It might have been the increased volume of coverage the games industry was receiving. More and more magazines were hitting the stands, offering pretty much the same news and previews as every other publication did. The advent of the Internet made it even easier to get access to that coverage, and from such a deluge of sources -- both professional and amateur -- that there was no want for immediate gratification concerning whatever game one was most interested in.

Or it might simply have been that I was experiencing a kind of games-related burnout. By the late 90's I had already amassed a library of games that I wanted to play but couldn't afford to. As the years went on, that list of titles simply kept growing, and I couldn't keep up. I developed a means of being comfortable with simply reading about the new games coming out, experiencing them vicariously through the news and blogs and word of mouth of others.

To be fair, I am this way about a great many forms of entertainment. There are just too many books, movies, games, tv shows, and music constantly appearing on the scene for any one person to keep up with, so it takes something remarkable to make me sit up and take notice.

The point is this: I have passed my golden age, the period of time in which the allure and sparkle of video games held the most promise and delivered the greatest satisfaction. I'm still very into playing, and that will always be the case, but playing games is no longer the consuming passion for me that it once was. I can list on the fingers of one hand the games that I'm most excited to play that are coming out in the next few years, and I'm happy with that. I no longer feel the need to be playing the latest and greatest, and that's a comfortable position for me to inhabit.

I think most of us can look back through time and pinpoint a few games that were life-changing experiences. From discussions with friends and colleagues, the golden age does seem to coincide with a range of early years -- say, from 12 - 15, just to pick an example. Those years seem to contain the elements necessary for that perfect anticipation/satisfaction ratio -- free time, imagination, disposable income, greater access to people of like mind, relatively few similar experiences, etc. It's very likely that those games I might dismiss as being inferior to the "classic" games that I grew up with are the exact same games that others will claim as their everlasting favorites. It's all subjective, and it's nothing that can really be debated. Some things just hit you at the perfect time, and you never forget that.

When was your golden age? Are you still experiencing it? Do you feel yourself slipping into that jaded weariness that comes naturally with time? Is each new release still a cause of excitement? Whatever else you might do, don't worry. You will come to these states in your own time, and when you do, you won't mind it at all. After all, your favorites are still there for you, awaiting your replay. But can you go back?