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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.
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.
"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.
I had no idea that 'soul' was a synonym for 'tits.'
"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.
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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?
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.
How we know is more important than what we know.
KRATOS AWAY!!!
>>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.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
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.
... you need an Orb of Thesulah (not to be mistaken with a paper weight) and a powerful gypsy or wicca.
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."
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.