A friend of mine stated "I think gaming in general has hit sort of a writer's block". After some consideration, I find this rather... true.
Consider what is being produced these days. I'll use the top ten recent releases on the IGN homepage as my first example.
[Professor Brainium], DS, another brain training game, unoriginal. Includes five (also unoriginal) multiplayer minigames.
[The Cheetah Girls: Passport to Stardom], DS, action game based on a TV show. Low budget game... the name will sell it.
[Quick Yoga Training], DS, physical training, while you watch the woman onscreen do yoga or whatnot. Unoriginal.
[Grid], DS, racing game. Just like any other racing game: You'll race around on a track, just like the last one, except with a different variety of scenery and car parts. Unoriginal.
[Murder in the Abbey], PC, adventure mystery. As far as mystery games go, the storyline is probably original. May be an original game.
[Crash Time: Autobahn Pursuit], xbox 360, racing game. New selection of tracks, cars, and parts, no doubt. Unoriginal.
[Little League World Series Baseball 2008], DS, sports. Play a nice game of baseball... oh wait. That's not original...
[Little League World Series Baseball 2008], Wii, sports. Ummm..... yeah. You'll probably get to use your wiimote to swing the bat. The concept was original, once. But what wii game doesn't use the wiimote to swing your bat, club, racket, sword, and gun. Unoriginal.
[Puzzler Collection], Wii, "Crossword, Sudoku, Word Search and Fitword". Haven't you seen these released on every other platform so far? I know I have. Unoriginal.
[Monster Madness: Grave Danger], PS3, fight against a monster invasion, customize your guns and destructible terrain. Potentially original.
So, there is a chance that 2 of these 10 recently released games are original. Now lets take a look at some of the top companies. I'll give a rundown on one of my favorites...
[Square Enix]... created Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, amongst other games. Earlier this year they released The World Ends With You, definitely an original game (nice too), and last year FF XII (didn't fare as well as previous FF installments, but an original system). They've got at least five potentially original games in the works, three of which are the different parts of the FF XIII set. But let's not overlook at in the past few years they've rereleased Final Fantasy 1, 2, 3, 4 (twice), and 6 (twice), along with Chrono Trigger (for PSX). Next year, Chrono Trigger will be re-released for the second time, for the DS. [That's a lot of remakes]
[What about game genres?] Wikipedia lists action, action-adventure, adventure, "construction and management simulation", life simulation, role-playing, strategy, and vehicle simulation. Of course, there are other genres and sub-categories. However, how many games are redefining their genre's limits? Too few. Am I exaggerating? Perhaps. Consider the following genres:
(the rest can be read on the site... dig it please. Thanks!)
http://natso.darknovagames.com/?p=1&e=16
http://digg.com/gaming_news/Game_Designer_s_Block_When_80_of_our_games_are_unoriginal
