Well, I don't really blame the developers that much. I don't think they're lazy but some of them are rather inexperience. Take a good look at some third party Gamecube games and you would realize they basically got the job developing right out of college. But I see everyone's point. We are stuck in rut where developers are afraid of doing something new so they instead do something generically popular and sometimes do a half-ass job on it knowing full well they'll sell. Look at Spiderman 3. But who do we blame for that? Them for making it or us for buying it? Spiderman 3 probably reinforced their thinking and Spiderman 4 will be just as bad because they know everyone will buy it. As for variety in gaming, there is a good amount, we just easily overlook it because it covers a subject we're not interested in. So, next you're at a gaming section, look at the games a little harder, you'll probably find something.
And as for the poorly plotted RPGs, don't get me started. I used to be a Role Play Game nut-now, most of them are just horrible. The Mana series is a great example- I love Secret of Mana so much but all of the games released after just plain sucked. Even now, we have Dawn of Mana. Way to kill a series Square Enix.
