I agree, it is strange.
I was playing Majora's Mask a few nights ago, and my wife talked about how painful it was to look at the game. She even went so far as to say that it was like looking at the Frogger game (forgot the title) on PS2. It is obviously a dated title, but that does not change the fun factor at all. She could not see past how dated the graphics were, so that automatically made the game unplayable for her. Then again, her gaming experiences started during the PS2-era, so anything prior to that is strange for her.
On the other hand, I have been playing, honestly, since I was old enough to talk. My parents had me playing Mario on NES and Asteroids on Atari 2600 before I was a toddler, so I am in a similar place as you. Gaming has been a hobby for my entire life. Christmas was always Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Final Fantasy, or Castlevania for me when I was a child and teenager. My dad bought me a PS Plus card and another PS3 controller this past Christmas, actually. I guess gaming is just what we decide to make of it. Some people only want to see pretty things, which can be nice sometimes, but others want to experience something outside of the norm. I'm part of the latter party.
Here's where it gets crazy.
So Square Enix gets flack for making games look great, but they don't have the "charm" of a Final Fantasy. They got so worked up on graphics that they left gameplay behind.
Square Enix does a port to Final Fantasy VII, to PS4, and people flip the fuck out because the game doesn't look good enough. It needs to be remade completely and rereleased for $60 and take up 100GB of your Hard Drive because it's their favorite Final Fantasy game.
Me personally I can't play FF7 on the PS1. I didn't like the graphics back then (I really didn't like the N64 much at all I skipped that one) but I love games like Race the Sun, Woah Dave, Final Fantasy 9 is my favorite non MMO Final Fantasy, but I can still play 1 and 2, and those. I just don't because I don't make time for them. I played the hell out of Dragon Fantasy Book 1.
The whole PC Master race kinda changes things. Lots of older gamers, but they spent a lot on their PCs and they want to see see the best possible graphics out of it, and they say "Oh Console games will never look as good as PC games" so they contribute to that.
I love Soul Reaver 1 on Dreamcast don't really care much for it on PS1 because I think companies should have stuck with sprite graphics back then if they can't pull off a Mario.
It all just pingpongs back and fourth. It's not really a generational gap, it's sort of... IGN scored Disgaea 3 on PS3 the lowest of all the Disgaeas including the Vita version because pixel graphics on HD T.V.s but it was fine for them at 5 inches.
I think at the end of the day it's basically sort of like music. Some people can only listen to 80s metal. Some love Jazz, some love Death Metal, some love Hip-Hop and hate Gangsta Rap some only listen to club hits and some can listen to almost any genre.
I think everyone just has their taste and I think it's too generic to just say "Oh it's the new generation." I mean a lot of these "new generation" kids are going absolutely crazy over Nidhogg and Minecraft and some are modding Minecraft to make the textures way higher res or buying the higher graphical packs.
A lot of older gamers dis minecraft for it's graphics, including people who play older titles, even though Minecraft looks way better with different texture packages or mods. I think it's a case by case scenario. I think it's gut reactions. I think if you sit them down with Sports Friends and some sodas/beers (depending on age) they'll have just as much fun as the older generations. I personally couldn't stand Windwaker because of the art direction, not so much the graphical quality. I loved Okami on PS2, but the HD Version looks a bit off, maybe I just need to adjust but it bugs me a bit.
