Video Games are no strangers to being inspired by other forms of media to create the worlds that we play in. Dungeons and Dragons affects most if not all Fantasy RPG’s in some way. The Mother series (Earthbound in particular as seen above) was influenced by The Peanuts and there are so many other examples.
The medium of gaming allows us to explore these types of world not just for a specific runtime or by imagining words on a page in your mind but to actually visit and control fully realised worlds. When it comes to inspiration then it can be seen almost as these games are providing an extension to the original source material by allowing people to see how their favourite worlds would be like if they had the chance to look around it themselves. Walking around Skyrim may be the closest thing you find to entering into the world of Game of Thrones, or at least the closest approximation to it aside from the officially licensed games.
Others however see this as a cop-out. By using the ideas of another medium, especially when it comes to art or presentation, others see it as an unoriginal idea that is simply trying to copy or use the success of the original source material to benefit themselves. To this I would ask these people to listen to a lot of music made nowadays and understand that while a lot of concepts for gaming in the modern day are unoriginal yes but when you see how much recycled content is used in the music industry then they may have second thoughts as to how much is used in gaming. Ultimately I think being inspired by other sources is a good thing as it provides a good basis to start from and by making their own edits and choices the new product can end up being something truly special.
What do you all think about this topic? Do you find it a good idea or do you find using inspiration as simple laziness? Let us all know! That’s all for now, and as always. It’s not just a game, It’s a Life.