From "Shuang Ying Qi Jing" to the GameFi Predicament: The Purity and Loss of Game Creation

Written by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Recently, the sequel to “It Takes Two,” titled “A Tale of Two Shadows,” has officially launched. Have you embarked on a new adventure journey with your comrades?

On social media and in major game live streaming rooms, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Many players believe that this game will win the TGA Game of the Year, similar to the achievements of “It Takes Two” in 2021.

When talking about the success of the “It Takes Two” series, one must mention its producer Josef Fares.

In the gaming world, Josef Fares is known by the nicknames “the Angry Brother” and “Quentin of the gaming world,” famous for his bluntness.

At The Game Awards in 2017, his “Fuck the Oscars” speech became widely known for criticizing the Oscars’ neglect of games, turning into a popular meme.

In terms of game philosophy, Josef Fares pursues the ultimate purity of gaming.

Josef Fares is strongly opposed to the inclusion of any form of microtransactions in games. He believes that the infiltration of capital into game design distorts the essence of creation, and when development teams start thinking about “how to get players to pay more,” the narrative pace and character development of the game become subservient to the paywall.

This persistence is particularly evident in “It Takes Two”—the game does not sell character skins and does not set any repetitive content that extends gameplay. Instead, it creates a sales miracle of 23 million copies sold through its ingenious design of cooperative levels, half of which came from players in China.

Josef Fares’ love for games, especially multiplayer games, may be related to his childhood experiences.

In 1977, Josef was born in Lebanon during the civil war, where artillery fire and smoke were the main colors of his childhood, with only games adding a touch of color to his early years.

“If my friend’s house doesn’t have a game console, it’s as uncomfortable as not having a toilet.”

Josef has an older brother named Fares Fares. The two brothers quickly adapted to life in Sweden, learning Swedish in just three months.

They live in the inland city of Örebro in Sweden, where many punk rock bands were born, and the artistic atmosphere is strong. The two brothers started performing in a local theater troupe in Örebro.

Young Josef developed a strong interest in movies. With a self-taught spirit, he filmed 50 short films during his teenage years and submitted them to global film festivals. In 1998, he entered the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts to study film directing, during which he completed his first feature film “Jalla! Jalla!”, which was a box office success in Sweden. Subsequently, he created works such as “Kopps”, “Zozo” (which won the Nordic Council Film Prize), and “Leo”, making a name for himself in the film industry.

In 2013, Fares’ career took a significant turn - he left the film industry to dive into game development. Inspired by the story of him and his brother, he created his first game titled “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons,” which achieved great success, selling over 10 million copies worldwide and establishing his position in the gaming industry.

Unlike the well-known works of Josef, “A Way Out” and “It Takes Two”, “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons” also features dual protagonists, but it is a single-player game where players control the brother and the younger brother with their left and right hands respectively. This rare control method was a firm requirement from Josef, “We have seen many wonderful stories in games, but what I want to do is a narrative approach that only games can carry.”

Josef said, “At the end of ‘Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons’, when the brother dies and the player has to control the弟弟 with one hand, you can vividly feel what you have lost; this is the climax, and it’s what I strive for.”

In addition to having an older brother, Josef actually had a younger brother who died in the war, which may also be a form of remembrance.

Subsequently, he founded Hazelight Studios, focusing on developing story-driven cooperative games.

In 2018, he launched “A Way Out,” and in 2021, he released “It Takes Two.”

Josef’s pursuit of gameplay is almost insane; he even lambasts the “replayability” that many games today worship.

Most developers in the gaming industry are dedicated to ensuring that their games have at least “replayability,” which is why we see so many unlockable content, collectibles, and treasures in games. However, Josef believes this is a flaw in the gaming industry; developers are too focused on the replayability of the game rather than putting their energy into making the game fun.

“Actually, the concept of replayability is quite strange. Do you know what percentage of players actually replay a game? I don’t know if it’s true, but I think the proportion of players who buy a game and never finish it must be higher than those who replay it. As a result, our focus is still on this small portion of people.”

As for the once-popular NFTs, Josef stated that he would rather “get shot in the knee than add NFTs to the game.”

He emphasized that gaming is an art form, opposing any microtransactions and “pay-to-win” models, advocating that “pure love for the game” should be the core driving force of creation.

This not only reminds me of the criticism of Web3 games made by the first investor of “Black Myth: Wukong”, Wu Dan (Daniel), in an interview.

“The common ‘technology + game’ trend when new technologies emerge, such as Web3 games and AI games, often struggles to achieve success. It’s always ‘games plus something else’; investors should focus more on the team itself rather than being misled by new technological directions.”

Wu Dan stated that he has seen many entrepreneurs in the gaming industry turn to the Web3 field after its rise, but he “would never invest” in such projects. He explained: “Firstly, he doesn’t love games, so how could he possibly create a good game?”

This may also be the dilemma of Gamefi, which is not pure.

Many developers of GameFi projects do not truly love games; they merely see games as a shell for packaging financial products, a narrative that appeals to investors.

The field of blockchain games is filled with a lot of self-deception and mutual deception.

Some developers deceive themselves into believing that the addition of economic systems like NFTs will improve games; developers deceive investors and users by claiming to be creating “revolutionary and fun games”; investors deceive themselves into thinking that these projects will disrupt the gaming industry; players deceive themselves by believing they are “playing to earn” rather than participating in a zero-sum game. This multilayered deception forms a fragile foundation for the entire ecosystem.

There will never be only one path to success in the world. “Genshin Impact” can succeed with its open world and gacha mechanics, “Black Myth: Wukong” can succeed with its AAA graphics and passionate combat, the Tencent charging system can make you stronger and succeed, and “It Takes Two” can succeed with its pursuit of ultimate gameplay and two-player interaction.

However, if it is to be fun and also to have financial assets that can directly generate profit, but there is nothing, neither game mechanics nor a good economic model, it is destined to fail.

It is suggested that GameFi developers might as well be straightforward and say, “We are creating a gamified Ponzi, using games to package tokens,” abandoning the “good game narrative.” This would be more genuine and easier to succeed.