The Adrenaline Vault has posted a critical article on the lack of new ideas in today's gaming industry. According to the author, the big companies are too busy following the trends, while it's up to the smaller "unknown" ones to come up with new ones.

The harsh, meat-hook reality of the matter is that there is little to no effort being put into the core stories and world-designs for RPGs anymore. In this day and age of stellar hardware advancements, it seems that the creation of a new title falls into one of two categories: Lord of the Rings clones or re-worked sequels to previously established franchises. There’s far more to fantasy than Tolkein’s templates, and there’s sure to be untapped wells of creativity that would facilitate new, uncharted realms. Do we really need another medieval throwback that mixes in some green sub-human races and the occasional fireball spell? Is it truly so impossible to conceptualize something new? I would postulate “no,” but it sure does seem that way.

Head over to Adrenaline Vault (http://www.avault.com/articles/getarticle.asp?name=durocher3&page=1) for the rest of the article.

[ September 26, 2004, 21:15: Message edited by: Mollusken ]

Capitalism, I bet. First you come up with new ideas and get paid off once you land a niche. But later on it's easier to press the last penny out of your niche rather than come up with something new. The old sells, maybe not so well as desired, but sells. No one knows if the new will sell. But pulling the last penny out of a niche requires cutting on the costs and so the power diminishes and it can't hold anything new when the last penny is pulled. So here comes hiring new people, getting new space and equipment and making it big once more. Costs a bit.

Well, I would really appreciate if they left the drow alone. I've also had enough of halfbreeds for some time. Monks and others don't really appeal to me so much in quasi-mediaeval settings, either. Enough of militant rogues and assassins, too.

When I get a new game or book, I don't feel like reading a book or playing a game, but I feel like reading merchandise, or playing merchandise.