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I thought Diablo, Fallout and Quake were pretty creative, to name the first examples i come to think of. At one point, they were even thinking of clay motion-animating the sprites in Diablo.

Then there's all those LucasArts adventure games.

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

I wouldn't really consider Quake as creative, but Fallout, and especially Fallout 2, is a creative and wonderful western RPG. So is Baldurs Gate.
But I agree with DementedPurple, western developers seems to mainly focus on three genres: FPS, RTS and RPG. And RPG nowdays means FPS with experience points.

Also relevant, I think this picture is great at showing just how much variety there is in modern western games character design:

Yeah, when people say they play Video Games to be something they aren't, I doubt they say bald, white, middle aged man. America has never been creative in Video Games, even in the early 1980s.

lol

In the article, the difference between the colorful, dynamic game titles of yore and the flat monochromatic textography of today is the difference in graphic design from back then compared to today. Right now, we've entered the "flat" era, everything is simplified, simple colors and shapes, textures to mimic paper or something printed/stamped on paper, versus very vibrant skeumorphic design with lots of colors and variety.

Flat design has the advantage in that it can be represented anywhere. It's just text with one color, and that color can be anything and be swapped out to fit any background, and have any effect thrown on it to easily make it stand out. Sit down and think about when you actually see the game's title: It's on the box, the jewel case (note the size and shape of the side label), the disc, the manual, and in the main menu of the game. You're only looking at these things for a few seconds, then you're done.

In the arcade era, these were large banners that were lit up and prominently displayed above the game itself. The game also must sit on its title screen (and game demo and high score table) much longer and more frequently than modern games today, so it makes sense to have a bright design to attract your players. Contrast this to obtaining a game nowadays; you probably already know if you want it or not even before you shop, just from looking at reviews or gameplay demos, not the graphic design of the title.

So when compared to the 80s, game logos are bland today. It's not just game logos though, EVERYTHING is bland, and that's because we've all shown, in some way or another, that we want them bland. Easier to read, easier to discern on a launcher screen full of competing icons, easier to pick out from a stack of disc boxes, easier to see from 20 feet away, you can all come up with your own unexpected way that you've shown that you prefer flat logos.

The reason this exists is because this is what sells in American markets. Contrary to popular belief, there's a large variety among all of these games, despite the samey protagonists, and at least one permutation of variables is going to end up on your gaming shelf. A few years ago, everyone would've been complaining about the oversaturation in bright, colorful, bug-eyed mascot platformers in the market, and this is just the buck being passed to gritty realism, something that was hard to achieve until recently.

I implore you all to try one of these modern games you hate so much, make a conscious list of what you don't like about the game you chose, and I guarantee there'll be another modern game (with or without a similar protagonist), but without the specific list of things you didn't like. Maybe you'll have an all-new list of things you don't like about the new game, but you'd be surprised about what's common between your lists and what isn't.

I have no comment other than providing the links that are the context of that image:
http://archive.li/4PS8O
http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/06/22/ ... er-designs

Now you are doing the same mistake as the author of the article, ignoring the fact that this flat style is just a small part of modern games. Your point doesn't explain why non-western games are still using very varied and colourful styles (not just talking about logos). I think the logo style is more of a trend, but yeah western games are generally very bland, having not enough focus on interesting characters (often one of the most important thing in a fictional piece of work), too much realism, too much black humor and just too much bad boy style in general IMHO. I for one sure don't want that.

I wouldn't comment on this if I hadn't played the games.

I checked the only recently released made in japan games i had on the shelf: breath of the wild and mario kart 8 deluxe. Both follow this style. I looked up the japanese title of BoTW and it's the same style.

So i think what Drag says might generally be true for big producers, regardless of geographics. The materal analysis holds very well, imo. The divide seems to be a niche/broad market one.

_________________
http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

That hardly seems fair.

BotW I can kinda see. It uses a fancy custom font, but then so does Doom. On the other hand, there's an extremely distinctive-looking sword incorporated into the logo, and it's not monochrome like the text (and the plant growing out of it).

You mention the Japanese logo being monochrome too. That suggests something to me; there may be another explanation in this case: http://annyas.com/screenshots/directors/hayao-miyazaki/

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe... no, I'm not seeing it. It looks slicker and more modern than your usual '80s logo, but it's plenty distinctive and very colourful, fitting in well with the image of Rainbow Road on the box. Also, did you notice that the 8 (which evokes a racecourse, possibly an antigravity one) is actually a Möbius strip?

My problem with most modern video games, is that they feel like they drag on forever. There's almost no challenge, and as a result, thinking involved, which gets really old really fast no matter how much the scenery changes. I actually probably spend about the same time with older games, but that's because I enjoy trying to master them; most modern video games are more of a test of patience than a test of skill. Even modern "competitive" games generally have a low skill ceiling.