Yup.
Audience changed, dramatically. Got made fun of badly for Star Wars, LotR, and video games as a kid. Now, that's all mainstream.... Played on old floppy disc systems (PC) and other old school games. Atari, NES, Sega, etc. It also somehow got "social" even though that's not really true, because multiplayer just.... Eh.
Economics changed. Used to outright buy a game, but now DLC, and licensed instead of owning.... Meh. Microtransactions. No thank you.
Graphics improved; gameplay is tired.
Generally, the sense of imagination is severely reduced and everything has become standardized (less special, less suck, more "the usual").
There are standouts like Dwarf Fortress, but really, people don't know about that. Meanwhile Sega is all but dead. Mario has been remade until I don't really recognize it anymore. Platforming is alive and well, except they call it "Parkour" and it's 3d like everything else.
The idea of virtual used to be different, because there was originality, experimentation (yes with some terrible results too), and the idea that you were special / a unique hero (which was important for outcasts). These days, you're on multi player looking basically like everyone else (with perhaps minor tweaks), on the same quests, crafting the same stuff (or grinding for it), and it's just different. Too many other people (who are often rude/racist/homophobic/sexist etc) just going through the motions while making things unpleasant.
I still often stick to single player for that reason.