@LukeAlmighty i mean in some ways it is and in other ways it isn't. It depends a lot on whether you're aiming for a level of quality that's fixed at some point in time or one that's dependent on modern consumer expectations (which continue to go up over time), the genre of game, etc
@LukeAlmighty that desire for bigger/better/higher-fidelity/etc comes from 3 places:
1) consumer demand 2) desire for publisher/investor approval 3) the developers themselves
It's not as simple as "the man could just stop doing so many pushups" because the man's paycheck is partially dependent on showing he can do more pushups than last time.
(this only applies to AAA studios who are chasing dollars, but I assumed that's who your criticism was for anyway)
1) consumer demand
2) desire for publisher/investor approval
3) the developers themselves
It's not as simple as "the man could just stop doing so many pushups" because the man's paycheck is partially dependent on showing he can do more pushups than last time.
(this only applies to AAA studios who are chasing dollars, but I assumed that's who your criticism was for anyway)