Is Ellie a playable character?

Team Ellie, TC.

I don't know why she wouldn't be playable, even if its just a skin like in UC2. Age isn't really a factor: Heather in Silent Hill 3 was a slightly older teenager, there's Stephen King's The Long Walk, The Hunger Games, Battle Royale, and even a comic book based on those books, Avengers Arena with all Marvel's teens in a death match.

Mature audiences should be able to handle it, especially with a good narrative, and they have in the past. Sure, GTA doesn't have kids, but I think that's just erring on the inevitable idiocy.
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"Don't try to win over the haters. You're not the jackass whisperer." - Scott Stratten

biohazardoud856 posted...

Age is a factor, though. The Long Walk and the Hunger Games were both written for teenagers/young adults and Battle Royale was released in the US unrated and non-theatrically because they said that if they would have had to cut it to an R rating, there would be nothing left. Avengers Arena is rated Teens and up. Silent Hill 3 is really the only example with any kind of weight with Heather being 17, though M rated games are suitable for ages 17 and up.

It isn’t necessarily the fact that people of these ages are being killed, but more so how it is portrayed. With the brutal, graphic violence that this game portrays it’s just not a realistic expectation for a 14 year old to be playable -- not to mention you still have to take into account that it would be the player controlled characters committing these acts of violence.

I suppose I just don't see the issue. Not with your arguments, I understand where you're coming from and mostly agree. When I consider your points, I see them in the light of not wanting to get caught up in the latest media nothing fracas of the week.

The game is rated M for Mature, by all intents the game is intended for a mature audience who should be able to handle something like a 14 year old girl's death under the circumstances. Even The Hunger Games and The Long Walk err on the side of wanting to educate teens and broaden their minds - The Hunger Games in itself is a criticism of reality TV dumbing down the masses and the televised violence of the Iraq war and other violence on daytime television; a strong discussion point for young adults and adults in general. With a Mature or Teen rated product (and even movies, consider PG-13/14-A rating - and the 14-A is harsher in Canada, as you must have an adult, in the States where I grew up I never had an issue getting into anything under R), the expectation is on the audience, from the very ratings board, that they are mature enough to handle the content.

That said, I worked retail at a time when GTA3 was M and parents flat out didn't care, and didn't care to know what they were buying, even when we advised them, and then they would come back and argue about the game after the fact. I understand that the rating system and intended audiences just don't do the work some people expect.

Call of Duty supports your points in that a rated M game with deathmatch easily falls into the hands of minors who generally trend towards the poorly mannered end of gamer society. And perhaps Ellie wouldn't be playable in MP. In SP as a skin, sure, why not.

I just refuse to accept it's not a realistic expectation that a 14 yr old be playable in a video game death match, but I also think the public loves to find a scapegoat and duck accountability when something like that goes wrong.
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"Don't try to win over the haters. You're not the jackass whisperer." - Scott Stratten