but what I really think happened is that in the last ten to fifteen years, games started looking so good we no longer needed to engage our imaginations the way we used to.

I totally agree with this sentiment. I think you and I are a similar age because I recall when the story was sometimes absolutely paramount to making a good game. With limited space on carts they couldn't just bog the game down with massive cinematics, there needed to be a really compelling story especially in RPG's. When I think about early Final Fantasy games or Phantasy Star games, they really had to hook you with a good story because they couldn't possibly blow you away with stellar graphics because it wasn't possible. These days, I think a lot of studios try to wow us with realistic graphics without putting much into whether or not the game is actually going to be fun. I am turned off by many modern titles because of things like this and also massive load times because we've basically got to load a damn movie just to introduce you to a new area.