VG247

Twisted Metal and God of War creator David Jaffe’s DICE 2012 presentation accused the games industry of getting too excited about story – and not about gameplay.

According to Gamasutra, Jaffe said an over-emphasis on narrative “is a bad idea, waste of resources, of time and money and worst, has stuffed the progress of video games, to our own peril”.

The designer said games or sequences within games which have “the intent purpose of expressing a story or giving the player the designer’s narrative” fall down. He criticised Batman: Arkham City for a short section which promotes story over gameplay, in which the player is handcuffed and unable to do more than walk around and look.

In contrast, he praised games in which the gameplay itself “is so compelling and engaging that the player by the very nature of playing the game is the story”, name-dropping The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Those who focus too much on narrative are in the wrong business, Jaffe declared.

“A lot of these people will say ‘I have something to say, I have a story to tell.’ If you’ve really got something inside of you that’s so powerful, like a story you’ve got to share or a philosophy about mans place in the universe, why in the fuck would you choose the medium that has historically, continually been the worst medium to express philosophy, story and narrative?” he scorned, as reported by GamesIndustry.

“Why wouldn’t you write a book, why wouldn’t you make a movie? It’s like being one of the world’s best chefs and working in the world’s best restaurants, you ply your trade in McDonalds.”

“I think we need to adjust our thoughts, we need to change what we think this medium is. We’ve let the gameplay muscle atrophy,” he added.

Jaffe has made similar comments in the past, but has directed them to press and fans rather than trade events.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/02/09/jaffe-cinematic-narrative-focus-is-a-bad-idea-waste-of-resources/

I do somewhat agree with him. Personally I like how it seems to be implemented in The Last Of Us, but a lot of games COUGH MGS4 COUGH, use it in such way that the gameplay itself seems pointless.

Agreed, especially on MGS4

I really used to dislike the guy and his comments about used game sales.

But his latest statements are spot on. He has my respect.

If you don't spend at least 20 hours with every MGS game fucking around with guards then you are playing them very, very wrong.

The only bad idea Jaffe is to make all the industry follow the same pattern. variety is always a good thing.
I'm sure many people (myself included) wouldn't be gamers if it wasn't for story-driven games .
The interaction element is what gives this medium a great potential to tell a story effectively.

Funny, the story is the thing that I like the most in the original God of War

I agree... again. It's funny, I'm not really a fan of his, cause I think he usually comes off like a jerk, but I agree with what he's saying.

He's spot on. While there is certainly a place for story-driven games, economically you're better off skipping it and trying something more purely gameplay driven: the possibility for better returns against the guarantee of lower investment

Although actually... I'd say gaming lends it self amazingly to one type of "storytelling".

Sandbox storytelling.

Where you are given tons of options and a world, and basically told to interact, create and make your own story.

To me, that's the most successful type of storytelling games can have.

One where you can give players an environment, options to do things... and hopefully they don't have many things they can't do that they'd want to.

I disagree. I HATE games like Skyrim. They're SO boring to me.

I'll take Batman Arkham City or Uncharted 3 over Skryim ANY DAY.

and lol at him comparing the video game industry to McDonalds. No, just no.