The Way I See It

Now, I'm going to go the other way on this. I don't think there is any lack of creativity in the world, and not any less than there used to be. But what there is is too much stuff, too much of everything and too many people wanting to make money off of this everything. Everyone wants more an more and nearly everything that is produced is based solely on its commercial success. That of course breeds copying and repetition.

Take television. For years and years there were a few channels, all the creative television minds in the country pushing all their efforts at a few channels. Then Sky happened and there were still a few good channels and loads of cheap crap spread over hundreds of channels. The pool of talent remains the same, as the viewers per channel spread out causing each drop and so do the revenues. There's hundreds of channels, the same amount of quality and a lot of rubbish padding it out, your chances of hitting crap is much greater so the perception of quality falls.

Money men control nearly everything, and the future is harder to predict than the past. What do you do then? Repeat what has been popular before, it's the safest bet for making a buck. But the talent and creativity is still out there, it's just having a harder time getting their ideas to you.

How do you fix it? You can't, without everyone everywhere rejecting all the substandard easy offerings thrown at us. But people fall for for the promotion promises, the uncreative is successful and the ever decreasing spiral of mainstream quality continues. So as an individual you have to wade through it all and find the quality and originality you crave. It is out there so find it, support it and make it a success.

You make some interesting points there, pluk. I agree to a certain extent - as I said at the end of my original post there is still some good stuff out there if, as you suggested, you know where to look. I also agree that the corporate stranglehold faced by so many doesn't help the situation - this is partly the issue with WDW as I mentioned. I believe Imagineering are still capable of coming up with good ideas - Cars Land was still quite formulaic but at least on a grander scale - but TDO aren't willing to finance that kind of thing for the Florida parks, it would seem in recent years. In games, too, few studios have the luxury that say Bethesda do, to spend 4 years on a single game to make it the best it can be. Most are at the mercy of their finance department to keep churning out mediocrity, as are the many artists who are signed to a record label on a six-album contract.

At the same time though, I don't think the dilution of the market is to blame. If you consider how competitive all job sectors are, but the creative arts even more so, there should be enough talent to go around. For one example, Weta receive 50 portfolios a week from hopefuls. The fact that there is more 'stuff' around shouldn't necessarily mean what is there is of lower quality; I don't think they are linked particularly strongly. I see why you say it, but seeing as consumer tastes and preferences are so diverse in creative products, there should be more than enough demand to deal with a high volume of high quality. Build it and they will come - if the offering is good enough, there will still be plenty of people to take it. They may not be the same people who bought the other game two weeks ago, or saw the other film, but there will be someone there who is looking for something they want or are interested in.

Don't you think after a point, the 'safe' repetition of something to guarantee success has precisely the opposite effect? If it seems too 'safe' people will be bored and won't bother. If I see something new and exciting on a shelf or on a theatre poster I'm more likely to take the plunge and chance not liking it than I am to go for something exactly the same as something I've already experienced just because I liked that. Am I alone?