The wild hunt for innovation

In the gaming industry, innovation is a buzz word that gets thrown around a lot lately. Corporate presidents  and PR representatives describe their games as innovative at every opportunity. Fans and journalists bemoan games for not being "innovative enough" and being bored at games all being the the same thing. The industry must innovate or die, says David Cage, the man that is almost literally remade Dragon's Lair (credits to Jim Sterling for this quip).

While the industry only talks positively about innovation, the truth is that innovation's literal meaning can be reduced to one word: change.  Now, the word "change" is a neutral one. There is no indication of "good" or "bad". It can go either way, and change could be amazing just as much as it could be utterly catastrophic.

Perfectly fun and enjoyable games get criticized for not being innovative enough despite being objectively well-made, while certain games get a free pass because they do something different. Games like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture or Dear Esther from the Chinese Room have little gameplay or challenge to speak of; they are mostly about exploring an area while listening to a narrative unfold, and yet were critically acclaimed. They do have nice and expansive sceneries, but while this is indeed a new take on gaming, it is a very dull one. Some call them walking simulators.

On the other hand, many have criticized Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for not being innovative enough, yet I would much rather play this game than Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It's a remake, but a very good one. It took the already established design of the original game, yet updated it with the modern game design of Pokémon X and Y. Then, they refined it by adding the PokéNav, an incredibly useful feature that helps you find Pokémon with specific attributes much more easily. It even helps you chain for shiny Pokémon. This may seem like a minor change, but that alone was a major improvement to the series. In lieu of innovation, they went for polish; and sometimes, that is enough.

Recipes don't always need to change. If you make a tasty tiramisu, there's no need to change the mascarpone cheese with something else. Sometimes, a good recipe is best left as is. Change can ruin that recipe. Maybe you can sprinkle some coacoa powder on top of it instead, or maybe try using stronger coffee to put more emphasis on that particular taste. The base remains the same, but you're tweaking the recipe slowly to improve it over time.

Now, that is not to say that change is always bad, but a good game is a good game, and no competent game ought to be punished for not reinventing the wheel when it doesn't need to. Necessity is the mother of all invention, and this is something that game designers ought to keep in mind... otherwise, they risk creating a divisive gimmick as opposed to a positive change.

Nintendo in its early days has traditionally made many positive innovations motivated by necessity from the hardware side. After the Nintendo entertainement system's two button controller (not counting Start and Select), gamers had become more skilled at video games, and there was also a need to create more complex experiences to compete with the PC and arcades. The Super Nintendo Enterainement System added the X and Y buttons as well as the two shoulder buttons. This allowed developpers to create games that otherwise couldn't be made anymore.

With the rise of 3D gaming, Nintendo needed the next natural evolution to the D-pad to move more comfortably in a 3D environment, and thus they added a control stick to their newest controller. They also knew that 3D gaming would lead to the need to change perspectives, and thus the C-buttons were added, otherwise known as the camera buttons. It only had two main action buttons (but retained the L, R and Z buttons), making the controller more simplistic as this would be many gamer's first venture into the realm of 3D gaming. It needed to be simpler for people to make the transition from 2D to 3D gaming. The Gamecube controller was to the Nintendo 64 controller what the Super Nintendo controller was to the Nintendo controller. The Gamecube controller was a polished version of the Nintendo 64 controller to improve not only the ergonomy of the controller, but also various other elements of 3D gaming. The most obvious one was the added X and Y buttons due to gamers having become accustomed to 3D gaming. The C-stick replaced the camera buttons, allowing for more precise control over the camera. The analogue shoulder buttons were added likely to allow for more comfort while playing several types of games like first person shooters for example.

Each of Nintendo's controllers built upon the other to adapt to the ever-changing needs caused by the arrival of new technical achievements while very much retaining the essence of gaming. However, the Wii marked the end of an era, where innovation was now made for the sake of innovation; where change was not made with necessity in mind. Certainly, the Wii was a roaring success, but it wasn't successful with the market that typically play games. It was targetted at an audience that casually played video games, and thus put little investment in them. Instead of responding for a need, it attempted to mutate the act of gaming altogether. What used to be done with the act of a button now required a flick of the wrist. What used to require a stick now required you to awkwardly point a magical girl wand at a screen. It was still technically the act of playing a vide game, but the method was so different that the mindset that was needed to play these games was also much different. Whereas one could otherwise play games for the sake of relaxing after a hard day at work, now, the games require the player to be more physically active. Whereas one may have previously enjoyed the instantaneous feedback of pressing buttons, now one had to wave a wand around. While many established gamer had a preference for the former, the option to do so was not given, even if the motion games could have easily been programmed to allow the use of the classic controller. In fact, most waggle controls could be translated as button inputs as the classic controller mod for Donkey Kong Country Returns demonstrates, most tilt controls can be replaced by a joytick as most racers show, and most pointer controls can be replaced by a second joystick. None of these are necessary.

The end result is a divided market. There are those that like it, and those that dislike it. For each gimmick added, there is a significant group of people that don't wish to use it. It ends up dividing the market over and over again. The second screen of the Wii U was a gimmick as well, which unfortunately takes processing power away from the games, while not accounting for the fact that eyes need to focus when they have to look at two screens positioned at different distances. This also divided the fanbase again.

Innovation through hardware is what most focus on, but many forget that what made most companies' reputations back then was software innovations. Megaman became as big as it was due to its innovative player progression system. Super Mario RPG is a classic gem due to its introduction of such mechanics as timed hits which made RPG combat feel more active and clever use of isometric 2D to create an illusion of 3D. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is remembered in large part thanks to its Z-targetting system which made combat work on a 3D plane. Super Mario 64 is renowned in large part for its innovations in how they handle the camera. The Tales of series is remembered for how they managed to mix the fighting games genre with the RPG genre to create the linear motion battle system, Punchout is remembered for its use of telegraphed movements in enemies, which influenced future games like Demon's souls. Valkyria Chronicles took the tactical RPG genre and mixed it with the third person shooter genre to create a completely new type of game. All of these are positive innovations, and most of them were born out of necessity. All of these were done with a traditional controller setup.

While these are great games in their own rights, there are many great games that merely polish what is already there. Super Smash Bros. Melee polished the combat system of Super Smash Bros. 64 is is still being played in tournaments today. Guilty Gear keeps the same core gameplay with each iteration, but in Guilty Gear Xrd, they took clasic characters like Ky and added new mechanics to them to make them feel more varied. Xenoblade Chronicles is just another open world RPG at first glance, but unlike games like Final Fantasy XII, it feels more active and fluid. It polished the genre, improving it to master levels. Golden Sun may have a Djinn system that could be considered original, but the battle system is fairly standard. However, it still manages to keep things interesting and appealing. And as said above, Pokémon keeps tweaking the game's balance, adding new content and will sometimes venture into adding new features, but will try to keep the core there. While I would love to see them try something else, I couldn't in my right mind call any of these games bad.

Sometimes, a cake is just a cake, but it's a pretty well-baked cake. It doesn't do anything different, but it's good, and that is all that matters in the end. The wild hunt for innovation is pushing game creators into changing things that do not need changing. I don't want parmesan in my tiramisu. Tiramisu without mascarpone is not the tiramisu I like. Remember, necessity is the mother of all invention and change for the sake of change is ill-advised.