Ideas in the games industry are like buses...

[GeorgeTuk]

...take 'mercenaries' games.

I have been saying for a while that I was a bit bored of the whole US vs "Middle East" and lo and behold there are some new ideas out there.

A little further investigation and it seems there is at least 3 on the way in a similar vein. Battlefield Thingy and Army of Two. Come on guys get a grip surely there must more than one of you out there with an idea.

Also suddenly everyone is about having mystical powers in a shooter...The Darkness, Chris Barker's Jericho, Bioshock, FEAR. I think on STALKER has something original of late, but by the time it arrived it could never deliver on the expectation.

Wheres all the good ideas gone? I have an Amiga emulator and the sheer variety of games means it never gets boring in terms of styles and story lines.

[Veles]

We also have the call of duty series that has seemed to change from the worn out WWII shooter to the worn out US vs. the middle east shooter. I can understand not doing another WWII shooter, but changing from a WWII shooter because it's been done to a modern day US vs. middle east is just pointless.

[TiG]

See my thread in general to come up with a truely unique idea about anything. Its a hard thing to do and shooters are shooters at the end of the day. To make something unique you really do need to really start thinking outside the box.

Simple games are really winning me over at the moment, Wii is designed for it and i have to say that these simple ideas (like the games of old) with the twist of a new control mechanism really is where i feel my future gaming is headed. (with the pc to back it up for slow simulation/strategy/rpg games)

TiG

[Veles]

Yeah I wouldn't say that the games I'm enjoying are simple, but very unique. Especially crazy ass japanese games coming out for the DS and Wii like Phoenix Wright and Trauma Centre.

Although I still do enjoy a good FPS.

[kalniel]

.
Wheres all the good ideas gone? I have an Amiga emulator and the sheer variety of games means it never gets boring in terms of styles and story lines.

They go as far as you can develop a game with no money, which is.. not very far.

To get money you need to sell your idea to a publisher. They will only invest in something they think is a sure hit, given the costs involved.. and that generally means copying something else that's been a hit.

Cheap to make indie games still do the rounds, like Darwinia, but they'll always lack the production of big budget games.

The only exceptions to this are the one or two studios that have so much money they can afford to waste lots of money on a no-hope project. Blizzard are the most extreme example of this - they'll develop a whole game before being quite happy to can it without a word if it's not up to scratch. Other examples include Bioware and Bethesda Softworks - the former have enough cash now to develop without a publisher, and the latter self-publish anyway.

[Lucio]

I think the biggest weakness is the current games market is that a LOT of the games are being made cross-platform and thus require a lot more work to code & release, taking time away from storyline or innovative game play.

Not to mention there's less and less "new" ideas to try out and the chances are, once you've played games for a while you can see similarities that weren't as obvious 10 years ago.

[gtech]

Chris Barker's Jericho

erm dont you mean clive barker!!!!