Super Fantastic Poll 4: I'll order the Innovation good sir!

[jiisu]

"Gauntlet raised... Gauntlet thrown... Let's kick this pig!" - The "Ask a Ninja" Ninja

I know its been a good 3 weeks since my last thread. I apologize as reality has taken a hold of my soul and forced me into a labor camp with everyone else. Well, it's not like anyone noticed my absence. ;) Anyways... onto the post!

As gamers, we all ask ourselves this question sometime in our lives: Is the constant re-execution of the same genre healthy for the gaming populace or do we need to inject some life with more innovation in our games? Everyone likes to feel comfortable when they load up a new game they just bought. Who wants to deal with a crazy new interface, or no interface at all, when you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy a cozy interface you've grown to enjoy. Is innovation only for the new breed of gamer or is it the other way around? Since some of you old timers and some of us middle-agers (in terms of gaming that is) have seen everything the gaming world has to offer would it only be to our benefit to see some new executions of old formulas or some new formulas all together? Is the immense popularity of such titles as Counter Strike and Unreal Tournament 200X telling us that younger players enjoy less mechanically complex gameplay and little to no emphasis on story telling?

Understandably, there is the very real factor of funding. Fairly innovative projects are not nearly as appealing to investors due to the fact that there is no guarantee of a return on their investment. The project could be to innovative and therefore never receive investment because of it. As much as we may wish that investors would look more kindly upon those projects, the reality is that they aren't in the habit of just throwing money away. I mean... who is? We cant expect them to back every innovative or interesting project. A line must be drawn.

I realize the high frequency of questions above, but they aim directly to the point of this thread: Just how innovative should the future titles of the gaming world be? Is there ever too much innovation?

And..... BEGIN!

[Moloch]

Who wants to deal with a crazy new interface, or no interface at all, when you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy a cozy interface you've grown to enjoy.

Personally, I think you can get the best of both worlds by providing a customisable/mod-able UI framework. I love the flexibility of the WoW interface, and the way that Blizz have leveraged off the creativity of the community: the nurfed UI, CT Raid Assist, SW Stats, Whispercast, the various Boss mods, and Decursive are examples of a few of the community mods that have made my WoW life easier.

The downside is that it opens up the possibility of cheats - although Blizz seemed to have learned from Diablo and the cheating is far less (old school fishing bots and Wow glide are a couple of exceptions that spring to mind).

would it only be to our benefit to see some new executions of old formulas or some new formulas all together

For me, the point is that, regardless of the design and coding solution, any 'innovation' must benefit gameplay.

Is the immense popularity of such titles as Counter Strike and Unreal Tournament 200X telling us that younger players enjoy less mechanically complex gameplay and little to no emphasis on story telling?

IMO it merely says that these there is a separate market for FPS. If KW wants to capture some of that market then it needs to carefully consider which FPS game elements to incorporate into its design, while not remaking Hexen.

It also says that there a lot of gamers who appreciate being able to spend - say - up to an hour playing, and having a blast as soon as they log into a game. Timesinks are tolerated by most, celebrated by those whose major gaming skill is time available, and abhored by the remainder.

Just how innovative should the future titles of the gaming world be? Is there ever too much innovation?

A pass mark for KW will be enough innovation in design, background, art, support and gameplay to distinguish itself as a brand. Innovation must benefit gamers and gameplay.