God of War: What Almost Could Have Not Been

David Jaffe’s God of War, arguably the biggest action game of 2005, almost never saw the light of day after several complications (including one of David’s bosses, Shuhei Yoshida, saying that the game was just another cookie-cutter action title when development first started). However, he overcame many obstacles when designing the game and it finally came to be, just the way David imagined it. However, one of David’s inspirations for why he continued designing the game the way he exactly envisioned (rather than backing down to what lead programmer of the game, Tim Moss, wanted to do with it) was a rather unlikely source: a pop singer. And it was not just any pop singer, but “dirrty” Christina Aguilera herself. Here is what David Jaffe said about this matter in a recent Gamespot.com interview:

"I would be in spin class and there's this song that Christina Aguilera sings, and I would be thinking of Tim the whole time, because it's like a 'F**k you' song,” So I would sit in spin class and I got Tim on my mind and would think, 'F**k you, man, I'm going to make this work.'"

David Jaffe almost gave up on the whole project at one point as well:

"Always. This game has taught me more about tenacity and sticking to it than anything in my life. I never want to do it again, but I never realized the power that existed in tenacity until I did this game."

Its good to know that God of War came out exactly the way David intended it to be, and while I find Christina Aguilera’s music intolerable for the most part, its good to know that she played a role in making the production of this action game all work out (even if she probably doesn’t even know that the game exists). Also, I’m happy David Jaffe decided to go on with his project even when he was doubted by others and eventually wowed the ones he doubted