You are not alone. I'm 25 and it been a long, long time since I've played a true gem for the first time. Recent games just don't cut it, part for the reasons cited above, part because all the budget is mainly dedicated to graphic candy first, then the rest follow and gameplay is often relegated to the latest stage.
The real problem here is not the producers in themselves... The main problem here is that most, if not all of us regulars here at Abandonia, are Elites. Elites of our gaming age. We are so much on top of our turf that we not only reign as master of our console/medium of choice, we also wish to communicate with others like us in an effort to exchange ideas, ideals and goals. At least, that's how I see it.
Then, we have on the other side of the balance the average Joe who plays for fun and don't care the slighlest bit about what is going on in the scene. All they want is games they consider as fun (read stupidly simple, especially since most of them are complete newbies or losers in the sense that they just plain suck at videogames) but extremely flashy and easy on the eye. As long as it works and it's graphicaly well done, they are happy.
Now, the gaming companies are not stupid. They are completely aware of this and what is going on... But truth is, whatever the kind of type of game you build, the only way to really make profit is to mass sell the game. No matter if the game is really poor, as long as you ship millions of them you are making huge profit! Is it really a surprise then that those aforementioned companies aim almost all their products to the biggest customer range in term of number? Not at all.
And that's where we lose, my friends. Because in anything, there can't be a big number of Elites in a given group. It's the mathematical law of the average: you'll always have extreme cases, but the vast majority will always be around the middle... Like the average Joe.
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