David Jaffe lost his mind at YouTube personality Vara Dark, going on a wild, unhinged, and deeply sexist rant against the popular gaming commentator on his own moderately populated channel. Dark responded by verbally destroying the once prominent developer, taking him to task for his comments.
God of War director David Jaffe would like you to believe he’s down with the wokeness. His hot takes defending games like Dragon Age: The Veilguard against supposed YouTube “grifters” are filled with all the right virtue signaling buzzwords that will earn him points with outlets like Kotaku and IGN.
A screenshot from God of War (2018), Santa Monica Studios
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But when challenged by an actual woman in the space who has an opinion that differs from his, Jaffe melted down, attributing the success of Vara Dark (who has achieved FAR more success as a YouTube personality than Jaffe) to her gender and appearance.
Let them teach you what it’s okay to say. The right way to “be progressive” & “tolerant”. Then extend that kindness back to them. pic.twitter.com/9oJm3YA0u8
— Cyael (@Cyael) December 1, 2024
This whole sordid saga started because Jaffe posted a video on his channel in which he states that Dragon Age: The Veilguard only failed because of YouTube commentators hating on it. Dark, along with many others, pushed back on this narrative, noting that the game’s failure had everything to do with its uninspiring gameplay, clumsy narrative, and forced modern day identity politics.
In Vara’s rebuke of Jaffe’s comments, she called him salty for his take, and for the excuses he made for BioWare’s development team in the wake of their monumental failure with Veilguard.
You don’t have to like me. And certainly don’t have to agree with me. But please, don’t lie about what I say. And if you are going to try to attack me, please be smart enough to do so,Vera Dark. Otherwise I’ll feel like I’m picking on a little kid. https://t.co/dygkg6GRH4 pic.twitter.com/s7GSOjFYng
— David Jaffe (@davidscottjaffe) November 30, 2024
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Jaffe, who once enjoyed relevancy in the gaming industry as the creator of God of War, responded to being called “salty” in monumental fashion.
“You are in that chair, Vara, because of your hair, and your face, and your gender,” he said, breaking down the walls of his supposed progressive values to attribute a woman’s success to her appearance. “And that’s fine by the way. There’s no problem with that. But let’s be clear, you’re a mental lightweight.”
He then dehumanizes Dark by comparing her to a spider.
“You have about as much mental capacity as a spider that I killed in my shower this morning. It’s the g****** truth, Vara.”
A screenshot from God of War (2018), Santa Monica Studios
Jaffe’s big sticking point seems to be that Dark, and by extension the YouTube gaming commentary community, shouldn’t have a say in the quality of games because they haven’t worked in the industry. However, YouTube commentators represent a demographic with a much more valuable opinion than a bunch of insider devs watching each other’s backs.
Because YouTube commentators are consumers. The paying customer. The people these projects are designed to attract and to please. To disregard their opinions because they hurt the feelings or sensibilities of you and your contemporaries only serves to show the stark divide that has risen between the Western gaming industry and the players they claim to serve.
If a candy company created a candy bar that most consumers believe tastes like a dog turd, those manufacturers wouldn’t typically turn around and blame the consumer for not having their refined taste or insinuate that they don’t know what good candy tastes like because they’ve never been a chocolatier.
Dark’s rebuttal to Jaffe was blunt and effective.
“He’s furious that our voices matter,” Dark said. “That content creators have a voice. But also that it’s so easy for people to, at the end of the day, give their opinions, for an average person maybe like you watching! He is furious at that. I understand that he’s a little bit salty he’s not relevant anymore. He used to be extremely relevant. He’s got this YouTube channel with, I think like 55,000 subscribers which is still pretty good don’t get me wrong, but it’s clear that he’s just a little bit angry that this is the situation.”
David once claimed I “didn’t know anything about him” yet in this video he proves he knows nothing about me. I have never voiced who I have voted for, I have never said if I think Obama is really a US citizen or not. He says “YOU GUYS talking about kids going to school and coming… https://t.co/1RUerDOm47 pic.twitter.com/tSrG28JUw9
— Vara Dark (@Vara_Dark) November 30, 2024
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“I am in this chair because I genuinely believe the things I’m talking about,” Dark said. “Because I genuinely want the video game industry to be better. I am sitting in this chair because there are not enough voices when it comes to the gaming industry and trying to protect the previous franchises that are getting absolutely destroyed by activists right now. I am sitting in this chair because not a lot of other people will. And I’m not saying that there’s no one, right? There are tons of amazing content creators who are now talking about the culture war and GamerGate 2, but I’ve been talking about censorship in the video game industry and microtransaction problems and the awful way that developers and Community managers have acted for years.”
Dark’s YouTube channel has more than 140 thousand subscribers, making her one of the most successful and well-known names in the video game commentary world.
A screenshot of Vara Dark’s YouTube channel showing more than 4 thousand videos and 140 thousand subscribers – YouTube, Vara Dark
“And I will continue to do so,” she said of her ongoing quest to advocate for change in the struggling Western gaming industry. “You can sit here and call me a mental lightweight, but you don’t know me. You have not watched all of the four thousand pieces of content uploaded on my channel. I stream twenty hours a week. I put up fifteen videos a week. I have done that for years now. So you can call me a mental lightweight, but I’m going to keep it a buck, I know more about the current state of the video game industry than you have known about the video game industry in the last 15 years. You are completely out of touch with gamers. You are completely out of touch with how people feel. And you genuinely do not care. You don’t care about listening to people. You don’t care about listening to me. You do not care about listening to the people that you need to swipe their credit cards if you decide to ever get off your ass and make another game.
“All you’re really doing is embarrassing yourself bringing up the way that I look bringing my gender into this conversation,” she continued. “Why does my gender matter? Again, I’m not sitting in this chair because I’m a woman. I have worked hard on my channel for five years. It’s not because of my hair that people subscribe, it’s not because of my face that people subscribe. It’s because of the takes that I have. And again, they are takes that I genuinely believe in, so you can sit here and you can say this all you want. But you’re really just making yourself look even worse than you really already do.”
Alyssa Mercante on X
David Jaffe isn’t the first time virtue signaling legacy games industry personality to malign and attack Vara Dark. Former Kotaku Senior Editor turned Patreon peddler Alyssa Mercante challenged YouTubers to a fight several months ago. When Dark accepted, Mercante quickly had reasons why she wasn’t going to follow through.
Do you think David Jaffe exposed himself as a hypocrite in his tirade against Vara Dark? How do you rate her response? Sound off an let us know your thoughts!
Hey, comments work again! Uhh…first?
Second lol
BRONZE
Man, finally. Hate not being able to comment. Thought you guys were scared.
David Gaffe wouldn’t stand a chance against a woman with brain like Vara. He would be ripped like the soyboy he is.
I assume she’s the victor in this but I can’t seem to champion anyone in this arena.
Vara Dark is not woke.