The importance, or focus, of many new games is not the system, however. This is an assumption based on the evidence that so many of the newer systems are so slipshod and slapdash while the worlds so well defined. It could be that system design may have been more of a priority than I guess, the designers just performed poorly. In either case, the end result is a world rich in flavor without a system to properly support it. Now we all know systems are important.
Systems are the backbone of a game.
They're put in place to help hold everything else up. The idea behind systems was to instill a reasonable degree of fair-play within a game. Systems are fun to tweak and fiddle with, to bring out the most desired results. Every gaming group I've run across uses 'house rules' with their games. In fact, most gamers design at least one in the course of their gaming life.