David Jaffe Stops Being Nice, Gets Real

This past weekend, an inebriated David Jaffe (designer for the hit God of War title) said some very blunt things to GT.tv. Among his statements in the heavily edited piece are comments about his work on God of War 3, his failed PSP game, and his place in the pantheon of game designers. From the horse's mouth: "I think I'm a b-level game designer, I KNOW THAT ... When these guys come up and shove a microphone in my face and say 'whaddya think?' maybe I have a healthy enough ego to give you an opinion cos you asked for it, but I don't think I'm the sh**! I don't think our fighting system's as good as Devil May Cry! I think I'm just doing the best I can and I'm grateful people like the sh** our team's pr--"

Good for him

[pdbaby]

Good for him. Although he was insanely drunk. And the sony guy was being a bit of a git.
God of war's a fun game

Devil May Cry

[Fozzyuw]

I don't think our fighting system's as good as Devil May Cry!

Hmm... I bought the DMC 5th anni. edition (4 disc set). I played though #1, part of #2 and #3. I personally found God of War much more enjoyable as far as combat goes. It was a bit more repetitive, but it felt more fluid. Or maybe that's due to the crappy camera angles of DMC #1 that frustrated me to no end? =) I think someone's just being modest. hehe

Cheers,
Fozzy

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[rkanodia]

I was going to cut and paste, but I figured I'd just link to my old post instead [slashdot.org]. Enjoy.

Drunk dialing

[eln]

Man, this guy needs to just stick to drunk dialing his ex-girlfriends like everyone else does when they get plastered. My personal policy is to stay far away from any place that might have journalists in it when drinking. But then, of course, there is the Achilles heel of many the drunken nerd: email and message boards.

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[werewolf1031]

I dunno, I actually like the guy more after having watched that. Aside from being entertaining to watch, I dig that in spite of his cockiness he still considers himself a B-list developer, even after a hit like God of War.

Cocky Game Dev to Slimey Marketing Guy: "Oh My God, go f--k yourself in the grotto! Cuz no one else is gonna f--k ya there! Go go go!"

I know it's against the unspoken rules of Slashdot - in addition to not talking about the unspoken rules of Slashdot - to never RTFA, but everyone w

Nice to see some honest discourse

[thatguywhoiam]

I actually welcome this new method of interviewing. In Vino Veritas. Favourite part:

Sony Markedroid:
"We're going to continue the story of God of War across multiple platforms culminating in a classic battle-rama on the Playstation 3."

Jaffe:
"I don't know what you just said."

Jaffe 2 - Marketing 0

[MeanderingMind]

My favorite parts were when he completely shot down the marketing drone standing next to him.

Marketer: "Blah blah blah marketing jargon blah blah blah battlerama blah blah"*
Jaffe: "What the #@%*& did you just say? I don't understand what you just said!"*

Priceless.

*Quotes paraphrased and not exact.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Friends don't let friends drink and Youtube.

[Rob T Firefly]

As far as inebriated Youtube stars go, he wasn't as funny as Kramer from Seinfeld crushing his career via racist tirade, but funnier than all those teenagers failing at skateboard stunts. Give it a 4/5.

Drunk? So what

[Anonymous Coward]

Was he drunk? So what. For being drunk he was pretty damn lucid, truthful and fair in his comments. If he was drunk, he speaks better than I do when I'm sober. And good for him for telling the PR rep to fuck off. Otherwise everything out of his mouth would have had to be pro Sony.

Excellent comments on Jaffe's blog

[Swanktastic]

There's some pretty hilarious comments on Jaffe's blog [blogspot.com] that talk about the interview before it went mainstream. There's also some classic 'nerd at the Playboy mansion' type of commentary along with him posing with bunnies:

"So I get drunk and Jeff 'let's fuck with Jaffe's career' Resse- who is a MARKETING guy- brings me in front of the gametrailers.com cameras and we just go at it, tossing insults, doing a totally drunk interview, screaming at the camera (I think at one point I told EGM to fuck off for calling me THE KING OF BULLSHIT in this month's Q-MAN!)...it was total fun and I'm sure I've just made like 100 more people on the message boards hate me because of it. Ah well :) Watch for it....I hope they do some editing! Be nice, Gametrailers!"

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[drinkypoo]

He has to deal with the consequences of his actions. If you can't hold your shit together while drunk, don't get drunk. If you do, and you lose your shit, then you have only yourself to blame. Period. When you talk to journalists, they tend to quote you, much in the same way that when your ass is pulled over by the cops, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. I don't know why people expect other people to be nice to them when they're drunk...

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[drinkypoo]

If your friend got drunk and wanted to drive home, by your argument, you'd help him to his car.

By my argument? My argument says that people should have to deal with the consequences of his actions, not that other people should have to. I have in fact personally stopped someone from driving (along with assistance from another friend) to the point where he hit our other friend in the chin with his cellphone and drew blood (this was a while ago, the cellphone would just blow up now) and almost hit me with

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[HeavenlyBankAcct]

Valid points, but I'd say your entire argument is essentially negated by the fact that this interview has driven Jaffe's stock up in the public eye far more than any marketing campaign could have. You say "he needs to learn to be responsible for actions" -- it seems to me like he's doing just fine in that regard. I know that I, for one, have a new measure of respect for Mr. Jaffe after discovering first-hand that he's not another one of these slick salesman types (ahem... Romero). He seems human. I like

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[drinkypoo]

No, actually, I do too. I don't think that marketing will be very happy with him for telling the marketdroid to go fuck himself in the grotto, though of course that just made me an instant fan (personally I thought twisted metal 3 was kind of a piece of shit, it's too hard to see what's going on because the camera is a dirty whore. and that's the only TM game I ever played.) And I haven't played any other game he's worked on. He just got himself immense cred.

Anyway my points DO stand, even if some of my

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[HeavenlyBankAcct]

Anyway my points DO stand, even if some of my conclusions are unfounded. And ultimately it will be some time before we really know the impact of this interview. I mean, this is the game industry, I wouldn't be surprised to see people fall over themselves to pick sides on this one, and we'll see interview questions about this interview in other people's interviews. "What's your opinion of... blah blah blah."

I've spent a good deal of my professional life operating within the game industry, and I can almost

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[TheLink]

Seems like a lot of people still liked the drunk version of him.

In contrast: how many people like sober Sony marketdroids?

Awesome

[Thraxen]

Jaffe has been a hero of mine in the gaming world ever since he helped create the Twisted Metal series.

Twisted Metal

[bateleur]

Absolutely. For Twisted Metal World Tour alone David Jaffe will always make my game developers A-list.

Chairs will fly....

[cttforsale]

Keep the F**KING devs in the basement!

He's earned respect.

[kinglink]

It's one thing to go to a Playboy mansion and act respectable, it's another thing to give a interview that is laced with swears, and at the end admit you're drunk. And then telling Sony Marketting representive to go get fucked.

The second one is the guy I respect, a guy who's a gamer who makes games for gamers. Game designers should realize your in the game industry, it's supposed to be fun as well as work, and from the look of it that's Jaffe's motto as well. Best video I've seen all year.

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[mqduck]

It's hard to find anything associated with the world's crappiest, most overrated soft core empire "respectable."

Me, I couldn't really care less about the Playboy Mansion. But like it or not, a great many people find Playboy sophisticated and respectable. Ever hear of "I read it for the articles"?

Here's a little secret

[LKM]

Ever hear of "I read it for the articles"?

Uhm... I'll let you in on a little secret. When people say "I read it for the articles" they're being ironic. It's supposed to be a joke, kind of like a running gag.

Finally watched the interview

[drinkypoo]

Best interview ever. I think someone should start a TV station with nothing but drunken interviews. I'd watch.