I've noticed a lot of people on this site and others really love the 1990s for gaming. I understand the appeal of what hardware and software the 90s had to offer. It got me thinking if player's favorite decades in gaming were based on when they got into gaming.

I'll let you know my experience in this initial post. I don't recall playing any video games until GameCube and Game Boy Advance in Christmas 2003. By time Mario Kart 8 launched in 2014, I was just graduating high school. Around late 2014 is when I really started putting even more hours into gaming than I previously had, and especially from late 2017 to the present. 

The 2000s and 2010s are my favorite decades for gaming. I was child during the entirety of the 2000s, and I was a big kid/about to turn 18 for the first 4 years or so of the 2010s. I still love the 1990s for games, and there are a few gems in the 1980s. I've never really been able to get into the 1980s for gaming, though. And I don't think I'll ever really play anything from the 1970s, as it's almost entirely Atari 2600 games or old arcade games. 

Do any of you have the preference based on the decades you experienced first? 

No.

I grew up in the 1980s. In the early 80s, my primary gaming system was an Atari 8-bit, in the latter half, it was the NES and Game Boy.

As much as I loved the A8 and NES, the experiences to come on SNES, PlayStation, PS2, Gamecube, and now the Switch, were far more sublime. I was in my 20s throughout the 2000s. Loved the PS2 and GC.

Not really. I've started playing games around very end of 1970s, so most of my childhood gaming years were firmly in 80s. But, overall, the 90s are still my favourites, given how much full of new ideas they were, along with some older ideas maturing and being refined.

No. I am a 90s kid and it is okay. 2000s also okay. 2020s are the best for sure. The sheer amount of quality games is insane.

Started on atari 2600 and didn't even like gaming much. NES was next and I enjoyed it more. The SNES was my third exposure and that is when gaming clicked. The 90s is highly regarded because gaming matured quickly. Super metroid, link to the past, chrono trigger, RE, FFVII, etc were all big jumps in gaming.

My first console was a NES, then Gameboy Advance SP, then DS, then Wii, then 3DS, WiiU, Xbox One, and Switch.

I fell in love with gaming during the DS and Wii era, and it picked back up with the Switch.
DS and Wii because of Pokémon, Super Mario, Mario Kart, Wii Sports, and just enjoying playing with friends on the couch, and DS download play.
Switch because of Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, and Mario. It's been tougher to play with friends and I am personally against paying for online multiplayer.

I think they are, yes. I think it's because of the sense of discovery. I started with my sister's Famiclone and GB. But I was like 4-5 at that time, so I barely remember anything. But from 8 to 12, with the GBA and PS2 I began to realize what videogames could be in terms of more complex gameplay, music and story and what kind of games I liked to the most. Metroid, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, Jak&Daxter, Final Fantasy, Tekken, Golden Sun... All of those are the base where my passion from gaming comes from. And while I have evolved quite a bit in the last 20 years or so, I think that early stage will always be the most important and on of the ones where I had the most fun.

No. The first decade I experienced was the eighties, with the Commodore 64. It felt rudimentary even then, it was difficult to find any kind of depth in the simplistic games of the time and I remember yearning for something better. I loved the nineties, because it was the golden age of point and click adventures, a genre that is all but dead today.
Then again, I have had so many memorable experiences in the latest decades as well, that it's tough to pick a favorite time.

I was born in 84. The 2010s is easily my favorite decade. The production values, quality of story telling and variety of indie games is tops. I do like the 90s more than the 00s though.

My favorite era was 2000. GC, GBA, Wii and DS.
Played NES and SNES in the first half of the 90s and PC in the later half of the decade. I still play a lot of the games from that period and the first game I remember ever playing is my second favorite game ever, so there might be something about liking things more from the first gaming period one experiences.