Innovation baby. I'm getting bored of the same old, same old. Gimme new settings, gimme experimental new gameplay ideas.
But most importantly, don't assume that "innovation" requires the abolition of old tried-and-true systems. Innovation can also come through evolution. Look at the classics, analyze what made them good, and take it to the next level.
The classics - Ultima, Wizardry, M&M - are the perfect example for innovation through evolution. When you play Ultima 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 you see how each improvement of the game through the iterations has evolved from already existing features. Same with Wizardry from 1 to 8, or M&M from 1 to 5 (6, 7, 8, 9 are their own thing, with 6 being revolutionary rather than evolutionary). World of Xeen is my favorite M&M, and it very much feels and plays like the older titles, only better.
There can be innovative elements in the most traditionalist of games. Take ToEE. I don't think there were any earlier games with such a smooth display of enemy mobs moving simultaneously. ToEE removed a lot of the tedium from turn based games with its simultaneous movement animation during enemy turns. Is it revolutionary? Is it a huge step for the genre? No, but it's an evolution and an innovation regardless.
What I wanna see more of is traditionalist games that don't just copy the classics, but ask: how can we make this good shit even better without changing it to the point of it being unrecognizable? You don't have to reinvent the wheel, but you can turn a simple stone circle into a spoked wooden wheel, and later you can even turn it into an air-filled rubber wheel.
What I'd also like to see more of is experimentality. Disco Elysium is a great example. It takes the basic premise of an RPG (you play a character whose abilities are defined by stats and skills), asks "how would that work out in the context of a noir detective game?", and does its own thing with it.
You don't have to do it like Disco Elysium, though. You can apply the same train of thought to other literary genres, and to other concepts.You could ask "what would an RPG where you play a spaceship captain look like?" and then design a system where most skills are associated with piloting spacecraft, and spaceships have their own stats, and there are two different combat systems for space and for planetary encounters, etc. You could ask "how do I turn a romantic comedy into an RPG?" and do that. It might end up like DE, without combat but intense dialogue and skillchecks. It might end up boring and forgettable due to the nature of its genre (romcoms are boring, after all), but it would be new and different and other designers can learn from its mistakes and its successes, if there are any.
Or you could try to design more intricate RPG systems, like the more complex pen and paper systems out there. D&D isn't the only template for RPGs out there, you know. What about GURPS with its advantages and disadvantages? When was the last time a game gave you a character creation that heavily emphasized advantages and disadvantages rather than just numerical stats? I can't remember any, other than Daggerfall. You can make combat more tactical (and enhance the dressup feature of RPGs at the same time
) by implementing detailed locational damage and locational armor systems. I'd really love a cRPG that uses Aftermath!'s systems. cRPGs would be perfect for complex rulesets like that, much better than pen and paper, because the computer performs all the calculations. But no, most cRPGs have relatively simple systems, nothing that's comparable with the more complex P&P rulesets.
Fun fact: most of the Codex's favorite RPGs were innovative at their time.
Wizardry 7? First game to feature enemy parties working towards similar goals as the player (parties that can collect map pieces before you get to them).
Ultima 7? First game to feature complex NPC schedules, high degree of interactivity with the world.
Fallout? It made C&C hip and cool and the SPECIAL system with stats, skills, perks & traits wasn't very common at its time either.