A very nicely explained (though a bit geeky) article over at LostGarden that is a good attempt at explaining the lack of innovation in many new games - A five step program to move beyond the game geek culture:

“The publishers look at the limited set of existing options, cut out the least profitable ones and start building efficiencies of scale into the creative and marketing operations…

..Two kids walk into a store and ask for candy. The guy at the counter only has sour candy. One kid loves it and the other one doesn’t. The kid with the sour tooth comes back the next day and asks for more. Heck, he even invites comes of his friends that also like sour things. The statistics? 100% of children who purchase candy love sour candy…

…The result across the board is a classic self-selection bias…”

He’s pretty much arguing that the computer games industry should stop focusing on “the same but bigger” and “the same but with more polygons” and start looking at the wider market - people who aren’t playing games yet. They’re starting - the DS, Eyetoy and Buzz are doing well but western developers still have a long way to go.

Popularity: 2% [?]