One of our forum users (Paladin Sponge) brought up the point that gaming is based on innovation and when games stop being innovative it dies.

Innovation is dangerous for companies though.  It is a unknown risk.  It is much easier to pick a sure thing like a clone, a sequel, or a movie license and keep the innovations to a minimum.  This is what most of the larger developer and publishers tend to do.  It's a fairly logical risk/reward thing.

The problem is Paladin Sponge is correct.  If an industry stops innovating it might not die, but it will at least stagnate.  It needs innovation.  It needs change to keep it fresh.

There are luckily lots of companies that create completely new types of games, combine genres in interesting ways, bring back genres from the past, try different settings, and in general try out many innovative things.  Unfortunately, these companies tend to be smaller and don't get as much press and attention as the big boys get.

The larger companies see all of this of course, but they aren't likely to copy any of these innovations unless it is proven to be successful.  It's that risk/reward thing again.  So they will continue to stagnate.

This is where consumer power comes back into play.  If consumers buy these games that innovate in enough numbers, then the big companies will bring those ideas into the larger market place and they will filter throughout the industry.  This will bring about at least some change that keeps the industry from stagnating.

So again, support those little guys that are creating innovative games!  For that matter, when a larger company does make a cool, innovative game support them too.

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