Cory Barlog, the Creative Director at the helm of the latest God of War title, has taken to twitter once again to take a stance in one of the Internet's most intense and hardest fought wars of this generation instead of praising Death Stranding this time around. This years-long controversy has gone on since people started passing around short animated clips, and centers around how to pronounce the video format referred to as, GIF.
The majority of the debate comes from how the "G" in "GIF" is pronounced, and the major debate was primarily stoked by the format's developer, Steve Wilhite, who stands by the original annunciation including a soft "g" for the word. However, in another recent twitter post and following thread, God of War Director Cory Barlog has made clear what his preferred pronunciation on "GIF" is, choosing to side with the original creator.
The original tweet joined the ever-expanding list of influential tweets from Barlog that reignited the GIF vs JIF argument was meant to be a shout-out to some creators online who have released some incredible GIFs of God of War. In a video showing his appreciation to @SunhiLegend and @Much118x for their amazing God of War videos and GIFs, Barlog pronounces the word as JIF, with the soft "g" that many attest is how it is meant to be pronounced. Many other Twitter users were quick to "correct" Barlog's choice, as the more commonly accepted annunciation is with a hard "g" like gift.
Currently, the jury is still out on what the accepted way to pronounce "GIF" is, with arguments on both sides claiming different reasons for their preferred annunciation. However, Santa Monica Studios has even assured that Kratos himself agrees with Barlog, a change that will likely find itself engraved in God of War lore for years to come. In that case, it's hard to argue with the God of War himself, unless of course players want to suffer the same fate as what happened to the last person who crossed Kratos.
GIF vs JIF arguments aside, the original shout-out to @SunhiLegend and @Much118x are certainly much deserved considering the quality of videos that the two have uploaded. Both tend to make short clips from popular games such as, God of War, Bloodborne, and Monster Hunter World, often utilizing slow-motion and crafty camera work to pull off cinematic shots of gameplay. Both are very active on Twitter, uploading GIFs of their work and seemingly gaining the attention of developers like Santa Monica Studios for their skillful efforts to make God of War gorgeous.
God of War is available now for PS4.