I listened to it last night after I finished the recaps, but I was pretty tired. From what it sounded like at the time, you guys seemed to mostly agree except he had a more pessimistic spin on things. Something he said along the lines of 'interactivity creating a wall between the player and an experience that isn't centered merely on fun' didn't sit right with me.

I suppose I'll have to give it another listen when I'm not exhausted and brain dead though.

Some interesting things in this cast. I would love to see what rev thinks on this and its key points.

Jaffe has the exact kind of face you just want to punch.

I made my comments in the forum thread. This is just a comment to state that I've done that.

:D

Jaffe's explanation of why "Heartland" never would have worked is complete bullshit and reflects poorer on his abilities as a designer than the medium's ability to have emotional resonance.

If you are a good director, the player will be so immersed in what is happening that they won't even consider shooting the kneeling mother, or dicking around in the house (until perhaps their second play through).

Look bro, if a movie sucks and is boring, I can stand up and walk out. If it's done well, I won't want it to end and be trapped in the fiction.

Howsabout you don't sell your audience so short?

Jaffe has some trouble expressing himself apparently.

I don't get why so many ppl here are commenting so negative about Jaffe.
I think Cadtalfryn is right:
Jaffe just seems to have a rather negative view. And this could be due to his time working in the business.

That doesn't mean he is right though, but working in a field definitely changes your perspective, so maybe a new generation of devs will see other openings and chances to achieve other levels of immersion.

* Man, this episode was fucking boring. Linsten anthony talk with other guys in regular podtoid episodes is cool, but anthony and david together are too much bulshit talk.

that was really good. Jaffe is a very engaging fellow. i hope heavy rain and the last guardian show some new emotions in games for other developers to try and improve upon.

I started game design school.
I made a board game last lesson.
Players breaking the mechanics is just the worst.
I feel you Jaffe.

But the remark to "Indiefag" kinda gets to me. The way I see it, the language is changing, and it's origins of the word is becoming irrelevant, and detached. Picking it out was an dick move, though politically correct.

That was interesting.
I liked Jaffe's points about the "playground" mentality making it really difficult for games to reach the level a lot of us seem to want.

In the end though you did seem to agree on most things which was nice to see. He's a pretty smart guy I think and he put forward his points well just like Anthony always does.

My take on it all is that it's definitely possible to do this stuff and I really want to see some genuine attempts, but at the same time I understand and sympathise with developers etc. who bring up these problems, a lot of which seem inherent in the medium itself.

I thought at the end when Jaffe talks about Shadow of the Colossus he's basically insulting everyone's intelligence and ability to interpret.

David Jaffe is an annoying c**t.

@Gestault
The meaning of words change all the time. The word "stupid" originally meant an extreme case of mental retardation. Over time it eventually came to mean something else, and now if you call someone retarded people will say "Don't say retarded, say stupid."

The bottom line is, 99% of the time it's obvious if people meant what they said to be offensive or not. All you have to do is pull your head out of your ass long enough to listen. I'm not saying that to you specifically, I'm just saying that in general. People are too quick to be offended about everything. Jim just posted an article today about controversy over a watermelon item in Scribblenauts. We don't have a right to not be offended in the country. I'm kind of sick of the people who are offended telling everyone else what they can or can't say or do.

Your argument is flawed, because it would be like me saying that eggs are used to egg houses, so if you choose to eat eggs knowing they could be used to egg houses than you might as well have egged someone's house. You could have chosen to eat something else instead.

@ mrplow8
I appreciate the extra explanation about what we were talking about before, though your analogy at the end I'm still not seeing eye to eye with you on. I'm saying if you hold up an egg, don't be surprised if someone says "that's an egg", even if it has developed other outside connotations.

@ mrplow8

That's more than fair, and I like that last bit, though I might mention that I think the people using the word "fag" to describe someone they don't like (as you're defending) is still an issue.

This was surprisingly boring. I guess I just disagreed with him in the most uninteresting way. I don't think he's right, and his opinions gave me nothing to think about or challenge me with. He's probably tired and thus bad at articulating, but his thoughts seemed to be utterly detached from any argument I wanted to hear.

Fag

Yeah, I was with Jaffe most of the way. The political correctness is a little annoying, and it was kind of a distraction from the topic.

Otherwise, I think Jaffe's right. Sorry, Anth.

I agree with SuitcoatAvenger. Such a situation won't instantly break and be impossible because it can be broken. It'll just only work once. Especially if early on in the game you include a way for the player to minorly fuck up a situation instead of majorly break the scenario, and have him significantly reprimanded and punished in a gameplay manner, like getting his best gun taken away or something.

Either way, most people will behave, I think. I wasn't jumping on people's heads and throwing props at them my first time through HL2. That shit was a second playthrough. I know myself I've thought of many things and thought "That's be great, but only work once, only if they aren't spoiled".

There were two things that kind of bugged me about this debate:

1) The political correctness thing. If anything, Anthony was criticizing the common opinion of indie gamers, and Jaffe jumps all over it despite the previous fact. Maybe he wasn't really listening or something, I don't know.

2) This whole thing wouldn't have happened if Jaffe correctly interpreted the Rev Rant that started all this. In the last few minutes of the podcast, Jaffe makes it clear that he didn't really know there are lots of people who think games HAVE to be fun. He just automatically assumed it was about developers, then got defensive and made an angry video. By the time you guys got around to recording it, he had calmed down, and actually sounded intelligent...hence, all the agreement in this debate.

Regardless, there were some interesting points from both sides. Pretty cool that he actually came through on this, too.

Yeah pretty good discussion. Thanks for that. And you know whats funny, that movie he describe "filming a window for 5 hours" I know what hes talking about. Its actually a 45 min film called Wavelength's, and it is pretty hard to watch because it is meant to make the audience very uncomfortable. Thank god I only watched the abridged version which is only 11 minutes. Don't know why I felt to write that down I guess for people who are interested in an alternative viewing experience in film.

great, very much interesting podcast. But where are people getting off saying that Jaffe looked like a douche calling out the fag thing? As if it reflects poorly upon him that he dislikes the word. It has nothing to do with being PC or whatever bullshit people are coming up with. While I'll call someone an asscunt at the drop of a hat, I tend to shy away from fag. It's a word with a history of hatred behind it. And while those words might not mean anything to you, they certainly have nothing but negative connotations for others. Also, Anthony and David don't know each other that well, and there is an absolute difference to how you react to a conversation with a friend, and how you react to a conversation with an acquaintance.

@mrplow
First of all, I'm not a Progressive Conservative whatsoever, I agree it's a bullshit movement, but I do work in a professional environment where you watch what you say to your peers, not due to a fear of offending them, but out of a desire to show them respect. I don't think we should constantly watch out tongues on the offhand chance that a stranger will take offense. Sometimes those situations like that occur, and they're uncomfortable, most people won't react to the shooting thing. But if that gay gentlemen in your scenario takes offense, you apologize, end of discussion. If he takes it with a grain of salt, even better right?
As a young person, I got to participate in anti-social behavior where I could dismiss responsibility for my actions under the excuse of personal expression. Now that I am an adult, I get through my days by showing people the respect I want from them. You don't have to like that, that's fine, but if it's how you want to conduct yourself, understand you're potentially closing a lot of doors for yourself.
Anyways...sorry, that was a tangent. Back to Jaffe and Burch.
If they were long time friends, then there would be a historical precedent for the phrase 'Indie Fag', there would be mutual understanding, not unlike if you told your friend 'Stop or I'm going to shoot you, fag'. Your friend understands the intention with that phrase. David Jaffe and Anthony Burch don't have that historical precedent, that mutual understanding. Burch wasn't wrong to assume, he was just speaking as he usually does, there's nothing wrong with that. Just like there's nothing wrong with Jaffe having a problem with such a casual usage of the word by someone he doesn't know that well. It's not as if he tore his headset off and refused to continue, or demanded Burch call himself an 'indie homosexual', he essentially said. 'I don't like that word. Please don't use it if you're going to speak to me.' I don't think of that as a PC move. That's all.
Sorry for this gargantuan read.