It looks like I'm not the only one who notices a dearth of creative titles being brought to market. John C. Dvorak writes about the future of games in a recent PC magazine article, and he comes to the conclusion of a doomed industry which doesn't offer anything new. I disagree with a lot of his points and while one can point as hardware being the driving force, it's more than that.
The games industry is not only driven by the hardware side of the equation, but also by the software side. And software development is driven by the publishers. The publishers decide what to produce, and what will receive marketing muscle and what types of games will make the most profit. Games these days seem fresh from the cookie cutter, but that's because the business model wants proven titles. As games get more photorealistic, the cost to make these games rises dramatically. In the past, it was possible to produce a game on a shoestring budget, but the cost of making a game now rivals making a movie. And now that it requires such a large sum of money, few people are willing to invest that much unless they are assured of it's ability to turn a profit. They want safe bets. Creativity is a high risk bet.
Dvorak uses Spider Solitaire as an example of a game that one can casually play without being burdened by hardcore gamer elements, but some people can't stand Spider Solitaire. For me, the idea of shuffling cards around stacks in order is just a little too much like "Towers of Hanoi" to be any fun.
There are creative games out there, but they are not produced by the big publishing companies. Instead they are little niche games which you don't need to be a hardcore gamer to enjoy, but someone has to tell you about them, because you're probably not going to find them sitting in the endcaps of BestBuy or Gamestop.
A couple of gems:
Phantom Dust, a $20 dollar XBox game, it combines the strategy involved in collectible card games with a 3rd person perspective destroyable environment.
Insaniquarium, a Java based action-puzzle game.
Puzzle Pirates, a MMOG for the casual gamer
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