God of War Ragnarok was a massive tentpole title for PlayStation, having sold over 15 million units since launch. The AAA game was lauded for its stellar production quality, nearing on Hollywood territory.
However, game director Eric Williams holds very different thoughts on whether games should be more like movies, and in an era of increasing Star Wars and Marvel presence in the games industry, it’s an opinion worth considering.
God Of War Ragnarok Director Celebrates Variety In Games
In an interview with Washington Post after the 2022 Game Awards ceremony, Williams stressed the importance of having different types of games, similar to the various options available in books, music, and films. He used the diverse range of games showcased at the ceremony as an example:
The Game Awards last night prove the point of video games. No game was like the other. You have a game about a cat who’s wandering around, and you actually embody the idea of being a cat. And then you have a dark, mysterious world where all the storytelling is based on how you interpret it, in “Elden Ring.”
This astounding variety comes with all sorts of creative approaches, and Williams advocates for them, “Every game is different. Just like with film, it shouldn’t be like, okay, you can only have Tarantino-esque movies, or you can only have Star Wars, or we should not like Marvel.”
Williams Believes It’s Okay For Games To Resemble Movies
Eric Williams believes everyone can find a game tailored to their interests, and that instead of tearing down games that don’t appeal to them, he encourages embracing and respecting the vast breadth of creative variety on offer:
There’s something for everyone for a reason. Choose what you like. And then maybe don’t hate on things that you don’t like — that would be a better way of approaching all this.
There’s been a lot of criticism for recent PlayStation first-party games for feeling like “movies” (even God of War Ragnarok) due to their cinematic performances and production quality, and even FromSoftware’s action-RPGs have come under fire for their brutal difficulty.
Williams disagrees with these criticisms, “Trying to push things away, or saying you shouldn’t have The Last of Us because it’s too much like a movie, or you shouldn’t have FromSoftware games because they’re too difficult and not everyone can play — that’s just ridiculous to me.”
“I don’t understand that. Because we wouldn’t have so many good books in the world, or so much good music, or so many amazing films, if we didn’t have variety. It’s short-sighted,” continued Williams.
It’s true that people have different opinions, but Williams urges an open-minded approach within the gaming community. Instead of rejecting or panning games that don’t match their preferences, he encouraged mutual respect and appreciation for game developers and their varying creative visions.
Eric Williams may have directed one of the highest-caliber games of this generation, but there’s no denying he supports every single game out there, big or small. After all, it’s the offbeat, wacky games that got the industry this far, not superhero sequels.
