Thursday, April 28, 2005
Blast from the past
It's so rare when Nick and I actually agree on anything related to gaming. So it came as quite a surprise to me when I read Nick's column on innovation a few days ago. Not only do I agree completely with what he said, I had actually written a very similar column a few years ago. While Xengamers never actually published my column for reasons I don't remember (I can't imagine it was quality therein since everything I write is the purest of gold) this is actually the first time my particular thoughts on innovation have been posted. Most of it is still pretty relevant actually. The vast majority of developers around today are simply not equipped to handle innovation in any capacity. I wish they would realize their weaknesses and attempt to refine an already existing genre, like Sony did with God of War, rather than waste everyone's time with Eye Toy Groove.
When a new game is released or unveiled, one of the first thing people inevitably ask is "What makes it stand out?" or "Why is this game innovative?" And, more often than not, the answer is very little. Most games fall under the category of "Just like this game but..." At E3, this trend was especially prevalent. If you look back at the impressions, you will see a great many of them have the phrase "A potentially X killer" or "Could finally do the genre right" or other statements that lend one to believe that the game lacks innovation. My question is: why is innovation such an important factor in video games? In the end, does it really matter if a video game is truly innovated or not as long as it is fun to play?
To anyone out there who decides to purchase a game based on how creative the developer is or refuses to buy a game because it cleanly fits in one of the big genres, I will concede this: obviously, without innovation, our industry would have died many years ago. Someone had to come up with the concept of a 2D-platform game or overhead shooter before they were mimicked and cloned to virtual extinction. But, now that we have a wide variety of different games to waste our time with, is it really necessary to continue to force developers to redefine or create a genre with every new game? In the long run, I think that the constant need for developers to innovate could potentially hurt our industry.
Basically, right now we are in a period of intense growth. 3D was born last generation, but very few developers actually got it right. In the entire 32-Bit generation, one could argue that only 3 franchises actually got 3D platform games right: Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, and Ape Escape. Almost every other game in the genre was almost unplayable in its crapulence as they were trying to copy a game that the development crew either wasn't talented enough to successfully copy or just didn't have the needed time to make a quality game. But, as big as this genre is, there is still a ton of room in it to create a game that borrows many elements from the big three in the genre, but is still fun. As I browsed the list of games in this genre the other day, I was very surprised to see just how many games in it are horrible beyond belief and have no real reason to exist at all. That a developer is expected to go back to the drawing board and give us something fresh and unexpected is shocking to me when they have yet to be successful in one of the biggest genres going.
3D fighter is another genre that is desperately lacking in capable titles. One can go to the store and chose from a literal ton of great Capcom 2D fighters, from early Street Fighter is the immensely entertaining Vs series, and chose a great 2D fighter. But the choice of great 3D fighter is limited almost entirely to Soul Calibur. The only other worthwhile attempt at the apparently difficult genre is the Powerstone series, but this can almost be seen as a confined beat 'em up in the vein of Streets of Rage than a true 3D fighting game. And the weird thing is, developers have hardly even given the genre a chance. Almost every fighting game created now a days is in the Tekken/Virtua Fighter mold: a game with beautifully rendered 3 dimensional characters but 2D gameplay that is reminiscent of ancient fighters from the 16-bit heyday without the wacky fireballs and hurricane kicks. I would much rather a developer rip of a fun clone of the Tobal series than try to create a fighting game with real time damage and hundreds of different move sets that is just too ambitious for its own good.
So, what would happen if all developers stayed away from trying to create the Next Big Thing and instead attempted to improve and perfect the genres already available to them? Honestly, I think we would experience a video game revolution the likes of which haven't been seen since the industry was in its infancy. As technology gets more and more advanced, larger teams are needed to create games and most games take one to two years to create. If that time was spent just trying to create a fantastic engine for the new wrestling game or a story that was actually worthwhile in the next platformer, we would have many more games with which to purchase.
When a new game is released or unveiled, one of the first thing people inevitably ask is "What makes it stand out?" or "Why is this game innovative?" And, more often than not, the answer is very little. Most games fall under the category of "Just like this game but..." At E3, this trend was especially prevalent. If you look back at the impressions, you will see a great many of them have the phrase "A potentially X killer" or "Could finally do the genre right" or other statements that lend one to believe that the game lacks innovation. My question is: why is innovation such an important factor in video games? In the end, does it really matter if a video game is truly innovated or not as long as it is fun to play?
To anyone out there who decides to purchase a game based on how creative the developer is or refuses to buy a game because it cleanly fits in one of the big genres, I will concede this: obviously, without innovation, our industry would have died many years ago. Someone had to come up with the concept of a 2D-platform game or overhead shooter before they were mimicked and cloned to virtual extinction. But, now that we have a wide variety of different games to waste our time with, is it really necessary to continue to force developers to redefine or create a genre with every new game? In the long run, I think that the constant need for developers to innovate could potentially hurt our industry.
Basically, right now we are in a period of intense growth. 3D was born last generation, but very few developers actually got it right. In the entire 32-Bit generation, one could argue that only 3 franchises actually got 3D platform games right: Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, and Ape Escape. Almost every other game in the genre was almost unplayable in its crapulence as they were trying to copy a game that the development crew either wasn't talented enough to successfully copy or just didn't have the needed time to make a quality game. But, as big as this genre is, there is still a ton of room in it to create a game that borrows many elements from the big three in the genre, but is still fun. As I browsed the list of games in this genre the other day, I was very surprised to see just how many games in it are horrible beyond belief and have no real reason to exist at all. That a developer is expected to go back to the drawing board and give us something fresh and unexpected is shocking to me when they have yet to be successful in one of the biggest genres going.
3D fighter is another genre that is desperately lacking in capable titles. One can go to the store and chose from a literal ton of great Capcom 2D fighters, from early Street Fighter is the immensely entertaining Vs series, and chose a great 2D fighter. But the choice of great 3D fighter is limited almost entirely to Soul Calibur. The only other worthwhile attempt at the apparently difficult genre is the Powerstone series, but this can almost be seen as a confined beat 'em up in the vein of Streets of Rage than a true 3D fighting game. And the weird thing is, developers have hardly even given the genre a chance. Almost every fighting game created now a days is in the Tekken/Virtua Fighter mold: a game with beautifully rendered 3 dimensional characters but 2D gameplay that is reminiscent of ancient fighters from the 16-bit heyday without the wacky fireballs and hurricane kicks. I would much rather a developer rip of a fun clone of the Tobal series than try to create a fighting game with real time damage and hundreds of different move sets that is just too ambitious for its own good.
So, what would happen if all developers stayed away from trying to create the Next Big Thing and instead attempted to improve and perfect the genres already available to them? Honestly, I think we would experience a video game revolution the likes of which haven't been seen since the industry was in its infancy. As technology gets more and more advanced, larger teams are needed to create games and most games take one to two years to create. If that time was spent just trying to create a fantastic engine for the new wrestling game or a story that was actually worthwhile in the next platformer, we would have many more games with which to purchase.
// posted by Tom @ 12:42 PM 
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