Creativity: Is the Well Dry?

Creativity and video games go hand and hand. That is obvious, as video games are a special form of interactive art, or simply incarnations of thoughts and the imaginations of others. But hard ideas start to become had overtime. The industry relies on creativity so much, as it pushes games to become the best the can be. But it only goes so far to the extent of an idea sounding like a rearrangement of a simple cliche. Then when people finally do fin new ways to be unique, it is unfortunate if the game falls flat. How is it so hard to find creative new ideas now these days? Have gaming came to the point where games are simply going around in circles?

This call for attention would need to be possible if there was a situation, in which there is. Most games now these days simply follow the simple cliches you can expect or simply reuse the same mechanics and systems that made these games worth playing, or simply enjoyable. That is a problem though. Many games can now get away with high scores and such by simply reusing ideas and mechanics. This can make games appear mindless, or simply lazy. Sadly people do not pay attention to this, while developers put less thought into games in order to simply continue what they know the methods to obtain high sales.

That is all that matters in games now, the sales. But that tries to ignore the fact that the game needs to be good in order to get the sales. Franchises such as Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed have had their fans wake up and realize that not much has been added to make these games more unique, or bring more creativity to their games. These franchises are also the prime examples that any little new detail can be advertised and make it appear as a unique or dynamic new idea. But this can simply stay away from what the game actually is, or fails to deliver what was promised.

Then there are games with strong lore and stories. There can simply be countless games where two factions clash, or the suppressed try to rise up. Plots and stories are simply reused over and over again. Different steps or procedures may have changed, or the presentation of the execution may appear different. But it has simply gone to the point where the plots and lore are empty shells, where developers fill in the holes and claim they made an epic story.

Risk is important in video games as well. If a game wants to attempt to be innovative, or wants to deliver something that holds much creativity, they must try not to hold on to the fear that the sales of the game would suffer. If a game has quality, or introduces something new, people will identify this and and worship it. Many developers try to play it safe and offer what they know would work well. This simply makes their games more stale and does not bring anything new.

A new idea is hard to make now these days since gaming in separated into different genres or forms. Zombie games will always try to show some sort of survival and self destruction. Fighting games will still show the same mechanics as well. But since developers now identify the kinds of games there are, and what can be expected, developers simply go along with it, without any new thoughts. 

Ideas can always be made. There is no stop to this. This could be that developers have gone lazy, or simply worried about sales. The video game industry is now a very, very large industry with games being made at high production values. But this makes the developers hold onto safety for themselves, instead of delivering something that fans would be surprised to see. Being surprised in video games seem like a rarity now these days, as you know just what to expect.

It does not need to end like this. Developers want their games to be successful. But the fans want truly epic games that provide fun and a great experience. This really is not hard to do. The only effort that needs to be made is to let go of fear and let minds be free, to deliver new creative concepts never imagined before. These are the ideas and concepts that inspire people. If games cannot be creative, they cannot be inspiring.