Family security from the good old days..

@ redeye

"The difference today is that we have allot more consumers playing games with the gamers playing games."

what? this makes no sense to me. gamers are consumers. Aside from that I think you are trying to say something about casual gamers flooding the market and there are now fewer hardcore gamers? Not even sure if this is worth clarifying.

The differences with now and the good old days is that gaming is more popular now and a lot of people only have one or two hours of playtime and if you make a game too hard a lot of people will be put off because they just want
to have fun. Now I know fun means different things to different people, but I can imagine to the majority fun is not dying over and over again.

I wouldn't say Season Passes are pointless, they are there to add more content and that's what they do. I'm more than happy for that to continue as long as users aren't forced to buy, and by "forced" I mean forced (as in you have
no other option). More and more games are introducing Season Passes and that's because they sell. One thing I don't like is when DLC is announced before the game is officially released; release the full game and then announce the DLC. I guess one of the reasons
developers announce DLC before release is because people will know the game will be supported.

About the special pre-orders I guess more choice can't hurt right? Some people want a toy with their pre-orders, others wan't a book or whatever. The more choice then the more chance of people buying and that is what developers
and publishers want. It's all about profit.

I don't think I could ever go back. I love playing old games now (Sega's past classics and the like), but for every one I still love playing, there are a dozen that make me wonder what I ever saw in them!!

Sorry, I've been spoilt too much, and I like where I am now!!

The industry has really done a great job of cashing in on the 'HD' hype. Advances in technology used to be applied automatically with a small increase in price, if you compare TV images from the 70s to TV images of the 90s you will see a dramatic difference,
but the business world was a much more innocent place back then.

Like suckers we've all fallen for the 'HD' sales pitch, and now they are at it again with the '3D' hype.

I agree with the OP that games aren't primarily about gameplay anymore, they are mainly about fancy graphics and poor game engines (prime example being Call of Duty).

i played the majority of LA Noire on my Mrs' 20 odd inch SDTV and to be honest..there was a MASSIVE difference in quality/image etc. but it didn't detract from the game... it just goes to prove graphics aren't everything..

i don't think i could go back to gaming permenantly on an SDTV however but it doesn't phase me if i don't play in HD...

3D however is not for me.... i played some PC L4D2 in 3D and it was..ok.. just wasn't all that...