I thought you guys meant "GOTG" as "GOAT" for some reason. I guess it is a lot easier to only look at a single generation, but still very difficult for me. I have a lot of fun doing one year at a time, but I'm not too willing to go beyond that, maybe outside some genre discussion.
I don't know how you or other people use it, but I guess what I mean with the terms is games with niche appeal that gain a strong following for their unique qualities and strong ideas.
Niche is entirely relative, both in terms of size and location (see: Monster Hunter vs. Dark Souls), and says very little about the game itself. The way you define it makes it all too easy for almost foreign game (to America) with some fanbase (and absent localization) to be a cult status game. The way I use cult appeal (as opposed to "cult game" or "cult status") is a little different and more concerned with a conflict within an audience's consensus (which I imagine doesn't exclude "AAA" games, seeing how Resident Evil 6 is probably considered one), but in any case, has fuck all to do with a series' "pipeline".
and my original point was that I feel Dark Souls has reached that point., and now sort of exists as a franchise because there are alot of people willing to spend money on it
I, on the other hand, think both Demon's/Dark Souls have a lot of room to improve merely looking at how they are executed. Both games are unbalanced messes (in and out of PvP) with a bunch of ideas that didn't work out so well (e.g., world tendency, covenants, various bosses). Dark Souls II promises to make improvements in these areas with entirely new encounters, which would be a good outcome. But as you say, is it "far" enough?
I think prioritizing how "far" these changes go above what they are to the point that you do not value small changes (which is funny when we are calling a game with entirely new content and major system changes "small", but its all relative I suppose) is very much a case where novelty have taken over quality. I've spoken about this before in detail before, but to make it short, it is the reversal of values: We once praised the new because it brought us great things, now we praise things as great for they are new (the sensation of "new" media becomes a fetish). It's large ("bigger"/"better") steps ("creation") vs. small steps (evolution), a world that worked in the former would be prettier and feel more important ("artistically", which amounts to saying
miraculously) but the latter is the much more realistic, healthy way of thinking.
People (who are fans) will likely be satisfied with Dark Souls II (and III...), because Dark Souls to them is just a verb, something you do in life (until you get a better version). Like playing basketball, eating meat, or having sex, they don't just get bored of the idea of it because what compelled them towards it wasn't based on how new it was. This isn't even about Dark Souls, it is about the type of game it is, if not videogames in general, if not art in general, where Dark Souls just happens to reign until its offspring or competitors steals hearts and minds. Sure, there will be the sentiment that tries to make videogames seem more miraculous, but I think that is a twisted dead end and "fans" who resist it shouldn't be looked down upon even if they don't know why they like the games they do.
Really easy to see how everything I'm saying here applies to fighting games.
More or less. I don't think Dark Souls 2 is being made because From had alot more ideas they weren't able to put into DeS and DS1, but because there is alot of money to be made on a sequel so Bamco is willing to give them alot of money to make a bigger version of the same game.
You are ignoring the ideas that could only happen after Dark Souls was made (which had ideas that could only exist after Demon's Souls was made, which had ideas that could only exist after perhaps Ocarina of Time, Monster Hunter, King's Field IV, etc. was made). Moreover, trying to make money doing what you love, and I just know these guys are passionate about what they do, is one of the best inspirations for
new improved ideas.
