Look, I can totally appreciate what you are saying about the fact that the industry shouldn't be driven by money, but you are way off blaming the developers for it.
Most of the game developers I know DO have a passion for making great games. But if they are doing it full-time, they have to get paid for it. That's not called greed, it's called feeding and providing for your family. To get the money, they usually have to go to a publisher, whom they then have to convince to give them enough money to pay their salaries for the next 2 or so years. The publisher stands a pretty good chance of not seeing a return on their investment and possibly even losing money (only a small percentage of games are profitable), so the developer has to do whatever they can to convince the publisher that they are worth the investment. They can't just say, "This is going to be a great game because we just LOVE making games, and everyone says they will buy our games because they know how much we LOVE games." (Actually, that might work for a few publishers, but most are going to want more than that to be willing to gamble the millions that games cost now). They need to convince the publisher that they are professional, serious, and comitted. The original poster was just asking for advice on how to do exactly that; I don't see anything in his post to indicate that he is just in it for the money.
You seem to think that if people are businesslike about making games, they must not love it. Talk about a crock! There is no reason that people can't both be passionate about making games and yet smart enough to know that if they want to keep doing what they love, they'd better make a profit too.
Also false is the claim that game developers are in it to make a quick buck. First of all, there is nothing quick about the development of most (notice I said "most") games, and often, game developers will make a game that is a clone of or sequel to a popular game in order to be able to secure funding for games they really want to make.
Another thing, pretty much everytime I've seen someone mention that game developers are underpaid and underappreciated, someone responds with "Oh yeah? What about Carmack/Romero/Sweeney/Garriott/Meier/etc.?" Look, not every game developer drives a Ferrari, and not every game developer has gaming sites practically worship them. The ones in that category make up a tiny minority. Most game developers will never get public recognition for their work (case in point: Can you name even one of the programmers of Starcraft off the top of your head? If you can, you're rare), and most of them make less than they could in a typical programming job, and they work many more hours to boot. So why do they do it? Obviously not greed. Hmm... what could it be?... Oh, I know...
It's because they love doing it.
They take pride in it. They get satisfaction out of making something cool.
The lion's share of the money from games goes to the retailers and publishers, not to the developers, so don't accuse them of being money hungry.
Finally, if gamers aren't happy with the types of games being made, they need look no farther than the mirror to place blame. As Geoff has said elsewhere, the game industry is a democracy, and you vote with your money. If you don't want developers to continue to make the same kinds of games, stop buying the same kinds of games. When a publisher is sitting there listening to a developer pitch their game, they are going to be asking themselves whether or not people are going to buy the game, and they will answer that question based on how similar games have done. Some few will be willing to take a risk on an original game idea, but until gamers make it clear that that's what they want, most of them are going to stick with what they think is safe.
And by the way, original games ARE being made, as they always have. You just don't usually hear about them because not enough people buy them.
