A lot of well-written, high-budget games are detested by the gaming community because the themes or conclusions the game centers on are anathema to them. Final

A lot of well-written, high-budget games are detested by the gaming community because the themes or conclusions the game centers on are anathema to them. Final Fantasy XVI and Bioshock: Infinite come to mind. Many developers correctly ascertain that focusing on the quality of the writing is a waste of time and effort if they're not targeting a particular audience, rather than aiming for sales in the multi-millions. Good writing is often challenging, and pairing that intellectual challenge with the tactical/strategic/visceral challenge of gameplay can be overwhelming. Spec Ops: The Line is a good example of this: players work their way through a grueling gauntlet only to be asked to deeply question their efforts, and even their enjoyment of the game itself. You just expended a massive amount of effort to do what the game told you to do, and now the game is telling you, the player, off for it. If art is a matter of curation of experience, then such an approach is maximalism that's bound to turn some off.