I agree, but maybe it was just the sudden gameplay paradigm shift. I remember when Wolfenstein3D came out and I thought it looked cool enough, then Doom, then the rest... all first person shooters. It was enough of a jolt that I lost my kid fascination with games as story-telling and started just seeing them just as toys to pick up every once and awhile.

I'm not saying that era was the end-all-be-all of gaming, just when the "magic" was lost for me.