On the apparent puacity of new game ideas

Pop into Zaavi and have a look around.  Lots of digi stuff in plastic boxes: music, movies, games, etc.  The one in nearby Glasgow has three floors: popular stuff on ground floor, was-popular stuff on the 1st floor, and kinda niche stuff on the top floor.  At the far corner of the top floor there is a partially soundproofed area.  Here be found such oddities as world music and classical music.  And in one of the classical racks there is stuff they are selling off cheapo.

Down in Largs we have a popular two-floor branch of Woolies.  As you come in the door you are quickly welcomed past the coke and irn bru to the mini-Zaavi (if I can put it that way without getting sued!)  Here be found a fair size rack of games.

Now, there is a greater range of cheapo classical music on the far corner of the obscure top floor of Zaavi than there are games titles for sale in Woolworths.  I reckon - hvaing browsed both - that Zaavi cheapo classical was about 60 titles whilst Woolies near-the-front-door games had about 40 titles.

I can hear your brain wheels chugging: this isn't fair comparing Glasgow Zaavi with Largs Woolies.  It is as fair as can be made as we are comparing the unpopular end of a big Zaavi with the popular end of a popular seafront town Woolies store.  If I went round a Game store and compared this with the downstairs floor of a small indie music store, the comparative titles range would be in the order of 1 game : 100 CDs/DVDs.

Yet we are regularly told that the games market is of the same order of size worldwide as the recorded music and movie industries and a serious competitor with TV.  So, just why are there so few games titles compared to there increasingly less-successful competitors?

Part of the answer is in our mental barriers.  As humans we keep on classifying things.  Its what we do.  From the I-think-I-will-now-reorder-my-CDs-in-artist-surname-order fix on a dull winter evening to the utter strangeness of a citywide bus-timetable.  We create order out of chaos, but in doing so we reduce and simplify.

For example, say we said 'games' instead of video games in the same way people say 'music' or 'movies' as shorthand for 'recorded movies' or 'recorded music'.  What games do people play?  Football (amateur, professional, kick-around), word games (crosswords, banter, chat-ups), work games (must look good/not look bad/get promotion/look busy), board games, etc.  Video games are an electronic part of what we do in life.  As humans we seem to be always playing games one way or another.

Of course, games can be dangerous.  Looking busy at work is hard work when you haven't got enough work to do or don't want to do your work.  I had a summer job where I and others were sacked for hiding behind pallets in a factory; the atmosphere turned nasty and a fight broke out.  But, it was just a game, wasn't it?  

Do you remember the scene in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin when he is sitting with his usual cronies in the commuter train doing his crossword.  It is a game to see who finishes first, not about doing the crossword.  It is a game of who is alpha-male in the train compartment.  Reggie works out it is a game where cheating is easy - he just puts random letters in his grid and sits back looking smug.  I reckon that was three games going on: the crossword puzzle, the Im-best game, and, the I-can-cheat game.

My daughter came home with a large psychological leikert test sheet.  It was apparently designed to help you identify mental and character weaknesses.  At the end you were invited to send it off to the ch*rch of sc**nt*l*g* who would contact you to provide help.  Mmmm ... a very dangerous game hidden within an apparently fun game.

Last silly example, my eldest daughter used to drag me off to watch Dundee United at Tannadice Park ("yah-nay-t-it!').  During one rather dull patch a player fell over and broke his leg.  You could hear the *snap* right round the stadium, and the *oooohhhh*afterwards from the crowd.  Chap was stretchered off in great pain with doubts over whether he would ever play the game of football for money again.  Dangerous thing a game.

Of course we call this subcategory of games 'sport'.  But, I propose, in much the same way we call ours 'video games' or 'computer games'.  But, its all about game playing.  I didn't even mention the games the football spectators are playing (I remember the chant at Rangers fans when they had become a good and so a popular team again and were back to beating us: where were you when you were rubbish?  Brilliant!), TV people (we are the best TV people/person), footie owners (my person is so tied in with this club I will risk my personal fortune on it), non-attending 'fans' (my person is somehow tied in with being visibly attached to football-label), etc.

So, I think we are having a classification problem.  And we can see this as the Nintendo Wii creates ever more space for itself in Woolies and in Game.  'Are these games?' we ask as we look at the puzzles and sweat-inducing titles and peripherals.  Yes, they are games.

Finally, back to the title of this blog: the paucity of new game ideas.  Yes, if you define games as video games genres classified into existence in the 90's.  You can do this for football to: just Scottish football clubs, or, just top-rank European clubs, etc.  But, you can also include Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, St Andrews United and the church league clubs, etc.  It's all in the mind, this classification thing.

There will always be a limited range of shoot-em-up and beat-em-up games and, like Batman movies, they will sell well if they are good.  But, look beyond your horizons.  Great new worlds of new games and game ideas await you in the off-world space colonies, as someone once almost said.  Its all in your mind: reality is much, much bigger and the opportunities to do a Nintendo are still there for those with new ideas.

I wonder what today's video games market would look like to our PONG! playing predecessors?  But, that's another time and another blog ...