Yes, I agree. However, I think these $30 million games do have a place in the video game industry. Developers with grand ideas of visual and audible experiences should not be denied the possibility to realize their visions. And on the economic side, there certainly is an audience for a limited number of such games. The problem is that publishers are convinced that all "great" games *need* to have presentations that are state of the art audio-visually. Developers get tons of cash and personnel, but only two years (or less) to complete the game, often resulting in a buggy rush job, lacking in gameplay and coherency. In truth, there should only be one or two such games released per year, and not from the same publisher. Unless there is a change within the next few years, the industry will suffer for this in the long term. However, I think Nintendo might pay the price early on, if developers only use the Wii for budget titles and continue to develop their big games for the more ‘capable’ consoles. Ironic, considering Nintendo is one of the few publishers not affected by this mentality. Oh well, they seem to be doing well enough for themselves for now.
And about story; while story is an invaluable part of any modern game (even games like Mario), a game should not be based on a story so much as a premise of what that game will be about. Story in a game should first and foremost be a motive for new gameplay. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a great story, but the two of them should be linked whenever possible.
Bodhesatva: Well, I'm afraid story driven gaming isn't going anywhere soon - even our friend Mr. Koster agrees on that. By the way, his article is interesting, but a bit sensationalistic. He's basically just saying that all games will eventually have some kind of community aspect that allows for interaction between players - a lesser fact these days. I doubt there will ever be a time when every game requires multiple players to function properly, however. Like it or not, there is a market for interactive movies/books, and it's not going to go away any sooner than people will start acting like in those 60's future movies.
