One of the oddest and most unique games to come down the pike in quite a while is Katamari Damacy. The concept involves a gigantic Velcro-like ball that literally sticks to everything–from small objects to ocean liners.
Keita Takahashi, the creator of this unusual and successful game, said that creativity in the gaming world is not only a rarity, but that the situation hasn’t changed much at all.
"Publishers and companies are usually conservative to new ideas since they aren’t concerned with making ‘creative’ games to start with. So, yes, it is an existing problem. After making Katamari – and due to its success – I wanted to see if the attitudes of publishers and companies would change at least slightly to new and original ideas. But at the moment, nothing much has really changed."
Takahashi continued and said that developers were afraid to step into new territories and push the envelope. The industry, in short, has stagnated.
"My personal opinion is that the environment makes it difficult to create new ideas. I also think that maybe it’s the developers themselves that don’t want to challenge new areas and create something new… I’m not sure that people are even looking for new ideas and concepts in videogames right now. Do you think that’s the case?"
The game industry is sort of in a rut at the moment. The different types of games out in the marketplace usually fall into a narrow range of subjects. To this, Takahashi agreed.
"The charts are pretty much full of FPS, racing and sports games and I’m interested to know whether gamers are happy about these genres dominating all the charts at the moment."
But he didn’t place all the blame on the games industry. To a certain extent, he said that gamers maybe partially responsible for the lull in creative game content.
"I don’t hear voices from the gaming industry [community] saying that new ideas are lacking. Maybe that’s one reason why all the major genres are the only titles selling right now. Of course, Wii has also been introduced as a new gaming console, but I don’t really feel that Wii actually provides new ideas to gaming. I’m slightly concerned that users aren’t actually interested in seeing new ideas and new genres being developed."
So has the gaming industry fallen into a situation where creativity is at a standstill? Let’s hear what the gamers think about this.
[via gamesradar]
