Why is gaming (and everything else) repeating itself?

[cutekittenkyti]

First off, to get some issues out of the way, I dont go out searching for the new and creative stuff. Im too lazy that way. Someone has to show it to me, and then show me an easy retard proof way of actually getting there. So the point is all the multimedia stuff I see nowadays on TV is all the big piles of stuff companies know will work. My point, that Im working up to, is that nothing seems to be new anymore. Everything seems to be based hugely off of something else. I mean, sure stuff can inspire different stuff, but all the main works seems to be repeating.

Now it just seems Im repeating myself. Let me list some examples, or something.
Ive seen these ads on FOX for the quote Sarah Connor Files. end quote I thought the whole Terminator thing ended at Three. (And there didnt need to be a Three anyway) Speaking of which, doesnt it seem like ALL the movies in the theaters have a number after them. Or if they dont they are based of a wildly popular idea. For example Harry Potter and Narnia were smash hits, yes, so some people decided that making movies out of childrens fantasy series would bring in the dough. (Golden Compass as an example) And it DOES, thats what irritates me the most. People can?t really see that they are being fed dross. Loads and loads of dross. Even if it is good dross with special effects, and the book is good enough to deserve it, it?s still REPEATING ITSELF. I even get fed it, go looking for it, believe the lie of it and don?t notice. But since cynicism has snuck into my life, Ive barely started noticing these things. And even that little bit of it freaked me out so much that I had to vent it somehow, so I chose the forums where one of the only things I now enjoy is posted every Wednesday. (Except during the holidays, grrrrr.)

I just read a book by one of my more appreciated fantasy authors, and he stuck to the same formula. When I first read his series I thought it was a nice classic fantasy tale with good characters. These new books are the same thing. Thats fine and great, but still I want something new.

Its like I cant be satisfied.

When I read the most popular mangas the main characters seem to be copied and pasted. (I KNOW you all see the similarities between Son Goku, Naruto, Luffy, and Ichigo.)

I should say don?t get me started on TV shows, but as long as Im ranting. Game shows seem incredibly repetitive; it?s just basically the same thing over and over. Deal or No Deal was something completely new and innovative, granted, but it got boring basically after you saw the show a couple of times. And reality TV has so many repetitive series (Survivor 20, Big Brother 15, Amazing Race 10 etc) that theres no point in watching them anymore. And all the contest shows, GAH! American Idol has so many spin offs its worse then the copy pasted characters from manga.

And games, which is what I really should be talking about, people complain about the plots being the same or making no sense, but then if someone tries to put in a really complicated world and plot and background stories and whole other cultures speaking languages that you make up, write a Tolkien novel don?t put all that exposition in a game. Or at least put in a skip exposition button. But having said that, the designers of games seem to think that having a slap dash put together in five minutes plot will do. Come on, show some creativity people or some rational logical sense (I just played Metroid Prime Corruption. I missed the first one, but played the second one. But just where the heck did Dark Samus come from. Is she some evil sister of Samus? Is she some parallel dimensions Samus? Is she the future Samus corrupted come back in time? (On second thought, trying to explain where she came from is WAY more confusing)) But no one seems to be creative anymore. AND the majority of the games are all GAMES ABOUT MOVIES!
And those games really stink. People are just trying to milk the last penny out of whatever source they find until it dies (a slow horrible death.) And some people think its collectible (shivers).

The most expensive and wildly known about the place films are either A.) based off a novel, B.) Based off a comic C.) are repeats of said comic book/ fantasy novel character with basically no changes. (LOTR, Spiderman, batman, superman etc etc etc GAG) And THEN those movies are made into games. I know there are big risks when making a game, and that it costs money to make a movie, so people stick to the tried and true. But what I want is those creative people, who take risks, and come up with brilliant ideas (not the ones with lame ideas) to actually enter the popular culture. And not have to wait until theyre dead (cough cough painters) until they are appreciated.

And even if something is great, new, clever, fantastic, and a whole bunch of other good words I don?t have time to think of, it?s usually criticizing something else that some one made. The only popular item that doesn?t fit this standard are the Terry Pratchett Disc World novels. (And if you read his other novels, cough Johnny and the Bomb, you can Definitely tell they are by the exact same author, cough trousers of time cough)

And even while I?m saying all this, I cant fix this problem. Ive tried to create something new in a medium and failed to come up with any exciting ideas. Sure I could add the classic spin on the fantasy hero's coming of age story, but that doesnt excite me anymore. Seriously, its crazy hard to come up with a new idea that people will like and is creative and original and all that jazz. Its a fault of mine I didn?t know I had. All the things I create are basically spin offs of something else. Or use a cliche I didn?t even know that was a cliche. (Or I complain on a forum somewhere.)

And even if you are one of those incredibly rare people that can create something new, since it isnt the same old, same old, people wont invest in it. At least not substantially, and so you have to make dross in order to get money and by that time the money has melted your brains so that you don?t want to risk anything and you cant remember that creative idea in the first place. OR you are even more incredibly rare and dont sell out, and make a small cheap version of your idea and hope it will spread. And it does.

BUT ONLY SLOWLY, and that?s the real thing I?m complaining about. Why cant these creative ideas actually spread faster, so lazy multimedia dependent me can hear about it and enjoy. But with so much dross out there, the rarity of someone who will wade through all that dross to find something good and creative is just about as rare as the people who make good creative stuff.

So I cant see any real fast acting solution to this. Hopefully as society becomes more intelligent (hope, hope, hope, desperately and even naively) that people will slowly realize all the dross theyre being fed and stop wanting it, so there is Demand for good creative stuff. But then again, since it seems that all the creative juices seem to have dried up or are being bought to make more dross, who knows.

Hey, maybe all you people, who actually read this all the way through, have some ideas. Or other rants about the repetitiveness of popular culture. Or actually know of something creative and new and original. So comment about it please, because my self esteem does like it a lot.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

You've pretty much summed it up. New ideas are what we need, but the people with all the buying power aren't as interested in advancing popular media as they are milking concepts that have proven themselves before. That leaves us, the neglected and unwashed masses, to fester in a slowly rising pool of remakes and stale ideas.

There are people out there with new ideas-- I like to think I could implement some neat concepts into a game or movie, but the unfortunate truth is I'll probably never get the chance to make something that a huge percentage of the population will ever be exposed to.

 

[chocodile_terror]

Let's see if I'm getting this: You want people to invest their creative energies in making new, interesting, and good things, but you don't want to have to put any effort into actually seeking it out? The reason things get recycled so much is that people are usually uncomfortable with new and challenging things, they want things to be easy and familiar. So, frequently, you'll find yourself stuck with American Idol, or Two and a Half Men, or what have you. Similarly, put yourself in the position of a developer. You have a choice between making a game with name-brand recognition, let's say Spiderman 3, or going with a new and innovative idea, let's say Psychonauts. Both are going to cost millions and take years to produce. Which one do you pick? 9 times out of 10, the answer's going to be Spiderman, because, frankly, you've got to eat. I'm not suggesting that you learn to like Spiderman 3, but you probably saw ads for it, and were aware of it, whereas something like Psychonauts doesn't get the same kind of exposure. Regardless, most things are going to suck. Why? Because that is just the way it is. You have to wade through crap to find the gems. Name a time when this wasn't true. I would be willing to bet that if you came up with an example, I could find evidence to refute it. Remember Theodore Sturgeon's quote, when asked why 90 percent of literature was crap: "90 percent of everything is crap."

 

[ChrisP.Lettuce]

So, about halfway through your first paragraph you pretty much said:

"Everything that I am doing seems to be samey but I don't feel like putting the effort in to get to the creative stuff."

Creative and original ideas (yes they still exsist) don't jump of the shelf and jiggle your balls until you notice them. Usually, if something is truly innovative and new, it won't be coming from a company that has a marketing department the size of a small town. Which means you won't see it splattered all over the television during superbowl.

Take for example this new pair of treads I got for my boots/shoes. They are made for traveling over flat ice and increasing your traction using rings of hardened steel coiled around a rubber webbing the stretches and wraps around the soul of the shoe. I've been an outdoorsman for a while now, and if I didn't trip over these things in the hardware store I would never have known they exsisted.

As for TV.. well that was a lost cause I long time ago. John Stewart and Colbert get my attention, and on the odd occasion Lewis Black.

Why do you think the viewers ate Colbert up so fast? It's funny, witty, clever, satiricle, smart and if you read past his sarcasm it's undeniably TRUE. It is unique. I'm a news satire junky, but Colbert has a different twist from 22 minutes or Mercer report (I are Canuck!).

What about games? My most recent example of random game buyingness was Gothic 3. Some may consider it a mistake, but regardless I very much enjoyed it. Somehow it managed to pull off loading an ENTIRE world with 100% unique NPC's having voice acting. This meant you have 0 load times (and if your machine is decent, minimal chop). I had never seen this before in any RPG, or any game for that matter (The only one I am not sure about was Morrowind on PC, as it did on Xbox). You could literally run from the first city all the way to the far reaches of the Nords and not meet one loading time. This was an new idea for me, and I enjoyed it. But that also meant I had to go out on a limb and spend 30 bucks on an old game I had heard nothing about. I heard nothing about it because IGN gave it an undeserved 4.9 and it wasn't being shoved down our throats with "5/5!" and "Best game of 2006".

Edit: I am 22 and I have begun to notice that it seems like my generation was the last generation that had any sort of proverbial magic about it. When was the last animated animated movie from Disney? Hercules? I, a male in my 20's that is mostly worried about getting my carrot wet, can play Kingdom Hearts and truly find the animated characters endearing and funny. I show the same game to a person in their teens, or even around 8 or 10, and they tell me it's the lamest thing they've ever seen. Must be something to do with not being able to play tag or playfight at school anymore, they have to get all their frustrations out by shooting people with a shotgun.

 

[Hey Joe]

[insert medium] repeats itself because you [buy, watch, read] the big [insert medium].

Big Money + [insert medium]= lack of innovation

 

[AnGeL.SLayer]

I think to sum up for everyone who reads this. its people like you who just go along with the everyday routine in the first place that help the same old stuff to keep reappearing. if the second or 3rd movie wouldnt do as well..well we wouldnt see a 3 or 4 to start with. But you need to give credit where credit is due. some of thouse sequals are amazing and shouldnt be ignored just because they are an extention of an orgional thought. i mean come on who dosent lie awake at night thinking about the new indiana jones coming out?(..at least i hope im not the only one....>.<) if people would go for new and creative ideas, put forth the effort to find them and make them known to the world then we wouldnt be given the same old stuff time and time again. if you arent willing to go put the effort into finding something new then why should the companies make something new? if youll still eat the same old mush thats fed to you time and time again then why should they change it? if it aint broke dont fix it. you need to understand people are easily lead and the producers know this. how else could 'the real world' have wroked? people fear change and if you cant do your own part in convincing the masses around you to at least give something a try then the good things will most likely fall through the cracks. so if you want new and creative then get off your butt and put forth some effort into getting your greedy little hands on it.

^_^

 

[raankh]

There's lots and lots and lots of excellent TV, film, literature and games out there, but since people don't do anything to find them, they only passively receive information from the most loud-mouthed and disrespectful criers out there. Usually those who have the least respect for your privacy and preferences; catering instead to your sensibilities and tolerances.

That's surely a strong argument, but you shouldn't underestimate the lengths to which some actors in the media market will go to stump new content and restrain new ideas. If new things make it into the general consumer market, investments lose their value and your securities become unstable. Most companies want stability and predictability, that's how their business models work. If a single film script produces three acceptably performing movies and a couple of direct-to-DVD spin-offs, it's seen as a more secure investment than a trilogy that becomes a box-office hit for a few weeks after each release.

Business logic does weird things when applied to creative content.

There's just no way to control an active consumer, however (apart from disinformation, propaganda and lies of course). The way things are now, a surefire way to find new ideas is to think of them yourself or actively look for them in your surroundings.

That argument could easily be extended to the social and political sphere, btw, and the "active citizen" is an important discussion in both social and political sciences.

 

[Melaisis]

Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.
Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.
Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.
Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.
Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.














Et cetera.

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.
Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.
Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.
Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.
Inspiration is a rare commodity nowadays.














Et cetera.

I think you can say that at any given time through out history and into the future and it will still hold true.

 

[John Galt]

People have become complacent. They don't bother thinking anymore than they're needed to. People love watching the same things over and over again because they're familiar with it and formed their opinions about it long ago.

No one wants to think because it's just easier to rehash the same things that have worked for generations and no one has the energy to stand up and say, "Hey, this is starting to look familiar." No one wants to create something new because the public would rather watch the 'classics' than think about something new again.

 

[John Galt]

Sorry, the Internets got a case of the gremlins and I impatiently hit the post button more than was necessary.

 

[Jimmyjames]

Companies are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

People say they want original ideas (and I'm not talking just original intellectual properties), but when it comes along, no one ever seems to like it. Rarely, something new and innovative catches on (see: Guitar Hero), but that's usually more because of a fad than anything else. (see: Guitar Hero).

Games are becoming bigger and bigger investments, and companies are increasingly cautious of doing something that won't make money.

There are actually some very innovative games out there (see: Little Big Planet), but, like finding good music live among seas of blues-rock beer bands, it takes some searching. "I need people to show me" is no excuse in the days of the internet.

Sadly, I think television is dead as I knew it growing up. Reality TV has pretty much taken over because it is cheaper to produce, sees high returns, and is generally more mind-numbingly hypnotic to the masses. I'd give my right arm to see shows that even approach the level to those of the eighties. Kevin Arnold, where are you when we need you?

 

[chocodile_terror]

I am 22 and I have begun to notice that it seems like my generation was the last generation that had any sort of proverbial magic about it. When was the last animated animated movie from Disney? Hercules? I, a male in my 20's that is mostly worried about getting my carrot wet, can play Kingdom Hearts and truly find the animated characters endearing and funny. I show the same game to a person in their teens, or even around 8 or 10, and they tell me it's the lamest thing they've ever seen. Must be something to do with not being able to play tag or playfight at school anymore, they have to get all their frustrations out by shooting people with a shotgun.

I don't want to pull this too far off-topic, but your Disney analogy is pretty far off-base in my opinion. There have been 8 Disney animated features released in theaters since Hercules. Yes, most of them are forgettable, but the big one you're missing is Lilo & Stitch, which was not only a traditionally animated film released by Disney, but is, in my opinion, the best thing they've ever released. The reason kids don't respond to Kingdom Hearts the way you do is that they don't have those same nostalgic connections to the films that it portrays, nor to the Final Fantasy characters. The fact is that Disney has spent the past few years doing what it frequently does; running their beloved characters into the ground with a series of lame direct-to-video sequels. With the new regime, that is supposed to come to an end. Thankfully, the new CEO actually respects creative individuals like John Lassater and the Pixar people, and has put them in charge of the traditional animation department (which had actually been axed by the previous regime). These things go in cycles. Quick, without looking, name one of the five Disney animated features that came out in theaters immediately prior to The Little Mermaid. I couldn't tell you without looking, even though I saw every one of them. It isn't even that they're bad. They just aren't really very memorable.

 

[ideitbawx]

You've pretty much summed it up. New ideas are what we need, but the people with all the buying power aren't as interested in advancing popular media as they are milking concepts that have proven themselves before. That leaves us, the neglected and unwashed masses, to fester in a slowly rising pool of remakes and stale ideas.

There are people out there with new ideas-- I like to think I could implement some neat concepts into a game or movie, but the unfortunate truth is I'll probably never get the chance to make something that a huge percentage of the population will ever be exposed to.

it's the mentality of "why be creative when you can be safe?"

unfortunately, people who fester in this mentality would have probably told ray kroc to take his mcdonald's concept and shove it up his ass back in the 60's, cuz they didn't want to spend money on a business just to make fries (cuz, y'know, every mcdonald's head manager works the deep fryer). they would have told steve jobbs in the 70's that he was crazy to think that every home would one day have a PC. they would've told bill gates to go back to harvard, constantly asking how he could put a window into a computer.

but what do all three of these men have in common?
they took a risk. and they had confidence in what they were trying to achieve.

the entertainment industry is a festering pile of mediocraty because the only ones taking creative risks are tarantino, rodriguez-lopez and ... ok i don't play video games anymore so i can't think of a developer but you get what i mean. they're the only ones who remember what creativity is, and they have the confidence to keep pushing their artforms further. it's the same reason why a quaint suburban neighbourhood needs a little gunfire every now and then, because safety is not exciting.

and not rewarding.
don't believe me? how's that safe 9-5 job treating you? chances are you have no control over your pay, your hours, your pension, whether you have a job next week ... not to mention the bank only pays out $3000 for every $1000 you invest at a 3% interest rate after 48 YEARS in the bank's "safe" GIC! if you took a risk by upping the interest rate to 12% on the stock market, you'd have $256000 in that GIC! you essentially gave the bank 252 THOUSAND bucks because they told you to work with what is "safe".

and every bigass production company works exactly the same way.
like disney releasing "long lost classics" from their archives with one or two extras, advertise it as an "all-new, (re-re-re-re-re)remastered special edition" and then shelf the whole thing two months later because people are naive enough to hand over another 30 bucks for 5 minutes of handi-cam footage from inside the voice-actor's studio thinking it's a whole brand new concept. i wouldn't say these people are stupid, just left in the dark.

ok, maybe some of them are stupid too, but that's another topic.

overall, we have come a long way with knowledge and creativity, but we are still a very superstitious species with over-imaginative brains that keep us in fear of realizing our full potential. or, let's face it, america would look like the middle east by now if we weren't so scared to lose our white picket fences for a little bit of fairness through rebellion in the grand scheme of things. if you ever heard a comment about a person/product/place/etc based on something someone told you but never looked into it yourself and just assumed what you heard was truth, there's superstition in your blood. at least i'll admit it's still in mine.

if people would go for new and creative ideas, put forth the effort to find them and make them known to the world then we wouldnt be given the same old stuff time and time again. if you arent willing to go put the effort into finding something new then why should the companies make something new? if youll still eat the same old mush thats fed to you time and time again then why should they change it? if it aint broke dont fix it.

that's exactly it. new ideas get shelved because ignorant people will latch onto anything with a semblance of familiarity. the populous is so lazy they don't want to search for themselves (myself included, unfortunately), so they expect people to bring the innovative things to them. so what do the production companies decide to market?

you should know the answer by now. (i'll give you a hint: it involves an S with two lines going through it) why? why not? it's not like the people are demanding anything else! they haven't been buying anything else. and a part of that is because ...

they don't market anything else!

ooh, what a vicious cycle ....

 

[ideitbawx]

something i forgot to mention in my last post (not that i needed to add any more to it):

you need to understand people are easily lead and the producers know this. how else could 'the real world' have wroked? people fear change and if you cant do your own part in convincing the masses around you to at least give something a try then the good things will most likely fall through the cracks. so if you want new and creative then get off your butt and put forth some effort into getting your greedy little hands on it.

people don't resist change. they resist being changed.

example: no one seems to give a shit about global warming. maybe they would like to help, but how DARE you ask one of them to give up their car. for whatever reason. maybe replace it with another energy source that isn't so bad on the environment, but who wants to spend the energy to try and figure all THAT shit out? no, they'll just wait for someone else to do it first.

but here's the problem with that logic:
if everyone waits, nothing happens.

now i'd say all of us shouldn't worry about trying to find an alternative fuel source (ie africa, they have their own issues to deal with as of now), but even if you have a grade 9 chemistry level the least you could do to get thinking about alternatives is to LOOK INTO THEM FOR YOURSELVES.

but that brings the whole resisting change thing back up again, and frankly i'm sure everyone just wants me to shut up by now, so i'll just leave you with this:

1a + 2b --reacts with energy--> 1b + 2a (remember this from high school?)

 

[atheistium]

I really just want to say "Why are people not bored of Mario yet?" sure he was original back in the bloody 1980's!

 

[Thegreatoz]

Lol, i agree, you do see alot of repeating going around. But when it comes down to it, there isnt much else left to cover, its hard to come up with a unique idea when most of it has been done. really the only new thing i have seen recently has been Psychonauts. Havent really seen anything like it before.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Inspiration IS a rare commodity.
Which give me another reason to beleive in my Utopian theory of sparse culture. Maybe I'll elaborate sometime.

Repitition these days is caused by new directors and such (Michael Bay, Jon Favreau) being lazy and not being imaginative.
My Utopia would have the gaming industry run and only run by those who actually would make awesome games that are brand new.
[Thus, the only people in media would be people like Spielberg, Will Wright, Brad Bird, etc.)

 

[Jack Spencer Jr]

The problem is we're dealing with a business, a big business. When a business is small and trying to make a name for itself, it may take radical risks, which require some inspiration and creativity. But once successful, they become very conservative and just stick what had worked before. Usually, there is a period of refinement, where they polish the concept to a mirror sheen, which is desirable, but before long, a malaise settles in as it remains the same damn thing again and again.

This is pretty much just the way things are. The only thing to do is to look to the smaller companies for real innovation, most of the time.