Merry go ’round: The videogaming industry rip-off cycle

You’d think that having more than six billion people populating our mother planet guarantees a constant flow of fresh ideas. But no, we still have to put up with the likes of The Terminator, Digimons, and a “family guy” trying to be cool.

Fact of the matter is, every industry has a huge mainstream-stamped cargo strapped across its back. You have Hollywood that never runs out of the Asian-plus-wacky-western-guy combo, comic books that have WonderMan (replace the first four words with “sup” and you got the picture), and the music industry (if you could call it that) being lorded over by “artists” like Paris Hilton and Justin Timberlake. Yep, the world’s one fudged up place, and if you think we’re safe from its clutch just because we’re locked up in our room all day mashing buttons, you’re dead wrong.

True gamers would have now known what I’m trying to imply. That the gaming industry, like all the money-driven organizations in the planet, is one huge merry go ’round – only instead of horsies, we have copycats, and boy are they running lose. Saints Row‘s Homies can show us nothing the Leone Mafia Family hasn’t. How about HOT PXL‘s (PSP) board-toting Djon? He reeks of WarioWare if you ask me.

You think this is something new? Remember Golden Axe Warrior for the Sega Master System? Anyone who has taken over the character of Link would immediately notice how shamelessly similar it is to earlier Legend Of Zelda installments. Here’s another one – Rainbow Arts’ Great Giana Sisters. The younger ‘uns might never have heard of it before, but simply put, it’s got all the Super Mario Bros. elements in it – powerups, bricks shattered by heads, diamond (at least not coin) collection, and all enemies looking weirdly like the plumbers’ bitc**s – only instead of brothers Mario and Luigi, you have sisters Giana and Maria.

Click on the “full article” link below to read more about videogaming rip-offs!

You’d think that having more than six billion people populating our mother planet guarantees a constant flow of fresh ideas. But no, we still have to put up with the likes of The Terminator, Digimons, and a “family guy” trying to be cool.

Fact of the matter is, every industry has a huge mainstream-stamped cargo strapped across its back. You have Hollywood that never runs out of the Asian-plus-wacky-western-guy combo, comic books that have WonderMan (replace the first four words with “sup” and you got the picture), and the music industry (if you could call it that) being lorded over by “artists” like Paris Hilton and Justin Timberlake. Yep, the worlds one fudged up place, and if you think we’re safe from its clutch just because we’re locked up in our room all day mashing buttons, you’re dead wrong.

True gamers would have now known what I’m trying to imply. That the gaming industry, like all the money-driven organizations in the planet, is one huge merry go ’round – only instead of horsies we have copycats, and boy are they running lose. Saints Row‘s Homies can show us nothing the Leone Mafia Family hasn’t. How about HOT PXL‘s (PSP) board-toting Djon? He reeks of WarioWare if you ask me.

You think this is something new? Remember Golden Axe Warrior for the Sega Master System? Anyone who has taken over the character of Link would immediately notice how shamelessly similar it is to earlier Legend Of Zelda installments. Here’s another one – Rainbow Arts’ Great Giana Sisters. The younger ‘uns might never have heard of it before, but simply put, it’s got all the Super Mario Bros. elements in it – powerups, bricks shattered by heads, diamond (at least not coin) collection, and all enemies looking weirdly like the plumbers’ bitc**s – only instead of brothers Mario and Luigi, you have sisters Giana and Maria.

The conflict over motion-sensing technology…
Perhaps the most recent proof of this spreading disease is the issue about motion-sensing. Yeah, our consoles have evolved to be mean and powerful pieces of hardware packed with the newest and most unheard of features, but there’s one thing their creators made sure their babies won’t lack – a healthy dose of tried and tested technology. You can never actually try and test something that never existed before right? You got the drift, copy each other they did.

One such feature that got thrown into the copycatfight is motion-sensing technology. It’s been one of Nintendo’s main weapons in gunning down its next-gen competition. Opting to do away with next-gen graphics, they instead focused in improving gameplay via enhanced gaming interactivity – which led to the birth of the said technology. Wait, it’s not that simple.

What complicated matters was when Sony unveiled the PS3’s SIXAXIS controller. And guess what, it boasts of the same motion-sensing technology Wiimote possessed. Whoa! Hold on to those flamethrowers, I’m not suggesting that it was Sony who copied the technology from Nintendo. The situation’s rub lies far deeper than perceived, so quit typing “this blogger’s teh debyl!” in the comment’s section and hear me out first.

Now back to my senseless motioning, err, motion-sensing, Nintendo did accuse Sony of stealing their technology, with Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton going as far as saying that Sony just “didnÂ’t innovate, they copied.” Sony bigwig Phil Harrison retaliated by explaining that they couldn’t have copied something that theyÂ’ve been working on for more than a decade. In fairness to Sony, Tiltforce 2, a PS1 controller back in 1999, did boast of similar features. Regardless, the intarweb has seen various threads scorched with fanboys flaming each other (QJ being spared not) ever since the conceptions for Wiimote and SIXAXIS were put into “motion”.

It’s funny ’cause we have two major publicity-thirsty, marketing-cloaked, and fanboy-flanked gaming companies, arguing on who thought of the bright idea first. Funny because everybody seemed to have forgotten that motion-sensing is not even an entirely new thing in the first place. SideWinder Pro 1.0 for the PC has been around for over a decade (developed for Windows 95/98, and so would have been fist released in the late 90’s), proving our next-gen tech for our next-gen babies may have been waaayyy-last-gen after all.

Again, this is not a post that’s meant to mock both gaming companies. Heck, I grow up toting Mario bags and wetting Dante-themed bedsheets (you canÂ’t get any more fanboyish than that) but it’s that same fanboy in me that tells me to speak up and do something. Our idols, instead of being fueled by creative juices, are now being run almost exclusively by the desire to earn profits. And there my friend, lies the dirty stinkin’ rub.

The stagnation in videogaming creativity…
That’s why we’re seeing less developers getting edgy and experimental with the games they create. Even the stories they weave into these games’ virtual worlds tend to be recycled. Because publishers aren’t keen in placing bets on business ventures that ain’t guaranteeing profits, we’re fed with games formulated for commercial success. That’s why we have sports series (that’s practically the same game save for the last digit in the title), rehashed installments, and obviously ripped off titles.

Pardon this blogger for being too preachy, it just sucks that instead of having more games like Nibris’ Sadness (the enigmatic thriller that’s all done in black and white), weÂ’re being bombarded with Mohawk-sporting GTA spin-offs and mini-game riddled titles (that gives us the literal WTF! reaction). And the worst part is, we can’t put the all the blame on our money-driven publishers.

(If you’d like to know who’s being whispered in hushed tones across the intarnet as the culprit behind this widening epidemic, highlight the following text with your mouse, by dragging your cursor over it – just promise you’ll never reveal you heard it from me):

The consumers that shape the market. If there’s something these business companies are afraid of (yes, even EA), it’s us – the guys who line up for their games and consoles. The sad thing is, they’re resorting to these dizzying merry go ’round cycle ’cause all of us are very much willing to be taken for a ride. Harsh as it may sound, but it’s our own love for the mainstream and the hesitation we have for games borne out of creativity that these guys take us for fools.

What’s the solution for this? Beats me. The answer I guess lies on simple decision making. Are we all still lining up for this so-safe-it’s-just-plain-boring merry go ’round, or are we going to demand for an it’s-about-time-we-try-something-new ride?

(For those wondering why I have to do that “highlight the following text with your mouse, by dragging your cursor over it” drama, well let’s just say thatÂ’s a symbolic spit to the face of the dragging system; a branching out for the search for something new. Hey, you gotta admit it’s cool right? *flame coat on*)

Article’s end.