I don't understand the price complaint at all. There has never been a cheaper time to be a gamer, relatively speaking. $60 now is mega-cheap compared to what games used to cost. Even then, it doesn't even matter, you don't have to pay $60 unless you have to play a game when it releases. I only buy a couple of games at full price a year and that's usually with some Amazon credit involved. Everything else, I pick up a few months later in the $40-$20 range. It just takes a little patience. I bought Assassin's Creed III in December for $30, which came out to $20 after using the $10 discount for AC3 I got for buying AC:L, which I then traded back to Amazon for $38. So many games I've broke even on after playing, or only ended up paying $10 or so. It almost makes me feel guilty. Gran Turismo 5, bought for $40 after Amazon credit, played for a month, traded in for $40, and just purchased the better version over the holidays for $10 to keep.
As far as gaming itself goes, I like where it's at. Everything is out there now, we have so much more variety than before (other than the JRPG decline). I was pretty listless about gaming during the NES/SNES period because it felt like 90% of everything was platforming or had major platforming elements, and the storylines and characters were so mind-numbingly shallow. I grew up with reading as my primary hobby, I need to have my imagination engaged to some degree. True, the mid-range games have taken a hit, but the rise of the downloadable game has helped a lot.
I'm pretty pleased, all things considered.
