David Jaffe On Unlocks and Leveling For New Twisted Metal

“So it seems there are LOTS of peps who want leveling up and unlocking for the new Twisted Metal. Fair enough. We may do this (still deciding aspects of that system). BUT for me I find it very interesting that key reasons people bring up for wanting it are things like ‘so I don’t get bored’, ‘pushes me to keep playing beyond the first month’, ‘I like to collect things’, etc. It’s almost like the game equivalent of preservatives for food, designed to keep the game from going bad after just a few weeks. But just like food, it doesn’t seem to matter if these preserving agents fuck up the core product or takes something away from the core product (in the case of food, the valuable nutrients inherent to the basic food before all the chemicals go in are sometimes removed/reduced; in the case of games the fun inherent in the core design can get diluted and/or reduced as a player is taking his mind off the core game and staying focused on the meta goal of acquiring rank and goodies and such). “

-David Jaffe

Now, I read this a couple a days ago, and I was taken aback. David Jaffe NEEDS to give the new Twisted Metal unlocks and leveling. It’s not that I’m partial toward this reward system that has been popularized in the wake of Modern Warfare. In fact, I truly do understand why people do not like other players having better tools than they do simply because they’ve played more. Not everyone is a maniac like me, who devotes such countless hours to multiplayer games such that getting unlocks is never a problem. The primary concern for people like me is getting better and delving into the meat of the game–but this becomes difficult to do if you don’t have all a game has to offer. But Twisted Metal? Okay, here’s a little warning label for people who adore or are otherwise excited for the upcoming Twisted Metal: stop reading, because you’re going to hate me.

Twisted Metal is a  one trick pony whose value can be best described as a gimmick or novelty. No one is dusting off their Twisted Metal copies because they’ve been overrun by nostalgia and they simply must play this classic, good game. Twisted Metal was a game played by tweens who were too young to even think about driving, and whose hobbies could be best summed as “looking at shiny things,” “looking at explody things,” and “lol dick.” Whatever Twisted Metal brought to the table has already been 1uped by the likes of Burnout (even though they’re not the same type of game!). When all is said and done, people who buy the new Twisted Metal will probably play for one week and then consider that itch scratched forevermore. Why? Twisted Metal is a vapid franchise. Hell, I don’t even know why Sony would bring this franchise back. Twisted Metal isn’t going to be cool for the kiddies anymore, they’ve played GTA and Modern Warfare.

Normally? Sure, unlocks might be dumb, and they might make it more difficult to discern how good or bad a game is because you’ve yet to experience all it has to offer. As Jaffe puts it, they’re much like preservatives–though, it should also be said that unlocks provide value for a different sort of gamer.

But Twisted Metal? Get real.