"There is nothing new under the sun"

[Apocalyptore]

So, I've been watching gameplay for Binary Domain recently and just about any comment I hear about it is comparing it to other games. This happens to just about every game I can possibly think of-- instead of judging a game on its own merits, people compare it to another game that may only share a single aspect of it.
The worst case of these comparisons I've ever seen was, while watching a comparison video between the old Ico and the new HD version, some idiot in the YouTube comments actually compared the game to Skyrim BECAUSE THE INTRO SEQUENCE TOOK PLACE IN A FOREST. Yeah. Let that soak in for a minute.

So, question being: do you judge games based on their own merits, or do you constantly compare them to other games?

I myself HATE IT when others do that and never do it myself. Yes there are some games that are INCREDIBLY similar, if not complete rip offs, of other games, but I rarely let that bother me. I play the game without comparing it to another and let it be good or bad based on its own self rather than how similar/dissimilar it is to a different one.

EDIT: Fuck, wrong board.

 

[Lucem712]

I usually enjoy a game for the unique experience it has due to it's characters, art-style, story line. I think it's unfair to say, 'oh, this game is just like that game because it has so and so elements' I don't care, I enjoy this game because of the experience it allows me to have and that's it. Who cares if such story is like such story, it doesn't matter unless it's a blatant cash in, like "Transmophers" try sitting through that beauty.

 

[renegade7]

Skyrim started in a forest? Didn't actually catch that, I really wasn't paying attention to the intro sequence XD

I usually judge games solely by their own merit in terms of quality. In terms of what I'll actually be buying and playing, bet your ass I judge games based on comparisons to others.

 

[Nouw]

Yeah I wouldn't take a Youtube comment with any merit. Anyway, I always compare games to others otherwise I'd have no real way to differentiate bad games and good games. But if you're talking more of a 'X copied Y' thing, no I never do that.

 

[Muspelheim]

Well, alot of people tend to think that originallity or creativity is, through divine inspiration, do something no other have ever made in the entire history of the human species. And once something have been used, it's set in stone, and noone else may use it. Are there ogres in a particular film? Oooooomgggwtf der vas ogurs in X, Y is suuuch a rip-offffff!11 u ar blind sheep fanbois!!1

Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun, and if you only strive towards doing something noone else has ever done in a creative endeavour, you've pretty much got nothing whatsoever to work with. Real originallity is using old set pieces in a new, fresh combination.
Also, I don't think originallity should be the main goal of your endeavour. Certainly, you can strive towards keeping it fresh, but if you're just doing it to be able to say "Look at me, I'm such an original person!", then there's not going to be much substance in it, no matter how fresh and original it may be.

For instance, it'd be a rather novel thing to write a story about a... Cinderblock with alcohol-problems aboard a spaceship (or a Qhmurgokar or something...) or just about a speck of dust in a small, white room, it'd still be a fairly boring story.
It reminds me of awful, "original" poetry which is just a bunch of random, unstructured nonsense you're supposed to like because it's so original. It simply doesn't work very well.