We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

Also there's the fact that, just because you're retreading the ground, doesn't mean you're stepping on the same footsteps. A game can literally jack every single mechanic from another game, but by delivering it to you in a new and different way than the original, you would stand there with a new experience.

And what if the complete and utter retread improves upon the original by simply executing it BETTER? Are we so afraid of the boogeyman of monotony that you'd allow a game the exclusive right to its mechanics without ever seeing if it can't be improved upon by someone with an outsider's mindset? What if we did that with literally every other idea and medium in human history? How do we climb upon the shoulders of giants if we place them in a cave and say that nobody can touch them?

Or perhaps its a general fear of intellectual theft? Which is a perfectly legitimate fear when there's an encroachment upon style or specific characters or original locations or anything that allows the viewing party to figure out who is the guy doing the thing that they are viewing, or when someone steals the idea before the creator is given the chance to use it for himself/herself (Which the internet tells me is called "Edisoning"). But when it comes to things that can and should be improved upon for the sake of creating better experiences, like the mechanics of gameplay, its really just another misplaced boogeyman, one that can and is thrown up to protect mediocrity. Things like "Namco owns the patent on mini-games on loading screens" makes my blood boil to no end (Even though I'd bet money that its rather unenforcable to someone who wants to fight about it).