Creativity Constraints in Society

Creativity Constraints in Society

I felt prompted to write this after Ben Mathis had shown his character entry for the Dominance War and it made me realise how much popularity and public opinion can effect and restrain creative ideas. I thought that Ben’s character not only looked fantastic and unique, but was also supported by some brilliant and considered ideas such the prosthetic sprinting legs to get in and out of dangerous situations quickly and the luminous face paint under the eyes so he’d be able to snipe in the dark. I was disappointed to find out that it was negatively received by most people, and this draws me to the point that common opinions of what is “cool” can stifle the games industries’ creative potential. After hearing that the most popular designs appeared to be generic and overused genre archetypes such as girls with guns and guys with swords, I felt I'd have to look into why very few original concepts seem to be able to make it into the world of games.

There are examples of this saturation of the market due to uninspired games wherever you turn, legions of WWII shooters and re-hashed football games bear down on you from the shelves, each promising the “authentic” WWII shooting adventure and the “definitive” football experience. It’s disappointing that the market is so dominated by these kind of games and it’s more disappointing still to realise that as the industry grows and each game is a bigger risk d

ue to the massive increase of production costs, the less risks developers will be willing to take when it comes to creativity. It’s also sad to find out that most imaginative and creative games that try to do something different often don’t sell so well so it’s a tricky predicament.
The only option for solving a problem like this seems to be to bring down restrictions placed on games by massive profit-driven publishers like EA so that creative games are able to make it through into the market. The problem is, that even when a creative gem of a game gets through, they never get the recognition they deserve due to huge cleverly marketed games that cater to whatever sells well.

Now many people might argue against me but I feel that a lot of games considered creative are often quite shallow in terms of story development and are based on basic (and often excellent) ideas that draw in the player which is how they’re able to gain footing in the market. Katamari Damacy is an example of this, a casual gamer is able to pick and play with a unique control scheme utilising both analogue sticks which is new and exciting, but there’s no engaging story to really draw the player into the world. Games that try to do both, such as Psychonauts, often seem to do badly in terms of sales.

It seems like there’s a deadly cycle of popular yet overused genres that are holding the industry back. These days there are very few games that I actually want to play. Back in the day I’d wander into a game store, glassy eyed, all around me were seemingly fantastic games and I’d never be able to get all the ones I wanted. Especially with the price of N64 cartridges when it was in its very early days, about £70 if I remember… anyway, it always seemed like I was saving up for the next good game. Oh and on a kind of side note, anyone remember that awesome N64 fighting game, Rakuga Kids? Holy shit, it was awesome. There’s no way anything like that’d make it in todays market. The bear could turn into a submarine and it had snot bubbles and there was a girl with a chicken hat. So so cool.

It’s not just the game industry that’s suffering this lack of creativity too, it seems. A lot of modern films seem to go over old and safe money making genres and is it just me or does there seem to be a total lack of original IPs these days? Every film seems to either be a sequel, is based on a comic book, or a bad remake of a classic that butchers the original and sullies its name, all in the name of box office sales. Hopefully there’ll be a turning point at some point where the entertainment industry gets its creativity back and even more hopefully, maybe one day somebody will make a good movie based on a game or that genre will burn and die.

Anyway, I’m still awaiting the day when I can wander into a game store and be overwhelmed by a ton of games I want and blow all my savings on ‘em. Like it was back in the day. I feel so old.