Many of the popular games that are being played right now I don't have access to, so many of the game trends that people talk about are outside my own experience. The reason why I wanted to post here, though, was that I found I like many different genres of games, and I rotate between the genres throughout a given year. This helps me keep things fresh when I feel like you do, about things getting a little stale. For example, I played a lot of FPS games earlier this year and I made a few blogs about them here on Giant Bomb. Then I played a lot of Tokyo Mirage Sessions in June, so count JRPG on my list too. I've also dabbled a little lately in some strategy and simulation games, like the original Age of Empires from 1997 and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Now I'm finding I'm in the mood to play an action game like Uncharted 3. All of this is to say that gaming trends used to be my thing because I could spend money to participate in them. Now that I don't have a lot of money to spend, I tend to take my time and pick fewer choices throughout a given year. By the time I get around to a game now, that whole zeitgeist thing is over, and I just play a game for however long I find it interesting to play.
I used to study Cable TV programming when I was doing undergraduate work. The main deal about cable TV is that people still watch it. Just ask the people over at HGTV and the success they're having with the Property Brothers program. The internet has expanded the cable TV model over the broadband networks, but without some of the restrictions. A lot of talented writers and actors are finding success on internet programming, and I believe the the internet success feeds into the cable TV success, because actors and actresses cross over, like TV stars becoming movie stars (Michael J. Fox, for example). I like your analogy because it brings into the forefront of why syndication is still a big deal and why shows like Walker Texas Ranger, Blue Bloods, and In the Heat of the Night (to name a few) are able to make the ratings in primetime programming (or have in the past) to keep the shows in production.
This is a good topic to bring up. So thanks for doing so.
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