Ok, another thing here. I am going to definte "raising the bar" as "quality", and then comment, that people don't play games for "originality" or "quality". An aspect to being entertain is novelty, so you get a pleasant surprise from a game. Originality helps to aid in this process. As far as quality goes, people don't play a game because it is high quality. They play a game because it does what they want to do, and excutes sufficiently well that it lends to the experience. The experience is high quality. Proof of this is that there are a multitude of high quality titles that are original that people didn't buy or play.
Say, for example, a $50 million curling simulator was created. It emulated curling to a high degree, had TV quality production, and opened up the world of curling to newcomers and made it fun. Well, anyone think such a game would even break into the top 10 here, or generate great review on metacritic (get over 90 average)? No it wouldn't. A curling simulator would be original, and it would by high quality, but doesn't INTRINSICALLY do what people want.
