Things that make you go vroom

Game engines are a necessary evil. Still, they're a lot like the Associated Press. When all papers have the same news stories, every newspaper is the same and it doesn't matter where you live. The journalistic integrity is unanimous. When all first-person-shooters share the Unreal engine, all first-person-shooters feel the same. No game company, not even EA, can afford to create every single new game entirely from scratch. The development tools are the same. The graphics are all created from the same basic polygons. Physics are physics. Game conventions exist and become cliche because people in general are afraid to try something new, something unique. Mirror's Edge bombed. Okami single-handedly destroyed Clover Studios. Every Tim Schafer game is critical gold and commercial dookie. RPG's still employ the same S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system (strength, perception, endurance, intellect, agaility, luck) 20 years after it was created, with relatively few tweaks. People still play RPG's. They cry for a new, original game (Viewtiful Joe) but then nobody buys it when it's released. Consumers are destroying video game ideas like they destroyed American pop music. Thanks, movie licenses.