@WandererUber Yeah, I don't really know how or why this happens. Maybe it's just audience drift, with people who liked resident evil 4 when they were 15 and had tons of time now pretty much want something similar but easier so they can play it through over two days even with wife and kids. It also used to be that you had story-driven games, which were point-and-click adventures, and action games, which didn't care about story at all (carmack said that a video game story is like the story in a porn movie).

sadly i think that even now that everyone cares a lot about story in games, video game stories are mostly complete trash. i played a few games that were praised for their story recently and came away with the impression that the average gamer has never read a book (or even a few short stories) in their life.

for me the 'actionable advice' around all of this is that i try to pay more attention to people like electric underground, write conscious, moviewise, house of tabula... not even because i mostly agree with them, but because they have taste, knowledge of the subjects and actual demands when it comes to quality that go beyond "well i had fun with it". especially in the movie and game review scene, so many people don't do any kind of analysis, they just say "i liked it" or "it was shit", just in more words. or they are so captured by the norms of the day that they can't say anything interesting even if they tried (like red letter media every time they describe how to "fix" a movie, which always involves rewriting it to be exactly like some 1980s/1990s cliche).

there's more than enough good books, movies and games out already to last a man a lifetime, so, beyond the social aspect, it's mostly an issue of curation. now excuse me while i go play some parryslop because i actually think ninja gaiden is too hard.