Ever outspoken God of War and Twisted Metal designer David Jaffe has hit back at what he sees as miss-the-point games journalists in the 'Games vs Art' debate.
Posting on this blog, he highlights that journalists perceive themselves as reasonable when they demand things such as "deeper artistic sensibilities, deeper stories, meaningful mature views of the world, or more realistic portrayals of women". However, games developers are attacked for their supposed lack of maturity and ability; or fear of lack of sales.
David's counter-argument runs:
"It's like (journalists) never stop to consider that perhaps many of us game developers don't want what THEY want.
"Maybe some of us LIKE games that don't want to be art.
"Maybe some of us would rather be the Jerry Bruckheimer of games than gaming's Orson Wells."
"Maybe some of us LIKE portraying women in a more comic booky way (the same way- by the way- that the vast majority of male game characters are portrayed).
"Maybe some of us don't want to load our games down with political and philosophical discourse."
Jaffe doesn't deny that games should not attempt to push the boundaries of the medium but makes his response to the games journalist community a very targeted one. He reiterates that just because they may want games a certain way, "don't assume that the reason things are not the way you want them is because game makers are just not trying hard enough or we're all stunted or we're all too scared of not moving units."
Jaffe also goes on to cover in his post the practicalities of producing a title similar to film's Citizen Kane and throws the gambit out to games journalists as to how practical this would actually be for any developer to make. He also makes a request for an article to be written explaining what is specifically meant by comments such as these.
Jaffe is definitely not one to beat around the bush. Anyone ready to pick up Jaffe's glove and take up the challenge?
Posting on this blog, he highlights that journalists perceive themselves as reasonable when they demand things such as "deeper artistic sensibilities, deeper stories, meaningful mature views of the world, or more realistic portrayals of women". However, games developers are attacked for their supposed lack of maturity and ability; or fear of lack of sales.
David's counter-argument runs:
"It's like (journalists) never stop to consider that perhaps many of us game developers don't want what THEY want.
"Maybe some of us LIKE games that don't want to be art.
"Maybe some of us would rather be the Jerry Bruckheimer of games than gaming's Orson Wells."
"Maybe some of us LIKE portraying women in a more comic booky way (the same way- by the way- that the vast majority of male game characters are portrayed).
"Maybe some of us don't want to load our games down with political and philosophical discourse."
Jaffe doesn't deny that games should not attempt to push the boundaries of the medium but makes his response to the games journalist community a very targeted one. He reiterates that just because they may want games a certain way, "don't assume that the reason things are not the way you want them is because game makers are just not trying hard enough or we're all stunted or we're all too scared of not moving units."
Jaffe also goes on to cover in his post the practicalities of producing a title similar to film's Citizen Kane and throws the gambit out to games journalists as to how practical this would actually be for any developer to make. He also makes a request for an article to be written explaining what is specifically meant by comments such as these.
Jaffe is definitely not one to beat around the bush. Anyone ready to pick up Jaffe's glove and take up the challenge?
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Comments
discordia1337 22 Sep 2010 13:20
1/3
"It's like (journalists) never stop to consider that perhaps many of us game developers don't want what THEY want."
But surely there's also the chance that the games the developers want, aren't the games that the audience want to play? And surely games should be made for the audience and not for the developer? If they're designing purely for themselves then their games mightn't be all that great, as they then run the risk of being single-minded and unimaginative. I mean it's very possible that God Of War would've been a flop if it weren't for the already vast Greek Mythos that it was drawing upon, not to mention that it's a game with violence of a kind in, and these days violence is enough to sell a game.
But surely there's also the chance that the games the developers want, aren't the games that the audience want to play? And surely games should be made for the audience and not for the developer? If they're designing purely for themselves then their games mightn't be all that great, as they then run the risk of being single-minded and unimaginative. I mean it's very possible that God Of War would've been a flop if it weren't for the already vast Greek Mythos that it was drawing upon, not to mention that it's a game with violence of a kind in, and these days violence is enough to sell a game.
TimSpong 22 Sep 2010 15:30
2/3
That's an excellently huge kick-off to an argument if ever I saw one :-)
The point from the devs' side is that if they do make games that people don't want, they go the way of Real Time Worlds and APB... they fail and die.
Horses for courses. Sometimes I'd prefer a developer to escape the lowest common denominator - which is where designing for the masses often takes you.
Cheers
Tim
discordia1337 wrote:
But surely there's also the chance that the games the developers want, aren't the games that the audience want to play?
The point from the devs' side is that if they do make games that people don't want, they go the way of Real Time Worlds and APB... they fail and die.
discordia1337 wrote:
And surely games should be made for the audience and not for the developer? If they're designing purely for themselves then their games mightn't be all that great, as they then run the risk of being single-minded and unimaginative.
Horses for courses. Sometimes I'd prefer a developer to escape the lowest common denominator - which is where designing for the masses often takes you.
Cheers
Tim
discordia1337 22 Sep 2010 16:30
3/3
I guess I read it as being Jaffe moaning about Journalists liking Artsy games such as Braid and Limbo, so when I said designing games for themselves I meant them taking the "let's appeal to the masses and make lots of cash" approach to games design, or as you said about the lowest common denominator and designing for the masses. I might be wrong but it seems these days that the Audience is starting to appreciate more and more the imaginative and different titles like previously mentioned Braid and Limbo, as well as some of the bigger titles such as Heavy Rain.