David Jaffe is immature

[feilong801]

We all acknowledge how well done the God of War series is. Of course, we also understand that project lead David Jaffe is, in fact, one member of a very large team responsible for the game's high production values.

However, I read a post on Kotaku regarding him whining about a few low reviews for his casual game on the PSN network, "Calling All Cars."

I clicked the link to his Blog..... WOW. This guy is nothing short of an immature brat. It's dudes like this that make me want to reconsider that games could be art. It also makes me very thankful that 1/2 of the better games are made by Japanese devs, who make an attempt, at, well, HUMILITY.

Here's the link to his blog. Not only is it pompous, but its extremely vulgar, so click with caution:
http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/

P.S.
m0zart: There's a link in his blogroll I'm guessing you won't like. I'll let you discover which one!

-Rob

[Atarifever1]

Though!  How hard is it to spell?  There is no "tho".  Man, I swear bloggers are trying to do away with our language. 


Sorry, pet peeve.

Yes, the guy's a moron.

[Paul Campbell]

Wow, there's a whole other underworld to gaming that I really wasn't aware of.  I didn't know there were game designers writing blogs.

[Edward M]

I wouldn't say the attitude of a game developer are  proof games aren't art.  Look at the lives of artists, many of them are nutcases.   Van Gough, for example probably should have been put in the nuthouse.   As Long as Jaffe keeps making awesome games like Twisted Metal and God of War, he can put whatever crap on his blog he wants.

[feilong801]

I wasn't being serious with that statement, Edward. Jaffe's comments didn't really make me think that games aren't art.

And I hope nobody mistakes my OP in saying that he shouldn't be able to have a blog where he speaks his mind. Of course free speech is important.

But I'm just surprised at Sony, really. When Jaffe speaks, he does, even if unintended, speak for Sony. You would think there would be some sort of consequence to behavior like this (from Sony): you basically have a guy trying to intimidate segments of the gaming media into giving better reviews.

He has, of course, the right to say what he wants. But Sony has the right to ask their highly recognized employees not make asses of themselves in the public space. I apologize if this is interpreted by some as yet another swipe at Sony by a Nintendo fanboy (I swear its not), but I have to wonder at a company that seems to allow statments such as a certain one made in that blog to be made with no consequence from within the company.

One response might be "but they are afraid they would lose Jaffe's ideas to a rival if they canned him or gave him some repremand." A fair thought. Success does give you a certain amount of armor in the corporate environment. But to say that Jaffe has the same status of a Will Wright/Sid Meier/Peter Molyneaux/Miyamoto/Kojima is a bit premature. He's more on Suda 51's level: a rising star, not yet "bulletproof."

-Rob

[Shawn]

So let me get this straight! Nobody on this site ever whines b/c somebody didn't score a game high enough? Please, we are all guilty of it. Don't get me wrong, this guy is immature but I could point out at least 10 examples on this site alone. Heck, look at the post by JLH about Heatseeker! Don't mean to single you out and I am not name calling but it is the most recent example I could find. My advice; if you disagree with a review send them an email and explain why or better yet, ignore them and enjoy your game.

[feilong801]

Nice try, Shawn. What I had to say about Mark Bozon's Heatseeker review and what David Jaffe puts on his blog is completely different. It's not even in the same universe, in fact.

This is so obvious, I don't think I need to say anything else about it.

-Rob

[JustLikeHeaven1]

[QUOTE=Shawn]

 Heck, look at the post by JLH about Heatseeker! Don't mean to single you out and I am not name calling but it is the most recent example I could find. My advice; if you disagree with a review send them an email and explain why or better yet, ignore them and enjoy your game.

[/QUOTE]

Um...I'm not sure its me you are talking bout Shawn.  I haven't made any posts about the Heatseekers IGN review recently.  I thought it might be a good game, but I can't remeber complaining about IGN's review lately.  I mentioned it in my "games that are flying under people's radar thread...but I haven't complained about the 5.5 it got on IGN.  No big deal though...maybe I did say something and I don't remember it lol!

Back to the subject at hand...I think David Jaffe is a wonderful designer and a truly refreshing voice.  He doesn't let people talk sh** about his work and he speaks his mind.  He is an industry vet and I think he is fed up with the way things are...I am eagerly awaiting Calling All Cars and I will be downloading this Thurs when it hits the Playstation Network. 

Love em or hate em the guy makes great games.  Sorry I don't care what he says in his blog...or anywhere else.  It doesn't make a real big difference to me.  I hate Cliffy B (the douche bag from Epic), but I still play his amazing games. 

[m0zart1]

[QUOTE=feilong80]I clicked the link to his Blog..... WOW. This guy is nothing short of an immature brat. It's dudes like this that make me want to reconsider that games could be art. It also makes me very thankful that 1/2 of the better games are made by Japanese devs, who make an attempt, at, well, HUMILITY.[/QUOTE]

I hate to sound controversial, but I actually like that he is arrogant about his art.  I really do hate it when someone tries to take the ego out of art.  Art is all about the ego -- the experiences and metaphysical values of the individual being expressed in some kind of medium.  If one of those values happens to be humility, then so be it, but it doesn't have to be.  What I've noticed lately is that some of the best Japanese game artists (i.e. game developers) have lately been trying to say that games aren't art for a few really asanine reasons, so I wonder if this has anything to do with their attempts at appearing humble.  I say "appearing" rather than straight-up "humble", because a lot of that really is just a cultural attempt not to be too flashy or appear to proud, when in reality the pride is bubbling underneath the cover.  The latest was Inafune, and his comments irritated me enough to cause me to write my own blog about the situation on Gamespot.

Jaffe is definitely a bit crass, and that part I could do without, but I have grown quite fond of him since the release of God of War.  Besides the fact that he's a capable game designer/developer/artist, he's one of those guys who is never afraid to speak his mind, even when it goes against the Sony company line.  I loved it when he credited the XBOX 360 and the Wii for helping Sony understand where to go with the PS3, and he said that at a Sony release party.  The "suit" that was with him was clearly on pins and needles the whole time.  You gotta love that kind of frankness.

Now don't take that to mean that I don't understand or even partially agree with some part of your words here.  I actually do.  At one time I had a very low opinion of the man.  I just think that over time I've grown to appreciate him a little more.  You can think of it like you think of a stranger that you are unfamiliar with other than factual information about him vs. a friend you are familiar with through his own words.  They could both have a very similar character, and yet, you have grown to "know" the friend whereas you've not so much the stranger.  The knowing is what makes it easier to abide strange behavior I think.

[QUOTE=feilong80]P.S.
m0zart: There's a link in his blogroll I'm guessing you won't like. I'll let you discover which one!
[/QUOTE]

I haven't looked closely enough at those links to find which one, but I'll definitely check them out in a few.

[Atarifever1]

[QUOTE=JustLikeHeaven][QUOTE=Shawn]

 Heck, look at the post by JLH about Heatseeker! Don't mean to single you out and I am not name calling but it is the most recent example I could find. My advice; if you disagree with a review send them an email and explain why or better yet, ignore them and enjoy your game.

[/QUOTE]

Um...I'm not sure its me you are talking bout Shawn.  I haven't made any posts about the Heatseekers IGN review recently.  I thought it might be a good game, but I can't remeber complaining about IGN's review lately.  I mentioned it in my "games that are flying under people's radar thread...but I haven't complained about the 5.5 it got on IGN.  No big deal though...maybe I did say something and I don't remember it lol!

Back to the subject at hand...I think David Jaffe is a wonderful designer and a truly refreshing voice.  He doesn't let people talk sh** about his work and he speaks his mind.  He is an industry vet and I think he is fed up with the way things are...I am eagerly awaiting Calling All Cars and I will be downloading this Thurs when it hits the Playstation Network. 

Love em or hate em the guy makes great games.  Sorry I don't care what he says in his blog...or anywhere else.  It doesn't make a real big difference to me.  I hate Cliffy B (the douche bag from Epic), but I still play his amazing games. 

[/QUOTE]
I... think... he thinks... your me.  Shhhhh, his medication must have been cut back again.  Don't anger him in this state.

Still, I find it easier to believe he could mistake me for JLH than that he could mistake what I did for "whining".  I said I think EGM's scores are different from how I would score one particular genre.  I didn't even say they were wrong.  All of my statements were regarding how I use the scoring of EGM and Nintendo Power.  Heck, I started off the post with "For what it's worth".  If that's defined as whining, I need a new dictionary, because English has just been changed.