Most people today won't watch a movie if it's silent or even if it has sound but is still black and white. It's the same with video games. If it isn't top of the line visually a lot of people simply won't play it.

Have you played SW:TOR? the MMO sequel to Kotor 1 and 2? I played it over my winter break and, for an MMO, I found it strangely compelling. I may renew my subscription this summer when I have some more free time.

Why the hell not? I was given the Amulet of Kings and went screw it adventuring time. To me I completely forgot about the main quest. Actually my mage got lost in Shivering Isle. He went through the wrong portal and had to find a way out of the Shivering Isle, he was captured there and imprisoned. Or that's how I roleplayed. When he came back he was Sheogorath and himself. Himself is sheogorath. I also had the fact that I wanted to make him an Archmage and all that. I got lost and forgot about the main quest until he was around lvl 30, which I found a suitable time to start the main quest. And I throughly enjoyed the Oblivion gates even after Kvatch I still went questing time and liked going through the portals. I never felt like the main quest was thrown unto me. I always just thought, Amulet of Kings eh. Adventure. Adventure was my first thought. I wanted my character to be somebody before they did the main quest line. The Arch Mage of the Cyrodil college saved the world sounds alot better than Prisoner Nobody saved the world.

Well, EA bought BioWare, so there's your answer to DA and ME. (Incidentally, I wrote an article about the http://j-u-i-c-e.hubpages.com/_esforum/hub/art-and-integrity-mass-effect-3-controversy if you're a fan of the franchise. That's totally OT, but you mentioned it, so you have no one to blame but yourself. )

It's not just RPGs that are suffering. The survival horror genre has also been devoured by the action genre. The developers of Resident Evil 6 pretty much stated that it wasn't going to be a survival horror game because there is no market for it. Bear in mind that the term 'survival horror' was coined to describe the first RE. That is equivalent to Bethesda publicly stating that the next Elder Scrolls is not going to be a RPG but a straight-up action game.

The big studios are trying to duplicate Hollywood action blockbusters, simple as that. We're in the Michael Bay era of gaming. Your options are to go fund a Kickstarter or get used to it. Enjoy.

And, yes, the consumers are as much to blame for it as the developers. Most people just don't like trying anything outside of their comfort zone. For the vast majority of people, any game outside of an action blockbuster or Wii bowling is outside the comfort zone. AAA games are incredibly expensive to make. You're welcome to do the math, but I assure you, there are no mistakes in this arithmetic.

Lol. Well, I couldn't do that. Every time I looked in my inventory I saw the pitiful face of the wrinkly old emperor. His dream and my destiny was the only reason I was free to adventure in the first place. Otherwise I would have rotted in that prison across from some @nus of a dark elf. I wanted to kill that guy.

No, I haven't, but I think I may have to check it out now that you mentioned it.

I believe they offer free trials now.

If you really enjoyed the 'darkside' stuff in Kotor then you'll see quite a bit of it in SW:TOR. The entire leveling experience is more or less story and dialogue driven, every quest has voiced over dialogue with branches, opportunities for lightside or darkside decisions, etc. It's especially fun if you group up with friends, because then you're both a part of the conversation and the game does a 'roll' to see who gets to say the dialogue line or make the decision for the quests. And its fun to hear people go 'WHAT!?' over Skype when your Sith brutally beheads someone and then drops his head at the feet of his widow.

LOL... sounds like my kind of game.

If you read the threads involving Tullius vs. Ulfric, the Empire relations with the Thalmor, possible ideas for DLC, etc. I'm sure that any argument that Skyrim isn't deep can be seen as completely false.

I feel your pain man
I feel Skyrim was made for brainless kids who want to wield sword and kill dragons

Lol. Well, I couldn't do that. Every time I looked in my inventory I saw the pitiful face of the wrinkly old emperor. His dream and my destiny was the only reason I was free to adventure in the first place. Otherwise I would have rotted in that prison across from some @nus of a dark elf. I wanted to kill that guy.

I'd be inclined to agree with you if the result of the civil war was decidedly different depending on who you supported. As it is, it is not different. Picking one side or the other makes no difference in the end. I suspect any future DLC will take on the same template. For example, if it involves the Thalmor, then whoever you sided with fights them. After a series of quests you defeat the Thalmor and resolidify the province of skyrim. But it won't make a lick of difference who's side your on, (imperial or stormcloak) because it will play out the same way either way with very minor variances. I'm not saying it wont be fun, but it is a little shallow in that sense. Especially sense the ideology of either faction is very different. What its like in the game world depending which one gets in power should also be VERY different. and it's not.

The reality i think though, is Bestheda doesn't have that kind of development time. Deadlines are a [censored].

I've stated this again and again. I might be one of those very rare type of people. But I like Morrowind and I liked Oblivion. I have stated over and over again. That I felt Oblivion did it the right way. It still had elements of Morrowind, cut back a little. But they did in the right way. A way that still catered to my style of RPG. And to my style of role playing. I enjoy class systems, so naturally Oblivion was good.

Both Morrowind and Oblivion provided quest choices, character role development not just character roleplay, both provided a new and exciting alien world. Oblivion was a little cartoony compared to Morrowind, but it was fine and appealed to me in some adorbale way.

I think Oblivion did it right when it came to Morrowind and Oblivion. And I like both main stories in Morrowind and Oblivion.

I'm so tired of comments like yours, where you stereotype what people are like and who these people are like. I liked Morrowind and Oblivion, and compared to both games Skyrim is horrible. It's basically the same stab wound given to me when Dragon Age Origins was so amazing and then they crapped out Dragon Age 2.

I bought Skyrim, thinking both worlds Morrowind and Oblivion much like Oblivion did. But instead it did not. It did not deliver.

I feel your pain man
I feel Skyrim was made for brainless kids who want to wield sword and kill dragons

I'm actually going to make a comment to this because it takes me back home. I use to play Morrowind and Oblivion and sometimes my dad would watch me do so. But he always said it was boring to watch and he said that all he wanted to do was kill people. And he said all he ever sees me do is walk around. He said the game was boring because I wasn't going around killing every twenty seconds like in Halo or Quake. You have to consider those were the games my dad liked. I remember him playing the N64 playing Quake and Doom, which was weilding a gun killing people.

Where as I liked slower games because I was never good at weidling a gun and killing people.

Fallout 3 and Fallout NV did not seem shallow to me. I also enjoyed NWN2. I have yet to play Dragon Age, Mass Effect or the Witcher but I have heard good things.

Skyrim seems to be lacking in the areas of dialog choice, good and evil options and NPC reactions to your actions. The reason it has such a nice replay value is just because of the sheer amount of quests, I'm on my third run now. Of course I wouldn't need to keep starting over if the difficulty scaled they way it should after level 40. I can just about one shot anything.

I am definetly disappointed in NPC reactions, I'm thane of almost every hold, the leader of the DB and theives guild, and I get nada in response. I would of loved a Fallout NV style of factions, with reactions and infamy and disguises..etc...

I don't know if games are being watered down now adays because of rushed deadlines or because they are dumbing down, but either way I do not think it is good for business.

Yes it is all about the money now.... Why would game developers work hard to make a game when they can make a pile of crap of a game and know they will sell tons of copies?

Its not the developers fault for games becoming more shallower... its the consumers fault. We mindlessly buy games just because of things like "its made by developers I like" or "the last game was really good"

If we dont demand high quality games, and reject the low quality ones... then the cycle of making more crappy games will just continue.

Yes it is all about the money now.... Why would game developers work hard to make a game when they can make a pile of crap of a game and know they will sell tons of copies?

Its not the developers fault for games becoming more shallower... its the consumers fault. We mindlessly buy games just because of things like "its made by developers I like" or "the last game was really good"

If we dont demand high quality games, and reject the low quality ones... then the cycle of making more crappy games will just continue.

The point is, has anyone actually REALISED that these games are getting shallower and shallower???? Is money really that important to those companies(who obviously, not all the time listen to their customers e.g. points at Nexon)