I think we as a gamer culture place too much excitement and praise on the name of a game and not enough on the minds behind what makes that game so great, and it has contributed to this plague of sequelitis we've experienced this generation.

In movies, when I hear the announcement of Monsters University, it's not because it's a sequel to a great movie that I loved, it's because Pixar are making it. If Disney were to give production responsibilities of Monsters University to some random animation studio you can count me out.

To keep this in the realm of video games:
Bioshock 2 Announcment = :D
...not developed by Irrational = :(

Homefront 2 Announcement = :|
...developed by Crytek = :)

I think we as a culture need to modify how we communicate our excitement and deliver our praise.
Let's keep our 'Game of The Year' award, but instead of 'Best Action Game' and 'Best Multiplayer Experience', how about an 'Achievement in Writing Award 2011' presented to Amy Hennig (Uncharted 3).
Less spotlight on 'Most Anticipated Games of 2013' and more spotlight on 'Developers to Watch and what they're trying to accomplish in 2013'.
As opposed to a review stating, "_________ is the most beautiful game this year, with an equally impressive score", why not, "_________ and his team of incredible artists have built an amazing world to explore that's made even more enjoyable by composer _______'s atmospheric and emotional score. I cannot wait to see what this team creates next".

Let's build up more "named talent" in the industry. I'm not saying that every writer, artist, composer and their dog need to be placed on the same pedestal as the likes of Levine, Miyamoto, Chen, Blezinski and Spector. I just believe that by celebrating the talent behind the product, we'd be less likely to see sequel upon sequel thanks to more creative power given to the guys and girls in the blue collars and not the white, so to speak.