Magic and Magic. Classic RPGs and their legacy.

I miss Might and Magic.
I miss Wizardry and Ultima.

These are the games that got me interested in gaming.
My very first RPG was Might and Magic on the Commodore 64.
I was four and I watched my mum play and drew her maps as she explored.
She helped me create my own character disk and create a party.
A week later, my little level 2 adventurers were running around in uber gear I stole from her characters. ^_^

These game are archaic, with little story to speak of, and nothing resembling character development, but there's a strong appeal in creating an entire party and exploring the world.

I miss the complex spell-lists.
I miss turn-based combat.

It feels like a lot of modern games devote so much effort to graphics and storytelling that the gameplay gets 'streamlined' and 'optimized', but it just feels like there's less meat there.

I miss mapping out levels on graph paper, because there was no other option.
I miss having to keep a physical journal for quests.

I played Might and Magic on the NES, and even though I'm more from the school of later console RP Gs, it had a feel to it that more modern games rarely accomplish. The world was big, open and—a rarity still in this day and age—actually had interesting things to find in every nook and cranny. No sector of the map was without some unique landmark.

I actually had an old monochrome laptop I would cart around to play Wizardry on, it was so addictive. and again, this was AFTER I had played Final Fantasy VII, and with no pre-existing experience with the franchise. The game is just so fun you don't mind such things.

I think this line and the emoticon sum up the entire difference between your generation of gamers (I'm a bit younger than than, I think) and that of today. The entire notion of working for your fun/progress/both and having to expend a ton of Real Life effort on what is essentially a pastime has been left in the dust by most of the industry as the current philosophy is that games should strive to pile on the Crazy Awesome often and on demand.

I think the old ways are coming back, though, and even if they are not there are quite a few indie developers carrying the torch with similar small teams and limited resources to those that produced the classics. You can find yesterday today, if you know where to look.

I never managed to get into the first two Might and Magic games. The third game is quite tricky, but it works. But the fourth and the fifth games are really a lot of fun and I think they are the best in the entire series.

While I like oldschool RPGs, I don't really "miss" them. Maybe because I rarely make any progress in them. Also, while I don't mind having to draw maps and take notes myself, I do mind having to waste actual paper for them, which I may misplace and not find again. Etrian Odysee had the right idea.