http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3147897
SHUT UP
SHUT UP
SHUT UP
SHUT UP
SHUT UP
Strangely for a guy whose best-selling, critically acclaimed game God of War was based on a film experience, David Jaffe doesn't want you to confuse videogames with movies. "Why does every game pitch have to be about a movie? I'm as guilty of that as anyone else. Why do videogames embrace filmic language? Why is it wrong to have a health bar that feels good to the player when he replenishes it? And why are we applauded in the press for abandoning the native language of videogames?" The diminutive developer, who is known for being extremely outspoken both in person at events and also online, on his blog, took the stage right after lunch at the DICE Summit to share his thoughts on both how games are developed and how they are received.
Jaffe's frustration is not neccessarily about whether or not there should be HUDs -- an example he brought up as a way that games are being made to feel more "cinematic" -- but that game developers should not be ashamed to acknowledge and embrace the best practices and conventions of the medium. But you get the sense sometimes that Jaffe himself is struggling with the idea of the future of videogames, even after a great success like God of War, which he says was in many ways a dream come true: the creative freedom to work on an independent IP with pretty much unlimited time and money.
Who doesn't want that?
Well, Jaffe, for one. "After God of War," he said, "I'm really frustrated with the way the industry is structured. There is a sense of being kind of exploited. It's not a Sony problem at all; it's an industry problem." He touched briefly on the fact that he and his team felt they went "nuts" while developing the game because of the fervor and pace of work, but unlike their counterparts in film and television, there was no substantial financial reward. "How can creative people keep going down that road without being rewarded?" Jaffe asked. "We have an industry filled with craftspeople, but not a lot of directors, writers, and actors - to use the film analogy again." Even Jaffe found it hard to stay away from comparisons, at least semantically if not artistically, to Hollywood. "If Sony came to me and told me, we're making God of War 2, and we want you to direct it, I think I might have to decline."
At the same time, Jaffe is supremely conscious of the consumer-side of the experience. "As a kid growing up, we didn't have that much money. So buying a game cartridge for like thirty, forty, fifty dollars -- I forget how much -- that was a really big deal." He recalls spending his money on a game because the box art looked cool, which turned out to be a terrible investment. "I never want a gamer to feel that way with one of my games," he said emphatically.
Jaffe brought up a lot of questions he had about the industry, while all the while maintaining that he stayed in it because he loved it and didn't want to be anywhere else. He didn't want to start his own studio either, he said, because staying at Sony allowed him to keep his hands in creative projects.
So no God of War 2? Jaffe admitted that it could all be just big talk from him. "I can stand up here and say I won't do it, but until they kick me out, I'm not going anywhere. I love it here."
Jaffe's frustration is not neccessarily about whether or not there should be HUDs -- an example he brought up as a way that games are being made to feel more "cinematic" -- but that game developers should not be ashamed to acknowledge and embrace the best practices and conventions of the medium. But you get the sense sometimes that Jaffe himself is struggling with the idea of the future of videogames, even after a great success like God of War, which he says was in many ways a dream come true: the creative freedom to work on an independent IP with pretty much unlimited time and money.
Who doesn't want that?
Well, Jaffe, for one. "After God of War," he said, "I'm really frustrated with the way the industry is structured. There is a sense of being kind of exploited. It's not a Sony problem at all; it's an industry problem." He touched briefly on the fact that he and his team felt they went "nuts" while developing the game because of the fervor and pace of work, but unlike their counterparts in film and television, there was no substantial financial reward. "How can creative people keep going down that road without being rewarded?" Jaffe asked. "We have an industry filled with craftspeople, but not a lot of directors, writers, and actors - to use the film analogy again." Even Jaffe found it hard to stay away from comparisons, at least semantically if not artistically, to Hollywood. "If Sony came to me and told me, we're making God of War 2, and we want you to direct it, I think I might have to decline."
At the same time, Jaffe is supremely conscious of the consumer-side of the experience. "As a kid growing up, we didn't have that much money. So buying a game cartridge for like thirty, forty, fifty dollars -- I forget how much -- that was a really big deal." He recalls spending his money on a game because the box art looked cool, which turned out to be a terrible investment. "I never want a gamer to feel that way with one of my games," he said emphatically.
Jaffe brought up a lot of questions he had about the industry, while all the while maintaining that he stayed in it because he loved it and didn't want to be anywhere else. He didn't want to start his own studio either, he said, because staying at Sony allowed him to keep his hands in creative projects.
So no God of War 2? Jaffe admitted that it could all be just big talk from him. "I can stand up here and say I won't do it, but until they kick me out, I'm not going anywhere. I love it here."
SHUT UP
SHUT UP
SHUT UP
SHUT UP
Comment