Jade Empire's dialogue system wasn't as dumbed down as Mass Effect and the adventure itself was great. The mechanics was quite lousy. It tried to be a RPG+Beat Em Up hybrid and failed both, just like ME tries to be a FPS+RPG hybrid and failed both. JE also had a greater range of interesting companions who actually had a great deal of interesting sidestories that could be explored, which really made up much of the bulk of the game (and sadly missed by those who rushed it through).
Indeed, and you can't go wrong with john cleese as a voice actor gave quite a few laughs! What I absolutely loved about JE though was the beauty and the wounderful setting, I fear that JE 2 will only be for xbox 360 forcing me to consider to get one.
I think I know why developers are moving to consoles, and I think I know why they're making games more accessible in general.
What I'm curious to know - as I asked - is whether the people on the floor are doing this gladly and if they, themselves, think of the new games as an improvement. I'm just really interested in whether this "necessary" move to reduce complexity and restrict games around a limited hardware platform is recognized as the path to the best game - or perhaps instead to the most profitable game. Also, I'd like to know from a developer whether he thinks it's more enjoyable to create the most profitable game versus the best game - or if he even think there's a difference.
I will be the first to admit I hate the dumbing down of games, I absolutely love hardcore RPG's like the wizardry series, and even less hardcore but still more complex than today like M&M series. The answer to your question, I think is yes. Troika proved it, so did Origin, so did SI , so did Sirtech, new world computing, etc etc, hardcore RPG's just doesn't sell enough these days, and it costs so much to develop games these days, you can just not fail, or you are doomed to go bankrupt.
So you either dumb them down and make them appeal to the console public, or you go bankrupt.
I dare to say the number who pirated the hardcore RPG's surpassed the ones who bought them, a game like VtmB , a lot of people I know played it very few bought it, it is often discussed on many RPG sites and it looks like most people played it, yet sales show few bought it.