A heads up, your going to see Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls come up a lot in this one.
It's been a few weeks. Life, and my own struggle to find something I want to talk about have kept me away recently. Recently I played the demo of Catherine and was blown away by how different it was to anything I had played recently, perhaps even ever. It got me thinking about how many uniquely different games I had played recently, and I found myself rather stunned that pretty much every game I was playing or was looking at acquiring had a number in it somewhere.
So why is that weird?
Because I always talk about how there isn't enough originality in gaming these days and how I wish there were more varied experiences to be had.
And yet, here I am playing Elder Scrolls IV, Halo: Reach, and Fable III.
My current time sink. And what a time sink it is...
I understand the need for sequels, I also enjoy them when they are done well (See: Mass Effect 2) and not obvious attempts to capitalize on a games popularity (See: Bioshock 2). And there is room for both the unique and interesting, and for the sequel's in gaming.
The first obvious reason sequels exist is for the same reason books and movies get sequels and trilogy's. The developer is telling a story and needs to spread it out over two or three installments (or more). Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, and Assassins Creed are all examples of this. They are also the franchise's that I would give as the best examples of how to do it right. Bioware and Ubisoft both took fan reaction and criticism into account when making future installments of their games to not only fix missteps and problems, but to keep the experience fresh, and Bethesda is always pushing the limits of how big open world RPG's can get.
The second reason they exist is because they are an easy way for a developer to get a steady stream of cash coming in. Games are a business at this scale, and the first thing a developer or publisher needs to consider is how much money they are making and how much future projects could make. A lot of people out there consistently bash gaming developers and publishers for releasing sequels of games they deem "terrible" or "garbage". Unfortunately as much as I'd like to be on their side in some cases, franchise's like Call of Duty and Battlefield and EA's yearly sports titles rake in millions of dollars for developers. That money goes three places (and a few others but for our purpose we'll stick with three...), to the people working for these companies, to make more of the games in these franchises, and towards brand new IP's. Without these games raking in millions, developers and publishers can't take chances on anything brilliant or different because there are so many uncertainties.
Of course there is a whole other part to his sequel-original problem. A lot of people also get upset at new games that are released and seem very similar to other games they've played. There are two big reasons for this in my mind. First, there have been so many stories written in across many mediums that at this point, everyone is copying something from somewhere or someone at some point in the game (also known as inspiration most of the time). Second, developers adapt already in use game engine's and interfaces and designs for their own projects. Bethesda has a good thing going with the Elder Scrolls game design. So much so that they adapted the play style and game design for Fallout 3 when they acquired the game's rights from Interplay. People don't often realize how much work goes into a game, and to do everything from the ground up takes a lot of hard work and time. Very often a design team is given a certain amount of time to complete a game, so for many developer's it is simply a matter of how much time they want to spend in what area's of a game's development. Few games have the luxury of being lovingly crafted by a team given as much time as they need to work with it, and it isn't hard to spot games that fall into that category because they are often very detailed, very deep, and very good.
I will say though, there has to be other concept art and cover art ideas out there other than "faded background guy".
It;s very easy to play a game and say, "Oh this game isn't original, this dev team just didn't care." If you spend all your time looking only for the truly unique and interesting games, like Catherine, your going to miss a lot of really good games, just because the resemble something you already played. Of course if the game is lacking originality in the sense that it is very average, then I can understand a bit more, but to miss a games like Mass Effect or Battlefield just because you've played something similar is a shame.
Before I end this, I just want to once again mention Extra Life. My donation page as well as my team's page, are now live and ready for your spare change and dollars to go towards a great cause. Anything you can contribute will be greatly appreciated, and it will help some children who really need it. I know there's a lot of things you'd rather put money towards, or maybe the economy crunch has you saving as much as you can. But even the smallest contribution is going to make a difference. If you can only send a few dollars, then that's more than fine.
http://www.extra-life.org/participant/polaris
And so with that out of the way, I must be on my way. I need some sleep at some point today after all.
Take it easy.
