It's possible to make a good game with a message, but it's like politics - the only people who want to do it shouldn't be allowed to. So they tend to come out very lecturing (Braid, text adventures) or be low-effort (that one platformer that just has rectangles that teach you about friendship).

Western AAA studios also seem to get lazy about everything somehow, like Bioware's games where all the romances are carefully diverse and bisexual, but also are just giving someone presents until they suddenly love you.

Japan is doing well with "intellectual AAA" lately (NieR, Persona 2/3/5).

Have you actually played Thomas Was Alone? It's an excellent game in its own right, as is Braid. "Simple graphics = poor game design" is another gaming meme that's pretty toxic.

Played it once, some time ago. I think using rectangles is acceptable, but you could go more places with it, and a platformer is not a very interesting game.

Here's a similar better game from 1989: http://fools-errand.com/04-3T/index.htm

See, I love platformers. You don't like them, and that's fine, but your preferences are not objective truth. It seems like you're doing the same thing as ungzd, just in a more highbrow fashion and with genre instead of subject matter.

Thomas Was Alone is on the same level of expression as tumblr pics of Mona Lisa with cat face. But the difference is that Thomas Was Alone creators are confident that they've created Masterpiece Of Serious Museum-Grade Art. Just by reskinning Lode Runner with filled rectangles.

Interesting that you accuse Braid of lecturing. Beyond the basic plot of the game, any further meaning that Blow might have meant was fairly opaque and not forced on the player in any way (I certainly didn't see any deeper meaning on my own).