The evolution of gaming parallels the evolution of media in general. Everything is naturally moving from low-tech to high-tech. As a result, low-tech solutions are being replaced by high-tech ones. The unfortunate result of this shift is that media is now becoming based on high-tech solutions to the exclusion of everything else. In fact, many games and movies are simply part of a 'tech race' to see who can put out the most impressive new high-tech production. All the other stuff that used to be important falls to the wayside as sensory stimulus, the main thing that technology offers, takes the limelight, meaning all the intuitive functions of media (ie. story, gameplay) fall to the wayside.

From a marketting perspective this makes sense, because the majority of people are Sensory types (73% according to MBTI testing), meaning a lowly 27% of the world population is Intuitive. Meaning, 73% of the world cares more about graphics than plot. That explains why a movie like Avatar, which is visually impressive but has such a cliche story line that it made me want to cry, was a box office smash. With the pace of society increasing and sensory stimuli getting more and more prolific, I'd expect that more and more people would develop into sensory types at a young age, even if they were born with a natural inclination towards being an Intuitive, meaning that this trend will only accelerate.

Us intuitives have to understand that we are a minority. The longing that we feel for the 'good old days' of gaming where the intuitives dominated the market place are gone and to find truly inspired games we have to either look to the past or look to the fringes. Or we could give up on this now sensory dominated field and go to a purely intuitive one, such as literature.

As a programmer I'm choosing to step up to the challenge of straddling both modes of perception, catering to the sensory and the intuitive by developing fun, engaging and creative games with meaning and depth while working with top artists to add visual greatness. So far I haven't succeeded, but I haven't given up hope!