The point of my post is that the gaming industry, regardless of genre, is turning into a kind of industry that basically rewards lazy behavior.

What does entitlement have to do with this problem? Games are way to easy now, I agree but how are people that play easy games entitled?
I think this is the real problem. Companies like Activision and EA found their big money makers and now their afraid to let them go. Thats why you see the same CoD, or any other game you suggested, every year. Those make money so companies dont want to change the money maker and risk a decrease in profits. As for micro transactions, there just a way for those companies to maximize their profits. Nothing to do with entitlement.
Unless Im misunderstanding something here.

What if I spent three months earning the first horse in a game, and then a few days later I found out that 500 other players now had horses. But this was not due to a bug per se, this was because the game host decided that horses were cool and that players would pay real money for them. Again I describe this in Mona Lisa. Now horses are not cool anymore, and my equity has been destroyed. I'm upset! More importantly, I have now lost confidence in the game world and it's hosts because I know they will not protect my efforts. This is like calling the cops (the people you pay to protect you) and having them mug you when they arrive! I know this really happens in some parts of the world but you don't want it happening in your game space.

Thus all microtransactions that sell game content also destroy equity. This applies to anything normally GÇ£earnedGÇ¥ in a game, whether it is levels, items, abilities or titles.

When a game gets stale and the dev team puts out a new expansion, the addition of new things to earn gives new equity opportunities. This is a good thing. When that same expansion makes previously valuable content worthless, this destroys equity. If it took me 1000 hours to get the top sword in the game, and a new expansion comes out that gives you a better sword in 100 hours, I have just lost equity. While adding new content is usually a welcome change to a game, this dynamic can be treacherous and designers unaware of this can actually kill off their game with expansion content.

Another way we destroy equity in games is by putting resources in GÇ£tiersGÇ¥. If your GÇ£end gameGÇ¥ craftable items only use last tier components, then you have destroyed the equity of all lower tier resources by design. This makes players upset. This design was copied from Everquest into World of Warcraft and even into Guild Wars 2 ten years later despite the presence of an economist embedded in the design team.

Again, I don't blame you for feeling so entitled. It's not your fault. You fell for the trap that many of these companies setup just for you. I hope you realize the slavery of your life in this prison.

I think this is the real problem. Companies like Activision and EA found their big money makers and now their afraid to let them go. Thats why you see the same CoD, or any other game you suggested, every year. Those make money so companies dont want to change the money maker and risk a decrease in profits. As for micro transactions, there just a way for those companies to maximize their profits.
Unless Im misunderstanding something here.

Nice one OP, but that's what happens over time things change, the mentality for gaming has changed and the under 25-30 crowd nowadays have no idea what your talking about.

Games have gotten easier, the genres broader and more accessible, the game companies much larger and need to exploit wallets more. Plus common check out how popular COD is, and next time your out for a pint check how stupid kids are these days.

I'm reading quite a bit of pining for the good old days when the focus of gaming was a good campaign. Pining for days long past is not adapting. Its whimpering as you die and the gaming industry passes you by.