Regarding Bethesda dumbing down, I've always thought that Bethesda games worked best when they finally realized that they sucked at making games with complex mechanics. The irony is that their simpler games (i.e. Skyrim) ends up having a hidden level of complexity to them rivaling the older titles, as can be seen in our Character Building and Tips and Tricks groups. I'm also not sure why you think it seems like more people are fans of the older, more complex stuff when more people have been buying the newer stuff.
Regarding culture dumbing down, the tendency is and always has been for the simpler stuff to dominate in terms of popularity while more complex works remain hidden in the underground. In today's world, we can watch CoD sell countless copies while complex games barely turn a profit on steam. In the 90s, simple platformers dominated the scene while pushing more complex stuff to the side. The pattern repeats itself elsewhere; Katy Perry songs are heard by millions while a variety of progressive and experimental acts are out performing to half empty bars.
As for myself, my entertainment preferences are across the board in terms of complexity, so I guess I don't have an inherent preference one way or the other. That being said, while I generally don't seek out complex entertainment specifically because it's complex, I do enjoy the complexity in certain forms of entertainment (e.g. Elder Scrolls lore wouldn't be as fun if everything was cut and dry).
Long story short, I don't think we're culturally dumbing down. I think that we've always been culturally dumbed down, and that cases of complex entertainment becoming popular are the exception rather than the norm.
Hello there!!, I am not yet sure if there has been a" dumbing" down of games in general, by Bethesda or anyone else for that matter, perhaps the word we are searching for is simplified, which tends to indicate that things have been dumbed down, my first open world RPG was Morrowind, followed closely by Oblivion, then Skyrim, then ES 6 (I can but hope).
Anyway Oblivion was much simpler than Morrowind, and of course Skyrim followed suit, I preferred Oblivion to Morrowind, and Skyrim to Oblivion, and still do because they were simpler to play, less complicated and of course you are correct, they have been dumbed down lol.
Does that mean that current games are designed for less intelligent people? no of course not, which brings me to my point are we the general gaming public more intelligent now? because we find these games easier to play than the previous generation? is it we that are dumbing up so to speak? if this is indeed the case where will it stop, will the producers of games continue to dumb down or are we at another evolutionary breakthrough, food for thought methinks