Most games are appealed to the "casual" gamer or to be "more accessible" which is why most changes are made in games or at least the most drastic one. Honestly even if the drastically changed games were a new series I wouldn't even give it a chance. Would end up being the cheap knock off of the original while having none of the appeal. The boxing analogy is more sad if anything, guess I'm not a massive fanboy of anything as if I noticed a series of mine was going down the drain I'd want nothing to do with new entries. I can still be a fan of older entries and such but no point in me sticking around for a game that has lost its way to me simply because I liked the older entries