They do the mistake of trying to make games more and more like film, while we still do not fully comprehend what a video game is, and how the artform works.
I think that games, in a bigger extent than films require an "active imagination" as well as interactivity. "Gameyness" is a diffuse, relatively unexplored and diverse quality often forgotten, but obviously very important for the cRPG devs.
Imo warband/crpg still has the edge of being the best 120+ people on a map "fighting game" available. If similar amount of talent and resources backing big games today was controlled by people focusing on gameyness we would see much much better games. Imagine Warband/cRPG with a 50mill $$$$ budget..
Of course the graphics would be better, but also the netcode, the amount and choice of moves, the balance, the maps. Everything.
I don't know why they don't make better games, but I suspect they are influenced by narrow minded producers (and players) who want to see "money shots". There is also a problem of marketing, as non-interactive moving images and stills is the easiest way to quickly present the players what the game is about.
You cannot make an interactive commercial that also is the game, that also takes 30 seconds. Or a cool poster that is the game. There is no good way of conveying the experience of playing the game, without playing the game.
Also, of course, big games costs a lot of moneys, and must make that money back, just like big films. Big films are often stupid for the same reasons.. They have to be made to hit a large market which is mostly teenaged boys.
Just some reasons why we see so much stupidity in big games today.. :-)
