David Jaffe has formed a new studio and is looking to create a free-to-play shooter title. Despite the ambivalence towards certain parts of the free-to-play model, he think it aligns more with his current goals as a developer than making a “AAA” game

“I hate free-to-play but I love aspects of it,” said Jaffe. “I love the instant-on, I love the low to no barrier of entry to get all kinds of people to jump in and play, I love the fact that you’re sitting there at lunch and can play for five minutes or you can get sucked in and play for three hours. You don’t have to sit there and power up your f***ing machine and go through legal screens and load screens and load the game. I know that sounds kind of petty but when you think of all the distractions and fragmentation of entertainment today, for me that’s kind of a pain. I’ll choose to do other things rather than sit down and load up a triple-A game unless it’s super, super special.”

“When I started thinking about it with regards to pure gameplay, the games that I can get on an iPhone or iPad or something that’s simpler or quicker to access, I’d say are 90 to 95 percent as good or better – just in terms of game mechanics – as what I’m playing on next-gen,” he continued. “That next-gen stuff 5 to 10 percent of the time is worth it because you’re getting great gameplay, amazing spectacle, bleeding edge graphics and that’s wonderful but most of the games that come out and put themselves in that $60 box, I don’t get enough that I stay away from my other devices these days.”

For Jaffe, he wants a successful free-to-play game that isn’t “pay to win” as some are accused of.being  “So while I love parts of free-to-play, I hate other parts. I hate how it’s like the tail wagging the dog and it’s the business model and all about getting people to pay [with more micro-transactions],” noted Jaffe. “You can listen to developers all day long tell you it’s not pay to win, but you know, it kind of is pay to win. I’m not saying they’re evil or they’re lying – but one of the things they like to say is pay with your time or pay with your money. Well both of those are really s***ty.”

“Let’s take a shooter – if you think about what’s happened with shooters, so much of what makes shooters today work (and it’s unfortunate that sometimes it’s the only thing that makes them work besides graphics and spectacle) is sort of the morphine drip of powering up and leveling up,” he detailed. “So if you’re saying pay with your time, you’re saying have sort of a crappy time because we’re stretching out those morphine drips really long because we want to motivate you to pay. And if you pay immediately and get the really cool stuff, then suddenly you don’t have that meta desire for a while to go back to it and to want to keep playing.”

As for where Jaffe’s company is at right now, “For me it’s about starting a company and finding the right group of people that really believe in this vision that there’s great stuff about free-to-play but we want to make it genuinely for gamers. And I know a lot of people say that, but what they mean is we’re making games that are thematically and mechanically appealing to gamers, but then we’re going to f**k it all up with a business model that kind of pisses gamers off and keeps gamers away. So there’s nothing original in my saying I want to make free-to-play for gamers. It’s really about how we’re going to execute our version of what that means. So that’s what I’m extremely passionate about and what we’re building.”

Jaffe’s been considering numerous forms of funding, from venture capital and a publisher to even Kickstarter. Still, he sees issues with the crowdfunded route.

“There are so many cool things we could do with this on Kickstarter… but most Kickstarters are ‘give me $15 and you get the game’ but we’re free-to-play. What’s great about this – and why I hate that free-to-play has gotten such a bad rap – is you should be able to strip away the entire business model of free-to-play and what’s left is just as good as any other game. That’s thing thing – I want to be able to know that if I go Kickstarter, I want to be able to properly communicate to people that the game underneath is meant to be a great game outside of the business model,” Jaffe emphasized. “So if you donate a certain amount and get access to everything, that’s not f***ing it up. You’re getting a great game without having to pay more than what you might pay with free-to-play [under the typical business model]. I can’t even articulate it yet; I just don’t want to disrespect people and say ‘oh it’s free-to-play and give me 15 bucks’ because as a gamer I’d go ‘it’s f***ing free-to-play dude’.”

It’s not just the business model of Kickstarter that has Jaffe concerned, it’s its own reputation. “The other part that fascinates me about it is if I go out to the world and I go to Sony and VC guys and publishers, and I say I want to do free-to-play but I want to change up this business model… I don’t know if they’re going to be like, ‘Dude, f**k you, World of Tanks works, Battlefield Heroes works, so thanks but no thanks.’ So if that’s the case then maybe the Kickstarter audience would be a great way to go… so it’s absolutely something we’re thinking about but I haven’t made a decision,” he acknowledged. “I’m kind of scared to go Kickstarter, truth be told. Because I’m kind of divisive.”

“Schafer’s not only known but he’s loved,” he continued. “Who doesn’t love Tim Schafer He’s a super nice guy and has given the world great entertainment. And while there are people who love the stuff I’ve worked on and I love that they love that, but there are probably an equal number of people who just think I’m an asshole. And I’m not but because of the way I present myself… I don’t make a conscious choice to be outspoken but I do think a lot of people walk around being too buttoned up and I think it’s not healthy. I think there’s a balance – I’m not saying just say anything that comes to your mind but I think as a society we should let ourselves shine through a bit more. But my point is that I’m more polarizing than Tim Schafer and if I go out there with a Kickstarter and it doesn’t work, a) it sucks, and b) what message does that send to someone I might go to in order to raise money from a VC guy ”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz