Ideas, in the video game industry, tend to disseminate through the industry via mimicry. When one developer includes an interesting gameplay feature, it isn’t long until another game copies it. Take the second Crysis game. It hit markets during a time when “camping” was the mortal sin of first-person shooters. Crysis 2, fixed this problem by forcing players to leave their nooks in order to claim their kill-streaks. Soon after, Call of Duty implemented an identical system along with a host of other first person shooters.
If videogame ideas come from other games then the fantasy role playing game Fable is the blueprint for modern games. Released in 2004, Fable managed to put it’s fingerprints on titles across several genres. Everything from Mass Effect to the Infamous series owes an intellectual debt to Fable but some games, more than others, take cues from the popular fantasy title.