Cannibalism

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As any creative medium evolves, it’s inevitable that new works begin to feel much like old ones, but in the current gaming industry, it seems almost impossible for even the best of designers to make a game the feels truly “new”. Because of this, even games that seek to be different only take parts from other games and repurpose them. Take for instance Halo: Reach. While I love the game, most of the new additions to the game – most notably reticle bloom and character loadouts - are merely mechanics taken from other shooters. And this problem persists throughout the industry; games that play almost exactly like more popular games, sequels to those games, and remakes of previous games/series flood the market.

The question is, how long will players be satisfied by this cannibalism? How long until they begin to grow tired of all this recycling of game design? It’s hard to say. There’s a certain amount of familiarity that you want in your games; people like what they understand. But what’s more important than that is novelty; games are an exercise in learning. When the player stops learning new things, they stop wanting to play. And when players realize that all of these games are basically the same as the ones that came before them, they will become disinterested and stop buying them.

So, what do we do? That depends on what your goals are. If you’re a big development team that’s looking to spend tons of cash on a project, it might be best to stick to the tried and true formals. That being said, for your games to have true appeal, they’ll need to have at least something new to keep players interested. Now, if you’re a small team that needs to set yourself apart from the pack, then you have a conundrum. Making a radically different game can set you apart, but it can also be a big risk. That being said, there’s no way that a team with a small budget can compete with the powerhouses on their expensive terms, so taking risks may actually be less risky, so to speak.

Overall, the industry needs more risk taking to stay alive. While there IS something to be said for playing it safe when there’s millions of dollars involved, if we don’t start innovating soon, there soon won’t be ANY dollars involved at all.