There was a brief moment between the death of arcades and the birth of WoW where single player style story based games and local multiplayer were the primary product. And I think that colored a lot of expectations for what video games should/could be.

Not to say other times were better or worse. Almost all the video games from the late 70s and early 80s would be considered shovelware now. They were largely cheaply made trash imitating other, more popular games. Many of them programmed, printed and shipped in a matter of weeks. The Arari 2600 even had a cartridge with an early modem that had what we'd call DRM today. You'd pay to download a game, you'd play it three times, and it would delete itself. And hilariously the company that made this thing went on to found America Online.

I think we're at a good moment though with games honestly. Passionate indie creators are making things leaps and bounds ahead of major studios.