by Kyle Daniels

Created on: May 04, 2010

Video games are an ever changing beast. Twenty five years ago video arcades were the place to be. People of all ages streamed to the arcades to drop a few quarters and hang out. Now arcades sit awkwardly on the boardwalk, shells of their former glory, and the same people who once called the arcade home play the night away on their Xbox 360 or Play station 3. Times are constantly changing and if video games don’t keep up they’ll get left in the dust.

Technology has sprung forward by leaps and bounds since the coin-op era and the technologies behind video games are no different. Back in the day video games were restricted in what they could do because of technical limitations. Now in an age were just about anything is possible how does a video game balance innovation with classical formula?

If a game is too much like all of the other games on the market it will get lost in the crowd and forgotten. Titles featuring less then memorable heroes and convoluted plots often get lost in the shuffle. Games that borrow to heavily from earlier games are also frowned upon and usually deemed “clones”. A new game must analyze past games to figure out what has worked, and more importantly what hasn’t. Too often are newly released games plagued with issues that have existed within the gaming industry since its conception.

On the other hand too much innovation in a game can be a bad thing as well. The line between innovative and gimmicky is thin one, and too often it is crossed.   Having too much flash and not enough substance is common and found in any number of new releases, especially Wii titles. How can developers’ think that a half baked story with tacked on motion controls is acceptable. The Wii’s motion controls should work with the game to create a more engrossing experience, but more often than not they serve as little more than clunky distractions.

New games don’t need attachments or accessories to be fresh. The recently released Mass Effect 2 featured a complex, epic story line and mixed it with the lighting quick combat of a title like Gears of War. After that BioWare sprinkled some light RPG aspects into the mix and added just a dash of squad based shooter. Sounds innovative to me. By offering up rich new ideas and compelling mechanics games can be original without gimmicky attachments or other off the wall ideas.

The video game industry is advancing at a breakneck pace and with things like the Xbox’s Project Natal looming just over the horizon it’s safe to say that there will be no shortage of innovative new ideas in the near future. In the end innovation is a necessity in the video game world. New ideas are the lifeblood of gaming. I can’t picture what sort of video games I’ll be playing in ten years; but I know I’ll be having a blast.

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