Greg Kasavin Executive Editor	Now Playing: Age of Mythology: The Titans (PC), Freedom Fighters (Xbox), Command & Conquer: Zero Hour (PC), Halo: Combat Evolved (PC), EverQuest (PC) Most Wanted Games Shown at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show: Otogi: Hyakki Toubatsu Emaki (Xbox), Breakdown (Xbox), Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition (PS2), Killer 7 (GC), Jade Empire (Xbox), Starcraft: Ghost (Xbox) Most Anxious to Play: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (PC)

Progress Report

We've all heard before the sentiment that games these days are getting stale. There's hardly an ounce of originality in any of them anymore. They shamelessly steal ideas from each other, and their developers and publishers are more interested in making a fast buck than in making a truly good, unique product. We've heard such remarks maybe from our friends, or on Internet message boards, or from editorials written by jaded game journalists.

Such sentiments are patently absurd. Anyone who thinks there's nothing original or groundbreaking happening in this industry is flat-out wrong and is too busy complaining to be paying any real attention to what's actually going on.

How anyone could possibly be jaded about gaming at a time like this is beyond me.

If any industry is receptive to innovative, new products, it has to be this one. If any consumer group demands innovative, new products, it has to be gamers. And, in particular, I've never before seen more attempts at breaking from the conventions of gaming as there are currently in development today. Some people would have you believe that success in the gaming industry is awarded only to cookie-cutter games that cash in on existing trends. But the facts--actual sales figures--tell a completely different story.

Let's back up for a moment, though, and define our boundaries. What do I mean by "innovative" or "original"? My working definition of these terms is simple enough--games I consider to be innovative or original are games that contain key mechanics or concepts that have not been successfully implemented before. Note that I say "successfully." It's much easier to throw together a bunch of ridiculous, off-the-wall ideas than it is to pull them together in a good game. I think games try to do new types of things all the time--they just rarely succeed and, therefore, are forgotten. So, when I refer to innovative or original games, I'm referring to games that are also good. That is to say, I define innovation and originality as positive traits for a game.

kill.switch may not look like some kind of revolutionary game, but it's got a key feature that I'll bet other shooters are going to start borrowing.

Games don't need to wear their originality on their sleeve--they don't need to exclaim, "Hey, everyone, look at me! I'm different!" Namco's upcoming kill.switch innovates by allowing players to fire "blind" from behind cover, an inaccurate but safer alternative to sticking their necks up and aiming first. This feature is effectively integrated into the game and makes perfect sense in the context of the game--and I believe other developers of shooters are going to start implementing it after they see how well kill.switch pulls it off. It's easier to overlook an innovative feature in a game if it's not being loudly touted, or if the game itself appears to be conventional. But just because you don't notice the innovation doesn't mean it isn't there. This is my point.

What are some of the most successful games of the past few years? We could all name some off the top of our heads: Grand Theft Auto III, The Sims, EverQuest, Halo, Splinter Cell...these games have made millions and have had an undeniable influence on the entire gaming industry. Indeed, many games currently in development are attempting to emulate these games' success from the ground up. The notion that there's no originality left in gaming obviously comes from this type of observation.

I can understand why someone would be cynical about all the copycat games that can be found on the shelves. It's true--many games, even a majority of games, are directly comparable to other, older, probably better games. But that's to be expected, isn't it?

The sequel to Otogi looks even more impressive than the first, which in turn looks quite unlike any other action game out there.

Obviously, not every game is going to be incredibly innovative. No one would even want that. Imagine having to completely relearn the controls each time you sat down to play a new game. Remember the first time you played a first-person shooter on a console, or the first time you dragged a box around a bunch of units in a real-time strategy game? Learning how to play a game typically isn't what makes it fun. You don't remember Quake or GoldenEye or Command & Conquer because it took you two hours to get used to the controls; you remember these games because they were exceptionally good and kept you playing for a long time. Since then, numerous other, similar games have captured your attention, with good reason. They've improved the formula, and you've been able to dive right into them and cut right to the chase, largely ignoring the learning curve that less-experienced players would have to get over first.

Conventions exist in gaming because people either like them or accept them. Those conventions that people don't like are the ones that end up changing. Furthermore, convention and innovation are not as mutually exclusive as they may seem. There's a lot of room for creativity within the confines of a first-person shooter, for example.

A martial-arts RPG? Yes, please!

A number of my colleagues recently returned from the Tokyo Game Show. I read and watched their coverage with great interest during the past week, because so many of the games unveiled at the event or shown in detail at the event looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. Games like Killer 7, Breakdown, and the sequel to Otogi look undeniably different from the cookie-cutter games out there, and you know what? These are the games that got a lot of attention at the show. Other games like Viewtiful Joe and BioWare's newly announced martial arts RPG, Jade Empire, also have people genuinely excited, for the same reason.

The rules of this industry are simple: It's easier to create an unoriginal product than it is to create an original one. We inherently understand the appeal of first-person shooters and real-time strategy games by now. But all of us--everyone who's interested in games--are always on the lookout for the next big thing. We want new experiences. We don't want to pay money to play games that are just like games we've already paid for. We all know this, and game publishers and game developers know this. As common as the cookie-cutter products are, they don't earn a majority of the money generated by game sales.

It's easier to recognize all the innovation and creativity going on in this industry if you don't relegate yourself to playing games of just one or two genres on a single platform. The more types of games you're interested in, the easier it is to see that there's never been more talent, hard work, ingenuity, and genuine innovation and originality in the gaming industry than there is today.