so in summary, gaming in general is going downhill
blame the incompetents who complain everything is too hard in video games THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DIFFICULT DUMB ASSES.
This sort of elitist, overly simplified, self-entitled attitude is not productive. I don't know who told you that you were in charge of defining the purpose of video games, but you're not.
I have to agree, sometimes I don't want a challenge, sometimes I just want to enjoy the story.
what story?
sorry for coming off as hostile, its an issue i feel strongly about.
however, major games often lack both a profound rich story, and a challenge.
story based games are boring after the first playthrough as their is no challenge,
challenge based games sometimes get boring halfway through because theirs no story.
so developers really need to both, find a balance, and actually deliver on their idea, give supposebly story based game a truly amazing story, while still 'somewhat' challenging.
and give challenge based games a good but not impossible challenge (difficulty slider mandatory imo), but keep a decent bit of story.
i don't know, its just i look back at some of the truly AMAZING games that were hellishly fun to play, and had deep, profound stories that developed emotional connections to characters, and then compare them to modern day games.
and agreeing with your point, it is possible to make a game thats fun to replay, story based, and has little challenge. just they are rare jewels.