That's true, games back then were all about adrenaline rush, moving from room to room engaging in one epic battle after another.  Nowadays, there is "plot" in between the engagements to help add to the "story".  I blame Half-Life*.  Still, I should admit that Duke 3D is still my favorite game. (oooohhh I feel a new thread coming on!)

*  Note, I still enjoyed HL

Yea me and my brother blame halflife for this change as well but even Halflife feels more faster paced than these new shooters. I tried The Conduit cuz it was recommended to me and boy was I disappointed... glitchy, extremely slow paced and Linear.

O btw Unreal One is stiry driven and half the time they don't really point or or spoon feed u where to go... Same as let's say Quake 2 ( even tho it was a pretty easy game but really fun), the game doesn't tell you specifically where to go (you dont have a map radar to spoon feed you). I really liked searching for the destination instead of being told by other marines where to go (Call of Duty and Cod Clones). I also always hated these radars being put into these games... Makes it easier to spot the enemy. Always hated these new add-ons to FPSs.

I'm sorry Half Life revolutionized gaming for you guys.  Atleast this proves that kids these days aren't ADHD like.

Yeah, radar doesn't make sense in FPSs, flight combat sure, but on the ground?  I blame MGS for that, but there may have been something else before it that actually inspired radar in FPS games, I don't know.

shooting things dead=stress relief for a lot of people, I play everything personally though, well, no dating sims and no hentai games, but pretty much everything else..... nothing really innovating from that genre in awhile though.

Easy there, Sparky, I never said I didn't like HL.  I own, conquered and enjoyed HL and HL2.  However, it did set a trend, and games HAVE gotten slower paced since HL.  Plus, if it would mean an actual GOOD story, I'd be all for it.  Seems that a lot of shooters today have the worst of both worlds though, the pace of a story driven game, but with a pitiful story.  If you disagree, feel free to tell me about the exceptions, I really do want to know.  Hell, I posted a topic about interactivity in FPS games, and nobody can come up with any ideas it seems.

As for your comment about ADHD, well, as someone who works with teenagers, I can tell you that it is WORSE THAN EVER.

BioShock is a good start.  

You are basically saying that my age group is worse than ever.

I don't care for FPS that much either even though I've played several on PC. Just never got into it very much. A lot of it is that its just the current trend.

If you look at history:

NES era - platforming popular
SNES era - still platforming but also RPG era
PS1 era - remember all those fighting games that came out? Toshiden, Tekken, Virtua Fighter, etc?
PS2 era - ?
Current era - 99.999% FPS

Multiplayer, people like to show supremacy by killing each other online and trashtalking.

Bioshock is a great start.

In terms of ADHD, the sheer number of diagnoses are WAY UP.  However, I think many of those are false, and that our society (especially the US) is OVERMEDICATED.  Rather than understanding that there are some quirks in the development process, and "boys will be boys" there is a massive rush to pacify everyone with drugs.

As far as in general, no, I do not think that teens are worse than ever.  You misunderstood.  If I didn't enjoy working with them so much, I would not be teaching.  I love my job - well, except that I don't have as much gaming time as I used to.