Most of the problems we have today are signal to noise problems. The signal to noise ratio of nearly everything has gotten worse, but the raw numbers have gotte

Most of the problems we have today are signal to noise problems. The signal to noise ratio of nearly everything has gotten worse, but the raw numbers have gotten better. There is a huge market for people interested in very complex games, but that market is 1) already pretty saturated since there are already a good number of complex games available. This is to include all the old ones, (such as Civ 1-5, or whatever we're on currently) which are generally still fun to play. And, 2) Since the market for people who love complex games is a tiny fraction of the (now enormous) general gaming market, it can feel quite futile. In fact, I suspect that gaming in the 80s on PC was so niche, that the percentage of people who could learn a Civ type game was much higher than it could possibly be now. Especially if you consider smart phone games. Further, this is just true in general. People say "games are so bad now," when what they probably mean is "per capita, most games are terrible because the market is so huge." However, there are more and better games available today than in any time in history. Again, this is true because for the most part all the old games remain available. You could extend this to almost any kind of media: books, movies, TV, music. There is simply MORE of everything, and so the mainstream center-curve feels more estranged.