Laura Bailey, the voice of Abby in The Last of Us Part II, reacted on social media to harassment and death threats she's gotten over the controversial PS4 exclusive. The game has notoriously been split in reception in user and critic reviews, but this behavior towards anyone over a fictional video game is unacceptable for the gaming community, or for any community, for that matter.
The Last of Us Part II isn't the first game to be review bombed over a perceived developer sleight by a vocal minority of players, but this game has very strangely kicked up a fierce level of enmity and distrust between the gaming industry and part of its consumer base. Although the industry and some critics have perhaps gone a touch too far with singing the game's praises via the usual hype machine ahead of and just after launch, things have gotten downright ugly among a small but very angry group of series fans, who not only lob the usual claims of paid-off reviewers, but also vehemently argue that Naughty Dog and Creative Director Neil Druckmann are pushing "agendas" by including gay and trans characters. In the case of Abby, the anger is split between her murder of previous protagonist Joel and her muscular body type.
Opening up on Twitter, Laura Bailey, the voice of Marvel's Spider-Man's Mary Jane, Gears 5's Kait Diaz, and too many animation and video game roles to count, shared screenshots of graphic harassment and death threats leveled at her and loved ones over her portrayal of The Last of Us Part II's Abby. Out of courtesy to fans who've still yet to play the game, she "blacked out some of the words" to avoid sharing the aforementioned spoiler that absurdly has "fans" riled up enough to wish harm and even death upon her. However, she did share that there are many "people sending [her] positive messages to balance it out," and thanked the wider gaming community for the kind response to her original tweet, stating, "I’ve always believed that good people far outweigh the bad. Thanks for reminding me of that today."
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Source: Laura Bailey