Improvement and Innovation

Hey,

The progression of video games has generally followed a very steady upward slope where games get more complex and more design elements are added as technology and player skill increases. People tend to complain that some new game is just like a game that came out the year before and that the game from the year before is just like the game the year before that. This is because games are normally between 60-80% improvement and 20% innovation. The creation of video games is no longer done by someone in their basement in their free time. It costs millions of dollars and oftentimes a large dedicated team. Doing something completely different is so rare because the cost of failure is so high.

Games with that type of balance have proven to be successful. Halo although innovative for the console and a good game was simply moving the first person shooter to the console. There is no huge innovation in the game play. The game is extremely successful though and has had 2 sequels. The developers simply made the first first person shooter to work on consoles. That was the innovation the rest is just improvement on the first person shooter genre.

Another example of a successful game like this is WoW. A lot of the game play is not new or innovative but it is better than its predecessors. Blizzard took what they knew worked in past games improved it and then put it in their game. They did innovate with instances, battlegrounds, etc too but a lot of the game is simply improvement.

The innovation in these games is just as important as the improvements. If the game only had improvements the game would be boring. The innovations do make the game but they shouldn't be the sole focus of the design.

The video game industry needs to study these unique cases of simple improvement and small innovation and learn to create it on a regular basis. Making a complete copycat where all the developers do is improve the last game is generally not successful. Making a game that is completely innovative and untested is also generally unsuccessful. That is not to say that they never succeed just that the chance of success is much less. I think that being able to tell these two types of games apart and specifically classify each aspect will help make better games.

Too often games are made that are copycats that are boring or innovations that players simply don't understand. A balance is necessary. Game design seems to be based on that balance.

Cyaz