WTF happened to games

Video games are not games anymore.  I don't know what they are, but they aren't games.  No matter how much of a graphical facade a video game has on the outside, the real game is about an abstract goal which is achieved through twitch skill or mental skill.  The true fun in video games comes from success and failure of doing these acts.  Any enjoyment from the graphical facade - like an emotionally engaging story or the splattering of gratuitous blood - is merely an added bonus and it is not meant to deliver the main 'fill' of the game.

Too many modern video games have an absolutely crap game underneath.  All these games have to offer is the graphical facade: the story, the characters, the explosions and the particle effects.  To make up for the shit gameplay these types of games try to succeed (and often do) by making the presentation beautiful so that no one stops to notice/care about the mentally retarded gameplay.  It is a cinematic video game disease.  It is especially common in post FF7 RPG's and post half-life FPS's.

Video gamers have already diverged into those who buy into empty shell graphical facades and those who don't.  I don't know what the fuck happened.  The empty shell camp seems to be winning too.

>>2
Fine, I get your point.  The gameplay is unplayable by modern standards.  I'm not so sure though if it was successful at the time because of its fantasy facade or its gameplay.  Note also I prefaced the phrase "post FF7" with the words "especially common".  I'm saying FF7 was a turning point.  Never before FF7 did empty RPGs get tons of 'hype'.  Hype is actually an inaccurate word to describe what is going on.   My thesis is that the level of praise over empty games transcends hype and can only be explained if people actually do love them that much, hence the statment about gamers diverging.