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Meet The Man Whose Creative Approach, and Dream Team, May Push Gaming As A True Art Form – Forbes


Jordan Freeman, the young entrepreneur looking to completely redesign the game production model.

Jordan Freeman

The late, great movie critic Roger Ebert famously stated that video games could never be art – and time spent playing them was “a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic”. While this debate has continually raged for years, there’s still no consensus – unlike with Ebert’s more favorably viewed realm of movies.

Film has, admittedly, been at the center of culture for longer. Television, too, was lauded as art for this exact reason two years ago by the New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman and Erin Overbey. Overwhelmingly, movies and TV provide an ‘artistic’, human connection with real, human faces. Video games? Not so much, even with the latest strides in motion capture.

Yet while Ebert is to be respected for his beliefs, they’re also developed from a medium he mastered and then applied to one he did not. Games are susceptible to the “uncanny valley”: where performances, however well-acted or incredibly rendered, make people feel uneasy, creeped out, or outright revolted.

Even with the best technology creating the most lifelike visuals, it falls just short of “real” human, simply because it’s not a real human on screen. In March, UX designer and social anthropologist Yisela Alvarez Trentini explored this in her essay, “The Uncanny Valley in Game Design”.

Sophia, a social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong’s Hanson Robotics, is a prime example of the “uncanny valley”.

Getty

She explained that connecting with the audience on a realistic and human level doesn’t require lifelike graphics – in fact, “graphical fidelity doesn’t necessarily mean human fidelity”. Instead, she suggested a simpler approach to overcome the uncanny valley.

“The best way to achieve human fidelity is to observe and use humans as our foundation,” she asserted. “[T]he clue to creating believable experiences is to work as part of a team of people who are willing to share their creativity.”

She continued:

Although the relationship between animators and concept artists is well-established, the role of writers is something the industry is less comfortable with, and so is the role of the actor. Traditionally game actors would be ‘voice actors’, but this isn’t the case anymore.

We all have diverse inspirations, and it’s through collaboration and dialog that we can achieve greatness. What better way to create a human experience than giving a little of our own uniqueness to our creations?”

Luckily, one person has long been on board with Alvarez Trentini’s worldview. Jordan Freeman knows the importance of collaborating with humans as the very foundations of success. Since the start of his career, he’s seen gaming as a central piece of a cross-media entertainment jigsaw: one that not only has a place as an artistic medium, but one that’s necessary to make great ideas connect with all audiences.

An early start

Despite only being 27, Freeman has long been disillusioned with the ways that many triple-A games – and the industry as a whole – has “become what Hollywood was like in gaming’s early days”. As such, he doesn’t want to use people to get the best out of ideas; he wants to shape ideas around the likeminded people who share his vision.

To do this, the young entrepreneur is quickly building an ever-growing “dream team” who looks to create gaming ideas and concepts around the talent he admires and wants to work with. From industry behemoths and highly-skilled tech experts to incredibly famous faces from film, music and TV, Freeman’s group wants to turn gaming on its head and connect with audiences in ways not seen before – and, all being well, break the wall separating gaming from artistic status.

Freeman kickstarted his career making cold calls from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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Hailing from Scottsdale, AZ, Freeman developed his initial passion for gaming at just four years old, adapting quickly to his dad’s Packard Bell and its pre-bundled MegaRace and Knowledge Adventure games – titles he was so enamored with that he eventually acquired the rights to them.

“I felt gaming was the best of all worlds, and prime for bringing everything together as one,” Freeman says. He stayed with computing, starting his own electronic repair business at 14. Soon after, he created competitive gaming platform Head 2 Head Gaming, where players could win prizes.

Hitting his mid-teens, he wanted to aim for the biggest opportunities – and while his working practices are much more personal now, Freeman’s early forays into the wider world of gaming were a lot less so. His big break came when he was 16 years old, when he used cold-calling to offer game remastering services, with a view to creating something much bigger: a concept that ended up becoming the ZOOM Platform.

The two Bernies

He explains: “I called game publishers such as 1C Company, Anuman Interactive, Digital Game Factory [now Merge Games], Rebellion Developments and Running with Scissors, among others. This is how I met Bernie Stolar.”

Stolar, a veteran of Atari, Sony and Sega, is one of those overlooked heroes of 90s and early 00s gaming. After serving as Atari’s president in the early 90s, he became executive vice-president of SCEA to help develop and launch the all-new PlayStation in the US and beyond. From there, he jumped ship to Sega of America for his biggest challenge: leading the team that launched the Dreamcast. Stolar’s strategy led to a then-industry record for preorders and week-one sales.

Bernie Stolar, who worked at the highest levels for the American divisions of Atari, Sony and Sega.

Benie Stolar

The cold call with Stolar soon turned warm. “After asking him to join my team as an advisor and after getting a positive response, I spent all the money I had to fly up to San Francisco and meet him,” Freeman explains. “An hour later, he tapped the table and said, ‘I’m in!’”

Freeman had his foot in the door with the gaming industry’s finest but wanted to use the industry he knew best as a base from which to offer a much wider, greater multimedia proposal. The remasters were important, but it was only a start. Inspired by one of his heroes, David Bowie, Freeman wanted to combine gaming with film, TV, music and more.

He explains:

Bowie is the perfect example of being able to bring all media together. He was unbelievably talented and always at the bleeding edge. Alongside music and film, he not only had his own video game (Omikron: The Nomad Soul) – he also had a website that predicted the future, specifically, an early vision of the internet which could be used as a way to share art.”

In order to realize his dream of following in Bowie’s footsteps, Freeman called Stolar’s namesake, Bernie Gilhuly, having learned of his reputation. “I’d heard of [Gilhuly’s] strong background in entertainment and finance, working with some of the biggest rock bands in the world,” Freeman says. “It was natural to call him – I’m just glad it worked out too!”

Gilhuly, like Stolar, warmed to Freeman quickly; Freeman introduced the Bernies to one another, “and a mutual respect quickly developed”. From there, they made their first steps towards Freeman’s multimedia vision.

Freeman continues: “In addition to our initial plan to re-release games on other platforms, Bernie [Stolar] and I wanted to open our own digital storefront with the eventual goal of producing original content. This idea became the ZOOM Platform.”

ZOOM zooms

In 2014, their ZOOM Platform became available with Stolar as executive chairman, Freeman as CEO and Gilhuly as CFO. Joining them soon after as VP of business development was Ben Herman, a veteran of SNK who helped launch both the Neo Geo AES and Pocket Color.

Together, they set out an early mission to design, create, and publish traditional and interactive media that appealed to Generation X. ZOOM’s products would be distributed digitally via ZOOM, alongside non-exclusive third-party content from both major publishers and indies in a DRM-free model akin to GOG.com.

The ZOOM Platform launched in 2014, gathering pace immediately.

Jordan Freeman Group

“I’m proud to say ZOOM Platform was entirely self-funded too. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you my initial budget,” says Freeman, “but we achieved the impossible. While our team may be small in numbers, we soon developed a fantastic international profile: staff can be found in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.”

Thanks to the powers of the internet, progress proved quick and effective. “Everyone can work efficiently on their own time schedules, and we all work towards a common goal. I’ve always wanted to be tenacious, persistent, and never let up – and that’s how we function as a company.”

From the earliest days, ZOOM sought to license titles beloved by the team, such as the aforementioned MegaRace and Knowledge Adventure games – alongside early successes including Aliens vs Predator Gold Edition and the Sudden Strike series.

“Soon after we developed a reputation for getting games to work that our competitors deemed impossible to run on modern operating systems. The titles we’ve converted include Killing Time, the Incoming trilogy and Zone Raiders; word gets around fast and publishers now reach out to us, which is a really good sign.”

Introducing the cross-media “Worlds” format

As ZOOM established itself in the gaming community, Freeman and the two Bernies went back to the one thing that brought them together in the first place: the opportunity to develop their own, exciting, trans-media ideas that resonated with as many people as possible, in ways their potential audiences enjoyed. They wanted to break the mold and not only play to their own wealth of business experience, but the real talent of others.

“The gaming industry now sees theatrical and musical talent as an afterthought,” Freeman says. For him, the best way to ensure success – both with audiences and profits – is to prioritize talent at all levels.

He continues: “Take Top Gun, for example. They built an incredible soundtrack team, and they knew to make video games and other merchandise around the IP, well before it became the standard. It shortened the development time between all those sub-projects, maximized revenue potential and allowed for easy cross-marketing and promotion. Most of all, it carefully protected the initial creative idea.”

‘Top Gun’, produced in 1986 by the now-defunct Ocean Software.

Public domain

And so the “Worlds” format was born.

“We want to create trans-media IPs that create gaming stories and characters around great people – our ‘Icons’ – and with these, we can then develop a strong brand that resonates on a more profound level with gamers,” he says. “We want our titles to offer truly deep dramatic stories, characters and settings – and hopefully, they can easily transfer across other entertainment mediums.”

The Worlds format looks to remove as many barriers as possible between TV, film and gaming. While he knows he has his core base of gamers cared for, Freeman also wants to open the doors for non-gamers to discover an IP they love, then explore it on an all-new level with a controller in their hands. This way, they can experience the same “multiple storylines” and “episodic formats with guest stars”. Sure, they may have to wait longer than a week to get their next “show”, but the sheer immersion they’ll enjoy from this new approach will aim to satisfy the wait.

Of course, to pull this off, you need great talent – and Freeman’s team is growing to include plenty of people you’ll know well.

Big ideas need big names

Doing what he does best, cold calling and emails helped Freeman meet with all sort of stars, production companies, managers and agents. Among these is Bruce Dern, the Academy Award-nominated actor who just finished recording for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, having played General Sandford Smithers to perfection in the director’s 2015 hit The Hateful Eight.

Then there’s comedian Andy Dick, star of NewsRadio and Less than Perfect, and a man who himself got his break in gaming, having helped Sega in its Genesis promotional campaign in the early 90s.

Alongside these stars are Sebastian Bach, former lead singer of Skid Row and a TV, film and stage star to boot; Christian Erickson, voice actor extraordinaire of Heavy Rain, Fahrenheit and MegaRace fame; and Rich Vos, the multi-talented comedian who had his breakthrough as the first Caucasian comic to perform on Def Comedy Jam.

Freeman has even managed to speak to James Bond. He explains: “I cold-called Irish Dreamtime Productions – Pierce Brosnan’s production company – and ended up getting a call from Pierce himself. I’m in my car on my way to the gym and couldn’t believe it, I had to pull over immediately. I really appreciated him taking the time to hear my pitch. He later introduced me to his wife, Keely. Getting a call back from him directly was incredible, it spoke volumes about his character.”

Through Ramón Estevez – of that Estevez acting family – Freeman met his niece (and Emilio Estevez’s daughter) Paloma: “an incredible drummer and composer” who’s been drafted to work on the soundtrack to MegaRace: DeathMatch, alongside ZOOM’s first major new IP: Shadow Stalkers.

With Dern, Bach, Erickson, Dick, Vos, and others all confirmed for the title – which for now, Freeman is a little coy about – Shadow Stalkers could really be an exciting idea that tests the Worlds and Icons concepts that Freeman touts.

Freeman’s upcoming IP, ‘Shadow Stalkers’, will be revealed in more detail in the near future.

Jordan Freeman Group

The waiting game

While cynics among us will question whether Freeman’s concept is simply a means of maximizing profits with the same IP, the possibilities of a real hit could prove detractors wrong, effectively mitigating the many failures that game developers have demonstrated in their attempts to secure cross-media success – whether that’s converting a game to film (Resident Evil; Tomb Raider – twice; Alone in the Dark) or vice-versa (2003 RoboCop; Jurassic Park: The Lost World; Batman Forever).

Yet Freeman, despite being a businessman at heart, clearly cares for gaming. He understands that the key to making this world connect with an audience is to also see it as a movie, TV show or song; he wants his ideas to be worthy regardless of their mediums, connecting with as many people as possible. And to connect with people, he needs to collaborate with people.

It’s this approach that could truly help games become more recognized as works of art: a seamless blend of elements we appreciate as artistic, but presented in a cross-media package that combines imagination with interactivity, founded on real creativity.

I’ve played plenty of games that I’d consider to be works of art, but I know I’m not able to confidently say it without countless people saying otherwise on sheer principle. This will, however, change; with the likes of Freeman and his team developing ideas around tangible, human talent – and the performances that come with it – this process may just go that little bit quicker.





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