God of War Creator Calls For Games With Soul

David Jaffe, creator of last year's very popular God of War, made a plea during a talk at the DICE event for developers to create games with soul. From Next Generation's coverage: "He then made clear that the game industry had to adequately compensate those with talent in order to attract them, saying the industry must provide 'financial incentive for more creative people to come join us instead of working with TV and cinema.' Jaffe appeared to debate the issue of the industry's future within himself. 'Maybe it's all bullshit. Some days, I think games can be something else, the next great entertainment media. And then other days, I feel it's just like porn or motion rides, where there's no capacity to reach high emotional levels.'" Update: 02/10 05:44 GMT by Z : More views on Jaffe's talk are available at 1up and Gamespot.

Comments

Soul...yeah!

[Onuma]

Soul, like decapitating giants with bladed chains kinda soul.

Violence is golden :D

Suggestion

[inter alias]

Go to weird art shows in the bay area, get the makers of the weirdest pieces to come up with some insane ideas for you. You only need them for 3-4 hours and they probably need the cash :)

Then take their crazy crazy half-baked concept ideas and make them into a usable story.

Re:Suggestion

[Anonymous Coward]

I did that once.. ended up selling art at some weird art show in the bay area, I needed the cash.

Re:Suggestion

[Zentac]

let me guess, you are a half crazed artist living in the bay area? :x)

Aping cinema

[scanner_darkly]

"Almost every game pitch I hear has to be like a movie," Jaffe said. "Developers come and say, 'It's like a Tarantino movie' or a 'Spielberg picture.' It makes me frustrated, sad, embarrassed and annoyed that we have to look at other media in order to ape them."

must..resist...King Kong joke...

Despite corny puns, it's utterly true. Though all art forms have to draw on more established ones at the beginning, (movies have long since stopped drawing much from theatre, though that was painfully true in the beginning,) video games do have to learn to draw from their own strengths. As long as they're the reflection of movies, they'll always look bad.

That being said, I have a big beef with this article. He's calling for "Games with Soul," eh? Oh yeah? How so? That's a pretty broad statement, there, feller. And whatever Jaffe meant by it, we can't figure out from this article.

Re:Aping cinema

[Lisandro]

That being said, I have a big beef with this article. He's calling for "Games with Soul," eh? Oh yeah? How so? That's a pretty broad statement, there, feller. And whatever Jaffe meant by it, we can't figure out from this article.

    I think he meant in the same way good music is the one with soul, regardless the style. The one made with passion and love for what you do. Not the one tailored to sell X copies by a commitee.
    And if it's that, he'd be right. Damn right.

Re:Aping cinema

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, the defining "soul" is like defining "art", there isn't much point. but i think most people know what it means even if it isn't spelled out.

that said, the original poster/parent really was dead-on when he agreed with mr. jaffe about games aping movies too much. All art is interconnected and different works in different media do well to borrow from their brothers and sisters - it can be used to enhance the work, and also to comment on the works it borrows from. however, the best-regarded works within each medium are always the ones that take advantage of the UNIQUE ASPECTS OF THAT MEDIUM. Shadow of the Colossus uses more cinematic technique and language than any other game out there (yes even metal gear solid), but they didn't REPLACE game-playing with movie-watching. They just used borrowed tried-and-true techniques to incite specific emotions in the player - motion blur to impart a sense of speed, tasteful bloom lighting to add a surreal sense of fantasy, tracking shots and zooms to focus your attention and keep you part of the moment... ...and i'm rambling. Point is, borrow and ADD, don't borrow and REPLACE.

Re:Aping cinema

[tbannist]

That being said, I have a big beef with this article. He's calling for "Games with Soul," eh? Oh yeah? How so? That's a pretty broad statement, there, feller. And whatever Jaffe meant by it, we can't figure out from this article.

It's even simpler than everyone else has said. A game with soul is one where the people making it care about the game beyond the potential cash value to their wallets. It's game with quality. To get quality you have to care about the game you are making, not only that but your boss has to care too. Otherwise you end up with half-finished game that only shows the glimmer of potential.

This is why clones are usually bad, it's not passion for the game that fuels, them it's passion for the money.

Soul?

[Anonymous Coward]

I had no idea that 'soul' was a synonym for 'tits.'

Re:Soul?

[Anonymous Coward]

But baby! I wasn't staring at your chest! I was looking into your soul!

Re:Soul?

[Schitzoflink]

LOL too bad you did that as anon....

This is difficult

[Anonymous Coward]

I am working on including sole in our next FPS However, finding sensible ways to incorporate nocturnal flatfish into the plot is causing delays.

Re:This is difficult

[Oldsmobile]

Is it taking for ever?

Pot calling kettle...

[supabeast!]

"And then other days, I feel it's just like porn or motion rides, where there's no capacity to reach high emotional levels."

This is from a guy who made a painfully derivative game chock full of gore and titties. He is getting WAY too much attention from the gaming press lately - probably because Sony keeps buying advertising for God of War.

Re:Pot calling kettle...

[PaganRitual]

1. derivative != lacking in soul.

Games can take existing genres and either improve upon them or simply be entertaining in their own right. They dont have to be new ALL the time, otherwise there would be about 20 games in total, ever. 'Games with soul' means a game where you are in awe of the experience the game provides you. Where the controls are so streamlined, the interface so clean and the gameplay so pure that you forget that you are playing a game and just get immersed in the experience, and the game does its best to never knock you out of that feeling. Its a game that, as you play it, you feel as though the game has been made by GAMERS, who would be proud to put their name to this game, and who would love to play their own game, instead of just shovelling crap out the door to meet financial quotas. Personally i think GoW fits that bill. FEAR is another recent example.

2. I happen to like gore and titties in my games. So sue me.

Re:Pot calling kettle...

[Anonymous Coward]

2. I happen to like gore and titties in my games. So sue me.

Dont worry son, we will. - Jack Thompson

Re:Pot calling kettle...

[dabigpaybackski]

'Games with soul' means a game where you are in awe of the experience the game provides you.

Perhaps I will be mocked for saying this, but I felt that way while recently playing the PC version of Halo. Yeah, it's just a linear-story, console-style shooter, but I love that frickin' game. I may yet reinstall Windows just so I can play it again. Pacing seemed to be the key ingredient that made it so enjoyable.

Honorable mentions: TIE Fighter, Sentinel Worlds: Future Magic, Baldur's Gate II. All of them had above-average gameplay and top-quality storytelling.

Re:Pot calling kettle...

[MBCook]

Did you play God of War? Yes it was violent and had the little sex minigame thing near the start, but it was a great game. Not only were the controls great making it easy to control Kratos and make him do exactly what you wanted, there was a story.

And the story was not a generic "Bob was wronged, Bob went on a rampage". It's not terribly different from that, but the way it was presented was excelent. You really got involved in the story through the fantastic cut-scenes (which had a very cool art style). Most beat-'em-up games slap on a terribly generic plot and then basically ignore it for the rest of the game. God of War had a very good plot that was integrated very well with the game in terms of story telling.

And why is everyone listening to this guy? All he did was make a great game, that was a blast to play, had a fantastic story, sold very well, and was beloved by critics.

What could the industry possibly learn from him?

In the games as art debate, God of War is one of the titles that, if not art, would be very close to that level.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Heavenly Games?

[Kelson]

OK, here's a terrible thought: A video game tie-in to The Passion of the Christ. And since it would be insensitive for the player to play Jesus, the player takes on the roles of Pilate, Roman guards, etc. It'll be violent enough for the usual FPS crowd, but since it's in service of religion, it must be okay, right?

Re:Heavenly Games?

[blue_adept]

A video game tie-in to The Passion of the Christ....It'll be violent enough for the usual FPS crowd, but since it's in service of religion, it must be okay, right?

hmmm... so a game where you play around with abusing a self proclaimed messianic figure. You must mean this:

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgerag.swf

Re:Heavenly Games?

[Alien54]

A video game tie-in to The Passion of the Christ.

Actually, the game would be something like:

You have been assigned by the emperor to rule over a far-away province, and to make it managable. Your pay is a cut of the proceeds you send back to empire central. The province is unruly, for the population is a stiff necked people. It is your job to keep the peace, put down rebellions, and eliminate the usual troublemakers. The Emperor is sending you in because it needs more taxes collected for massive expansion projects, and to maintain the borders. Do well, and you'll retire a rich man. Your Name is Pontius Pilate. Good Luck.

Re:Heavenly Games?

[NickFortune]

And since it would be insensitive for the player to play Jesus, the player takes on the roles of Pilate, Roman guards, etc.

Actually, I find that oddly appealing. At least there's a bit of creativity as work there.

Re:Heavenly Games?

[stonefoz]

If I only had mod points

Well, there is roleplaying...

[QuantumG]

If you want to read a vision of hope sometime take a look at Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds. He provides deep insight into why people get so obsessed with role playing games - what they get out of it, and why they keep coming back. If you buy into his theories the designer of a role playing game is more a therapist than an entertainer. Of course, most people who play "role playing games" these days don't actually do any role playing as such. They just run around and kill stuff. So there ya go.

Required VGCats linkage

[PaganRitual]

KRATOS AWAY!!!

Great video games.

[ElleyKitten]

>>Some days, I think games can be something else, the next great entertainment media. And then other days, I feel it's just like porn or motion rides, where there's no capacity to reach high emotional levels.'"

Video games are the next great entertainment media. And anyone who says games can't reach high emotional levels needs to play Final Fantasy VI. Right now. Go!

I recently discovered FF6 (yeah, I know, little behind) and it's amazing. I never cry during video games or movies, but this game's got me a couple times.

Just like movies took time to be recognized as having the potential to be great, video games will as well.

Re:Great video games.

[bVork]

Try games from this side of the pond, too. You must play Planescape: Torment. I think it's the best story-focussed RPG ever. Yes, even trouncing Final Fantasy 6.

What can change the nature of a man? You'll find out if you play the game.

Re:Great video games.

[kartaron]

I cried once while playing FF6. It was when I went to load my save game and it was gone.

Re:Great video games.

[C.Batt]

I cry many times playing any of the Final Fantasy games. Every time I'm just wanting to get from point A to point B and I'm accosted by hundreds of senseless random encounters that I can't avoid (and musn't avoid because I need to "level up") I start bawling.

Then I stop playing.

Fucking Japanese RPGs. Walk, fight, walk, fight, watch 20 minutes of overly saccharine dross that's supposed to evoke a deep "emotional" response (other than derisive laughter?). Give me a break.

They could just call those games, "Spreadsheet: Quest for the holy big number!"

Re:Great video games.

[IsoRashi]

Marry me.

Re:Great video games.

[ElleyKitten]

Sorry, already married. I'll friend you though. :)

What's your favorite FF?

Re:Great video games.

[blahplusplus]

"Try games from this side of the pond, too. You must play Planescape: Torment. I think it's the best story-focussed RPG ever. Yes, even trouncing Final Fantasy 6.

What can change the nature of a man? You'll find out if you play the game."

I agree it was a good and amazing experience but there were parts that dragged.

I think the problem with torment was that it was too heavily focused on dialog there wasn't much of a game there and they seemed to be churning out baldurs gates clones by the dozen back then, also your main character could never really die. It's too bad it bombed in terms of sales, it was well made.

Re:Great video games.

[IsoRashi]

*weeping weeping*

I haven't played all of them, but VI is definitely my favorite. Some of the others come close behind... The original was good in its time. IV was great and probably my second favorite. VII was fun but I think got more praise than it deserved. VIII, IX, and X were fun, but they just failed to keep my interest when I reached the later stages... You know, the "wander around the world and uncover all the 'secret' stuff" stage of things. I've never played X-2 and I'm unsure of what to think of XII--I have the demo sitting at home but have yet to pop it in the ps2.

Friended as well :)

Re:Great video games.

[blahplusplus]

I think video games may never break out of their mold personally. They've gone more mainstream but they aren't totally mainstream yet. Not only that but FF6 requires *hours* of time investment compared to 1-2 hour movies (3 hours being the maximum usually). Games require much more time then I think most adults will have available to dedicate to them and this may mean that many *great games* will never get recognized simply due to being enormous time drains for the adult population that works.

A frequent commentary I keep hearing from many responsible older hardcore gamers, is that they have a stack of games they haven't even touched or played through yet because of other demands on their time. I think this is a problem most people don't think about when they say video games are the 'next great entertainent medium', they are in a way but they also are not. The time games require means that you become exclusive to certain games for a while and can't play as many games as you'd like, as opposed to movies. Think about how many movies you could watch in a year (working a full time job, having a social life, etc) versus how many games you could play all the way through.

Personally I think FF IV (FF2 US) and FF6 (FF3 US) are the pinnacles of the FF series, with FF7 right up there as well. I think FF has been really going downhill since FF9 / FFX, FF9 was cool but felt weird (just a very strange world) and FFX they gutted the RPG and stat attribute systems almost completely and the monsters and battles were painfully lackluster.

Re:Great video games.

[ElleyKitten]

I'm not that far into FF6, but I'm thinking it's going to be my favorite. FF4 & 5 I loved too. FF7 I agree was overrated, though I did like the materia. 8 I hated the battle system, but I like 9 & 10. X-2... ugh. The battle system was fun, but the storyline cheapened X. I like the 12 demo, you should give it a try. I was afraid the real-timeness would make it too different, but it's still very final fantasyish, and I thought it was fun.

Talk to ya later.

Re:Great video games.

[IsoRashi]

Cool, I had heard comments that 12 was like 11 (the online one), which I had played briefly but gave up on pretty quickly... and I *like* MMOs hehe! The thing that's so great about 6, imo, is the storyline and the fact that I actually cared about the characters. That's the big difference for me between 6/4 and all the others. The characters either just didn't grab me emotionally, or they downright annoyed me (*cough*tidus*cough*).

8's battle system was kind of fun, but horribly broken :). Once you figured out how everything benefitted you, it became too easy to abuse it. 9 I really enjoyed at first--I saw it as a throwback to the "medieval"-style FFs. 10 was really enjoyable and probably comes the closest to 6/4 in storytelling. Tidus is so annoying though, and there's something about the later parts that just... create a sort of mental dischord, I guess, if that makes any sense. I think it's the way the church of Yevon is sort of evil and everyone seems oblivious to the fact.

Btw, I don't know if you like the music in FF, but check out Fantasy Reborn. This guy is a professional musician/composer and makes up piano arrangements of FF music and puts up recordings on his site. You'll probably recognize a lot of it :).

See you around!

Why not just build the Matrix?

[NewKimAll]

Then you'll have all the souls you need. MuHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Seriously, we are almost at the point where we could start living in a virtual world online. If done correctly, it could be beneficial.
--
Perhaps someday children will go to school by going online and learning in a virtual classroom.

Re:Why not just build the Matrix?

[skreeech]

I don't think living in a fake world could ever be thought of as benefitial. You want your real life to be some fake fantasy world?

Fear

[Anonymous Coward]

The one thing that prevents new and exciting games from being produced is the same thing that prevents people from achieving the greatness that they're capable of; that is Fear.

In everyone's day to day life you will encounter dozens of products and services that you yourself have thought of years (or possibly decades) before anyone else produced them; what held you back from profiting from these ideas was the fear and lack of confidence in your own abilities. Corporations tend to think in the same basic way as individuals because their ideas represent the collective thinking of individuals; so is it any surprise that a Corporation would reject game ideas (that they thought were good) simply because of the uncertainty surrounding the market?

Now, when you look at companies that are successful over a long period of time you will find that they don't fight change they embrace it; they find a way to change ahead of their competitors in order to dodge the downfall of a market or sector within the market. They are not afraid of the consequences as they plan for the eventual downfall of their actions and hope for the best (in fact they may fail several times, and produce unpopular products and services, before they find an amazingly popular product [think Apple with iPod]).

Currently, the most interesting player in the videogame market is Nintendo. Their entire strategy could be summed up as to embrace change, to find the Blue Ocean and become the dominant player over there. When you look at their software and hardware there is always the possibility of failure when it is announced but their changes go through none the less. Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, Electroplanktin, The Nintendo DS and the Revolution are (generally speaking) very unconventional ideas that are not attempted by their competition until Nintendo proves that the idea is viable. With this in Mind, as a corporation, if Nintendo can maintain this mindset over the long run I see no reason why they would ever stop growing and improving.

Quality soul

[Centurix]

WoW has been doing this for a while. They get you to meet up with a guy at the crossroads at midnight.

Re:Quality soul

[chrismcdirty]

If only I had mod points.

No doubt about it.

[Song for the Deaf]

The Video Game just needs its Pollack, Beatles or Kubrick.

My guess is the guy in TFA is subconsciously lamenting the fact that HE isn't the prophet of his chosen medium, because anyone with a brain knows that a Great Master is an inevitability.

Either way he should shut up. God of War was great, OK, we get it. Move on. Games have soul when the game makers have soul. It's easy.

As far as pitching games like movies: they either are playing the room or don't believe (or understand) the medium. Half Life, for example, is *easily* a better experience than alot of Spielberg flicks. Anybody who doesn't believe that like they believe the sky is blue needs to get the fuck out of the business. Now.

Re:No doubt about it.

[Anonymous Coward]

What about Shigero Miyamoto? If he isn't a master, then who can be?

Re:No doubt about it.

[kaffiene]

Personally I thought HL2 was a steaming pile of shit as a game, and pacman or lemmings aced it any day, but what the fuck - I've only being playing games for three decades now, I should have realised that shiny fucking graphics and a half arsed imitation of acting is what I really wanted in games all along.

Yeah. Woo fucking who.

Re:No doubt about it.

[Chris Mattern]

> The Video Game just needs its Pollack, Beatles or Kubrick.

No, the Video Game needs its Cecil B. deMille; it needs the man who can define the medium in its own terms, not the terms of another medium.

Chris Mattern

Re:No doubt about it.

[Control Group]

Of some note, here, is that "Half Life" and "HL2" are, you know, not the same game. This is indicated by the fact that they have different names.

Re:No doubt about it.

[Anonymous Coward]

You go girl- be pedantic. Whatever. You get the point tho, right?

What medium did Demille work in again? Oh, that's right. FILM. Isn't that *another* medium?

Re:No doubt about it.

[easychord]

*Everyone* knows that fps games are 1000 times more important than any other type of game. This is because they are immersive and you get to shoot guns. Christ on a bike, doesn't everyone know this? Don't they teach this at schools after the course on why Ninjas are awesome because they have real ultimate power.

Re:No doubt about it.

[kaffiene]

Yes. I know this.

Does it change the point I made in ANY way whatsoever?

Re:No doubt about it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it doesn't. However, you may find that replying to someone's post and ranting about something else encourages people to call you stupid.

To get a soul...

[Ekarderif]

... you need an Orb of Thesulah (not to be mistaken with a paper weight) and a powerful gypsy or wicca.

Another way of saying down w/ flashy graphics?

[Parallax Blue]

I can kind of understand what he's saying, but it seems like he's too vague on his idea. What IS a "game with soul"? I think this is just another way of saying "we need to stop making games that are all about realism but fail to succeed at anything else."

Re:Another way of saying down w/ flashy graphics?

[Idealius]

Thank you.

snappier than this one!

[Anonymous Coward]

i have no idea what any of you guys are talking about, nor do i care

but that is the most powerful headline on an article i've ever seen ever

I just found a great game.

[Eightyford]

I just found a great game. It's free too. http://wesnoth.org/

Re:I just found a great game.

[Anonymous Coward]

Good for you. I've found dozens of great, free games but I don't post about that in unrelated Slashdot stories.

Taken literally out of "Context"

[layer3switch]

"Soul" != white fluffy cloud with sparkling twinkles

He meant, game programmers and creative teams should engage in creative process through other source of inspiration than traditional media we are constantly exposed to.

He admittedly said he's not without fault. GOW was partly inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Personally I think, he's idealist who doesn't like living in a reality... I'll believe his words when I see his next project.

Jaffe SPEAKS, all must OBEY!

[Brunellus]

I've never played or seen God of War, but I'm already sick of seeing this guy's every utterance reported on ./

Platitudes are not philosophy; and all the whining in the world doesn't make games today any better.

Re:Jaffe SPEAKS, all must OBEY!

[goodenoughnickname]

Play it, it's fun. Then you'll see why everyone here at Dotslash likes it.

Really though, I don't know why David Jaffe is the current Google in terms of Slashdot stories, but GoW sold a lot of copies, and it's a game people paid attention to. Yes, he's saying shit that's been said before, but the only difference is that because of his game's popularity, people are actually taking note (i.e., I've heard this all before, just not on Slashdot.)

But I agree with you. Saying and doing are two different things, and hopefully he'll follow his own advice for his next game.

god of war sucked

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite frankly some of the worst gameplay i've ever seen...it had potential, and a lot of work in boss design, but didn't come together well at all.

The boss fights were horrible, the camera angles were obnoxious, the boss fights were way too easy (block....attack....block....attack), and the puzzles related to the boss fights were just lame.

And that's what I heard from everyone that played it. Of course we're all familiar with game design, so we're not the actual market.

General Comment

[kaffiene]

I'm... well, not suprised I guess, but unhappy at the ammount of cynicsm in the responses to this article. Most /.'rs seem to accept mediocrity far to readily. Perhaps the hope that games might transcend their current bounds artistically is in vain, but to scoff the desire to even try seems entirely modern, entirely dead, entirely futile, entirely what I'd expect of the /. crowd.

Its much better to fail than to accept doing nothing at all with some stupid half-arsed off the cuff comment. But on Slashdot, empty irony wins. Very clever.

You can't make games with soul

[Anonymous Coward]

...like you can make music or films with soul.
You can make a band with 3 friends of yours, because you like playing your instruments and have fun, and I guess that'd approach 'with soul', if it's not primarily with commercial interest.
But with games it's a bit harder, I guess, seeing how many devs, artists etc you need.
Just check how many (actually good) open source games are out there.

All this...

[VxJasonxV]

All this from the guy who had a hand in creating the game with naken women who you sex up in order to heal you and stand a better chance of going through the next level.

GEE THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION!
(Do as I say, not as I do?)

Disclaimer:
I played one level of God of War, beat the first boss, did the ladies thing, saved and haven't played since.

Follow-up:
No, I didn't stop playing it because I didn't like it. I really did like the game...

the wrong quote

[Anonymous Coward]

how about the fact that everyone here is picking on one quote and completely missing another.

Jaffe also said that game makers shouldn't be embarrassed of interfaces such as life meters and powerbars, because they're part of what makes gaming enjoyable

How about discussing that, I for one thought I was alone in being OK with powerbars and health meters in games. Yeah it's nice that Doom incorporates the ammo count on the gun and it's annoying that Deus Ex has 40% of it's screen dedicated to HUD but at the same time. I don't know why people are over reacting and trying to kill the HUD. It's a game not a movie. I've played the King Kong demo and I've seen a few people try to play it and noone really knew what was going on. Yeah it looks great but without any sort of on-screen HUD I just felt like i was pressing random buttons to figure out what they did.

Ziggy Marley calls for games with reggae

[elrous0]

"Me need work...oh yeah...oh yeah," said the singer.

-Eric

High Emotion is possible

[mightypenguin]

Call of Duty, man those cinematic charges and stuff in Russia and D-Day really deeply affected me like no video game ever has. It's just that designers have to shoot for something like that, not just ubber pwning and junk for the kiddies.

There are still some out there.

[dtalton]

Total Annihilation was a game with soul, and spawned a huge following. You can still find TA servers to play on today, and mods are still being developed. Supreme Commander (http://supcom.gaspowered.com/) is coming out this year, which is basically TA2, and looks equally delicious. Games for games sake are great. The FF series has become all cutscenes and they lost their grandeur. It's things like that that turn my stomach. I want to play something, and have fun making decisions doing so, to achieve a goal. Not hit X or spbar for 10 minutes of ads or cutscene pushing the latest trendy ideas (Gaia)

Not likely...

[Dutchmaan]

"Soul" is usually gained at the expense of speed and/or expense.. which is directly detrimental to the business grail of "profit"..

You can make successful games with "soul" and they make tremendous amounts of money as a reward.. HOWEVER, if you try to make a game with said "soul" and if fails.. it could mean death to your company.

What? No Shiny Reference? This is the GAMES spot!

[DRAGONWEEZEL]

I can't believe I haven't heard a reference to Shiny's


SACRIFICE


Come on what game has more soul than that? -DW

Yes but is war worth dying 79 times for?

[Anonymous Coward]

"After weeks of fighting for every pixel of ground and seeing 180 degrees of carnage in every direction, you start to wonder if it's really worth it..."

      http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44458/

ico

[Anonymous Coward]

playing ICO (ICO, not Eco the Dolphin) was like being in a dream that you didnt want to wake up from. now that game had a soul. that game was a work of art.

What soul?

[MaWeiTao]

I've been playing games with "soul" for years. One of the earliest examples I can recall are the early Sierra games, before they turned into the generic crap we've seen in recent years. Those stories were entertaining and very effecting; even though those characters consisted of blocky sprites I felt more attached to them than any character I've played in the last 5 years, despite all the graphical advances.

I can't really think of anything recent that stands out. Morrowind and the expansions impressed me. A lot of effort went into the game, and it shows, but the experience was lifeless. I experience wonder at the world the developers had crafted, but I felt no connection to the characters and didn't feel any emotion at all. It's similar to every MMORPG I've tried. Most are very impressive and some show a strong sense of style, but in the end they're nothing but elaborate theme parks. At least in Elder Scrolls the world did change based on my character's actions.

Now, this isn't to say I haven't been entertained. I've played numerous games which I've found to be extremely enjoyable. When it comes down to it a game doesn't need "soul" to be entertaining, it needs fun gameplay. Nintendo, for example has cornered the market in excellent gameplay, but there isn't much substance beyond that. A game which has both can truly be a superb game. Unfortunately, as I look at what few games I have on my CD rack, and try to recall all the others I've played, there isn't much of anything I can call a memorable game on all counts in the past 5 to 10 years. I have to go further back to find games that have truly stuck in my mind through the years.

I find it funny that the creator of God of War is calling for soul. I don't think God of War is an example of such a game. It's an entertaining game, with some impressive visuals and certainly has a characteristic style, but by no means does it have anything as profound as a soul. My first impression of the developers when I saw the game was that they consisted of the same generic breed of developers producing most games today. They're obsessed with brutal violence and sex. God of War just happens to have a somewhat different wrapping from most other games on the market. In fact, having seen the production videos unlocked upon finishing the game reinforced those impressions to some extent.

While they seemed to truly enjoy what they were creating they were still approaching the game from the same generic concepts that drive most contemporary games. I feel like current game developers all have the same exact kind of personality, they've had the same exact kind of exposure to American pop culture. It's all guns, demons with exposed internal organs, soldiers, explosions, guns, huge-breasted vixens, elves, dwarves, guns and more guns.

Of course there's no "soul" in games. Because "soul" is risky. It doesn't guarantee strong sales. But go with the generic themes and a developer is more than likely to satisfy the wet dreams of the average teenager. The more they produce the same old mediocre games, the more consumers expect and ultimately demand mediocrity. It's a viscious cycle. Consumers are only as smart as what the advertisers tell them. And companies certainly don't want smart consumers.