via The San Francisco Chronicle You've heard the turn of phrase before. "There's no need to reinvent the wheel." Basically it's an argument that doesn't necessarily invalidate innovation, but suggests that working within established constraints means less work and a lower investment of time and resources. At the same time, only going with what's known leads to stagnation. If people doesn't innovate, nothing grows or changes. Yes, people like what's familiar and are uncertain of new things. It's why this year's Madden is going to outsell a game coming from the independent market. It's why fans are eagerly awaiting the next novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series and overlook brand new titles in the fantasy genre. This isn't a universal truth to be sure, as there will always be people willing to try something new, but it's true enough to be noteworthy and, in my opinion, worth examination. When you get right down to it, on a mechanical level, there's little difference between
Gears of War and
Mass Effect, especially the second title. They're both cover-based shooters using a third-person perspective. However, they're as different as night and day. The former's focus on multiplayer, brutality and grim protagonists in interchangeable suits of armor is worlds apart from the latter's storytelling, character design and decision making. In other words, they're both wheels, but one's a big thick tire on a monster truck while the other's a Pirelli on a Bugatti Veyron. BioWare didn't reinvent the wheel to make the experience of playing
Mass Effect 2 distinctive from that of playing
Gears of War 2, they just built that wheel differently. Another good example? The aforementioned
Song of Ice and Fire. It's a fantasy novel series, so it'll sit in the same section as
Lord of the Rings. But George RR Martin isn't all about exotic races, magical powers and a clearly-defined evil villain. Instead, his focus is on sweeping political landscapes, lands and armies rooted very much in our history and lots (and boy, do I mean
lots) of interesting, well-rounded characters. GRRM doesn't reinvent the wheel to write his books or get his point across. Instead, he draws from both the universes of fantasy with which we're already familiar, and also from the legends and accounts we either know from studying history or recognize as familiar due to our own experiences. It makes a story with an expansive scope feel deeply personal. It's entirely possible that in our own creative process, we head down a particular path. We want to try something new. We want to go places that haven't been explored, approach an obstacle in a radical way. As we proceed down the path, more ideas occur to us. It's tempting to pull those ideas into the work at hand, just to see if it works. And then, when it comes time to look over where we are and how we came to be there, the path behind us is at least a bit messy, if not damn near incoherent. We've wandered a bit too far. We've tried to reinvent the wheel. This doesn't mean the mess is without merit, however. A square wheel, after all, can be chiseled into a round one if you're willing to clean up the debris when you're done.
Blue Ink Alchemy
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