Destructoid is no stranger to the words flying out of David Jaffe's mouth. In fact those words have flown directly at us. In short (if two sentences are too long for you), David Jaffe has a big mouth and he likes to run it. However, it can get him in trouble or in his mind it can get him misunderstood. Since he's tired of being misrepresented by these here internets Jaffe has decided to "JUST SHUT THE F— UP for the next 6 months." Evidently, the final straw was a recent internet argument between Jaffe and a blogger about used game sales.
Jaffe says that, "No matter how clear you make yourself, people simply ignore what you have to say. And so I will now forever be the guy who opposed to used game sales (which I am not)." As such Jaffe has promised to shut up for six months. He will still be doing interviews and basic PR for his upcoming games, but he will be stopping all personal blogging and twittering. It doesn't end there though -- and here is where you come in -- Jaffe says he will give away a free game to the first three people who catch him breaking his promise.
The argument he got in was pretty banal and has been all over the internet 50 million times already, but now that it has the possible outcome of free games for people it's got a little interesting. I suggest we all keep an eagle on on Mr. Jaffe and check every IP on every comment on every post about used games, Jaffe's games or Jaffe himself.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
10:00 PM on 08.30.2009
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Guy needs a shave.
@Klempky: 20 bucks says that guy also works for Vimeo. Hipster Beards are all the rage.
KRAToS SUXX I GOT MIEN USED 4 $5 LOL
OMG FREE GAME, JAFFE.
Dear David Jaffe, Im your loyal fanboy who loves your games and sometimes doesnt listen to your every word. Lets say you offered me a free game that had your name attached to it (like Twisted Metal on PS3 for a example) I would slap you in the face for being silly and pay full price for it. When its a developer I like, I think rewarding them for there effort is appropriate. I respect your work Mr. Jaffe and love your games. Done and done, but that's me, and others my not share my opinion, which is fine.
The sad part is, I know how Jaffe is rationalizing this--he wants to turn games into music and other forms of media, where you don't actually own the product and simply pay for a license to use it, so devs can charge each person who buys their game full price and get a nice cut of the sale. That's what we'll be getting if games go all digital--we already don't own any of the content we've purchased from the PSN or Xbox Live (hence the limited number of machines we can use them on). But what I don't understand is, how is that fair to the consumer?
The simple fact is a game is not a car, it does not lose value as it is passed around from person to person... everyone gets the game experience. This is why media has a whole different idea of "ownership" than most other products. Person 5 on the Gamestop chain of used sales gets the game game experience as person 1, but only person 1 contributed to the development cost.
It is inevitable we will go all digital too, so arguing against it is pretty silly.
Besides, the only reason there is a used game market is that people wish to return games they have played and never play said games again. Ever. Every used game on the market represents a customer that the game failed to fully satisfy, a lost customer. This means the solution to the used game issue is to make games people don't ever want to sell back to the retailer, and to stop losing customers on games. One protection against resale is strong multiplayer, another defense is to make a game with gameplay people never tire of - Tetris mastered this technique, but exceptional blockbuster games, such as Mario and Kingdom Hearts, tend to protect themselves for being resold by being enjoyable after multiple playthroughs. Using such techniques protects games from losing their value after a single playthrough, and eliminates the need for a used game market - a dumping ground for games the stopped satisfying customers after a short period of time.
Shut the fuck up forever.
Love,
Everyone.
Jaffe is a complete dick a lot of the time (one of the reasons that people like him), but he was totally right to lay into that douche nozzle. Everyone likes to scream "free market" and shit when publishers/developers criticize used game sales, but you guys seem to have forgotten that they have every right to not sell their products in physical packages. A used copy of a game is just as much of a competitor for a publisher as any rival's product, and more so because the customers aren't going to buy a new copy and ALSO a used copy. Maybe it's a jackass move to get rid of physical media (I certainly like having discs, most of the time) but why should they be creating their own competition when they don't have to?
Seriously, is everyone around here fucking stupid?!?!!
I'm actually a little disappointed by this, even if I don't really play his games or watch his videos often at all. Any time you get anybody stimulating the minds of the gaming community (or any community really) and make them re-evaluate an issue, is good in my eyes. Jaffe had a pretty brash way of doing this, but at least it worked. He had some seriously valid points, even if I didn't agree with his almost troll-like, hateful methods.
And he gets shit thrown at him constantly? WTF is wrong with this picture?!
The problem with your theory is I don't enjoy puzzle games or multiplayer games, and I don't want all games to turn into that. I like storyline driven singleplayer RPGs and FPS games, and I don't want that to die off.
Every used game is an unsatisfied customer? That's just crazy talk. Most people have no collector's desire... they play through Bioshock and then they have no need for it anymore... they might have loved the game, they just don't intend to play it ever again. My girlfriend never watches a movie more than once, but that doesn't mean she has never been satisfied by a movie in her life.
Anyway, as I said games going digital is going to happen, for this reason and many others, so it matters little in the end. It's like debating how fast lava kills you as it rolls down the mountain towards us. We are already the only media type to have online exclusives, and we get more and more of them as time goes on.
Also, great posts Hcapt. I have no need to make a long post since you already wrote basically anything I'd say. I look forward to you possibly deconstructing what StingingVelvet posted.
Jaffe is a douchebag, and he's just flat out wrong on his stance. I don't care what you say, but once you pay for a game, just like a book or DVD or something, it becomes YOUR game. At this point, you can do whatever the hell you want with it (Save for something illegal, of course). It's being unfair to the consumer if you aren't letting them make a choice with THEIR game. Honestly, and I don't care how much flak I get for this, but Jaffe sounds very greedy when he says this stuff.
At least he's a great example of that sister of gamer entitlement - developer entitlement.
I'll remember that when GOW3 comes out.
I get THIS point of his, but the used games argument is just plain stupid. It completely ignores the very meaning of OWNERSHIP and, for that, I consider him not an idiot, but someone who just doesn't think all that much about what he's saying, and while you could argue that he's an outspoken, tru-to-the-heart person, I prefer considering him someone that should just re-read what he posted under the light of basic human trade of goods' common sense. He's pretty much proposing to make physical gaming acquisition a loan for use agreement. And he's using pretty lame arguments in the way.
Anyway, if all else fails, there's still Nintendo to keep the video game trade conservative.
Incidently, the Wii is the defense against digital distribution, and the failure of the PSP Go will kill digital distribution for a long time. Nintendo has never shown any animosty towards the used game market that I am aware of, and their titles strongly protect themselves from resale.
Come to think of it, by definition, ownership means the right to trade, sell, or give away something you possess. You can't really own amnything you have no control over.
@SpectreMan
The guy who made Twisted Metal 2 possible does not need to prove himself.
@Hcapt
I thought your first post was a good one but this second one is a little weak. I agree with most of your points, the idea I want to highlight and talk about is the idea that digital distribution will die off when the PSPgo fails. First of all you're assuming that the PSPgo will fail. I don't see this happening but it's impossible to know. Even if it did fail however, that wouldn't mean the death of digital distribution for a long time. Rather, it would prove that DD only platforms aren't yet feasible. But make no mistake, DD on platforms which also have physical media will never go away, not as long as there is an internet. And as time goes on, DD only devices will become more and more practical.
It's a different scenerio, but the same idea: the music industry bit themselves by forcing up the prices on CDs, making consumers move to digital distribution because it was so much cheaper
In other news: if Jaffe slowed down and chilled out he might have better results in his arguments.
I guess I don't see how used game sales is any different from used books, movies, or music sales. They're all media, all stricken with the same copyright and first-sales issues. But you can still sell these things used without paying a cut to the creator a second time. Some might see this as injustice, but I just see it as not paying the creator twice for the same copy of the product. And I think its a little soon to assume all games are going digital distribution in the next 5 years.