Did you read the interview with Rebecca Heinman aka Burger over at Gamasutra? It's an interesting glimpse into the world of developers and publishers.
Especially page 6.
Unfortunately I don't think we will ever see much evolution/innovation/something different from the world of AAAs. It costs too much to have a huge flop.
I like how she put it. No one wants to get fired and if someone green lights an obscure title and it flops then they're gone. Of course, if it is a hit then they're a rock star. If I was someone with the power to green light games I would prefer to do my gambling in Vegas where the stakes are much lower and all I would lose is a grand here or there, not my job.
Also she goes onto explain that if a game flops and it's a sequel or based off of a known license then the suits can cast blame on the series or the license. With an unknown or unusual gameplay features then that same suit will have to take all the blame. It's a little pathetic that they have to have something to blame, but that's the way these companies run. Hell that's how most businesses run. Deep down I think that is part of the reason the world is a mess, but that is another story for another day.
People tend to forget, myself included, that this is first and foremost a business. People's jobs are at stake. With so much riding on each and every game the most sensible thing is to go with something you know. It's not good for us who want something more or different from them, but they're the ones who are idiotic enough to dump millions into these games so it's their call. That's another topic that I have a problem with. They need to scale back the amount of money they invest in these games. Expectations might not be so high if they didn't dump insane amounts of money into just one game. Then they could be a little more experimental with what's released.
This brings me to Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age was a good attempt to bring more to the masses and it worked. It wasn't a hardcore RPG, but it was decent enough and it won all kinds of awards and people loved it. Even with all that praise and love they still want to make the game dumber. There was no risk in keeping the majority of the game the same or improving certain areas, but nope Bioware and EA decided that even Dragon Age was too sophisticated for us.
End of rant…..
Basically I think your being far too harsh on indies or haven't played enough of them. They are doing new things all the time. If it doesn't happen to appeal to you then seriously you are being a little too demanding. Indies are where we will see all kinds of innovation. Whether it's Minecraft, Darwinia, Aurora, Frayed Knights, Dead State, World of Goo, Cthulhu Saves the World, AOD, Solium Infernum, Armageddon Empires, Depths of Peril (Din's Curse isn't that different from any other Diablo clone out there, but Depths of Peril was something different and awesome), Eschalon, Devil Whiskey, Omega Syndrome, Darkwind, Dwarf Fortress, Rogue Survivor, Avernum, Geneforge (now come on that is one fun game that is definitely different
), Nethergate, Aztaka, Knights of the Chalice, I really could keep going on and on if you want
There are a lot of different games out there and a lot of good ones as well as a lot of not so good ones, but like in the 80's people are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.
There is also something that might give you a glimmer of hope for rpg indies. The amount of rpg indies that are in production are growing. With each passing year I'm seeing more and more of them being made. It's not a deluge, but it is a slow trickle that's becoming stronger.
There was a time when Shareware ruled the indie world and Jeff Vogel was the only place you could find a decent rpg indie, but not so anymore. It may take them longer to make and none of them will have the production values of a AAA game, but they are getting better and there are more of them being made with each year. Some of them will do something different and some of them will just try to improve upon what we already know as rpgs.
A couple good indie sites that might interest you (other than Rampant Coyote's of course
) are
Indie Games The Weblog and
Indie Game Magazine.
Sorry about the huge post. I know most of you are going to look at this and think there is no freaking way I'm reading all that.