What ever happened to originality?
Author
I miss the good old days of games like Pacman where you have a pizza shaped wedge trying to eat pellets while avoiding ghosts... Characters like Mario who are attempting to avoid walking mushrooms and geese with wings in an attempt to save a princess from a spikey-shelled reptile... Crazy aliens like Toe Jam & Earl attempting to gather pieces of their spaceship shattered over the earth while avoiding crazy people and mice in those rolling balls... Walking, talking, shooting earthworms named Jim.
It seems like all games nowadays are trying to be life-like, full of realism. Nothing seems original to me, but instead just a copy off existing concepts or previous creations.
Is it just me? Does anyone else feel this way?
Its the cold harsh reality :)
I guess its easier to create a game with cool graphics than creating a game which is fun and original.And it takes less time so less money.
Thats why some of the amatuer games are more fun than commercial games.
Thats what i think.
I guess its easier to create a game with cool graphics than creating a game which is fun and original.And it takes less time so less money.
Thats why some of the amatuer games are more fun than commercial games.
Thats what i think.
Unless you're specifically talking about the originality of game _stories_ this post belongs in the design forum, not the writing forum.
My personal opinion is that there is no shortage of original ideas, only a shortage of people with money who want to finance the production of an original game.
My personal opinion is that there is no shortage of original ideas, only a shortage of people with money who want to finance the production of an original game.
Quote:Original post by MattmanRight, just like Psychonauts. Or maybe that's the perfect example of why people are afraid to fund original games. [smile]
It seems like all games nowadays are trying to be life-like, full of realism. Nothing seems original to me, but instead just a copy off existing concepts or previous creations.
Is it just me? Does anyone else feel this way?
But yeah, the design forum does seem like a better place for such generic design questions. Maybe just move it?
Quote:Its the cold harsh reality :)Well, that isn't the reason. It takes more time to create the highly realistic graphics than it would to come up with a simple, fun piece of gamplay. Unless the amatuers actually spend more time on their games than the dozens of people working eighty hour weeks for nine months in a studio somewhere. Apparently, realism just sells better.
I guess its easier to create a game with cool graphics than creating a game which is fun and original.And it takes less time so less money.
Thats why some of the amatuer games are more fun than commercial games.
Thats what i think.
it's possible that today's game designers are too busy looking at other companies' work and saying "Cool! Why didn't I think of that?" and then going off to make something that looks vaguely like the game they saw but just as cool.
Quote:Original post by Mattman
I miss the good old days of games like Pacman where you have a pizza shaped wedge trying to eat pellets while avoiding ghosts... Characters like Mario who are attempting to avoid walking mushrooms and geese with wings in an attempt to save a princess from a spikey-shelled reptile... Crazy aliens like Toe Jam & Earl attempting to gather pieces of their spaceship shattered over the earth while avoiding crazy people and mice in those rolling balls... Walking, talking, shooting earthworms named Jim.
It seems like all games nowadays are trying to be life-like, full of realism. Nothing seems original to me, but instead just a copy off existing concepts or previous creations.
Is it just me? Does anyone else feel this way?
Funny, people back then were saying the same think about checkers and tiddley winks, jacks, skittleball, etc....
Quote:Original post by Mattman
It seems like all games nowadays are trying to be life-like, full of realism. Nothing seems original to me, but instead just a copy off existing concepts or previous creations.
Gish
Loco Roco
Katamari Damacy
Okami
Geometry Wars
[Super] Monkey Ball
Feel the Magic: XY/XX
Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
On the other hand, we have gems like:
E.T.
All the crap in the market in 1983
Quote:Is it just me? Does anyone else feel this way?
It's not just you, but you're all wrong. More specifically, you're all suffering from selective memories seen through the hazy glow of nostalgia.
Worse, none of you have actual suggestions.
I think some game companies are just scared to change the formula that already sells well for them.
Quote:Original post by MattmanOne thing you might want to notice is that all the ideas you mentioned were about game characters and settings, not actual gameplay. In terms of gameplay, I think Pac-Man was one of the first to use the collect-all-the-stuff mechanic, but it really isn't that different from any other games. It is about spatial-temporal patterns and collecting stuff. The earlier game Space Invaders is also about spatial-temporal patterns and collecting empty spaces on the screen by bringing bullets and aliens into the same space-time coordinates. If someone were to make a game using a wacky, original setting like Pac-Man, but using the same game mechanics, that would not be original. It would be yet another clone.
I miss the good old days of games like Pacman where you have a pizza shaped wedge trying to eat pellets while avoiding ghosts... Characters like Mario who are attempting to avoid walking mushrooms and geese with wings in an attempt to save a princess from a spikey-shelled reptile... Crazy aliens like Toe Jam & Earl attempting to gather pieces of their spaceship shattered over the earth while avoiding crazy people and mice in those rolling balls... Walking, talking, shooting earthworms named Jim.
And just for the record, Katamari is a lot like Pac-Man.
Also, while Mario was the first side-scrolling platform game, Earthworm Jim was an innovation on the same genre, not a completely original game.
I'm not trying to say that these games are bad. What I'm trying to show is that even "original" games like these are usually closely based off other games.
I do agree that realism is not the end. Now that games are becoming capable of very realistic graphics, I think that they will be forced to use new styles in order to differentiate themselves.
Quote:Original post by Oluseyi
It's not just you, but you're all wrong. More specifically, you're all suffering from selective memories seen through the hazy glow of nostalgia.
So true. :)
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
