Creativity vs gimmickry

[KwadDamyj]

Is it just me or has there been a dearth of true creativity in games the past several years?

I remember games like Dr. Brain and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Great games, those two.

These days, however, creativity in regard to gameplay mechanics seems to often tread into gimmicky territory (I'm lookin' at you, Nintendo. You've still got some spunk, but you're churning out a lot of crap these days, too.)

What's happened? =^/

[-_DLD_-]

Don't tell me you've just come to the same realization that I came to years ago.

Almost all new games are huge gimmicks, because everybody is out of new ideas, period.

I do not believe there will be another game that has an impact like DOOM, unless they make a special DOOM game which is total Virtual-Reality where you're actually the marine and you need to move, shoot, etc against seemingly-real life opponents in a virtual world. Kind of like The Matrix.

[KwadDamyj]

That'd be boring to me. Much as I love DooM, we already have a damn load of shooters on the market currently, and far too many of them suck.

The only shooters in recent memory that I honestly feel like giving some semblance of credit are...

-Halo 1. Somehow combined the intensity of games like DooM with more intelligent, tactical gameplay.
-Quake III. Excellent level design and balanced like a fine knife.
-Condemned: Criminal Origins (If that counts). First-person melee has never been done better than this.
-Serious Sam. It pwnz you. 'nuff said.

[Ralphis]

What about that whole HALFLIFE THING

[KwadDamyj]

Ralphis said:

What about that whole HALFLIFE THING

First one is good. Opposing Force is divine. Blue Shift I have no opinion on. Codename: Gordon is cute if you count that. And HL2 I refuse to deck out my laptop for as it appears to me to be an above-average FPS with pretty graphics and a physics engine whose primary purpose is to enable you to chuck nearby furniture at gasmask fascist dudes.

[188DarkRevived]

Ralphis said:

What about that whole HALFLIFE THING

Or what about the whole Halo thing for that matter.
Anyone ever notice how the Halo character is an almost identical rip-off of the green marine sprite converted into fully three-dimensional form?
Yeah, so like they added a pair of uzis instead of a shotgun. But they still stole OUR green marine.
It sickens me to think that some people actually wouldn't recognize or acknowledge this fact.

[KwadDamyj]

DarkJedi188 said:

Or what about the whole Halo thing for that matter.
Anyone ever notice how the Halo character is an almost identical rip-off of the green marine sprite converted into fully three-dimensional form?
Yeah, so like they added a pair of uzis instead of a shotgun. But they still stole OUR green marine.
It sickens me to think that some people actually wouldn't recognize or acknowledge this fact.

Well, they DO both borrow from military sci-fi. =^/ Besides, green is usual military colors. I tend not to think of Doomguy when I think of Master Chief.

[Nightmare Doom]

Lets Face it:

Art & Creativity is Diminishing.

[Naked Snake]

DarkJedi188 said:

Or what about the whole Halo thing for that matter.
Anyone ever notice how the Halo character is an almost identical rip-off of the green marine sprite converted into fully three-dimensional form?
Yeah, so like they added a pair of uzis instead of a shotgun. But they still stole OUR green marine.
It sickens me to think that some people actually wouldn't recognize or acknowledge this fact.

Um, look at the Quake 3 Doom Marine, Master Chief looks nothing like that...

Stop smoking crack.

[TheDarkArchon]

The helmet looks somewhat familiar, though.

[KwadDamyj]

TheDarkArchon said:

The helmet looks somewhat familiar, though.

Master Chief's looks more like a cafe racer motorcycle helmet. Doomguy's looks like a BMX racer helmet.

[wildweasel]

It's not the ideas themselves that make a game good; it's how they are portrayed to the player. As an example, I cite Dragon Quest VIII (the demo of it, at least - I haven't had the chance to buy the full version yet).

The plot? Typical fairy-tale stuff - a king is cursed by an evil wizard, and it's up to a young royal guard and his friends to defeat the wizard, break the curse, and save the king. That sounds absurdly boring on paper - but the characters that the player interacts with (notably Yangus) add some much welcomed spice to the usual batch of plain-vanilla.

Nearly all of Lucasarts' adventure games follow some kind of formula that had been seen in the past. Pirates? Done. Indiana Jones-type archaeology expeditions? Yep. But the way these were handled (pirates with a sense of humor; Indy with more of a thoughtful approach as opposed to grabbing the idol and running) made games like The Last Crusade and Monkey Island very entertaining.

And as for Nintendo with their gimmickry - they're simply trying new things, which is what the gaming community seems to desire for the most part. If something doesn't quite fly with the gamers, then Nintendo simply doesn't try it again (or else improves on it in such a way that would encourage gamers to give it another chance).

Some of Nintendo's most popular franchises and spin-offs were the result of such experimentation and gimmickry - look at the original Zelda, Kirby's Dream Land, and the Mario sports games.

[Csonicgo]

Nightmare Doom said:

Lets Face it:

Art & Creativity is Diminishing.

How? There is no possible way that humans could come up with EVERYTHING yet.

[TheDarkArchon]

But as time goes on, it takes more gifted persons to come up with original concepts.

[KwadDamyj]

I still have to wonder what the SNES era had that this era lacks. =^/ Am I just jaded? I mean, look at Resident Evil 4. Definite change of direction and pace for the series. Yet right at the castle part just after you beat the Garrador(sp?) and fight a whole roomful of cultists, I just felt bored with the game. Ditto with Metroid Prime 2 right in the middle of the swamp area.

[Scabbed Angel]

Ralphis said:

What about that whole HALFLIFE THING

Heh, I finally purchased HL2 a month ago, and have been playing an hour or so here and there... I'm sad to say that it doesn't seem that much better than D3 to me, although I had expected it to from all the reviews awards etc... in the first few hours there are quite a few of marginally interesting physics puzzles, but those instances peter out quite quickly. Not bad, but not revolutionary...

EDIT: I think RE4 was the best game that has come out over the past few years, nice and innovative change in direction for a survival horror game, kept me interested until the end... one of the few games I've gotten all the secrets save for the unlimited magnum.. ust my .02...

[caco_killer]

I've heard people mention the videogame industry is like the early movie industry. It lacks independent thought.

[leileilol]

Creativity is unfortunately drowned by licensed shit.

Look at Shiny ent. and Raven software. Two companies at their own wacky worlds, now forced to milk the franchise cashcow to producing Matrix and Star Wars shite.

No one else still has done a gargoyle game since 1994, and that's like the most original form of platformer ever imo.

[KwadDamyj]

gargoylol said:

Creativity is unfortunately drowned by licensed shit.

Look at Shiny ent. and Raven software. Two companies at their own wacky worlds, now forced to milk the franchise cashcow to producing Matrix and Star Wars shite.

No one else still has done a gargoyle game since 1994, and that's like the most original form of platformer ever imo.

That and Sparkster. I wish they had made more in that series. =^( And Yoshi's Island, like I said. Amazing how quickly they killed the subfranchise just because of Yoshi's Story.

I also demand a sequel to an old SNES Super FX game you may know as Vortex. It was like Star Fox meets MechWarrior/Robotech. It was righteously awesome.

Lastly, I wish Sierra was still making Roger Wilco/Space Quest games. =^(

Where oh where have the '90s gone? =^(

*renders afire small effigies of Gabe Newell and Ken Kutaragi*

[Lüt]

KwadDamyj said:

Is it just me or has there been a dearth of true creativity in games the past several years?

Quite a while ago.

[KwadDamyj]

I would like to take this time to wonder what the honest point of the Game Boy Micro is.

For some reason I love the Nintendo DS and would love to develop for it yet look upon the Nintendo Revolution like mortals look upon Lovecraftian creatures. I have to wonder whether this "Revolution" is one of accessibility (more people will be able to enjoy games), or innovation/development (we will be able to make new AND better/more fun/more sophisticated/more etc.) types of games.

It's starting to feel more like the former, in which case my inner wannabe game designer is screaming bloody murder, to be quite honest.

I honestly care more about the product than about who plays it, as I believe that I can design a product of sufficient quality and publicity that it will attract an intelligent and discriminating fanbase, or at least will win recognition of some significance.

At the moment it's sort of a dream of mine to be an Orson Welles of sorts for gaming. =^/

Nothing else to say at the moment. End of post. Continue.

[leileilol]

I think spyware in games started appearing around 2001 in Black & White. Last game i've played that wanted to phone home badly was Peter Jackson's(tm) King Kong(r) The Official Video Game(r) For The Windows(r) XP(r) PC(tm)

[Sporku]

gargoylol said:

Peter Jackson's(tm) King Kong(r) The Official Video Game(r) For The Windows(r) XP(r) PC(tm)

Which also happens to be one of the worst games I've seen in quite a long time.

[geekmarine]

(A) I loved King Kong, or at least the demo... Thought it was a lot of fun.

(B) I don't know why everyone's gotta be Nintendo bashing. I mean, look at the DS. When it first came out, people's general reaction to it was that it was just one big gimmick... Now, a year later, there are plenty of really great games out for it.

(C) Personally, I can't wait for Revolution. I'm really hoping that it'll have a bunch of really innovative games. At the very least, it certainly has the potential for greatness. At this point, it's really a matter of what the software developers decide to do with that potential. And once again, at least Nintendo's trying. I mean, what about X-Box 360 or Playstation 3? Exactly like the old generation, only more powerful. Can we really expect better games, simply because they'll be prettier? I want to know what, in terms of gameplay, will they be able to do on these new systems that they couldn't do on the old ones.

[KwadDamyj]

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the DS. I just have been dissatisfied with a lot of Nintendo games (and equally as many if not more games for other consoles and maybe even PC) lately.

I have high standards. =^/

[188DarkRevived]

KwadDamyj said:

Lastly, I wish Sierra was still making Roger Wilco/Space Quest games. =^(

Yeah, so do I.
What ever happened to the idea of Space Quest 7?
It was suppossed to be the first fully three-dimensional title in the series, and it was announced in like 1997, right around the time that Duke Nukem Forever also got announced for the first time....

What the hell happened?
We can see DNF actually begin emerging now, but SQ7 is like unheard-of nowadays.

[-_DLD_-]

KwadDamyj said:

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the DS. I just have been dissatisfied with a lot of Nintendo games (and equally as many if not more games for other consoles and maybe even PC) lately.

I have high standards. =^/

We're in the same boat. I heart the DS, but there are barely any proper games for it. I too have high standards. =(

EDIT: Heh, 666th post. Does this mean I'm Satanic?

[TheDarkArchon]

No, it means you're an idiot for pointing it out.

[VileSlay]

the reason why things seem mired in the gaming (and movie) industry is that all art is really variation on themes. book, movie, and game plots can never be truly original. everything has to fall into an archetype. the hero has a thousand faces. the only thing games and movies have going for them is the technology to make them look better, and in the case of games, come up with new gimmicks to try to keep things "fresh". I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but the trend at the moment is really bland. I barely play games nowadays because most of what I see in mags and on tv does not jump out at me as being something I HAVE to buy.

[Scuba Steve]

Lüt said:

Quite a while ago.

That reminds me, AndrewB is still an idiot when it comes to knowing anything about games. Mostly just an idiot.