I do not know about you guys, but gaming as of late has been feeling a bit "stale." Gaming as of late has been getting easier, and sometimes, developers focus too much on the graphical aspect rather than the gameplay and innovative aspect. I have always wondered what would be the perfect game system that mixes fun and innovation, or what would be the perfect game that mixes difficult challenges with a unique gameplay system. I feel that I am not alone in thinking that some of the games from the past several months are more of the same old thing, rehashed over and over again. Therefore, I would like to open up a bit more of a discussion as to where innovation could be implemented into games and consoles.
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Let me start with a broad question here. What exactly makes something innovative? We can certainly use the dictionary definition, which states that innovation is something that features new methods that are advanced and original. I find that something is innovative if it can combine uniqueness with exciting features, while keeping me engaged with the feeling of "I do not want to stop playing with this product any time soon..." This definition will vary amongst other people, of course. Everyday innovative objects could be the Apple iPod with the scroll wheel back in the old days, the Nintendo Wii, or the tablet. Sometimes, these items are superseded based on the trends in their respective industries. In terms of video games, you can call games like World of Warcraft, The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS), or even Pokemon "innovative" because they changed the landscape of the video gaming industry.
A little bit of a deviation here, but I recently started hearing a lot of positive things about the video game Beyond: Two Souls. From what information I have gathered, when the main character dies in the game, there is no "Game Over" scenario; instead, the story will shift around who is alive or who is dead. I have not seen that in gaming before, as to me, game over often feels like the developer saying I did not play that part right and that I need to be "punished" in a way. I find that idea very interesting and if I had a Playstation 3, I would love to try out this game. Looking at things from another angle, when would innovation be considered going too far, or innovating in the wrong direction?
An example I would like to look at here is the XBOX ONE from Microsoft. On their big press conference day, the console was touted and lauded by the company as one that would revolutionize the video gaming industry with all of these cool features. As we all know, the reaction was so into the negative and caused such an uproar that Microsoft ended up changing their policies to quell the horde of angry gamers (Daily Reaction). Where is the line going to have to be drawn to say that innovation in this case has gone too far? Is it innovation in this case? While Microsoft might find their idea interesting, the vast majority has shunned the console.
Personally, I found that the latest generation of consoles has not moved me as other generations have in the past. At this point, it looks like a war of who can get the shiniest console with the slickest visuals. Games have not moved me in the slightest as they are revamps, remakes, ports, or something based off of a previous idea. I find this regrettable as developers are starting to try too hard to attract their casual crowd to pull in money, while forgetting somewhat about their hard core audiences. These next generations just use the same old ideas that were from previous generations, but instead of giving us a simplistic "formula" of sorts such as:
A+B = C
they give us:
3A+4B = 6C
You kind of see the idea... or at least, I hope you do. I feel that developers these days are taking the "lazy way out" and just take the root formula and change a few numbers around. We can look at the sports games that constantly return year after year after year, with minor graphical enhancements or new players to keep up. I recall the release of the Nintendo Wii, and how nobody had really seen gaming with motion features. It may have been attempted in a minor format, but the idea never really took off the ground. When Nintendo did it, it was the craziest thing around because it was just so "new." If I recall correctly, it sold a good number of units. I still remember getting a Wii two weeks before launch through my father and selling it close to $1000 on the street because of the hype surrounding the device from the innovations. The lady that bought it, bless her, thought it was the most unique gaming system in quite some time.
Looking at a spec table of the next generation of consoles, nothing really seems to "pop" out in terms of overall features. Prices continue to rise and features continue to drop...
Let's go back to the initial topic starter: Where can developers innovate their games or consoles? Should developers start listening more to their fans? Should they not worry much about the money gained or lost in the process, and create a game that fans have been dying for? In terms of consoles, where could consoles be changed to be more innovative? What would be the perfect "dream game" or "dream console?" Since the vast majority of gamers has heard of the Nintendo Wii and the idea of motion detection gaming, ideas similar to it were created by Playstation (Move) and Microsoft (Kinect), but had lesser impact. What could developers do to implement better innovations? Is thin the new thing that needs to be pushed out? Is it necessary to hash out updates once every few months to just show off a specification bump? If developers listened to their fans for video gaming concepts and ideas, do you think that gaming would have been significantly different today? There is a poll above, so please feel free to vote on that, and I would love to hear your comments.
like a 250 dollar kit back when DDR4 was Intel only
