Game Quality Diminishing?

Is it just me or does it feel like the games of today are complete crap? Not all of them, but the majority that get churned out are just mediocre at best. And if they aren't complete crap then they simply feel like retreads of games we've already played a million times before only now with prettier graphics? When you plop down $65 bones do you ever feel like the joke's on you and that you've just become the punchline of some big wig executive's joke? I do. Which is why I don't do it anymore. I don't know if I'm just getting jaded or if games today really do lack that certain spark that used to well up inside me in years past.

I've been noticing a drastic change in my attitude recently towards video games and the direction the industry as a whole is going: Namely today's games don't get me excited like they used to. I'm not talking about graphics since I think those are phenomenal, but graphics don't make a game. And the more and more I play the less and less impressed I seem to get.

I actually remember only last gen getting really excited about a new game coming out. That feeling has all but disappeared this gen. So I ask myself is it just me, or do other people also feel this sense of monotony in games today as well. Combine that lack of enthusiasm with console systems that are becoming more complicated and trying to do everything in addition to playing games when they really only have to perform one function: Playing games. Not surfing the 'Net, not updating your Twitter feed and not posting on Facebook. Believe it or not there is still beauty in simplicity.

I think developers are just plain lazy today what with the ability (read: luxury) to patch broken or buggy games. Sure, I can see the benefits of that but that's also my point: Back in the day they didn't have a chance to "fix" a game, and the work they put into a game was the definitive version. If they screwed up they suffered for it so it behooved them to get it right the first time. Not so in today's world where now if they screw up they figure it's no big deal because they can just "patch it" and everyone is happy.

DLC and microtransactions are the BANE of this industry. Please, don't try to justify greed. Just don't. I don't believe these developers when they say they didn't have time to include additional material, or there wasn't enough space, etc. There is plenty of space and they have plenty of time; they simply don't want to. They'd rather nickel and dime us further by slowly releasing content that, again, back in the day would have been included on the disc from the start. If you think that DLC and microtranasctions are somehow the best thing that's happened to this industry you're just foolish. You wouldn't get excited if they pulled that crap in other industries so why should it be anymore justified with video games? Would you buy a book that charged you per chapter? How about a CD that charged you per song AFTER you bought the entire thing? No, I didn't think so. Yet video games somehow get a free pass in this area and everyone seems to think it's the bee's knees.

Add to that fact firmware updates, security threats to online servers, obnoxious, cheating, loud mouthed bigots that play online and think it's cool to harass you because they sit comfortably with the security of anonymity and it's becoming increasingly clear to me that this generation is going to be my last. It's just becoming too much of an ordeal and literally I can't afford it anymore. If I'm going to plunk down $600+ on something I'm going to apply that to buying gold, silver or some other asset that appreciates in value over time and doesn't depreciate like video games/systems. How much do you think next gen systems are going to cost if this current gen is any example to go by: $600 for a PS3? $400-$500 for a 360? Jesus Almighty. It's too much. It almost feels as if they base the price not on what the system does, but what it can do in the future except you pay that cost up front now.