So one of the commentors asked me in my 'Taikodom First Impressions' article about copying of innovations, and more specifically, what are my thoughts on it.

What is an innovation?

That would be the first question I would ask anyone who asks me that. Do you define an innovation as a feature you have not seen before in a game? Are we generalizing here as a game, or specifically, in the MMO genre? Would they then consider a feature an innovation if it has been a feature maybe not in a game, but in some other activity, but just adapted to the MMO genre? Would they also consider a feature an innovation if it has just been modified more so then it's base innovation?

The Golden Era of Innovation is dead..

The Golden Age of Innovation, when MMORPGs started has long since passed. Of course, that is not to say that we will not see new truely innovative... innovations, and that new ones will pop up as new MMOs come and developers wreak their brains to think of something new.

However, no matter how I look at it, the past few MMOs just don't have many innovations, not enough for me to use two hands to count.

It's all about tweaks, not innovation.

So, prime example, World of Warcraft. Not so much a game made of innovations as a game made of tweaks of innovations. To put it simply, they took the best of all current MMOs and put it together. But saying that isn't fair to Blizzard. Blizzard did take what worked for other games, but also tweaked them to the point where it would fit into WoW, which is no easy task.

Identifying the key features in a game is one thing, making it work for yours is another.

But like music...

of which tracks can always be sorted into a category, there will always be developers trying to break the genre, trying to put in something that is truely innovative, as hard as it may be. So all is not lost.

And ultimately...

we all just want to play something which is fun. And if a current innovation out there would make the game more fun for me, I don't see a problem with putting it in. There is no point in being a purist and only playing innovative games, because, innovative doesn't necessarily mean fun.

So, as a game designer...

my logic is like this. I gotta make a game based on say, Hopscotch. I could go the most innovative route, by having the player use his mouse movement as balance, and the cursor keys for the jump, which distance is based on how long I hold the down arrow key, and how fast the transition between the down to up arrow key is; all in a fourth person view (uh... don't ask).

But would that be fun? To me? To the rest of the target demographic out there?

If the average player is having a hard time just timing the key strokes, don't talk about balancing, maybe I should have a more traditional arcady 3rd person feel to it? If I put in a progression system, players would definately like it more, how about a traditional leveling system?

Also, being a developer...

we have issues that affect game design and innovations. Have we thought up of a totally interactive environment which can be manupilated by your mouse, which controls a hand (Jurassic Park: Trespasser BTW), or other totally crazy and cool ideas? You bet we have. But is it feasible to be implimented? Can the current gen hardware support it?

Then we have other issues to worry about, like hierarchy. If the higher ups say they want a WoW clone, we have little choice in the matter. And we have to bloody try to make it not seem like a "WoW Clone", yet retaining enough to please the higher ups, which are the people writing our paychecks.

And...

we have to find ways to make money. Oh gosh! Baaad corporate minded developer! But well, let's put in this way. If we make a game that we find really cool and innovative, but no one plays, how are we to earn money for said higher ups who write our paychecks? It's a sad but true situation that most game developers live in, and thus, their willingness to sometimes copy a proven innovation lock stock and barrel.

Sadly, not all game designers have the creative freedom of Richard Garriott or Peter Molyneux, where we have pretty much limitless creative freedom to do what we want. And as such, sometimes we fall into the trap most of us get into the industry to try to rectify to begin with.

So...

everyone's views on having innovative games are well noted. And most game designers think about cool new things to do every other waking moment of their fast aging life (I personally estimate another 2-3 years of black hair for myself, before it all turns grey).  But if a game is released that has a feature that you definately seen some place else, don't be so quick to slam it. What matters is if you have fun playing it.

Because like WoW, as much as people say it's a clone of whatever, they themselves are probably playing it regardless, and at the very least, the figures don't lie!

Oh and if anyone steals that hopscotch idea, I'll sue, because you seen it here first. I think.