Originality? WTF is that?

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I never understood the rapid with which so many gamers go after originality. Yes, I get that we need it to grow and evolve, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Let the indie companies make new and original things (Also, get the indie companies attached to big corporations like the Extra Credits guy suggests) and let the big companies do what they do best. Enjoy the fun games whether they are original or not.

 

[Knusper]

Your a guy... but your a girl... but your a dog... but your a PREYING MANTIS. And you have to defeat the neutral Switzerland while they send out an army of clones that are like you... BUT COMPLETELY OPPOSITE, except for the GUN ARMS... and then you win... but it says game over because the actual aim of the game was to do nothing and be completely neutral throughout the whole game. That's my ORIGINAL idea.

I like that... more than my idea, anyway.

 

[thiosk]

Sporehammer 40k

Take spore, strip out the spore, and turn it into a mostly-procedural simulation of the 40k universe set in a modified spore galaxy. Zoom in to take marines into necron tombworlds or kick doors in and purge heretics, then zoom out and coax your starships through the eddies of the warp.

Because you exist in the universe, you worry about your own maitnence and upkeep, but not that of the empire as a whole.

 

[Unrulyhandbag]

Comedy
Tragedy
Rags to Riches
Defeat the monster
The Quest
Voyage and Return
Rebirth

Where would a "coming-of-age" story fit in these categories?

"Coming of age" is a combination of "the quest" and "rebirth."

ajimboB would be correct.
It's rebirth. One life comes to an end and the character is reborn as a new being. Usually it involves a quest or a voyage and return.

 

[Korenith]

Most originality stems from taking something that already exists and either altering part of it or adding in additional ingredients to create something new. Sure the 7 basic storyline argument holds true but compare Homer's "The Odyssey" to James Joyce's "Ulysses". Same basic "quest" framework and same basic father/son relationship as the focus but completely different in setting, character's, narrative styles, language... in short just about everything else. So what do I think originality is? The courage to try incorporating something new into the story rather than relying on the same old cliche plots and characters. Bioshock was something original because whilst the central plot was similar to loads of other storylines we've seen/read before the setting and the concept were well thought out and something we haven't seen in a game before. So that's my example of originality which I think proves it can be done and hell, games can be original far more easily than books because they've been around a lot less time so less of the great ideas have been taken.

 

[Chewster]

While I don't support those who whine that everything is unoriginal (it is true that everything is derivative to a certain extent), I also think those who then counter by saying "there are only seven stories ever done" are lazy thinkers too, who don't actually explore the complexities of proper storytelling and use some misguided template for basic storytelling to apologize for really poorly done games and films, but that is just me.

 

[Space Spoons]

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

Originality is an urban myth, like "innovation" or "immersion". The only intangible element that matters is fun. I play Mario Sunshine, even though it's just Mario 64 with a water pack, because it's fun. I play Pokemon Diamond, even though it's essentially the same as every other Pokemon game, because it's fun. I play Street Fighter, even though it has no coherent story whatsoever, because it's fun.

 

[2733]

the irony of this argument is that every game that we attack for a lack of originality, was once new and unique, and any great new IPs will someday be the targets of these attacks. take "Enslaved" for example, in seven years we will all complaining about "Enslaved 5, The pancakes of glory" and still buy it.

Back to the first question, if I had the team and resources, I would make a stealth/horror game based around the idea that a safe place suddenly becomes not safe and you must escape with your life.

 

[Woodsey]

Nothing is entirely original; you've got to take something from somewhere.

That's how things get good to begin with.

 

[komissar_kurwy]

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

Originality is an urban myth, like "innovation" or "immersion". The only intangible element that matters is fun. I play Mario Sunshine, even though it's just Mario 64 with a water pack, because it's fun. I play Pokemon Diamond, even though it's essentially the same as every other Pokemon game, because it's fun. I play Street Fighter, even though it has no coherent story whatsoever, because it's fun.

Not to be insulting, but you don't get the same kind of fun out of jumping and kicking around than out of a story-based game, or an interactive story-based game, or an adventure game, or an RTS, etc. Comparing genres that try to do completely different things is what many gamers fail at.

Compare Pokemon Red with Pearl - hmm, the combat is better, the graphics are better, the music is better. Nostalgia aside, it's a better game and more fun if you look at it that way. Now in a story-based game, for example, improving the twist at the end gradually with each game won't make it any better because you know there's a twist at the end. It ruins the unexpectedness of the story, and in turn makes it so you get less of the kind of fun that you normally get out of these types of games.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Spoiler: to avoid a wall of text, I'm putting my post here

When something original comes out, people either don't buy it, or bash it when anything similar to it comes out. There's a difference between being unoriginal and taking what works and using it.

They say there are too many sequels, but sequels tend to be the biggest sellers, meaning people must really like it. That's NOT a bad thing. Sure, some times a series catches "sequel-itis" like CoD, Guitar Hero, Street Fighter 2 (which has been cure with 4, which will in time catch it's own case of sequel-itis. Just give it time...), and so on, but having a sequel doesn't make the series unoriginal, just sucessful.

Complaining about unoriginal stories: See Unrulyhandbag's post.

Plus, just because it's original doesn't automatically make it good. I can't think of any right now, but there were some things that, while nobody ever did it before, it's certian it will never be done again. Because it was awful.

Just because it's unoriginal doesn't instantly make it bad. Hell, Mario has just been the same story for 20 years, and remaking either Mario 3 or Mario 64, and the games are still great, because of great level design, new mechanics, music, and just overall FUN.

And (as much as I hate this), oringal games don't garuntee SALES. Why make something new and risk a big monetary loss when you can make a sequel to a game with an existing fanbase, possibly expand it, and have an almost certian profit. As said before: "We'll stop making *insert current trend* games when people stop buying them".

I could go on for a while with this, but honestly, there are videos on youtube, blogs, and this very site that can sum it up better than I can.

 

[Space Spoons]

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

Originality is an urban myth, like "innovation" or "immersion". The only intangible element that matters is fun. I play Mario Sunshine, even though it's just Mario 64 with a water pack, because it's fun. I play Pokemon Diamond, even though it's essentially the same as every other Pokemon game, because it's fun. I play Street Fighter, even though it has no coherent story whatsoever, because it's fun.

Not to be insulting, but you don't get the same kind of fun out of jumping and kicking around than out of a story-based game, or an interactive story-based game, or an adventure game, or an RTS, etc. Comparing genres that try to do completely different things is what many gamers fail at.

Compare Pokemon Red with Pearl - hmm, the combat is better, the graphics are better, the music is better. Nostalgia aside, it's a better game and more fun if you look at it that way. Now in a story-based game, for example, improving the twist at the end gradually with each game won't make it any better because you know there's a twist at the end. It ruins the unexpectedness of the story, and in turn makes it so you get less of the kind of fun that you normally get out of these types of games.

I completely agree with you there, but I don't think the problem rests in a lack of originality. It's entirely possible to tell a story that's been told before and make it seem fresh.

For example, Red Dead Redemption; it's the classic "one last time" story, very common in Westerns. The hero's been retired for a long time, but has to come out of retirement and be a gunfighter "one last time", usually for his family's sake. Any coinnesseur of Western films could have told you how Red Dead Redemption was going to end. That's just the way those stories go. In that way, RDR was unoriginal. But did this make it boring, or bad? Depends on who you ask, but the general consensus seems to be that the game's story was pretty great. Despite being copy-pasted right out of "Unforgiven", RDR's story was appreciated because it was told well, in a way that made it seem new and exciting again.

If you're pumping out story-based games where the only thing you're changing is the twist at the end, the problem isn't a lack of originality, it's poor storytelling.

 

[komissar_kurwy]

Good points.

Don't forget that people playing games might not be familiar with every movie out there, so it's ok when a story gets cut-and-pasted, more or less, into a game.

However, if you're talking about very similar games or even sequels, like FFVIII and FFIX, where you can be pretty sure that a fan of the series has played the previous games, having a blatantly formulaic story isn't a good thing.

 

[komissar_kurwy]

Sorry, double post...

 

[komissar_kurwy]

Sorry, can anyone delete this?

 

[Veylon]

Try a game like Dwarf Fortress or Minecraft. They offer the opportunity to play in a world that exists above and beyond your own private adventure. There is no huge plot beyond the one you bring to the table.

Really, the focus should be fun. If games were colors, the dominant ones right now are realism brown and exposition grey. The problem isn't that this video game or that one has a bad story, it's that the story is being pushed front and center as though it's the be-all and end-all of a good game.

Pick pretty much any old game from the NES or SNES era and gussy it up with prettier graphics and it would be hailed as original and/or innovative. But we're not likely to see a new-school game in the style of Dungeon Magic or Metal Storm or Power Blade or even Crystalis. Heck, let alone the dozens of Shoot-em-ups that have fallen by the wayside.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

There is no "true" originality, unless you go back a few thousand years when everything was brand new in stories.

Today, orginallty, is taking old ideas, but using them in new ways.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, I'm not one of the many throngs of people who BS about the originality of a game. In fact, I like that some games appear to indeed take something from other existing ideas.

For instance, my top pick for Survival Horror, the not-a-Resident-Evil-game thriller, Extermination. I've spoken about it before, but for those of you who haven't seen me talking about it before (or know nothing about the game), it seems to take some of its ideas from John Carpenter's: The Thing. But then, it took the idea farther and developed its own track. The game was received kinda' meh, but I liked it alot. Freaky shit.

In any case, talking of originality, I know it when I see it. I have some if people want it.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Invader Zim game NAO PL0X!!
That is all.

I'd buy several copies of the collectors edition if that was released. Hell, just give me the damned TV show back!

 

[Staskala]

For video games in particular it is really not that hard to come up with "more original" plot elements (not completely original stories, obviously). Games usually tell stories while being completely black and white, i.e you are good, the rest are the evil bad guys, go and kill them. All is justified, you are the hero.
For games it would even be original to have a plot in which the bad guys have reasonable motives, or *shock* where they are just one side in a mutual war, with no side being better than the other. At best you get a little speech before the final boss fight that's supposed to justify the his evil deeds, but really doesn't.

Games really don't excell when it comes to innovative stories. Of course there are some, but you have to look really hard.
As for original gameplay, that's something we can't complain about, there's all kind of different stuff around.