Christian Nutt’s 2012 interview with David Jaffe is one long argument about what the medium is for. Looking back at God of War, Jaffe concluded he had not been speaking to the medium as respectfully as he wanted, and the Twisted Metal reboot was his attempt at the other track.
His position:
- Choice is the core. He treats Sid Meier’s “a game is a series of interesting choices” as a literal design rule rather than a compliment.
- A movie is the pit stop of life — something consumed while taking a break from living. A game is a simulation of going out and living, which puts the player’s brain in a different state.
- Even a perfect D-Day simulation would not feel like the opening of Saving Private Ryan. “And it’s supposed to be different.”
- Emotion carried into gameplay from a cutscene was not produced by the gameplay.
- Chris Crawford’s toy fire truck: the box promises an adventure, the product is mechanics. Jaffe’s answer is better mechanics, not better promises.
- Even shallow choices have layers — the shotgun does more damage up close, and more still point-blank on the driver-side windshield.
- Skyrim’s encumbrance-and-route calculus and a remote-bomb ambush in Twisted Metal are the same engagement in different genres.
- He is explicit about the limit: he has not seen games produce genuinely new emotions through mechanics, and he cannot do it yet. If someone can, they should.
The sharpest line is about medium choice. If what you actually want is to make someone feel sadness, or think about humanity’s place in the universe, pick the medium that already does that well.
Read now, with AI collapsing the cost of producing content, the useful part is his definition of the non-negotiable core: systems, contingent decisions, an engaged brain. None of that comes from production values.