Innovation in Video Games, is it dead or just hiding somewhere?

[Mr Pantomime]

-snip-

Im not entirely sure what you mean. Innovation how? If you mean new concepts, theres plenty of games that fill that kind of need. Id say No More Heroes is innnovative, at least in the same way Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil is. If not that then Valkyria Chronicles, Portal 1 and 2, NIER, Folklore, RUSH, Minecraft, Terreria, Reccetear, Mount and Blade. Project Rub. Hell, the DS brought so many innovative games into the market. And im sure theres 100 times that ive mentioned.

On that note, the Wii, the DS and the Kinect have brought a wealth of innovation and innovative games to the industry. And the PS Store and Xbox Live Arcade have made it profitable for smaller developers to release their games on console.

Now, im not sure if these are really what youd call innovative, since its such a broad and meaningless term. But if you walk into a game store, walk past all the wonderful innovative games they stock, past all the lovely wonderful games they have, and pick up Homefront, i'm sorry, but thats your fault.

 

[Wanzer]

Innovation: Something that is new enough that most people have never seen something like that before or is formulating an idea that most people wouldn't have thought of prior. Forgive me for saying this, but Portal was based on a game that had already existed prior to Portal's conception. Not taking anything away from the creativity of the designers, but it had been done before. Several of those games I've never played so you'll have to forgive me. Basically, what I define innovation as, is exploring something that no one else has thought of or redefining an already tired idea. Nazi Zombies or Pirates vs Ninjas is not innovation; while doing a frontal lobe scan of a person's personality to create a horror game that will truly scare the shit out of them is. (The later of which is frankly impossible right now.)

 

[ephemeral10]

[snip]

Your question implies that you have in your mind a period in video game history when innovation was definitely "alive." Before I answer your question, I have to ask you one first: What is that period?

 

[Wanzer]

@ephemeral10: I've only been alive since 1992 and not really starting video games till about 1997, So in all do honesty, I wasn't around for the creation or even to see most of the ground breakers being made. Innovation in video gaming was obviously at an all time high during the inception of games primarily from the period of time from the 16bit games to the current generation. So really to be honest, I'd probably see most of the innovation coming into existence during the Sega Saturn to the start of the Playstation two era and lapsing at points with the first x-box, where it slowly began to die out in favor of sure-fire hits.

 

[FalloutJack]

Alright, I've been a gamer since I was old enough to hold a controller in my hands and not spittle all over myself; over the years I've watched games become more advanced and systematically gain more main stream attention. What bugs me though is that since the days of the PS2 and Xbox, games haven't really been doing anything new or adding anything to the equation. Sure, you can say we've begun grander scale online video games and have jumped into deeper moral choices in games, but is that really anything new? My question to you all is can you show me a game that is truly innovative and does something completely different than before? I'm tired of playing the same Halo/Call of Duty clone over and over, while they are good for a few hours or the first play through, I can't seem to find a game that truly sets me on fire and makes me want to return to it over and over again. Games like Spore came close to drawing me in by the new evolution feature; granted, the game fell flat on its face. So here are three questions to get this started.

1. What is your opinion on innovation in video games?

2. What was the most innovative video game of all time?

3. What is a game coming out in the future that you feel will be innovative?

You're crazy. Why, you're mistaking what you assume to be a lack of innovation for "Not everything appeals to you". Allow me to break this down for ya.

{1} My opinion is that I'm gonna have alot of fun for a long time.

{2} The most innovative game of all time is exactly what people think it is, a question of perception to the individiual.

{3} All hail the works of Atlus Software, at least a little. They do alright.

Your problem here is that maybe what comes out doesn't always suit you. Sorry to hear that, but that's not our problem.

 

[Wanzer]

@FalloutJack: Hmm...while you are very much entitled to your opinion, I'll let you know that the only types of games that do not appeal to me are Horror Based games, I have no problem admitting that I scare easy and secondly, sports games. So, when you say that it is perception of the individual I will agree with you there as what is new to some, might not be new to others with more experience and time under their belts; which is why I said the defining of a genre earlier in the thread.

As for Atlus games, I'm a huge fan of their work, having played Spectral Force and am currently working on Argeast War, sorry i don't have my game collection with me at college so spelling might be off. Their concepts are all good, granted they seem to have leaped onto a more 'relationship' based setting lately, which is all well and good, but sometimes it can be a distraction. I also think, you might want to point some of the credit to Idea Factory as well, considering Aksys and Atlas both worked with them in the creation of their games, which is why I pointed out Argeast War. If you are speaking of Catherine by the way, along with Persona, those are both innovative ideas and I was pleasantly surprised at their creation; granted Catherine's puzzle mechanics infuriated me to no end.

 

[krazykidd]

Alright, I've been a gamer since I was old enough to hold a controller in my hands and not spittle all over myself; over the years I've watched games become more advanced and systematically gain more main stream attention. What bugs me though is that since the days of the PS2 and Xbox, games haven't really been doing anything new or adding anything to the equation. Sure, you can say we've begun grander scale online video games and have jumped into deeper moral choices in games, but is that really anything new? My question to you all is can you show me a game that is truly innovative and does something completely different than before? I'm tired of playing the same Halo/Call of Duty clone over and over, while they are good for a few hours or the first play through, I can't seem to find a game that truly sets me on fire and makes me want to return to it over and over again. Games like Spore came close to drawing me in by the new evolution feature; granted, the game fell flat on its face. So here are three questions to get this started.

1. What is your opinion on innovation in video games?

2. What was the most innovative video game of all time?

3. What is a game coming out in the future that you feel will be innovative?

You're crazy. Why, you're mistaking what you assume to be a lack of innovation for "Not everything appeals to you". Allow me to break this down for ya.

{1} My opinion is that I'm gonna have alot of fun for a long time.

{2} The most innovative game of all time is exactly what people think it is, a question of perception to the individiual.

{3} All hail the works of Atlus Software, at least a little. They do alright.

Your problem here is that maybe what comes out doesn't always suit you. Sorry to hear that, but that's not our problem.

[1] Wait what ? Dude do you know what innovation means ? The OP is just saying there little to no innovation in AAA titles , which is true.

OT: I'm all for innovation , but at the risk of being flamed for ellegedly wearing nostalgia googles, i think we need to go back to basics, focus on the fundamentals, Story + gameplay + epic soundtrack = good game. And less on , flashy thingamajiggys and screwamabobs like graphics and motion controls and cinematics. But thats just me , a poor ol' fan of JRPGs a genre that is dying. ( yes i'm bitter about the slow decay of JRPGS )

 

[Wanzer]

@Krazykidd: Alright, alright while I'm pleased you are defending my point of view and integrity; lets not make this into an argument or a poo-flinging contest. As for your other statement, yes games are based around the old standard of is it FUN? It doesn't technically matter if the game is doing something new or not so long as you can enjoy it; however, I just feel that having something new to do enhances gameplay values. If I have to do the same thing in a game over and over and over again, I get bored with it; so after a long consecutive string of games all basically doing the same thing...I find myself being put off.

((To those of you out there that go by the old, all games are basically the same thing anyway when it comes to the genres; bugger off. Games are different in subtle ways, despite having the same basic formula.))

Sadly, I will agree with you on JRPGs and my love of them...Final Fantasy XIII felt like a killing blow to the series in my opinion; granted there are still good ones out there, Eternal Sonata for example, but they are just too far and few between.