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Creativity, a Problem for the Gaming Industry?

Posted by michael on from the play-it-again-sam dept.

Steeda95GT writes "A Reuters story reprinted at Forbes.com is an interesting read, saying that 'The gaming industry will shrink unless we start to see new games'. It talks about how the ratio of original titles to sequels is dropping dramatically, but it also goes on to say that upcoming sequels (Doom 3, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, GTA: San Andreas) will be successful only because their predecessors were."

6 of 522 comments (clear)

  1. I know one sequel I want to see... by Jonin893 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sorry, Sam & Max's cancellation is still upseting me. http://www.savesamandmax.com Nothing wrong with sequels. GTA3 was vastly better than GTA1 and 2. Just because it's a sequel doesn't mean it isn't going to be creative. Just think about the amount of Final Fantasy games, or a lot of the Nintendo games. Pretty much every incarnarnation of Mario has been very creative and original. I think part of the problem may be piracy and the fact that the top selling games like Half-Life sell an ungodly amount of copies more than other solid selling FPS games like No One Lives Forever. Thus, people copy what sells big, not what works.

  2. Imminent death of net predicted by 0racle · · Score: 5, Informative

    This thread dates from 1989 and contains the phrase "Imminent death of net predicted" at least 6 times, with the first one appearing not long after the creation of Usenet. "Imminent death of net predicted" had a long and possible proud run.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  3. Re:Trust by TomHandy · · Score: 4, Informative
    Regarding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The guys who came up with the original comic book (that later spurned the cartoons, games, etc.) were huge fans of the comic book "Daredevil" and the Frank Miller comic book "Ronin". They sort of combined various elements of those stories and came up with the Mutant Ninja Turtles idea (some of the references in the show were a bit more obvious than others.... i.e. Daredevil was trained by a guy named "Stick", so the Ninja Turtles' sensei was named "Splinter"..... Daredevil fought against a group called "The Hand", so the Ninja Turtles went up against "The Foot").

    -Tom

  4. Re:Again with the Warcraft! by Nasarius · · Score: 4, Informative
    The game introduced the concept of Heros - special units that gained levels with battle experience. The various abilities they gained, the items they could purchase and use, the fact that they could be "rebuilt" once they died... these are very innovative concepts for an RTS

    No no, they're really not. Warlords Battlecry did this about three years earlier, with much more depth.

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    LOAD "SIG",8,1
  5. Re:Again with the Warcraft! by Corporal+Tunnel · · Score: 3, Informative
    I doubt you have ever played Warcraft III.

    WC3 has no formations,

    It has formations. There's even a button next the map to turn them on and off.

    no unit stances (other than stand ground, attack move, move. I want guard, retreat, etc),

    guard = patrol, retreat = uh, "move" in the other direction

    no 'next idle builder/miner' button,

    there is both a button for this and a hotkey(f8 by default).

    no display of a unit's queued orders, no way to queue MOST of the orders in the game, the list goes on.

    queued orders are shown with totems/flags on the screen, and little green boxes on the minimap. most orders can be queued, including building structures. I can't think of any orders off the top of my head that can't be queued.

  6. Re:Which leads to the unspoken truth... by Makarakalax · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not as much a problem as people say. I used to pirate a lot of games, but guess what, I was a kid. I couldn't afford any games! So me and my mates shared them around. Our group piracy led to us becoming obsessed with games as it happens, and I reckon we ended up buying more games between us because we pirated them around.

    Nowadays I can afford games and I buy them. However I do play less games than I used to, I have less time, and perhaps it is also because it is harder to pirate the games heh. But nowadays I have money and will pay if I like something.

    Software is an funny industry, you have to accept that some copying will go on because it is easy to do so. If the industry can't turn a profit with the traditional one person - one sale business model then perhaps they are looking at the economics of the industry incorrectly?