Where does unoriginality go too far?

[sageoftruth]

Many of us on the escapist love to bash various media for their unoriginality. However, I believe many of our arguments stem from disagreement over what things in a song/game/movie/book have a right to be unoriginal. A friend of mine stated how genres exist because all the creations within the genre share a few common details. We would be pretty disappointed. In your media of choice, what makes something unorigianl as opposed to just being an indicator that it belongs to a certain genre?

 

[Palademon]

When it's the only series doing well and they make endless sequels in very few years.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Anything that is not Okami is unoriginal.


Seriously though, I think unoriginality just stems from never taking any risk. I like the Call of Duty games, but I would never call them original. I think the biggest offender are football (soccer to you yanks) games. Fifa release the same game every year with slightly different footballer stats.

 

[C95J]

When it's the only series doing well and they make endless sequels in very few years.

I would have thought they make new sequels because people buy them maybe???

 

[TaboriHK]

I think unforgivable unoriginality occurs when something is made and it has absolutely no inkling of original perspective. Have I retreaded this story before? That's okay. But if the entire product is devoid of a single original moment, or a moment that they captured better than most everything else, that's when it's unforgivable.

 

[Palademon]

When it's the only series doing well and they make endless sequels in very few years.

I would have thought they make new sequels because people buy them maybe???

Yep.
And because it's easier than making something new that will undoubtedly lose their control over all the people that don't care about the industry.

 

[SaturdayS]

Can we define unoriginality, or originality for that matter. It's been said that there is nothing new under the sun. Perhaps its more a matter of "Which demographic of people won't be sick of this idea this time?"

edit: because I didn't actually answer the OP's question:

I don't mind unoriginality so long as it can be presented in an enjoyable way. For example, I enjoyed the Last Airbender movie until Aang opened his stupid mouth and pretended to have a purpose.

 

[sageoftruth]

Can we define unoriginality, or originality for that matter. It's been said that there is nothing new under the sun. Perhaps its more a matter of "Which demographic of people won't be sick of this idea this time?"

edit: because I didn't actually answer the OP's question:

I don't mind unoriginality so long as it can be presented in an enjoyable way. For example, I enjoyed the Last Airbender movie until Aang opened his stupid mouth and pretended to have a purpose.

That's a good point. In fact that may be another cause for argument. The fact that an idea has been used before doesn't always mean the creator purposefully borrowed it from another source. I guess it would still be unoriginal, but should we differentiate between intentional and unintentional use of someone else's ideas? That aside, you know it was done intentionally if you're comparing a game/movie to its sequel, but then there's the conflict of new ideas vs. staying true to the series.

Anyway, the importance of originality is for another topic. This is more about where those who value it draw the line.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

I think unforgivable unoriginality occurs when something is made and it has absolutely no inkling of original perspective. Have I retreaded this story before? That's okay. But if the entire product is devoid of a single original moment, or a moment that they captured better than most everything else, that's when it's unforgivable.

i forget who said it, but there's a saying that i always feel sums it up best (and i'm probably mangling the quote, too, but here's the gist of it...): "there is no point doing anything unless you can do it better than those who did it before you."

so, yeah, if you can at least add something to the original work/concept/vague idea, then it's ok to not be completely original. but we have all seen too many examples of a rehashed idea that isn't even as good as what we already know.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I'd have to go with the sports games: The same thing again and again, just using different players and stats.

 

[el_negro]

Anything that is not Okami is unoriginal.


Seriously though, I think unoriginality just stems from never taking any risk. I like the Call of Duty games, but I would never call them original. I think the biggest offender are football (soccer to you yanks) games. Fifa release the same game every year with slightly different footballer stats.

Don't forget Madden and PES! jajaja same game but re-patched xD