This isn't a new trend. Whenever a new formula is successful, that formula is aped for years, particularly by large-budget projects that want to avoid the risk of new ideas. It's not even restricted to video games: the same can be seen in movies and television as well. The larger the budget, the less likely media is to be innovative, because the harder it is to justify the risk to those funding it.
Innovation typically seems to come from two sources: the few companies that are willing to throw large amounts of money at innovative, risky ideas (often led by a famous "auteur" of sorts, e.g. Suda51 or Peter Molyneux), and independent developers who aren't risking as large a budget. This has gotten us FPSs like Team Fortress 2, which completely bucked the trend -- and has been wildly successful as a result. Counter-Strike, still the third most popular game on Steam after over a decade, was originally developed as a mod by fans. But remember that not all new ideas are good, hence the risk: even incredibly innovative and critically successful games often fail commercially, as in the case of Psychonauts.
A near-identical trend can be seen in anime. Over the past half-decade, there has been much complaint about a huge number of shows aping the style and setting of past blockbusters, Kyoto Animation in particular being a particularly large target due to their extraordinary success with franchises like Haruhi and K-ON. In some seasons there have been half a dozen shows following nigh-identical formulas, much in the same way that there's so many identical blockbuster FPSs. Just like with FPSs, to avoid risk, companies pander extremely heavily to the perceived demands of specific demographics that they believe will buy the show or game no matter what -- instead of trying to make something innovative and interesting.
But what was the biggest anime hit this year? Not the Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3s of anime, formulaicly aping past successes. No, it was actually Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magicka, which not only broke to pieces most of the stereotypes of its purported genre, but came out of the nowhere to become the most wildly successful show in years.
A genre of media becomes stale over time, with new ideas stemming to a trickle. People become disillusioned and disinterested, and stop buying new titles. This makes it more urgent to try new ideas, generating more innovation and more fresh content. This content is then aped due to its success, and the cycle repeats.
As soon as you brought up anime, and it's lack of innovation, I immediately thought of the Gundam franchise. I mean how many different types of Amuro Ray and Char Azenable characters can you produce for each new series. Fantastic comment, DarkShikari.
Thank you for reminding me of Psychonauts. I _know_ I have that game in a box somewhere at home and now I'm looking forward to give it another spin.
Totally FPS unrelated, but I agree: It was one of the most innovative games I've ever enjoyed.
Comments
This isn't a new trend. Whenever a new formula is successful, that formula is aped for years, particularly by large-budget projects that want to avoid the risk of new ideas. It's not even restricted to video games: the same can be seen in movies and television as well. The larger the budget, the less likely media is to be innovative, because the harder it is to justify the risk to those funding it.
Innovation typically seems to come from two sources: the few companies that are willing to throw large amounts of money at innovative, risky ideas (often led by a famous "auteur" of sorts, e.g. Suda51 or Peter Molyneux), and independent developers who aren't risking as large a budget. This has gotten us FPSs like Team Fortress 2, which completely bucked the trend -- and has been wildly successful as a result. Counter-Strike, still the third most popular game on Steam after over a decade, was originally developed as a mod by fans. But remember that not all new ideas are good, hence the risk: even incredibly innovative and critically successful games often fail commercially, as in the case of Psychonauts.
A near-identical trend can be seen in anime. Over the past half-decade, there has been much complaint about a huge number of shows aping the style and setting of past blockbusters, Kyoto Animation in particular being a particularly large target due to their extraordinary success with franchises like Haruhi and K-ON. In some seasons there have been half a dozen shows following nigh-identical formulas, much in the same way that there's so many identical blockbuster FPSs. Just like with FPSs, to avoid risk, companies pander extremely heavily to the perceived demands of specific demographics that they believe will buy the show or game no matter what -- instead of trying to make something innovative and interesting.
But what was the biggest anime hit this year? Not the Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3s of anime, formulaicly aping past successes. No, it was actually Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magicka, which not only broke to pieces most of the stereotypes of its purported genre, but came out of the nowhere to become the most wildly successful show in years.
A genre of media becomes stale over time, with new ideas stemming to a trickle. People become disillusioned and disinterested, and stop buying new titles. This makes it more urgent to try new ideas, generating more innovation and more fresh content. This content is then aped due to its success, and the cycle repeats.
As soon as you brought up anime, and it's lack of innovation, I immediately thought of the Gundam franchise. I mean how many different types of Amuro Ray and Char Azenable characters can you produce for each new series. Fantastic comment, DarkShikari.
Thank you for reminding me of Psychonauts. I _know_ I have that game in a box somewhere at home and now I'm looking forward to give it another spin. Totally FPS unrelated, but I agree: It was one of the most innovative games I've ever enjoyed.