Great Video Game Ideas Not Used 2

The second article to my series for "Great Video Game Ideas Not Used". This article is strictly dealing with game players and creators. Just to let you know what's in store, thoughts about the game industry, communication between players and the companies, and lastly, how to acquire great game ideas. This I have thought about quite a few times, and now I feel like I'd be able to articulate it in a way that I feel would convey my thoughts properly.

Now, I know lots of people have varying thoughts about the video game industry. Some feel that it's great, wonderful for players and developers alike. Others feel that the industry is stagnate, full of clones games and rehashes of games that were already available. My thoughts, well, I agree with both. My overall opinion, now is a great time for game developers and players with the current and upcoming generation of game consoles, simply because technology is advancing so quickly, it allows for more to be done.

But in contrast to that, lots of games are lazily put together now, whether it be a big name company, or even a small time developer, too many games are using the exact same ideas. And it is easy to see where some ideas for certain game come from. Take for example the "Revenge Gauge" of Street Fighter 4/Super Street Fighter 4, it's very similarly used to the what I've heard many call the "Rage Gauge" of the Samurai Shodown series, which was later used in Capcom vs. SNK 2 as the "K Gauge" . I'm not saying that to demean SSF4, because I actually do enjoy the game, I'm just pointing out where the idea most likely originated. They pretty much blended the idea with the "Super Art Selection" of Street Fighter 3, giving players the choice of one of two "Ultra Combos" each character has.

This can get to be frustrating for players that are looking for something new, and different. As for myself, I see a lot of money going into development of things that are already available, which to me feels like a waste sometimes. But then again, when companies change too much, they sometimes destroy the parts of the game which drew players to it in the first place. This makes change at times an unwanted thing, but you can't progress without making mistakes.

Now, as for communication, most game companies, whether it be developers or publishers, have websites that players can contact them through. This may be for support, and for general questions, but not really so much for submission of ideas. Though if you are a player who has developed games, and/or in the process of developing games, then you can more easily get you ideas out to the companies. This isn't too bad, but it doesn't really leave those who are just players the chance to give their own input on what will make great games. I know that companies risk their own resources and money constantly, and yeah, there are some people who just have thoughts and want to send them right off to the people who bring them their favorite games constantly, a majority of those random thoughts are useless.

Unfortunately, with all of the witless ideas that are constantly sent to game companies, they don't really want to hear out those who have really well thought out ideas. See, as a person who is coding impaired, it would be great if I could submit my ideas to game companies. Maybe there should be a department specifically for obtaining ideas from gamers in each company. And there should be guidelines as to how these "ideas" should be submitted.

Now, you may or may not like what my suggestions are for those guidelines, but here they are:

1. Thoroughly write out the game, from the concept thoughts down to the story and game play.

2. Have a lengthy written paper describing every item, character, and the goal.

3. Include how the characters develop, and their reactions to certain events within the game.

4. List abilities of each character/grouping/class available in the game, and how they advance.

5. If available, include artwork of characters, enemies, and other things key to the game.

6. Only submit one to two idea(s) per three month quarter, ex: First Quarter is January, February, March.

7. DO NOT SUBMIT ideas that come on a whim, meaning no submissions with few sentences and details, they will be instantly ignored.

8. Include the title of your game idea.

This would also be something that I'd think would take at least 8 to 12 weeks depending on how thoroughly thought the game actually is. Which would mean that whoever submits their thoughts should have patience, there would practically be thousands of ideas submitted everyday, you have to give the people reading all of this time to actually finish each one. And from this point, the best thought out ideas would be sent to the decision makers of the company, who will decide which ones should be turned into games.

Now, this is where it would really get interesting, because those whose games are chosen should be invited to be apart of the their game's development. And obviously, if their idea is being used, they should be compensated for that, though I'd think this would vary depending on the company and if the game would be multi-platform or not. This process would best be operated as an investment. Game companies would be nowhere without investments, which are their games.

I know from my standpoint, this sounds very easy, and it is from my standpoint. But for the game companies, this means money to be spent to pay employees to look over all of these ideas, and then money spent if they find a good enough idea to make a game from. And with no risk to the person giving the idea. Well, yes there would be, but that would take game companies cooperating on a system for this. My thoughts are like this, set up a committee that cross references game ideas submitted to different companies. This group would put together a list, probably to be dubbed as the "Black list". This list would be names of people that are banned from submitting game ideas to companies. The banning criteria would be as follows:

1. Submitting an idea to more than one company at the during the same quarter of the year.

2. Submitting an idea to a different company before it can be fully evaluated by the first.

3. Submitting the same idea to a game company more than twice with little to no changes made.

4. Checking with a game company about the status of your submission more than twice in a thirty day period.

5. Using the ideas of other people, or stealing another person's idea and presenting it as your own if proven to have done so.

There's not much else I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure the game companies can fill in anything that I missed. This would keep things from getting out of hand with a person trying to take advantage of the game companies, seeing who would be first to take hold of their idea. Plus it would stop the conflict of interests, and also keep companies from both trying to make the same game at the same time.

If you can see my point, you are obviously one of those who isn't very technically skilled, but you've had some awesome ideas that you have really thoroughly thought out. I know I have quite a few ideas that I've love to see as games, but without being skilled in the ways that would allow me to it myself, I'm pretty much left to sit in the dust. And there are many people like that, which sadly leaves plenty of good ideas gone to waste. Oh well, as with my last article, I ask that you please post it to any website that you are apart which is related to gaming if it has a forum. Maybe if word gets around, I could possibly influence the industry and somehow make my thoughts a reality. Either way, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my musings. See you next time.