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

What Is a Casual Gamer?

I read an article posted today on gamasutra, it was an opinion piece about what are casual gamers. It was written by Russell Carroll who started righting a weekly column on casual games. I basically agreed with everything she said in the article except when he listed the reasons casual gamers play games versus the reasons core gamers play games.

I consider myself part of the core gamer category. I easily play 20 hours a week when I have a game to play. In the article he states that the core gamer plays games for entertainment purposes but that is not enough for casual gamers. I think that some casual gamers do play games just for entertainment. Entertainment is defined as "amusement or diversion provided especially by performers or something diverting or engaging" on Webster. All video games give you some sort of diversion from life meaning that all games are forms of entertainment. Core and casual gamers may be looking for different amounts of entertainments but I believe one of the main reasons anyone plays video games is for entertainment.

The other part of the article I disagreed with was what the different types of gamers expect out of a game in terms of reasons to play the game. The article says, "they may be looking for stress relief, learning, distraction, self-improvement, or simply a pleasant way to spend time with friends. Instead of looking for excitement, adventure or competition like the core gamer, casual gamers often want to feel that their time is being used beneficially." I don't agree that you can really separate the differences between casual and core gamers besides for time constraints. The biggest difference between casual and core gamers is that core gamers will spend more time playing games than casual gamers. Both types of gamers like playing the same types of games they just play at different skill levels and get different things out of playing. There are some games that are just too difficult for a casual gamer to play because they don't have enough time to practice but most games both types of gamers can play.

There seems to be a large stereotype that games for casual gamers need to be a certain way in order to appeal to them. But if you take a step back you can see that casual gamers are casual gamers because of time commitment not because of a particular preference for a certain type of game. The day someone figures out the way to make it so both casual and core gamers are able to get the same experience out of a game the game industry will go through a revolution...


Cyaz

Reply to "Opinion: Is The Industry Ready for Its 'Game Noir'?

After reading Opinion: Is The Industry Ready For Its 'Game Noir'? on Gamasutra. I felt like the author was pointing out the obvious a little bit. In the past before WoW as I watched MMOs come out, play them for a short bit, then get dragged back to Asheron's Call, I started thinking about why I still played AC years after it had come out. The answer was simply that I liked the game play more than I cared about fancy graphics or sounds. I distinctly remember telling my friends that game developers should just make a cartoony game that looks good but uses significantly less computing power than a comparable generation game.

Blizzard seems to be thinking with this mentality with World of Warcraft. The game did cost many millions of dollars to produce but the graphics were not anywhere close to state of the art when the game was released. I love the cartoony art style they used but it was a change from previous MMOs where each new MMO tries to one up the one before graphically. WoW instead of playing that game went for using just good graphics rather than spectacular and focused on the game play. I think this is the key to making a successful noir game. They need to make sure the graphics are good (meaning not state of the art but still fun to look at) then focus the rest of their attention on game play. This is comparable to what they did with movies where they cut the huge explosions, sets, etc and focused on individual characters doing more mundane and simpler things.

I still believe that the game industry should continue on as it has despite the argument for following a 'Game Noir' strategy. The game industry is still overall successful and profitable. It is a real competition for the movie industry and is growing each year. I think this opinion piece was a plea for the little guy who can't get funding. Yes, many potential great games are probably not being made due to lack of funding and game design is stagnating and progressing slow than it should because developers are scared to try new things but how can we change that?

I think the only answer is to continue on and eventually the industry will become large enough to let the little guy in. The Playstation 2 is the best selling video game console to date and because of this anyone could design almost any game they wanted. The market was so large that niche games could be created and still be successful. Right now most game developers are focused on this race to have the best graphics and coolest effects but at some point they are going to realize that making the next Halo or Mass Effect is not necessary to stay profitable. Enough people will have consoles or PCs that game developers can make the games they want to make. However, I do believe that the most profitable video game titles will always be the ones that had the best funding and best equipment because they will always have the best graphics and effects. People seem to like things that are pretty and shiny and so they will buy the prettiest and shiniest video game.


For those who don't know what film noir is click here.

Cyaz