With the gaming industry shooting to over $13 billion in yearly sales, you would think a lack of playable material would be impossible. It seems as if new games are pouring out of every orifice that the publishers have. Along with those games are new technologies, and new hardware such as the Xbox 360 is set to debut later this year, with the PlayStation 3 and Revolution following shortly thereafter. PC hardware is blossoming also, with new specialized gaming hardware coming in time for the holiday season.

But despite all that, is the gaming industry really keeping up with the expectations of the gamers? Are we truly getting "bang for the buck," both literally and figuratively? Lately, articles and blogs about games being too hard or too easy are popping up all over the place. At the root of the problem may be something more simplistic, yet which will have a bigger impact.

Most of us have suffered through the experience of purchasing a game that just didn't deliver the experience that the box it came in promised. Even reviews these days sometimes miss portraying the real experience that you and/or your friends might get from any new game. All too often, the end experiences you get from modern games seem to be falling short of the target.

Flashy graphics and extreme sound sometime help a game provide a good return for the price paid. But still, unless the player can get involved at some level high in emotional feedback, or at least a distraction from everyday life, we often find ourselves feeling as if we wasted our money. That's especially true given the premium prices some games demand.

Gaming remains one of the most expensive entertainment vices on the planet. Movies, music and books, even trips to local amusement parks still require less output for the amount of return than games. So, why don't we get the results that so many of us look for on each purchase? Let's take a look at the reasons, and hope that game makers also come to understand them. If so, in the end, games will be able keep pace with increasingly expensive hardware in the future.