Creativity and quality are stagnating

Lately I get the feeling that creativity and quality are stagnating.

One reason is capitalism. The way businesses work nowadays leads to making lackluster products that a profitable number of people are okay with despite its flaws. Businesses will not take any extra steps to create something extraordinary if it falls out of their projected profit margin.

Lately I see this a lot in gaming. F2P game markets aside, computer technology is always advancing and becoming more and more powerful. Computers are becoming capable of better graphics, programmers are learning new and better ways to do things, 10gbps internet, etc. MIT is always doing amazing things.

But lately there are few 3D games that I think are making their games super aesthetic.

Team Fortress 2 over time has had its frame rates go lower and lower, where 4 years ago there were no problems.

Blade & Soul has great graphics, yet apparently some people still complain about it not using the latest technology. In any case I think the graphics are great, the combat system is great, but the content is lacking. Questing and exploration in that game are very lacking, almost like a side thought to the game itself. Compared to Runescape, which has a vast amount of very deep quests with lots of detail in each one.

While Runescape has amazing quest stories, exploration, and whatnot, it took a huge hit with its attempt to change its combat system and now it's combat is like an inferior rip-off to other mmorpgs. Aside from that, the system fits nothing in the game because it was plastered on a 10 year old game in a rush and only enemies made after that point were truly adjusted to make sense in the new system.

They also are slow to move on from Java or trying to retain browser support, when lots of PC gaming has moved on to Steam.

Those are just a few games I've played, but I could keep going.

In anime, there seems to be a pattern of anime repeating the same tropes over an over, very few coming out of that bubble to show a unique story. This happens because it's what appeals to people in Japan, things like highschool settings and whatnot. They tend to get repeated because they're simple and popular.

True works of art and innovation, imo, result more often from individuals who spend their free time to create things. Of course, some games and anime are still exceptionally good. But they can always be better.