Last gen was so much fun because everyone was winning and everyone was losing. It made for some great discussions and it pushed everyone to make better products or be left behind.

Sony was offering free online, added trophies, and had price cut after price cut to overtake the Xbox 360. They created PS Move to get some of that sweet casual gamer money. They started giving away free* games with PS+ subscriptions and really stepped up their first party offerings.

Microsoft was adding feature on top of feature trying to stay ahead only for Sony to offer the same content soon after. They would offer a better version of their hardware to give gamers the same features that the PS4 had. They did all they could to get exclusive content (albeit temporarily) to give them the edge over Sony.

Nintendo was selling like crazy and dominating the "casual"market. They had a ton of third party support and released the phenomenal Wii Music onto the world.

The battle for the portable market was great as well. The PSP and DS both were must own hardware.

Now, the picture is much different. The PS4 can do no wrong. The 3DS handily stomped the PS Vita. Xbox is struggling for relevance. The WiiU died a sad slow death. The Switch has set the world on fire, though. More than anything, the discussion has become stagnant.

Iron sharpens iron. When the PS3 was behind, we got the best of Sony and Microsoft. Now it just doesn't have the same punch. I like a good fight. I miss the "good ol days".

Yes, I want everyone to succeed

I'd have much preferred a closer fight, but not too close. Just close enough that everyone can healthily support their consoles without fear of dying (like the state of the Vita).

But I prefer when Sony is in the lead than when say Microsoft or Nintendo are. I've never been really big on Nintendo franchises so I don't care too much if they lead, and when Microsoft leads with anything, they start to pull some stupid shit. Not that Sony doesn't, but it's the devil I know quite frankly.

The only thing I want is for most every game I want to be on my platform of choice - the Playstation series of consoles.

PS2-style domination would be ideal. I knew that other consoles existed, and at that point, I didn't care the smallest bit.
Less hardware, more games, please.

You know... I do... but I don't know how much it would affect Sony. Even if they had more competition, a lot of their devs for one reason or another could not handle puttibg out a gamd in 2013 - 2016. Three years of very little big exclusives. Im not sure how much that would change with more competition. Probably not much. It might just mean Naughty Dog and Guerilla rushing UC4 and HZD. Which would suck. So ultimately yes I would like that... but it wouldnt affect my console of choice much.

I see a lot of effort from Microsoft in order to catch up with Sony, they try to make more services... and they also update the dashboard a lot. Just not sure about this Xbox X thing.

Sony is not so comfortable as well. They have their share of defects, but the good and old AAAs just keep coming. +PS VR.

And Nintendo just released the Switch with brand new content and the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4 is in development.

To sum it up, I think it's a matter of perspective.

I miss the "good ol days" too, except last gen. Too many samey brown shooters then, now there's much more variety, even in the shooter genre. There's better and more colorful games now too, with better fps.

Once MS shipped Alan Wake and introduced Project Natal, it went downhill for them. Nintendo needs more risky games, too reliant on their big names.

Tbh the industry would be better if both MS and Nintendo were more like Sony. MS need to care much more about their 1st party, and Nintendo needs to care more about hardware and online platform.

Then PS4 is a runaway success... and suddenly theres JRPGs again.
basically, I think gens are better when sony is winning, it "seemingly" effects what sort of games we get.

If you win by a landslide or are winning by a landslide's easy to get arrogant and complacent.

SEGA and Nintendo kept one another on their toes and that console gen is still regarded as the best console war ever. Look at WWF vs WCW. WCW creates NWO and has a more adult look to WWF more family friendly program. This forces WWF to create the Attitude era. To this day regarded as some of the most entertaining stuff WWE ever did. WCW goes out of business and for more than a decade no one has come close to challenging them. They have been so complacent. PPV numbers dropped off and live crowds not showing up nearly as much and ratings setting record lows last I checked a couple years ago.  We need Xbox and Nintendo and Sony to keep one another on their toes to strive to be better. When Sony says fuck anyone who wants cross platform play. They are saying we are No 1, what can you do about it? Nintendo got arrogant after SNES and Wii. Sony did after PS2. What happened next was a disaster. 

The entire reason why last gen was so controversial on vgc is because both the xbox side and the ps side were claiming theirs to be the better company. This is pretty much fact, and I could write an essay on it if you'd like, but i could also save my time if people just accept this assumption. 

A lot of discussion centered around "moves", what certain games meant for the playerbase, what deals would mean in the long run. The long and short of it is that half the discussion was about who would win the current gen, and the other half was about who would win the next gen. These two header topics then broke down into game preferences, features, first party development, etc etc.

IIRC most of the time, the discussion would occur around MS doing something, sony fans deriding the company decisions, or deriding the player base, and then vice versa. Near the end of the gen, there was a lot of talk about kinect and MS' overall strategy. Most criticism was directed at their choice to appeal to non-gamers, focus on home theater, and sequelitis. While the criticism at Sony was directed toward corporate chaos, mismanagement, and uninspired first party games.

To boil it all down, sony fans thought MS was an anti-consumer evil empire who didn't really understand gaming. MS fans thought sony was just a trash company, with bad leadership, and poor gaming options. In the end, at least to me, it looked like MS verified it's own criticism, and sony fixed theirs. This is what later would result in this current gen difference.

Nintendo fans just laughed at both.