Monday

Where are the new, creative ideas?

Filed under Game development

I know what gaming needs. It needs some fresh, new creative ideas. It needs this because all in all, gaming in general is starting to get boring. As full disclosure I should state that the fact that I’ve been video gaming in one form or another for a wee bit over three decades at this point so maybe this is just me. Jesus, that’s depressing.

The point is that on a personal level I don’t expect to ever play a new game ever again. By “new game” I mean exactly that, a game I haven’t played before. Yes Call of Duty 4 is great, but what is it really? Running/shooting/killing bad guys. I’ve done that before (see Doom et al). Oblivion is a great fantasy role playing title, but again what is it really? Swords, armour, spells, leveling up and bad guys. I’ve played that before  (see Diablo etc).  Same with almost every other title that comes to mind, it’s all rehashed stuff I’ve played already. Not to compare CoD4 with Doom exactly, or Oblivion to Diablo in a strict sense but you hopefully see what I’m getting at. Yesterdays new idea, wrapped up in todays fancy graphics. That’s about where gaming is. Shooting, magic, puzzles, city building, racing, flying, blah. I’ve played it all to death and I could really use something new and different.

Spore was an attempt at new and different, but Spore basically sucks for more reasons than I care to get into just now. The Sims 3 is different, but only if you haven’t played The Sims 2, and The Sims before that. I have. Peggle? That would be Plinko. World of Goo? How about tinker toys? There’s just nothing new, it’s all been done.

Sometimes I think I might have got into gaming a bit too early. Day one does that to you I suppose.