What's with the obsession about 'innovation'?

[StuOhQ]

Ka-pi96 said:

Does innovation automatically make things better? No!
Can things be good without innovation? Yes!

Importance is placed on innovation because even fun formulas become boring when repeated endlessly. Think if the every Mario game up to this point was exactly the same as the first: No additional items to create puzzles, no overworld/map, no mini-bosses, no ghost houses, no triple jump, backflip, no Yoshi, no 3D, no red coins, no stars, no rail/moving levels, no moving platforms. As early as "Lost Levels", Nintendo brought some new things to the table. Without innovation, SMB3 would not be possible, "World 1&2" would not be possible, 64 and "3D World" would not be possible. The "Galaxy" and "Sunshine" games are just straight out the window with a baseball bat without innovation. All of that innovation is within one franchise (that people often complain is stale and dated). 

Now, imagine if every franchise used the same mechanics, gameplay, level design, etc. as the series that same before it. We would all be playing Pong... Scratch that! Pong added angles to the direction you shot the "ball", depending on where it struck your "paddle"! We would all be playing "Table Tennis".

Was the game fun? Yes. Is it still fun? Yes. Would I still play videogames regularly if all we had to play was "Table Tennis"? Probably not. An overly dramatic history lesson, I have to admit - and I'm sure there were games that preceeded "Table Tennis - but my point is that you are partially correct. Games that do little or nothing new can still be fun, especially if we haven't had that exact experience in a while (i.e. retro titles). Innovation is neccessary, however, to keep the same old ideas feeling fresh.

Not only is innovation neccessary for the industry, it's also great for gamers! Think about the first time you played "Tetris, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Metroid, Wolfenstein 3D, Starfox, Goldeneye, Final Fantasy VII, Virtua Fighter, GTA 3, Halo, Morrowind, Mario Galaxy, Portal, etc. It's a breath of fresh air to play something completely new (Portal, Wolfenstein 3D, Mario 64), or even a new and trendsetting take on something old (Goldeneye, Halo, Metal Gear Solid, Mario Kart). All of those games occupy special places in my heart, places that aren't accessible to titles that take a "...don't fix it mentality". 

A fun, competant game, is something I will always respect, and titles like "Mario Kart 8" and "DK: Tropical Freeze" make up a big part of my library. It's the innovative and big new ideas that hit the industry every so often that keep me coming back, keep me laying down my dollar on new consoles in anitcipation of what new, hitherto unthought of pleasures that are going to await me during this generation... ones that didn't exist during the last one.