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Are game developers loosing their creativity?
mayito7777
Member UncommonPosts: 768
If you honestly look at the games out there and the games announced as "MMO's or hybrid MMO's" we can divide them in two big groups:
a) Those who copy, imitate or try to be like WoW
b) Those who copy, imitate or try to be like Eve Online.
I have seen very few games out there with true different concepts or trying to break away from the same pattern. I see a lack of creativity or maybe is just lazzyness, lest try to make some quick buck so lets do something that looks like but is not quite similar.
What can be done to encourage developers to be more creative?
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Comments
The problem starts with education.
What do you think upcomming students get taught? i would imagine:
"Copy this design model, it's made a ton of money for most of the industry".
Because, Whats the incentive to make "out there" ideas if it doesn't make money?.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
Video games have fallen into the same mess that the music industry has. When you have producers and designers searching for the perfect formula that will become the next smash success. Take singer(s) D, mix it with whatever beat is trendy and give him/them X songs to sing that are sure hits=Quick Money.
Take system A, mix with system D, then add in some of Systems G,H,R,S and a little W with the new flavor, "Which ever IP is Hot right now." = Money.
it's not just Publishers that do this either, sometimes even the developers fall into the same pit. You have to look at the Indy crowd for changes, they have the drive to be original and they don't have the big named publishers calling the shots.When someone approaches a Publisher/Producer they are required to convince them, in order to get funding, that there will be a return on their investment. Indy guys don't have that.
As was said, look to indie devs for fresh ideas.
Go check out Project Gorgon. In a very alpha state, but man, the insane depth it has!
Want to be a werewolf? sure, but there is a catch...
Doing autopsies on kills to become better at killing them.
Want to find hidden necromancy spells? Die. A lot and in different ways. You get a special kind of "death xp" used to get spells.
Learned how to make fungus bombs from mushrooms. Fun to run around and kill pigs with them. Until now. When I even get near a pig, every pig around swarms me. Dam underground pig intelligence network! They know who I am!
Honestly, there is just too much in the game in it's alpha state to list. Just a really creative game.
Fun thing, there is a boss that curses you and turns you into a cow. You remain a cow until you are able to kill the boss or by drinking a rare potion. How do you go back and kill boss as a cow? you have special abilities and armors/weapons for your cow form (there are lots of different forms/conditions you can be cursed with). Just ...crazy. But cool.
All in all, if you want something different, it'll be an indie low budget title. Not much flash, but tons of depth.
The big money devs won't chance a major loss by making something that is outside a proven formula.
It is what it is.
Honestly? Players are a huge problem. Here's why.
1) Players lack creativity. You could deliver elaborate skill trees, 10 different classes (or no classes at all) and before your beta has concluded, your game will be boiled down to 2 or 3 "useful" builds.
2) Players don't care about story...... really. It's like, "Ooooo! Cool!!! New MMO!" Downloading..... Installing...... Play..... "Ok, ok. yup, yeah, we get it there is some demon or something it's going to come and kill these people so I have to save them. Whatever. Gawd! I can't stand it when they don't let you skip intro cinematics. THERE!!! In!! OK, so let's go level up now!!!"
3) Players don't reward creativity. @developer: What? The main stat for a Warrior is Agility? WTF? Are you retarded? Gawd! I hope you get cancer!
4) Players don't acknowledge innovations even when they're right in their face. Fantasy MMO == WoW Clone, Space MMO == EVE Clone, anything with laser swords == SWG clone.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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It have more to do with the publishers, and it is like betting on horses. You can play safe and get in twice your money or you can take a longshot but if it goes in you get really rich.
The problem is that we are talking about $50M+ so most publishers don't dare to be on the longshot.
Some does though, Microsoft is funding Undead labs and they are doing something completely different (but not a Scotchman on a horse). Then again, the Lead designer on UL have 3 games on the 20 best sold PC games ever so they still have an acceptable chance.
I have a feeling that if you allowed devs to do whatever they wanted more often we would see a far wider range of game mechanics and fewer games that would do "acceptable" (but more failures and games that do great).
Being nitpicky, but also making sure I understand topic. Did you mean "losing"? as is you lost something? Or "Loosing"? as in unleashing?
Going to assume you mean "Losing":
I think money is driving and boxing in creativity. I don't think they will lose it. Let's say MMO's never really god as popular as they did and never really got bigger than EQ1 did in, say 2001 or 2002. You had these small groups making games, not really listening to the player base all the time, but just making what they wanted and their desire was for it to be fun. IMO, that was what EQ1 was. If it was all still like that, I think you would continue to have these small groups, just push out games with no limit to creativity.
However, enter the multi million(billion) dollar industry, now your "creativity" better make money, or else you are fired and entire companies depend on huge revenues. Now, out of fear of losing your job or your company going under, you have to be creative within the framework that will make money. The Dev's are limited because in the back of their minds, they have huge pressures on them to make something that will not cater to a small group, but to masses.
Just my 2 cents.
-Unconstitutional laws aren't laws.-
Players can indeed be that way (unless you are a popular company like Blizzard or valve, or have a lead designer people knoe and like) which mean that initial sales might be lower for a different game. However do people actually catch up quick so after playing for a few days they would be used to the new thing and word would spread.
Look on Eve online, it started out with 20K subs but have done pretty well for itself these past 11 years.
As for players not recognizing innovation, that is true of smaller ones but I never heard anyone calling TOR a SWG clone. Large innovations are noticed, like TSWs way to handle experience. They are not always loved though but just because something if innovative doesn't always mean it is fun.
And using the skill "agility" is hardly particularly creative, it have been around since D&D in the early 70s and games like Neverwinter nights allowed you o make good agility based warriors if you want (my Pathfinder warrior is an agility based musketeer).
Totally agree. You seem like you're reasonable. Congratulations, you aren't part of the problem.
WoW, how did you ever figure out that TOR reference? You're right, they don't call it an SWG clone, but there could be a 100 page debate on how it's not SWG, despite the fact that nobody ever claimed it was. The fact that people fail to even recognize the intentions of a game is just more fodder for their lack of recognition, though
Actually, for that matter, H1Z1 is another great example. Granted, Smed stoked that fire by calling it the "spiritual successor to SWG".
Crazkanuk
----------------
Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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Yeah but as some as this game becomes popular forget about it being unique. Soon as player's start posting what this game should have will kill its uniqueness. It happens all the time with mmo's that start off unique. Hype train will kill this one.
They LOST their creativity 10 years ago.
The original MMOs were made by talented veteran game designers who wanted to make simulated worlds, drawing on decades of crazy MUD ideas and their own imagination.
Modern MMOs are made by megalith publishers, who actively stamp out anything that makes the MMO too different from WoW. The people at the top are the people with money, not game designers. And the designers, wanting to keep getting paychecks, keep them happy by churning out WoW clones. Some, like Firor, are probably still creative at heart, but not allowed to use it.
Or, like Turbine, they get rid of their veterans and bring in underskilled college graduates to finish the game, because they don't really need to know good game design to just copy WoW.
There's a fine line here "innovation" sounds good but the majority of new ideas are in fact flawed on some level while tried and true ideas usually got that way for a reason. An MMO committed to completely original ideas would likely have to scrap its design a few times which considering the cost of MMOs is not something that's easy to afford. Then there's the way the Internet is which is very harsh on things which aren't absolutely perfect the first time they come out. Look at how often the word "fail" is thrown around even over minor and frivolous complaints.
I think games like GW2 have the right idea of taking a solid known foundation and tweaking it (even though I don't like a lot of the specific changes to the formula that GW2 made at least they tried).
Actually this reminds me a ton of Vanguard. They scrapped whole designs several times during the beta process. Things were completely different early on in it.
Except, most of the "tried and true" design is also incredibly flawed, and has actively been complained about for years, and has led to a massive amount of under performing MMOs that people burn out of in record time.
And it doesn't even have to be innovation at this point. Go back to ideas that worked 14 years ago and they'll seem brand new. That's basically what GW2 did.
Or just borrow ideas from other genre. That is basically what Marvel Heroes did.
+1
If we used the same standards to judge cars as we did to judge games, we might as well say that there hasn't been any innovation or creativity in cars since the 1920s
Crazkanuk
----------------
Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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Game Developers, though... I have to give them their due. They creatively find new ways (some more than others) to do the same things over and over again
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I have to disagree. There are plenty of good movies out there. Your statement does not apply to all movies.
Good movies just for 2014 ....
- Cap American 2 ... even a sequel can do something new
- Galaxy of the Guardian
- even the Godzilla movie (a remake of a long series) is pretty good.
- Chef
.. and there are plenty more. Now i am just goes by the ratings ..but if you want to use personal tastes ... then i like all of these and more. If you don't like any of them, well, that only shows that "bad" is subjective.
In some degrees, yes, the games are lacking in creativity. MMORPGs are still using conventions, concepts and mechanisms from the earliest days of RP gaming, HPs and levels, in particular. None of the game developers have explored alternative ways for representing the human body in combat. Everything in the computer game still boils down to a series of dice rolls, the computing power isn't being used for more complex mathematical simulations of a body's dynamic systems. Dice are easier to use in a physical environment, but simplicity isn't necessarily a benefit to a computer simulation.
In other ways, creativity is alive and well. Art has certainly progressed, taking advantage of improvements in hardware. Some MMORPGs have quality writing, telling interesting and occasionally powerful stories. The variety of species, creatures, architectures, histories, societies and other aspects of the fictional collective grows with every new MMORPG. There's a variety of things to experience in our games today.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.