Relying on Ellen's Game of Games, a good-natured show that isn't so much about humiliation as people playing along and having a good time, to paint with such a broad is a bit misleading. Pyramid, Match Game (though less about the game and more about the celebrity comedy just as it always was), presumably Card Sharks & Press Your Luck, Wheel of Fortune, Deal or No Deal, The Wall, Beat Shazam...they're not reliant upon humiliating players. Ellen's show seems a bit more of a souped up descendant of the Beat the Clock era. And they're all game shows by any reasonable definition.
Yes, graphics and tech matter today. They mattered before, but technology and expectations have evolved. That's true across many forms of entertainment, and isn't some great commentary on society "dumbing down." Set aside games for a moment--let's not pretend shows like "My Mother the Car" back in day were intellectual masterpieces. (Meanwhile, Masterpiece on PBS continues--it wasn't that long ago people were gaga for Downton Abbey, while HBO's Game of Thrones is a dense and skillfully written/produced, and arguably cerebral, show that is hardly "dumb.")
