A recent IGN article has sparked controversy on Twitter. In the article, IGN discusses how animators utilized recent technological advancements to introduce Hailey Cooper, a deaf character, into Insomniac’s Spider-Man series. Cooper is an original character developed for the games and serves as the love interest of Miles Morales.
Much of the ire has been hurled at Sweet Baby Inc., the Narrative Consultancy company blamed for injecting “wokeness” into several video game titles like God of War Ragnarok, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and of course Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Praise and critique
Although the IGN article paints the character in a flattering light, and the developers are proud of their work, gamers seem to have taken a different perspective on the matter.
The Hailey Cooper character was originally introduced in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but she received a bigger role in its sequel, becoming Miles’ girlfriend and being the center point of the Graffiti Trouble side mission.
Insomniac worked diligently and with an empathetic eye to ensure Cooper’s character received ample and accurate representation within Insomniac’s latest Spider-Man effort.
As IGN reports at last week’s Game Developers Conference a group of animators from the Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 team presented a presentation entitled ‘Thwips and Hugs’ which showed their challenges and innovations within the game’s development process.
One of the main highlights of the presentation was the work performed on the Hailey Cooper character. Associate animation director Lindsay Thompson stated:
“We had to figure out the best way to shoot our hearing cast’s spoken performances, along with our Deaf body doubles that would work best for Natasha to play against[…]“For [one particular scene], we ran them side-by-side so Natasha had signing people to play off of, but could still see Nadji and Griffin doing their speaking performance. Each Deaf cast member had their own interpreter so we could all communicate on set. And we also had the Hyper Novas on stage to help determine the scripts with the cast and plan out signing performance.”
While Insomniac has worked hard to represent a deaf character in their gameworld authentically, and are rightfully proud of the work they’ve completed, some fans are less than enthused with Cooper’s incorporation into the game.
Some mean tweets
From the onset, the recent Twitter post linking to IGN’s article is met by derision from gamers. Sweet Baby Inc. has been the target of much gamer rage due to their recent involvement with Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League title.
The most egregious offense highlighted in Arkham Knight Batman being killed by Harley Quinn in what the fandom of Arkham Knight has essentially dubbed a “woke girl power” moment.
“Everyone buys Spider-Man games to play as a deaf chick who sprays graffiti. Amazing.”
Tweeted Yellowflash, a popular YouTuber fully embroiled in the “culture wars”.
Another popular YouTuber, itsagundam, even went as far as to suggest that IGN will eventually be sold for even posting the article. But it’s not just YouTubers getting in on the action, as another user wrote:
“In all seriousness maybe people prefer to be super powerful and do things no one else could do in a super hero game. Literally nobody is paying $70 to be told to enjoy whatever social message you’re trying to send. We came to play as f*cking Spider-Man.”
Other highlights from the flaming include a user criticizing the use of consultants from a budgeting perspective while Insomniac stages layoffs, as well as the facial animations within Spider-Man 2, and another championing Eastern game developers while criticizing the recent efforts of Western game devs.
Paved with good intentions
It seems most of the backlash related to the article is rooted in fans feeling stiffed by what they perceive is forced diversity in a game world where they simply wish to act out the fantasy of being Spider-Man. For them, playing as a graffiti-spraying human character instead of swinging around the city and beating up bad guys like Peter Parker or Miles is a step in the wrong direction.
Many people who played Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 considered the Hailey Cooper episode to be one of the weakest aspects of an otherwise well-received game. Despite the efforts of the animation team and Insomniac to give depth to Hailey Cooper’s character, fans of the series tend to view her gameplay with disdain and ridicule.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
