What you're lamenting is not the change in gaming, but the passing of your youth. Games aren't less whimsical and more realistic, you are. Childish preoccupations have been replaced by adult concerns and to an extent you mourn that.
That's how I read this too, those whimsical (childish?) games are still around now (don't ask me to list any ... i'm all growed up!).
My son's 17 so let me look through some of his old PS2 games... Kingdom Hearts, Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, Rayman, Tak - I think those all epitomize the type of game you are referencing, you just stopped playing that type of game because you grew out of them. Also, if you'd tried to play those games there would likely be plenty of peer pressure to keep you away, teenage boys are good at peer pressure like that.
My son is almost 17, and I could have made the same list of games I'm nostalgic for. I could be wrong here - I'm not a huge gamer, but I just don't see those types of games available for the Xbox. PS3 and Wii strike me as the platform for whimsical games, and Xbox as the platform for rote FPS's.
I've never been a console gamer so I wasn't really aware of this distinction - though I guess I do have some vague sense of it. I'd just assumed that the big titles were all available on all platforms. However, it appears you're absolutely correct , the games I listed weren't available on Xbox.
Still, speaking to unalone's broader point, maybe he just shouldn't have purchased an Xbox and stuck with one of the other consoles. Those games do exist.
I think the other reason why that change occurred is that the first generation of gamers grew up, had disposable income and were a huge potential market. Xbox was marketed specifically at that group and has been highly successful, but it was expanding the gamer market - it didn't do that by destroying the other genres. This isn't a zero-sum situation.
I was in my 40s before I ever played a console game. I don't think this is an artifact of nostalgia for one's youth. The PS2 was the dominant console before this generation, and it definitely supported a more varied set of games, many of which were whimsical. Same could be said of the PS1, I think (although I only played those long after their heyday).
The games on the XBox, and even more so on the XBox360, have felt like a much narrower nich, heavily aimed at the "Rated M" audience... The PS3 has been a little (but only a little) broader. Nintendo emphasizes another niche but it has definitely been marginalized.
I agree that many of these games migrated from the PC (or expanded to) to the XBox platform, but what's missing, for me, are the alternatives, to the point where I don't plan to buy another XBox. (Not sure I'll buy another PSn, either -- will have to see more than came with this generation.)
Mobile games are a very different niche, as are flash games. LittleBigPlanet is defintely a counter-example (for PS3), but there aren't too many others.
Katamari, Lego anything, narrative-type games like LA Noire or Heavy Rain, strategy-shooters like Metal Gear, Flow...I could go on. I don't feel like there's a shortage of options; I am not that great at multiplayer shootouts and as I've got older I've become really sick of horror/gore gameplay, so I play very few FPS games any more.
But I think you a very valid question of if (or when) total computer game playtime will be (already is) so dominated by mobile and browser-based games that PCs and consoles are the actual niches.
If you look at all the major studios that have been wading into mobile and social, it's pretty clear the industry has been thinking about this for a long time now.
This is -- by far -- the most insightful discussion in this entire discussion. The GP post's mistake is the same confusion that leads people to imagine that the quality of music, movies, trends, toys, games, and so on were all at their pinnacle when they were young.
The submitted story sounds like someone working in a place where they shouldn't be, and their laments are other people's celebrations.
