One issue why modern-era games (and anime and other types of media) are so garbage, is because nearly all of it today is derivative of something else. And the reason for that is because the creators today, don't have real life experiences.
Here's what I mean- in the past the creators of media were individuals who had interests and passions beyond media, who drew inspiration from those passions to make better games and shows.
Now, people that make media, don't have any real interests beyond said media. So they get all their inspiration from other media. Game designers draw inspiration mostly from other games, anime creators draw inspirations mostly from other anime, and so on.
The Lord of the Rings was written by a World War veteran who was a scholar of ancient European culture.
Neon Genesis Evangelion was written by an amateur historian who was fascinated with western esoteric philosophy.
The Chronicles of Narnia were written by a devout Christian who was also a Freemason.
Several of the early fighting games and shonen Animes that became classics, were created wholly or partly by people that had actual martial arts experience, some of it professional.
How many pieces of media today can claim the same origins? When you watch the interviews for how some modern series or game or movie was made, the creator rarely mention personal interests- they almost always describe being inspired by some other series or game or movie.
Of course borrowing inspiration from other media is not a new thing, (several of the examples I listed did that to a limited extent) but the modern trend of mostly or wholly borrowed inspiration, and lack of original inspiration, is the main problem.
Of course the overt politicizing of media is part of the issue too but that's already been discussed to death.
The degree does have a use in how it introduces editing, and sentence structure. It also lets someone figure out how to make a network to what they want.
That's why I find writing degrees a waste of time. Great writing requires a sense of creativity that can't truly be learned, and what is learning but the emulation of another's work?
The interview that came out when it was new just clicked for me. They compared it heavily with the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. I didn't get it at the time, but you just made me think. It's the same elevator pitch (Link goes on adventure, solves puzzles, fights Gannon, yadda yadda), but for modern hardware, and absolutely nothing else. They just set out to make the best game they could with that premise, and ignored almost all the conventions that have popped up since.
It’s pretty clear that it took a lot of inspiration from the Assassins Creed games. If BoTW was released under any other publisher, it would be seen as a derivative release.
I remember an interview, I forgot with what developer talking about how early on they did not know what a computer game was and how they were trying to just do stuff that people would enjoy based on things they enjoyed in real life.
One issue why modern-era games (and anime and other types of media) are so garbage, is because nearly all of it today is derivative of something else. And the reason for that is because the creators today, don't have real life experiences.
Here's what I mean- in the past the creators of media were individuals who had interests and passions beyond media, who drew inspiration from those passions to make better games and shows.
Now, people that make media, don't have any real interests beyond said media. So they get all their inspiration from other media. Game designers draw inspiration mostly from other games, anime creators draw inspirations mostly from other anime, and so on.
The Lord of the Rings was written by a World War veteran who was a scholar of ancient European culture.
Neon Genesis Evangelion was written by an amateur historian who was fascinated with western esoteric philosophy.
The Chronicles of Narnia were written by a devout Christian who was also a Freemason.
Several of the early fighting games and shonen Animes that became classics, were created wholly or partly by people that had actual martial arts experience, some of it professional.
How many pieces of media today can claim the same origins? When you watch the interviews for how some modern series or game or movie was made, the creator rarely mention personal interests- they almost always describe being inspired by some other series or game or movie.
Of course borrowing inspiration from other media is not a new thing, (several of the examples I listed did that to a limited extent) but the modern trend of mostly or wholly borrowed inspiration, and lack of original inspiration, is the main problem.
Of course the overt politicizing of media is part of the issue too but that's already been discussed to death.
Put another way: no good writers are born from creative writing degrees. Most of the great writers were also great in another field.
The degree does have a use in how it introduces editing, and sentence structure. It also lets someone figure out how to make a network to what they want.
History and Anthropology degrees don't do that.
That's why I find writing degrees a waste of time. Great writing requires a sense of creativity that can't truly be learned, and what is learning but the emulation of another's work?
Great writing requires commitment to an ideology...a view of the world.
Dissenting or even confronting views of the world are no longer permitted.
And that's why BOTW hits home for a lot of people. You can tell it's inspiration is not from other games.
The interview that came out when it was new just clicked for me. They compared it heavily with the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. I didn't get it at the time, but you just made me think. It's the same elevator pitch (Link goes on adventure, solves puzzles, fights Gannon, yadda yadda), but for modern hardware, and absolutely nothing else. They just set out to make the best game they could with that premise, and ignored almost all the conventions that have popped up since.
It’s pretty clear that it took a lot of inspiration from the Assassins Creed games. If BoTW was released under any other publisher, it would be seen as a derivative release.
I remember an interview, I forgot with what developer talking about how early on they did not know what a computer game was and how they were trying to just do stuff that people would enjoy based on things they enjoyed in real life.