I would like to start off my first blog ever by saying I love Giant Bomb. Err. Yeah 
           I'm a pretty big RPG gamer, to put that out there. And something has been changing in this genre, and is really irking me (vocab ftw!). The developers have been dumbing down all of the mechanics that make an RPG what it is. And it's getting to the point where they are only RPG's by name. However, for me to fully express my opinions on the subject of RPG's (and other games for that matter) dumbed-downed-ness, I must give you my (and the only) definition of an RPG. 
A Role Playing Game is a game where you create a character and you choose how he grows. Choice is the crux of all RPG's. Choice in the story, choice in the development of your character, and choices with consequences. While choice of story, and consequences have been working out fairly well, the growth of a character has not.  
          One of the more recent examples in the great game of Mass Effect 2. Anyone who has played the first game knows that it was a great one as well, although it was plagued with inventory and skill tree problems. I admit that they had problems in both of these areas, but they also had their strengths. The inventory system allowed much more choice than there was of that in Mass Effect 2. You were able to choose weapon and armor mods for your whole squad on the fly. It had its inventory management problems for sure, but Bioware completely did away with it. They also gave you much less skills to choose from. While this was not a major complaint with me, I liked having to choose which one of my companions would upgrade their warp ability, while I pushed to get singularity. 
          Now why did they do this? Well, it was problematic for sure, but the real reason is immersion. Developers are now creating works for this god that they call immersion. Immersion is not a bad thing at all, its a great thing, but it's how they try to achieve it that bothers me. They do it by cutting down patience and hard work. They want to get you right to the juicy and exciting parts.  
                I remember when it took time and hard work to achieve something in a game, that was great. I felt like I had to truly know my enemies and the world around me to be able to succeed. It may have had some downtime in doing this, but it was immersive. I had to read the books that the game gave to me, I had to listen to what people had to say, and sometimes, I would have to test it out. 
              Those were the good ol' days, back when I wasn't alive. I'm pretty young to be playing Morrowind and The Witcher, but they really opened my eyes.