In late April of this year, a massive dump of spoilers for NaughtyDog’s The Last of Us Part II appeared online. Revealing practically the entire story and even showing segments of gameplay, it was fairly substantial in what was shown off. Many began to assume this would be a death knell for the game, especially since “fans” were talking about how poorly written and executed it was.
Wouldn’t you know it? That hasn’t happened at all.
This tweet from Twitter user Sarobi sums it up incredibly well:
There’s a strange trend with modern social media discourse in where certain users lash out against things they don’t like. Deeming them to be irrevocably awful, they’ll go out of their way to ensure no one likes the thing they don’t. The idea is that all of the negativity attached to a specific topic will turn off any newcomers from it. Ironically (or coincidentally, depending on how you look at it), the reverse is true.
When those perceived as “nerds” or “dweebs” start screeching about how terrible something is, people who are indifferent now feel emboldened to grab it out of spite. There are a ton of psychological studies posted on the matter, but this one by LiveScience sums it up well: “It is interesting, from a psychological point of view, to know that people do seem to enjoy inflicting harm on others, even when this incurs costs for themselves.”
The harm, in this case, is simply granting monetary success to a game that a vocal minority is decreeing as “terrible.” It’s hardly an important matter, but it still fits into that summation. Even without caring about The Last of Us, you want to see these naysayers explode in rage when the game does well. You spending $60 is a small price to pay for that.
Source: Eurogamer, Twitter, LiveScience
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