The rise of technology with the industrial revolution came about the assembly line, often used in factories to quickly make, build, and send off the factory’s product; be it cars, electronics, weapons, and even video games. The same and formulaic games often do seem like they just came hot off the assembly line that they get their very own genre beneath what they suppose to be – The WWII shooter, The Hack n Slash, Shovelware, etc. Of course with the Wii being the new fangled device that everyone must have and Nintendo being at the zenith of profits came about the truckload of shovelware. That is, the current trend, and trends come and go so the factories need to replace their rubber stamps to fit the new trend of games they must shovel out.

Let’s take a step back and talk of the trends of the past, as there was one in every generation. There was a time where every platformer and side scroller was the same, like copying off the success that was The Super Mario Bros. But back then, it was so bad, gaming was just starting off and the technology was not so great – so the developers were limited on what they could do. It was also a time when Nintendo didn’t exactly rehash their own stuff and fun was had by all.

The next step was a small era where the rise of the First Person Shooter happened, where they were called FPSes, but Doom clones. That’s right you younguns, everything for a while that came after Doom was called a Doom clone, not a FPS. Again, this was not so bad it may seem because the FPS had to start off somewhere, even knowing it was just copying off Doom. Of course there was a few that stood out from the rest, my personal favorite of onslaught of Doom clones was Blood.

But let’s get to the point where it starts to get bad, where technology was getting better, innovation could be achieved and now the industry was on the rise. Now there was a point in time where there was a World War II shooter that came out every month or so. Thanks to that onslaught of those WWII games, I can’t filter out the good ones from the all the rest and just refuse to play them all together. Who thought it was a good idea to keep making these generic games? Same setting, same weapons, same thing and of course all these games were made by American companies.

Then came about the hack n’ slashes, simple minded, button mashing crap. I swear it was started by Dynasty Warriors which the epitome of what I am talking about. Some stood out like Devil May Cry but it was a time where every single one of them seems the same, like all the Dynasty Warriors. The whole series seem the same to me as it was mash X to win.

One of the worst trends ever was the Grand Theft Auto clones. With the success of GTA3, every other company out there copies its formula to try to become successful themselves. Sandlot plus violence was where it’s at. Instead of trying to improve upon the formula or trying something new, these companies just made the same cocktail with a twist of their own juice.

Now the new trend is the shovelware we see on the Wii. Don’t get me wrong as I know there was plenty for PS2 and DS as well but I think it has become more of a problem on the Wii. Because of the shovelware, real games tend to be shadowed and forgotten on the console that supports a different play style to its users. Like all trends of the past, companies are just going through with the fad so they can fill their pockets. It doesn’t take effort to stamp a game and call it done and because of all this it hard for the industry as a whole to move forward.

There are many companies to blame for slowing down the industry for starting and following these trends. EA or specifically EA Sports is one of them, as each year their sport games like Madden don’t seem to change anything and yet rake in the cash. Nintendo as of late is also guilty of this, I mean, do we really need all those Mario Party games? Not only some companies are copying others, they’re just copying themselves, or rather, rehashing. There are many more companies that do this as well and because of these companies, other no name companies are going to try to copy these formulas and just create their own games in hopes to reap the rewards. Do we really need a Hollywood version of the video game industry? Resort to copying each other and other mediums of entertainment just to make money?

Soon the trends of shovelware titles will be gone, to be only replaced by a new trend – probably worst than the last. I wish the developers would try to think of something different, to actually spend time on a game rather than to eat the last trendy game to just crap it back out. I want to see some change on the industry, where I can spend my money on a game or several games a month rather than just buying a select few a year. Lately, I’ve been somewhat starved for games and I don’t enjoy playing the same thing over and over again. Do you enjoy eating the exact same thing for every meal? It’s the same thing with games so you game makers out there, think outside of the assembly line. Stop the rehashing, stop the copying, and get creative.

As the consumers, spread the word, stop buying rehashes and copycats to show the developers we don’t want the same thing over and over again.