<-- 41 y/o here. Played table top D&D. Favorite RPG of the past is Bard's Tale on C-64.
Wow. So there are really others out there?
I wonder if I still have the maps around that I drew out
I loved BT series back in those days, but I think Realms of Arkania was better wrt party based CRPGs. I haven't tried any new ones, as 1st person is the only way to go for me now. But I have to say that wrt content, nothing yet beats Skyrim. The poor fact is, it doesn't really have any competitors either (1st person is an absolute must).
My list:
1. Elite 2 Frontier
Not an RPG in the traditional sense, requiring a lot of brains to play it like one. But it had flat out the biggest area to explore of any games I ever played, including Daggerfall which is tiny in comparison
2. Realms of Arkania. Just take a look at the rule sets and skills. It's amazing what could be done when you don't have to provide content for it.
3. OFP and Arma. I know, milsim shooter, not an RPG at all. But I still like to "roleplay" in it
Most played modern game. As like BGS games have no competition in the RPG department for my kind of gaming, BIS games have no competition in the "shooter" area.
4. Daggerfall. Even bigger than Realms of Arkania, but only because everything was in true 3D. If I disregard everything that was wrong with it (a lot, like exploits and bugs and poorly thought out rule sets), what remained was a master piece. Bunch of randomness too it, perfectly suitable for those of us who doesn't need to rush through a game (even if somewhat repetitive at times), and a rather complex MQ and way it was told. High feel of middle ages, which I like, to the point of having rather massive cities.
5. Skyrim. It gets this high only because of the amount of content. Not even done with the main quest yet, which so far have a really cool story. I just wish it was told better with more twists and turns like in Daggerfall.
6. Fallout New Vegas.
7. Bard Tale I guess.
8. Fallout 3. Sorry, never played 1 and 2.
9. Oblivion. It's biggest problem was lack of land mass to support the much content it had (which wasn't very varied).
10. Morrowind. I really don't understand what made this game so popular. Too high fantasy/alien for me, so I couldn't relate at all to anything. Kinda nice story, but only if you grasped everything that was not handed to you on a silver platter. It was linear as hell MQ wise, and have been since.
Oh yeah, and I'm past 40 as well.