How video games became the next front in the culture wars

As with much of our cultural life, the videogames industry is now coming under increasing ideological pressure. Both industry high-ups and journalists see gamers less as fun-loving hobbyists than as an intransigent army of reactionary white men in need of moral correction.

One title that epitomizes this trend is Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us. This action-adventure game was widely acclaimed upon its release in 2013 for its beautiful, immersive graphics and gripping story. After his own daughter is killed in a zombie apocalypse, the player-character Joel must go to great lengths to protect Ellie, a girl who is immune to the disease that causes people to turn into zombies. Joel and Ellie journey across the US, in the hope of using her immunity to find a cure. The story was praised at the time for being ‘crushingly and beautifully real’ and for presenting masculinity in a positive light. Flawed but stoic, Joel immediately became a fan favourite.

Fast-forward seven years to the long-awaited The Last of Us Part II, and Joel is killed off early in the game by a new character, Abby, who is trans. ‘You stupid old man’, she says, as she beats him to death with a golf club – a metaphor for the culture wars if ever there was one.