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thoughts on the state of video games (and our culture)

“My talk is actually a warning about why we shouldn’t tell stories with our video games. I think it’s a bad idea. I think it’s a waste of resources and time and money and more importantly I think it actually stunts, and has stunted over the last ten years or so, the medium of video games.” - David Jaffe, creator of ‘God of War’
   
    Initially, reading David Jaffe’s comments on story-driven video games being a waste of time, effort, and money infuriated me. How can he undermine the completely immersive experiences I have had with my most favorite hobby?

    I have spent countless hours of my life (more than I may be willing to admit) living with these characters I have come to love. Unfolding plots, being genuinely startled, and feeling as if what happens to them has happened to me, because, after all, video games are an interactive experience. Much like being sucked into a great film, or a good book, video games are a way to escape what I know, to unravel a completely new landscape in my mind full of new ideas and new trains of thought.

    It seems the more I read what Jaffe had to say, the more I understood the true nature of his comments.

“I think with…the advent of CDs for game storage, and then high end graphics and voice actors and all this — cutscenes — games kind of got off on a bit of a wrong track that was very appealing, but it wasn’t necessarily the only track we should have got off on. And I think that’s what the lesson taught me. I want to get really good at the other track, and I don’t want to try and make a cinematic game. I want to try and make a great game, if that makes sense at all.” - Jaffe

“I think the biggest thing I learned is I don’t want to try to make movies through games. I want to try to make experiences that speak respectfully and powerfully, using the language of interactivity. You hear a lot of people talk about the “language of cinema,” and there is a language of interactivity, and there’s a necessity to understanding interactivity.” - Jaffe
   

    It doesn’t seem as if he’s trying to say that story-driven video games are bad, just that the almost absolute focus on story and cinematic quality by game developers has stunted innovation in the game industry. But, can we really solely blame the industry for this becoming their focus?

    Something a game developer would/could never say, but I can (because who am I to even be writing this?) is that the consumer base has become complacent with what we consume. Think about it. The drivel that passes for “blockbuster” movies these days. The mindless television shows we have deemed “popular” by not changing the channel. All of these things that continue to dumb down the entertainment we are subjected to. One can hardly blame the industry, they spit out what is most popular a.k.a. what will net them the biggest profits. So why shouldn’t the video game industry do the same, spew out games they know will sell, which in turn will make them the most money?

    It has become so important in video games to portray a cinematic-like experience, to provide us with the most realistic looking graphics and run-of-the-mill stories, all the while neglecting what is at the core, the very basis of what video games are about, the interactive experience. I am not trying to say that a good, mindless round, or five, of Call of Duty is a bad thing, but if we ever expect to have fully-realized games that can perfectly marry gameplay and story (a true interactive experience) we need to change our trends. We need to show the industry that we care about more than just flashy graphics and walk-along cutscenes.

    Put down Call of Duty and pick up Heavy Rain. See an Oscar nominated film instead of whatever Channing Tatum is in at the movies. Watch Person of Interest instead of Two-And-A-Half Men. Read anything other than Twilight. Do something to help change how stupid we are becoming. Live for something more than a quick thrill. Learn something. Please?

-LB