It's very difficult to recapture the magic and amazement you feel about games when you're young. And "young" can be 15, 17... whatever age you would still call yourself impressionable.
I was just talking with a friend about our old gaming experiences. As I was telling him about Final Fantasy VII, my mind flashed back. I could remember how awesome it was to be playing a Pokemon-like game (the only RPG I'd played at that point) and how engaging the storyline was. We had real characters in a dismal setting who were fighting the president of a corrupt corporation... and suddenly everything changed! You can't get back to something like that, no matter how new and fresh the gaming experience. It's our own personal ennui: "Oh, there's our character. He's gonna have angst... oh crap, here they go again, talking for hours on end." When I played FFVII I lived for the dialogue and story development. I still love the story, but I'm more likely to tune in and out and skip stuff nowadays, largely for time's sake.