David Jaffe: Games Need Soul

David Jaffe, the Sony designer responsible for last year's God of War (PS2), is a pretty outspoken voice in the games industry, usually by way of his blog when it manages to stay coherent. He got his own physical soapboax yesterday, however, when he gave a talk at the D.I.C.E. Summit calling for more "games with soul" (summary from Next Generation). Jaffe laments the constant drive in games to imitate film (something I myself have noted), insisting that games should maintain their own language and style.

"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."

He then confessed, "I am guilty of that as well, because God of War was inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark. My theory is that the vast majority of us in this industry are craft people, but we don't have a lot of directors, writers and actors who can build on the craftman's skills. You have to wonder what would happen if we had more people with creative sensibilities; if more games had a soul, had something to say, something that resonates."

It is a topic Jaffe has touched on before; he seems interested in the authorship a designer can have over a game, and what sort of games would result from a designer with strong authorial control. GameSpot has a longer account of his address to his peers. Jaffe also spoke out against the comparatively low salaries earned by game designers in comparison to those of people writing or directing films. This point was given more weight when it is considered how IP-focused the games industry is. Typically, a creative team from a developer will come up with an IP; if it is a success, the publisher will continue releasing new games belonging to the franchise, and will continue doing so long after the salary-paid designer has left that company. (Still, he was sure to note that he would prefer to stay at his Sony job than be fired from his position.) If reports from his blog and assorted interviews are any indication, it seems that in his next game Jaffe is striving for some of the higher goals which he frequently mentions. It is of course unclear at this point what form that will take or even what the game is about, but it should be something to keep an eye on.