Sad, but true Sammy!! Hey, totally off topic, but your Chargers are looking very good this year!! I've followed them ever since they hired an Aussie several years ago!!
And much more subtle - you can partially side with a number of factions, or be true to one while also gaining influence with others without compromising your 'RP-value'. It is quite nice, actually.The faction system is less linear.
Maybe 'dumbed down' is the new 'this is teh ghey' ...So...? Or are some people confusing poor design choices with dumbing down?
Corwin is pretty much closest to the mark. The reason it appears games are being "dumbed down" is that the industry is much larger now which has brought with it higher costs and higher stakes. The kind of folks that want to play time consuming, somewhat complicated games is small, and will never get much larger. This wasn't so much of a factor in the old days, because the costs of producing and distributing a game were small enough that sales in the thousands, perhaps 10's of thousands was sufficient to cover costs and perhaps generate a bit of profit. Now, of course, it's big business. Playing computer games as a form of entertainment became "normal" enough, socially acceptable enough and technologically accessible with more folks having access to computers and gaming consoles than ever before as to present a pretty good buisness opportunity for companies. The early days of the industry were arguable mostly driven by the passion of the creators/developers. Now that big money can be made, the industry is driven by profit margins. Plain and simple.
So, it's actually not dumbing down as much as it is expansion of the industry bringing with it certain cold, hard marketing facts. Namely: if you want to make mucho dinero, you've got to pour millions of dollars into a game with a lot of flash that a broad market will enjoy and be entertained by. Sorry, but most of the market is nothing like us folks at the Watch when it comes to how they're entertained with video games. No need to pass judgement about them being "dumb" or "stupid". They're just different and want different things. Who here can say that no matter what the form of entertainment they consume, the always want it to be complex and challenging? Didn't think so. Lot's of folks want games to be fun and easy. And that's OK.
Of course, the justifiably troubling question is what is the future of complex and challenging games for those of us that like that style of entertainment?
Corwin, and your, core point is that people want a quick fix, and dumbed down mechanics. Even WoW is far from quick, or dumb.
Vanguard is supposed to be even slower and more complex.
Is it because people expect SP games to give them a quick, thoughtless fix, and the ones who are looking for some depth would rather play in a game such as wow, that has no ending, and always has that carrot on the stick?
Seems to me, although without map marks and compass (thank God!), game was dumbed down for americans :/
Not G3 only - almost everything now is influenced by US way-of-life and dumbed to the max, which frustrates me, an european, a lot :/
SWG was the best MMORPG out there before the combat upgrade.