Glimpses of Creativity

RoNning away

We still see how things used to be in spots, especially with ostensibly creator-driven projects like Rise of Nations. Glimpses are generally all that we’re allowed, though, as there is too much of a kitchen-sink mentality in vogue to allow for much individuality. As I mentioned in my last column, this has resulted in a blurring of genres. Instead of creating new games, developers are sticking to core concepts augmented by random stuff thrown in without thought. Like a blowsy 50-year-old with a boob job, the results aren’t attractive. We get Pipe Dreams-inspired puzzles in Star Trek: Elite Force II. Wonders in Rise of Nations. Sneaky Thief stuff in Splinter Cell. D&D-detailed character classes in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Cutscenes more suitable for The Longest Journey in No One Lives Forever. The games are often still entertaining in spurts, although there’s a stagnancy here that reeks of Hollywood. And of the Harry Potter books themselves, which are predictable from first to last no matter how much entertainment they provide on the surface.

There is some innovation at work here, but it’s the same sort of innovation at work when the screenwriter for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen moves adjectives around to create action-hero quips for Sean Connery. Or when Ang Lee gives a new spin to superhero movies by using maudlin weepies lifted from the Bill Bixby TV show in The Hulk. Or of course when J.K. Rowling sucks up to downtrodden kids everywhere by making Harry Potter go from abused child to Quidditch star and BMOC. There’s a lot of flash, a lot of noise, a lot of pandering to comfortable stereotypes, and a lot of junk we’ve seen many, many times before.

Yes, there are more game options than ever. Feature creep has grown to cover the industry like it was the outfield wall at Wrigley Field. Yet there isn’t a whole lot of truly memorable gaming going on. Like the summer flick you forget before your head hits the pillow, games come and go. One week it’s Unreal II: The Awakening. Next comes PlanetSide. Then move on to Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. Then to Star Wars: Galaxies. At times, playing games feels like continuing with a pastime for no good reason beyond the fact that you used to enjoy it and you’re used to it. There are moments when I catch myself playing games that I don’t really enjoy, turning to them in idle hours out of the same kind of misguided loyalty that keeps me buying Sun Chips and Ozzy Osbourne albums. So, color me beige. I haven’t experienced anything really vibrant in a long time, played a game that didn’t remind me of a dozen other games even in the good moments.

We need something to shake up the industry. An indie-film attitude with off-the-wall games produced simply because the creators thinks that they’re good. I hoped that computer game publishers would get more creative a few years ago when faced with the console onslaught of 2000, though all that did was constrict design docs and make everyone even more conservative. So my hopes aren’t particularly high that things will turn around with the current generation of consoles going gently into that good night. There are some real potential positives out there, though. Valve is about as far away from the computer gaming mainstream as a hit developer can be, and Half-Life II looks just as revolutionary as its predecessor. id’s never given a damn about current trends either, so I’m expecting good things from Doom III.

Whether the new wave of games will pump fresh blood into tired veins is anybody’s guess right now. It’s in vogue to dismiss A.S. Byatt as a envious crank at the moment, and there’s probably a kernel of truth in that assertion. But there is some validity to the whining. And I think we’d all be better off if the people who work at entertaining us—no matter what medium, whether it be games, movies, books, or music—took a few key points to heart.