Just to feel as though I added something to the conversation I guess I'll write how I feel about, "the dumbing down of video games".

Coming from the crowd that is in between a causal and serious gamer I can safely say that I don't think that things are all that bad in the video game industry, in fact I'd go so far as to say that I honestly believe its never been better. I know I'm just going to repeat what others have said, but one of the major reasons games are getting easier is because there are a far greater number of causal players now. Most of the players don't have the time, patience or interest to sit there and play a fairly challenging game. Most just want to sit done, unwind, and relax. Most players just aren't going to be able to play or beat games that are hard enough to you make break your controller or give you a brain tumor.

Another reason as others have said is that games a far better developed these days. Saving and checkpoints are a big example of this, during the SNES and Gensis era and below I've never beaten a game except fighting games, and one of the biggest reasons is that in order for me to beat a game I had to sit there for hours (I don't usually have that kind of patience), it also didn't help that I would die and than have to start completely over again. Now I can sit down for about an hour a day or so and save it when I get tired of playing and if I die all I have to do is load my game back up.

There is still games out there that are pretty damn hard in my opinion, of course I'm probably not as good as the average serious or hardcore gamer, but many games now do implement a difficulty setting (it would be nice if even more games did this). I see the game over screen a few times playing most of the Final Fantasy even X and that is of the easiest. I still die about once every ten minutes playing the diablo games. In most of action/adventure games I still die often (usually doing the obstacles), and in FPS especially online games I get my butt handed to on such a regular basis that the other players kill me just to get the easy kills and points.