make a new game based off of Doctors without borders or Green Peace or some crap but dont act like they arent changing the formula of the game and then wonder why people arent liking it.

[Silly gameAr]

Woke is a slang word? Interesting.

[Gh05t]

Not sure if serious or you are trying to be edgy and just dont know that yes "woke" is slang.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Did Eddie Bravo write the headline? I despise modern English sometimes.

ot: I haven't been interested in Tomb Raider since PS1.

[x_xavier_x]

Modern English had a few decent songs and one classic.

[Cajun Chicken]

I love this series.The reboot series has been far more accessable to me to play and generally designed far better, part inspired by Uncharted which was obviously inspired by Tomb Raider, but offering something totally different than Uncharted has. Old Lara controlled like a tank and it was difficult to make her backup or somersault. I understand the culture behind the original Tomb Raider and Lara, but these are so much better. I actually LIKE Lara in this series, she's not just an upper class twit getting her head over the Mafia and supernatural relics. She's strong but still shows signs of weakness as anyone will with the things she's seen. Jonah is a great addition and it makes you wonder what this Lara will become without Jonah. This is MY Tomb Raider.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Modern Lara and Jonah barely qualify as actual characters. Both of them lack personality (plain, boring and unlikeable), believable motivations, decent dialogue or good voice acting.

I like the new Tomb Raider games but the story is a disaster. Also there was a second TR trilogy with good controls. Rise Of The Tomb Raider ripped a lot of its story from those games.

[Hungryalpaca]

It may be your tomb raider but as a fan of the pat games it sure as hell ain’t mine.

[starchild]

Well good for you. I've played the series since the beginning and Shadow of the Tomb Raider feels very much like the older Tomb Raider games, only better and more refined in nearly every way.

[blacktiger]

As soon as they change the look of Laura Croft, I just gave up. Complete disrespect to hardcore fanboys!

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Tomb Raider actually got good starting with the reboot. I was never really interested until then. The reboot trilogy is hella amazeballs to me ❤

[icerob]

great game!!