It pisses me off how games these days are turning more into modern day movies. No plot, no character development, just huge explosions and great visuals. Also DLC's are a huge ass issue with me. Why the fuck would you make a game and not even give players full access without paying 50 bucks extra? Sure, if it's an expansion pack it's okay, because expansion packs offer a lot. But what I'm referring to is the shitty CoD packs that give players like what. 3 maps? It's ridiculous.
Also game companies are focusing way to hard on making money rather than making a decent game. That's why shit like CoD comes out every damn year now.. And then companies that make awesome games like Bethesda and VALVe takes ten trillion years to release a game.
Life's unfair I guess.
Games have NEVER been about character development except for a select few games. Not now, not ever. Even the god-tier games that everyone remembers didnt have ANY character development, same goes with plot. Unless if it's an RPG, the plot will not be as focused on as the visual and gameplay. And before someone argues that Half Life 2 had a good plot, it didn't. All it had was basic framework and setting for the game to bend around it, sure there were some twists and turns, but it wasnt generally focused on plot.
And there's also the balance between story flow and exploration to consider. If you want a free roaming game, you're going to have to sacrifice plot to do so. And if plot is your essential part, you're going to have to sacrifice freedom for linearity.
However, this is not to say ALL games don't have a decent plot. So no, I don't think plot and character development have been dumbed down, but instead, they have risen more and more now.
