A while back, I referenced the trailer to Strangerhood (site currently Slashdotted), the new project from the creators of the exceptional Red vs. Blue. As Slashdot reports, the first 5-minute episode built entirely in The Sims 2 is up (I used this Bittorrent link).
Maybe my expectations were set too high, but I’m kind of disappointed. The show starts with the same existential conundrum that started off Red vs. Blue, but isn’t nearly as funny. In my experience, you get better art when your work is constrained. These constraints may be based in form, tools, time or cost. This might explain why some small budget films are exceptional (say, Celebration or Clerks), and why haiku is such a challenging poetic structure. In the case of Red vs. Blue, the creator’s tools were limited to what you could animate inside Halo. The story and character’s originality and charm are largely a result of those limits. Because The Sims 2 is so much more versatile as a ‘palette’, I wonder if the results will be less convincing.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
I promise I’m not stalking you. Well, not that I know of. But I feel this burning need to respond to three of your articles today and will do with two. I have been mulling an article/post/journal entry called “The Constraint Theory” wherein I would examine all of the instances I have seen that support the thesis that you and I share – namely that constraint is a good force in the creative process. Creativity is about making choices in order to bring into being a vision be that a film, book, play, cake, finger-painting or whatever else you are building.
I agree with you that the larger the universe of possible feedstock (materials, money, labour) available to you, the longer it takes to make all of the decisions, and I’m quite sure that if it was quantifiable, it would boil down to a directly inverse relationship 95% of the time. Use more resources, get a crappier product. Use less resources, think clearer, attain more focus, become more efficient, and crystallize the essence of whatever it is that you are creating.
Some examples of constrained / relatively unconstrained speak for themselves. The former is usually brilliant, the latter less so and often by a wide margin.
Star Wars Episode 4 : Episodes 1,2,3 (crap)
24 Hour Film Contest: Most of Hollywood
SpaceShip One: 25 years of NASA and $200 Billion
Just my thoughts for the day. Must get around to writing that full article….