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.

tl;dr

the reason you see a lot of games with shitty gameplay and "pritteh" graphics is because it sells. developers are interested in making popular games AND getting paid. as an indie studio, you can only sell a publisher on a title that will obviously market well.

games arent the sort of thing that are finished before they're brough to market. as an indie, you make a short playable demo (if that) and try to get a publisher to pick you up so you can afford to eat.

it even happens indies that have a dream game in mind and sign with a publisher. once those milestone dates start bearing down, you can bet the publisher won't be clammering for the gameplay if the game looks like shit. the developers are inclined to do what the publishers say because otherwise they're broke. sadly, most publishers don't know jack shit about what makes a game fun.

ex: bullet witch is fun - who gives a shit if there's z-fighting issues with the stencil shadows?

the big commercial studios are obviously interested in making money too. they're hard-pressed to stray from proven formats for a reason. why spend an extra three to six months on pre-production design aspects like story and a couple extra months towards the end of the project on gameplay tweaking if you can sell the title almost as well without all that? that's 4+ months salary for 50 or so people that they can just subtract from the total production cost of the project.

the bottom line is, shitty games are being hyped and sold because the hype works. shitty games will continue being made as long as gamers keep buying shitty games.

the only thing you can do about it as a gamer is say 'i dont like shitty games and i wont buy them'. believe it or not, thats a step in the right direction.