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God of War Creator Calls For Games With Soul

Posted by Zonk on from the tired-of-robot-love dept.

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.

8 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Aping cinema by Lisandro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  2. Pot calling kettle... by supabeast! · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "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.

    1. Re:Pot calling kettle... by PaganRitual · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:Pot calling kettle... by MBCook · · Score: 2, Insightful
      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 forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. No doubt about it. by Song+for+the+Deaf · · Score: 2, Insightful
    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.

  5. Re:Heavenly Games? by Alien54 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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.

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  6. General Comment by kaffiene · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.