Comments on: Creativity in games is stagnating, says Dishonored designer

By: pinothyj

pinothyj — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 23:23:51 +0000

I am sick of devs commenting negatively about the industry as if they are:

A) Experts
B) Some how different and apart of the only company that is doing the opposite of what they are criticism

:|…

By: zakynthos

zakynthos — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 22:00:07 +0000

blame the publishers, especially some of the the AAA publishers, you know which ones I’m talking about

By: vaguehit

vaguehit — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:32:59 +0000

He’s completely right on all points. Fiction in games IS stagnating and that is taking into account all the indie games out there. They are mostly takes on retro gaming; some with admittedly brilliant twists, but rarely with significant advances in storytelling.

I think he is also mostly focussing on the ‘mainstream’ releases. There really hasn’t been much in the last five years.

By: gnavin

gnavin — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:45:30 +0000

To put it another way, because I realise that was probably not very clear, I think it might also be due to the games *industry* being run like an *industry*. The whole point of industry is to make money, and there’s a whole pile of cost analyses and risk/reward scenarios being played around with before a project can even begin to be made.

These companies do not want to innovate because there is an inherent risk in trying something different, and as a business they are aiming for maximum profits. It’s not being done for the love of the game.

By: gnavin

gnavin — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:42:09 +0000

nekosan: Creativity isn’t stagnating, developers are just (like always) compromising their design ideals for the sake of games being easier to develop.

I don't think this is as much the fault of the people *making* the games as it is the fault of the people paying to have the games made.

By: nekosan

nekosan — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:44:04 +0000

Pesky no edit button >_<

I would also argue that he's an idiot simply because of the influx of indie games in the last 2-3 years. Following the success of Minecraft and a few other titles, indie development in the last couple of years has gone INSANE… there are more good quality, indie games for sale on Steam today than were published in the entirety of the 2000-2005 period.

He's just trying to plug his own game (and failing).

By: nekosan

nekosan — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:41:16 +0000

Creativity isn’t stagnating, developers are just (like always) compromising their design ideals for the sake of games being easier to develop. I find it humorous coming from a man whose hyped up game features are not as advertised come release.

There was a 20+ minute talk from one of the Dishonored devs a year or more ago which had me on the edge of my seat waiting for their game, queue the gameplay trailer released this year and me saying “WTF is this shit?”.

By: arkanis

arkanis — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 07:42:26 +0000

Agreed, Although you do get the odd game breaking the mould.

The reason (i believe) is simply risk management. A game thats been a proven success means its successor is likely to be a success also.

A brand new game thats different to every other game? well thats a risk that nobody wants to take. Usually.

That being said, The Secret World did innovate a lot, and I think that game will be very successful.