April 2014: Copycat Games

April 2014's topic, Copycat Games, was suggested by Alan Au.

Cloning, or copycatting, a game is nothing new.  But has it increased?  We've seen rampant cloning in the age of Pong and in the age of social games.  Have these copycat games been good or bad for the industry?

In one recent study of innovation, researchers at Indiana University concluded that with more imitation, more diverse solutions were found, leading to net societal benefit.  More exactly, they found that imitation was never complete imitation, but imitation with slight micro-variations that led to better overall product design.

Does this conclusion ring true of the game industry, where we can copy a game design and simply swap art assets?  Do we have clones or remixes?  What do you think?

I welcome articles on this topic.  As always, submission guidelines along with submission procedure can be found on the right hand side of the blog.  Topic suggestions and articles are appreciated!