most of the games now are too short..... I mean who did finish tetris or super mario bros in 10 hours in normal level back then .... ok I know it cost money to make long game.... but still come on..... well now they do big saga.... MGS, HALO, GOW, mass effect... so basically you have a 30 hour game divided in 3 or more parts for 180+ bucks... that's what is happening now....
that's the reason I rarely play any game on the standard level of difficulty anymore...
now about graphics.... this one of the reason I play games... I fascinated by High quality graphics.... for me it's like being an actor in a virtual world.... VG is the only form of art where the audience can actively take part to it to enjoy it.... So a good game with bad graphics in my world it's like a well written song with a bad singer....
but for me good graphic doesn't mean photo realistic all the time.... a stylitic design like some games I have seen like hotel dusk on DS... are great too for me....
it depends what kind of game i'm playing.... but it does have a huge importance for me at the end.... you can give me the best concept/gameplay of the world if the look of the game is really bad I won't touch it because I won't enjoy it...
great article by the way
