Possible way it went down at the OP's studio:

OP: Well you said to make a game where players grew plants and raised animals you planned to call Farmtown but I thought it wasn't educational nor economically conscious enough So I made some changes. Now players go around a city collecting garbage, feeding the homeless and bagging stray cats. I thought we could call it Community Service Ville.

CEO: You just went full retard.

Originally posted by everland

It turned out that every time a company wants a game, they do not look for new ideas. They pay people to do research on what games are popular and why, and they just clone them for profit.

I would think 99% of us already knew this, WITHOUT actually working for a games company.  Trying a "new" MMO these days is similar in some regards to buying new shoes and just slipping on a pair of old, comfy shoes that have had a couple of shiny new go-faster stripes glued on to them.

When the gaming community will stop playing clones, then the companies will stop making clones....

As long as we play them and pay also... clones will never stop...

We need to support new ideas and small companies, for example..

-Darkfall 

- Archage

those kind of games...

Smalls steps but set at the right path...

This applies to any job but it's not true you cant make minor changes to show case a proof of concept. Just do the work thats out of scope after hours. I think people are jumping all over you to affirm their own self image more than teach you a life lesson.

Originally posted by Cecropia

LOL, I knew it!

"This is not the game we told you to make, please change it back the way it was. We do not want to take any risk."

Those bastards! No wonder we have such a short supply of nice toys to play with ;)

If you believe that's an actual quote and that the second line is not either made up or out of context then Ihave a bridge to sell you. 

There are various reasons that resulted in the answer you received, most of which have been answered already.

What constitutes as a great idea in your mind will be considered "poor design choices" to others. It’s very subjective. You could announce a feature of a certain game is great, and the best feature ever. But you will always get another group of people who dislike the same feature. So many companies (not just limited to games) go for what the mass market are currently using and liking.

I've been doing marketing and PR for games for a number of years and on many occasions have been asked to work with the development team on providing feedback during the development period. There have been times when they have ignored the feedback we've gathered, and as such resulted in them not having the success they wanted. The results have also happened in the reverse (Feedback was ignored and success was made). But the latter is a big risk to many developers with a limited budget and work hours. Even the larger ones don’t always want to take risks, and when they do it’s usually a very calculated risk.

People do want change, but there are also a lot of people who like what they already have, and want to play something new but they are familiar with.

Just because your idea was given a “No”, doesn’t make your choices wrong, it’s simply just not what was asked for. And as with most industries they don’t allow the lower levels make changes unless it’s gone through all the proper channels. As others have said, if you wanted to propose changes, do it outside of your normal working hours, or give them a reason to let you at least show them why the changes will work. Make a design document and gather some feedback. Include results and feedback that can show how it will work in their favour. Don’t just assume your idea is what will work, even if it is the best idea in the world. 

Thats why a new company like Bioware could have such a huge success with a game like Baldurs Gate. The genre was dead, people had only been cloning the same old ideas over and over.

And then Bioware came and simply made a game they themselves wanted to play. BANG. Huge success. And part 2 was only even better.

Of course, today Bioware is operating under EA and basically its the same situation as the OP described. Inventionless products for the masses, just to maximize profit.

Originally posted by Rednecksith

If you worked for me, I'd have probably fired you if you'd spent company time & resources programming something you were not authorized to do, as it's pretty much akin to using time at work for personal projects.

That's cool, but I didn't spent any money or resources since I did it in my free time, after work. And also I didn't modify the original, it stayed on the company server while I edited copy at home.

Originally posted by colddog04

So you just changed the game without consulting anyone and then informed your project leader after the fact?

As you might imagine, no I didn't. I worked in my free time, and then showed it to project leader. It was just a proposition, not a "make it my way, fast!".

Originally posted by Axehilt

I suppose you work in an industry where every employee from Veteran to a Day 1 employee can make decisions which affect the company's direction and product viability.

Nope, I don't make decisions. We have meetings, where everyone can say what they think. My boss allowed me to talk, so I showed them what I did at home and as I wrote originally, they liked it to the point they showed it to the producer as the idea of company not my private. It just didn't get approval.

I didn't write my story in every little detail cause I thought you people would focus more on the topic I am moving. It seem's you are more eager to try and find reasons why I'm stupid and not credible.

About the having balls thing. Well, I'm just a trainee. My boss is not a typical boss I think, since he acts more like a buddy than boss, but it works since he still has respect and people do their stuff in time. He gave me serious project very early, so I think he trusts in my skill. I do my job as best as I can, but I don't really care if I loose this job or not. I have other options waiting and if I can't enjoy what I do now I will just move on. I don't have family to feed so I can experiment while I'm young. If you don't care if you loose the job or not, why not try to do something good, like changing the industry tiny step by step?

Originally posted by everland

/snip

About the having balls thing. Well, I'm just a trainee. My boss is not a typical boss I think, since he acts more like a buddy than boss, but it works since he still has respect and people do their stuff in time. He gave me serious project very early, so I think he trusts in my skill. I do my job as best as I can, but I don't really care if I loose this job or not. I have other options waiting and if I can't enjoy what I do now I will just move on. I don't have family to feed so I can experiment while I'm young. If you don't care if you loose the job or not, why not try to do something good, like changing the industry tiny step by step?

 

So essentially you've changed the game to suit your 'taste', and expected it to be approved.

And since it didn't get approved cause I dunno, the company might have a contract that says 'we will deliever a certain game to XYZ at a certain time', you think the company you work for lacks innovation.

Yeah, like I said, it'll be like a QA guy at Microsoft went up to the exec to say 'hey Windows should be like THIS!' 

I'm sure you think you know best, but you are the 'QA guy at Microsoft' in the example.

Realize it and move on.

Originally posted by PsyMike3d

When the gaming community will stop playing clones, then the companies will stop making clones....

As long as we play them and pay also... clones will never stop...

We need to support new ideas and small companies, for example..

-Darkfall 

- Archage

those kind of games...

Smalls steps but set at the right path...

The problem is that the mass market will keep playing it, and they're the majority. Why does COD keep selling so much?

Originally posted by everland

I didn't write my story in every little detail cause I thought you people would focus more on the topic I am moving. It seem's you are more eager to try and find reasons why I'm stupid and not credible.

That's the #1 activity around here, it seems.

I totally get what you're talking about. Unfortunatly it's like that in every bussiness. The more mainstream gaming becomes, the more stuff like this will happen. It always starts out with a few enthusiasts being creative, motivated by pushing technology forward and to it's limits. If they succeed and gain enough followers, they're pushed out of the way or kept as monkeys by bigger companies who's sole motivation is low-risk profit.

Money always rule in the end.

Everland: There is a place for people that think like you do.

Originally posted by everland

 I didn't write my story in every little detail cause I thought you people would focus more on the topic I am moving. It seem's you are more eager to try and find reasons why I'm stupid and not credible. 

Not trying to make you look stupid, just pointing out the facts of life.

You don't just dive straight into the industry and immediately wrest control of creative development.  The only way you can approach that sort of immediate control is if you and some friends form your own company, at which point you would immediately have some say in what products you make (but then you'd have to face the second life lesson of whether or not they were actually good ideas.)

I've worked in the industry a while.  It's up to you whether to treat my post (second post of thread) as experienced advice, or get bent out of shape about it.  (Although the third option seriously is to start your own company, especially if you've actually studied and read up on game design enough to reduce the risk of doing so.  Or at least join a company whose vision is more aligned with yours.)

Originally posted by Belarion

Possible way it went down at the OP's studio:

 

OP: Well you said to make a game where players grew plants and raised animals you planned to call Farmtown but I thought it wasn't educational nor economically conscious enough So I made some changes. Now players go around a city collecting garbage, feeding the homeless and bagging stray cats. I thought we could call it Community Service Ville.

 

CEO: You just went full retard.

 You will never win a oscar going full retard ......tropical thunder line lol<===tht was great

Op... i like to welcome you to the creative sector... period.

This is how it works and this is what you will have to get used to. And if i provided the money i would have said the exact same thing.

OIfc now your project seems to be of the size that even a major overhaul does not really set the time table back, but in larger projects you most of the time does not have the time to change things like that.

And don't get all huffy because you left out key parts of the story and several important bits of info and people tore you a new one. That is a pretty rookie mistake.

Originally posted by Axehilt

I wish there was a clear example of a game where every random trainee programmer was allowed to cowboy their own features.

Remember, it's a story on the internet.

Draw no conclusions, of any variety.

---

Originally posted by everland "This is not the game we told you to make, please change it back the way it was. We do not want to take any risk."  

---

When people make comments like this it just chaps my a$$. I feel like saying 'yes I know its not what you asked me to make are you stupid? why would you point out the obvious you jack a$$ do you really think I am that stupid?'
'now f8ck ball I take you are not intrested in what I did, its really that simply f*ck nut!'

but I typically dont say that.

Originally posted by Axehilt

1. Don't make assumptions based on a single company

Except that what he posted is directly in like with what we've been seeing from MMOs for the past 8 or so years, and almost every insider interview with game developers talk about the same story. Brian Fargo has gone into depth about it.

1) Indie games .. so there are avenues to take risk.

2) People do LIKE familiarity with their games. Secondly newer != better.

For every minecraft, there are probably a thousand failed indie games. There is nothing wrong with not taking risks. If you go to Vegas every day, you will be broke soon. And bankrupt companies cannot make games .. new or not.

Originally posted by everland

 

Originally posted by Rednecksith

If you worked for me, I'd have probably fired you if you'd spent company time & resources programming something you were not authorized to do, as it's pretty much akin to using time at work for personal projects.

 

That's cool, but I didn't spent any money or resources since I did it in my free time, after work. And also I didn't modify the original, it stayed on the company server while I edited copy at home.

 

Originally posted by colddog04

So you just changed the game without consulting anyone and then informed your project leader after the fact?

 

As you might imagine, no I didn't. I worked in my free time, and then showed it to project leader. It was just a proposition, not a "make it my way, fast!".

 

Originally posted by Axehilt

I suppose you work in an industry where every employee from Veteran to a Day 1 employee can make decisions which affect the company's direction and product viability.

Nope, I don't make decisions. We have meetings, where everyone can say what they think. My boss allowed me to talk, so I showed them what I did at home and as I wrote originally, they liked it to the point they showed it to the producer as the idea of company not my private. It just didn't get approval.

 

I didn't write my story in every little detail cause I thought you people would focus more on the topic I am moving. It seem's you are more eager to try and find reasons why I'm stupid and not credible.

About the having balls thing. Well, I'm just a trainee. My boss is not a typical boss I think, since he acts more like a buddy than boss, but it works since he still has respect and people do their stuff in time. He gave me serious project very early, so I think he trusts in my skill. I do my job as best as I can, but I don't really care if I loose this job or not. I have other options waiting and if I can't enjoy what I do now I will just move on. I don't have family to feed so I can experiment while I'm young. If you don't care if you loose the job or not, why not try to do something good, like changing the industry tiny step by step?

You should have mentioned in the OP that you did this work on your own time.

While we as gamers do not like that many companies don't take risks on new ideas, you also have to look at it from the company owners perspective.  They need to turn a profit or the company goes under.  They could also be under contract to produce a specific product where the details are not negotiable.

It's always easy to take risks with other peoples money.