The current decade is always the best decade for gaming.
- there is access to more great games than ever before (most old games are still playable)
- you can play many older games in much higher quality settings (fps, resolution, effects, textures, path tracing...)
- you can play many older games on handhelds which wasn't possible in the past

I voted 90s, but could just as easily have chosen 80s. That's all nostalgia though. In reality, gaming continues to get better in just about all respects. So, the more objective choice would be 2020s.

There is more choice in games, more ways to access those games, and it costs much less (in inflation adjusted currency) to be a gamer today than it ever has before.

Plus, the old stuff is (almost) all still available and playable. There are even more ways to access many of those old games too.

Imagine having online gaming in 90s lol that would have been insane as a kid growing up. Playing streets of rage 2, mario kart, street fighter 2 and mortal kombat online. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug.

Online gaming existed in the 90s. Even games officially supported it on SNES and Genesis from Capcom with Xband, You could play Street Fighter II online tho it was on like a 14k modem lol. Streaming was a thing back then as well with Sega Channel and Nintendo's Satellaview. PC games had online and Saturn and Dreamcast were online capable. N64 had DLC with the Mario Paint games on N64DD. Xband worked with Super Mario Kart as well. Quite a few games.

I didn't even know it existed but for the average gamer almost impossible to get a good experience since we we're kids back then and poor. It was a really exclusive club

2000's has a strong case:

- The PlayStation 2 had one of the best catalogs of all time
- The Xbox 360 was Microsoft at their peak
- Nintendo had the DS & Wii, both of which had incredible libraries, and unique capabilities
- The PlayStation 3 had so many great games despite its slow start and hardware difficulties
- Microsoft ushered in online multiplayer which is a huge part of the industry today

It's a tough call for me but I have to go with the 90s as well.

Firstly, the sheer number of instant classic masterpieces is off the charts. In just ten years we got Mario World, Mario 64, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy 4/5/6/7/8, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Doom, Half Life, the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Metal Gear Solid, the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro trilogies, Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy, Goldeneye 007, Banjo Kazooie, Pokemon RGB, Resident Evil 1 and 2, Age of Empires 1 and 2, Yoshi's Island, and that's just scratching the surface.

Secondly, the degree of innovation and the pace of technological progress was insane. In the course of the decade, we went from the NES and Megadrive to the Dreamcast, from Mario Bros 3 to Soul Calibur. Every few months, some new game came out that was unlike anything ever seen before, and there were multiple games in some individual years that changed the face of gaming forever.

And the games weren't just amazing for their time either; even now three decades on I still often revisit many games from the 1990s and they are still fantastic all these years later. I must have replayed some of them over a hundred times, and I doubt I'll ever get tired of them.

Truly the golden age of gaming.

It would have ruined the experience of going over to a friend's house one day, friends coming over to your house the next day to play games together. My kids just play online with their friends and only actually see them when they go to the park or come over to swim.

It was great. One of my close friends had C64 and later Amiga 500. I had MSX and PC. Other friends had PCs as well and we actually ended up coding some stuff for the demo scene. We always carried floppies with us to exchange games and mods. Plus pulling all nighters playing Civilization together. Dune 2 was a big one as well which I made a level editor for so we could keep on adding different scenarios. I would make the scenario, then watch my friend play it and help him out. Golden Axe, Fire Power, Super Offroad Racer were our biggest favorites for local multiplayer. Games were a lot easier to just jump in and play than they are today. And trying to figure something out together was much better than googling it :/ Asking the neighbors if they knew what do to at certain points in Police Quest, that just doesn't happen anymore.

But we did actually have online gaming. I played Flight Simulator together with a friend through dial-up. We only did it once though as it's just more fun to play together than communicating through text. Voice wasn't an option since the landline was already in use! In the 90s we used to play together at work in LAN at the end of the day. Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, HL Death match, Age of Empires 2 (we got in to work in the weekend to play that). It was the golden age for playing together. Online ruined it all!

But the excitement when Doom and Descent came out. That was unbelievable. Friends calling at night, you got to come over to see this. Full 3D, 6 DOF, that was unheard of. And sure you can still play those games today, but you don't get those seismic shifts in gaming anymore. The magic of seeing Mario 64 in a demo kiosk, Wave race 64. We brought Dreamcast and N64 to work to play in the break room together. 4 player split screen Re-Volt crowding around a 14 inch tv, it worked, magical!

That magic isn't lost, I had my kids and their friends playing 4 player split-screen Terraria on my projector. The level of excitement was contagious and the parents had the biggest trouble getting their kids to come out lol. But it's just easier to play online so that's what they do.

I basically had like 2 friends and I was much better at street fighter 2 turbo and mortal kombat I played with my brother for a little and beat him as well. We would play beatem ups for 2-3 hours finish and never play it again lol. Online gaming would have took over my life as kid lol

Objectively or personally?

Objectively speaking, probably the 1980s, since that's where the industry established itself in a stable manner. 1987 to 1997 would be a more accurate picture, just as the NES was establishing itself to when the PSX was establishing itself.

Personally speaking, no opinion - too many important things from each decade.

I wasn't alive in the 1970s, so I can't speak to it.