I have to say I disagree with Jim here, by saying in response that just because something is popular does not mean that it isn't shit. He seems to be argueing that the popularity of "Angry Birds" equates to it being a good game.
In reality what "Angry Birds" is, is a below average game (though admittedly not quite to the shit level) that appeals to the lowest human denominator by being bright, colorful, and something that anyone can get their mind around. Overall it's a very derivitive game, that seems to have succeeded largely because of timing and it's format, than anything paticularly impressive about the game itself.
The reason why there is so much outcry by the so called "hardcore" crowd, and really I sort of mean your middle of the road gamers rather than the actual hardcore crowd (which I could write a huge essay on myself), is that the success of "Angry Birds" both encourages the casual market and more importantly the developers to cater to the casual market. After all, why should a company spend millions upon millions of dollars developing a really good game for serious gamers, when they can poop out a relatively cheap app and sell it to the casuals and make as much if not more money.
The problem is that your "hardcore" gamers and the middle of the road guys aren't stupid. At the same time things like "Angry Birds" are out there dominating we're seeing tons of companies deciding "we must develop in an increasingly casual direction!" and talking about how apps are the future. Between this and browser based social gaming like "Farmville" we're seeing the degeneration of gaming as a whole, granted things like this do not happen overnight.
The arguement that noone has to worry, because there are plenty of games coming out for the hardcore and regular gaming demographics, doesn't really apply because there are only so many developers and if you pay attention most of them are talking about shifting gears. Arguements about what we see right now hold little weight when looking at a landscape that is changing and will probably be far differant 10 years down the road. The issue isn't just that "Angry Birds" is a colorful, derivitive, casual game, but the simple issue that games are on the way to all games being something similar to "Angry Birds".
To be honest allowing for the differance in graphical technology "Angry Birds" seems like the type of game that you would have seen for something like an NES or Atari 2600/5200. Gaming had been becoming more advanced, as gamers demanded more, but now with the influx of casuals that's changing and we're seeing game degenerate back into the intellectual ghetto.
Things like "Angry Birds" fly in the face of what gaming could be, gaming has the abillity to uplift the users. A game is something someone should have to aspire to, and work at, improving themselves as they play the game so to speak. When you start having the games stoop down to a lower level to make more money... well that hurts everyone.
I'll also say that I have no real problem with the gaming industry making money, this is a case where one has to look at it going from making money and turning a decent profit, with a slow growth, to a giant cash grab with little or no regard for the people who made the industry what it is, or the repercussions in the future. The gaming industry needs to slow down, be happy with their billion dollar industry and expand slowly. This kind of casual cash grab is counter productive to what the industry can be.
What's funny is that I remember the old "Sega" commercials showing inbred retards of the most unlikely sort playing inferior consoles. Things like some fat dork smacking himself in the head with petrified roadkill so he could play his Gameboy "in color", and of course a family making the cast of mutants from "The Hills Have Eyes" seem refined on a couch drooling and having a great time. Once that was a joke in some "edgy" marketing, now that seems to an increasingly literal image of the target audience for the gaming industry.
This is what I think at any rate, and thanks to anyone who read this far.