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Notes -
I have long though of making effortpost - how Unreal Engine 3 and X-box 360 killed the game industry. But if you are looking for western game decline - it started around this time. It almost felt crazy when people praised total gameplay blandness like Gears of War, Mass Effect, Assassin's creed as masterpieces. I don't know what happened in 2006-7, but from then big budget games have been more miss than hit gameplay-wise.
However your effortpost turns out, perhaps you should open it with "Call of Duty 4 and its consequences have been a disaster for the Gamer race."
Seriously, that game's progression system for multiplayer practically changed how games are built and designed, not to mention how many people wanted the COD crowd in its wake (which coined the Seven Words of Death for many a game: "we want the Call of Duty audience").
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Mass adoption. If the gameplay wasn't bland, it couldn't appeal to a mass market as more sophisticated mechanics would effectively gatekeep vast swathes of the population. The other side of the trick was to make people feel like they're accomplishing something, even though what they're doing is incredibly easy. Todd Howard had a whole spiel about it.
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