[gameprogrammer] Innovation and Creativity. Getting OT?

["Ray Gomez-Bravo" <raygomezbravo@socal.rr.com>]

WAR
It’s a thread…that is all.
War has not and never will be a contributor to the development of
technology or the growth of Humankind (a game).
War is a user of technology and humankind.
 
The contributors to the development of humankind (and a game) have been
and probably will always be (in no particular order):
*	need (the drive to satisfy something: shelter, hunger,
reproduction, sleep, adoration…)
*	strife/conflict (you got something I want or you want something
I have, either way we will conflict over shelter, hunger, reproduction
or…)
*	desire (post-need) to satisfy or humanitarian altruism
(developing a better mouse trap)
In the end, if it makes a good movie, it makes a good game.
 
The question is how do you hook and suck the player in.  How do you
script the player’s interest.
 
On this list, I see many good things on the mechanics of computing, but
little on Creativity which is not an easy idea.  Innovation on the other
hand is equivalent to copying somebody else’s work and modifying
it…something that would be good for a scripting engine. Innovation is
more than rearranging the sequence of events or randomizing the behavior
of objects in the game in response to the player, although it includes
that.  The mechanics of building a game are difficult enough without
trying to go into the esoteric idea of creativity.
 
GAMING
To hook or not to hook, that is prostituting yourself to write a game is
one effort, to hook the game player is another.  It seems to me that the
War thread is just a take off on the fact that most people lash out and
would like to hit, maim, disfigure, destroy, or something akin to that
in a game, because they don’t want to do it in real life.  Real life of
course is another thread.
 
Not all hooks are destructive.  The Sims are a good example.  I would
rather Sim City than Doom or shoot’m up bang-bang it’s blasted!
 
Most of it has been done before!  Now how do we do it better, bigger,
and present it as more appealing? Well, why don’t we practice the
mechanics first. Provide each other with how things are done.  Joe does
that once in a while.  Others do too.