Nicely put, sir. :)

I think it's because of popularity. Be it music, movies or now games, it seems like anytime something gets crazy popular, it gets dumbed down to cater to the largest audience - whether it needed to or not. The console was the means to cater to that large an audience due to it's price point. If gaming on the PC could have been as widespread, the same thing would have happened. So yes, consoles made it happen, but the root cause, as usual, is people.

Don't want to go into holy war, but do you really think that it is because of the consoles as a game devices?

Since everything is made for the console masses, games are nonstop cinematics & handholding. Seems like games used to assume the gamer was a little smarter than they do now. If Galaga is what I wanted, Dragon's Lair is what we're being given.

"Games have changed, and I guess I'm just not on board with where they're headed."

Could you elaborate that?