Rampant Games - Are Games Becoming More Passive?

Don't all shout "Yes!" at once...the Rampant Coyote (following up on Gareth Fouche) asks if games are moving more towards appeasing that part of the brain that likes passively watching TV:

Gareth Fouche, creator of the Scars of War RPG in development, recently ranted a bit against a trend that may sum up the situation a little better: a trend towards what he calls passive engagement. It’s maybe not quite the same as passive entertainment, like watching a TV show, but more like reading a book. To extend his analogy, a TV show will progress with no action whatsoever on the part of the viewer – I can fall asleep in front of the tube if I want. But a book does require active effort on the part of the reader.

So there are levels of passivity, and reading a book isn’t really all that passive. Modern games, he contends, are tending to engage the player on more passive levels.