People like to pretend they have hands coming out of their shoulders, I guess.

because. they.are.fun.

I truly doubt that MGS4 is a FPS, but don't worry, I'm not against you, I actually enjoy FPS.  The problem is that they've invaded the market, and aren't allowing other potentially good genres to grow, innovate and excell.  They're acting right now as a giant clog blocking the creative flow of the videogame industry.  The same thing happened in the 90's with platformers.  There is only so far you can take a genre without exploring all it's capabilities.  I feel that the FPS genre is stuck, and should probably step out of the way for new ideas to shine through.

I know as soon as I played Goldeneye for my N64 I was hooked to deathmatch. That is when gaming went from a solo experience to a shared experience for me so as most people are saying. I think popularity comes from the huge social aspect of fps.

I agree... Except I got to like shooters after playing Quake 2 when i was 9 or somethin ;D

My question is why are we still playing the same old boring platformers of yesteryear?

I am so totally 100% agree with you, well said

Uhh i played FPS LOOOONG before Halo came out and it was MORE popular back then.
Counter strike remains my all time fav FPS game xD

First person shooters, which in reality are first person action games, are really not much more popular than their third person counterparts. For every successful Call of Duty and Halo I can show you a Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed. Really it's the conflict/violence that sells. From the light hearted jumping of Mario to the demon skewering in God of War, players like defeating enemies through violence. The majority of our gaming is predicated on this very narrow idea. This prototypical "core gamer" as everyone likes to refer to us as, are typically obsessed with games of this nature, and thus the cycle of developing games like this continues.