tl;dr: I don't think I played anything during the dark ages of decline.
My own RPG history is kinda weird which probably accounts for my unusual tastes. Nostalgia incoming.
I played a lot of the big 90s classics, a particular favorite of mine being Baldurs Gate. I have always been a nerd and interested in fantasy and stuff and I would have loved to play D&D but I didn't have any nerd friends at that time so there was really nothing I could do other than read fantasy and scifi. Suddenly there was this game with a huge world to explore, this almost mythical world I often heard about but never actually got to experience first hand. It even had companions that (sort of, kind of) simulated actually playing with friends or at least gave you the feeling of travling in a larger group and to experience adventures together. That shaped a lot of my opinions of what RPGs are or should be.
A while later I lost all interest in gaming for many years, basically (arguably) during 'the decline'. I just wasn't really interested in that shit and thought I grew out of it. Fast forward another bunch of years. For some months I was essentially unemployed (but with end in sight) and needed to kill some time. Since I deemed a new PC too expensive, I got an Xbox and needed something to play. I remembered that I always liked RPGs back in the day, so I thought it might be a good idea to check out what was hot at the time. So I got Mass Effect 1 and Oblivion.
Both games positively blew my mind, I am not ashamed to admit it. I hadn't played anything for many years and then you check the state of the art shit and before you know it you are thrown out of the cozy little isometric worlds you were used to, into these vast detailed sprawling 3D worlds. I think the huge open world, the cities and the radiant AI in Oblivion (despite all its obvious flaws, inb4 mudcrabs) as well as the hated cinematic storytelling of ME impressed me a great deal at that time.
In the long run, I noticed that certain things were not as I liked them or remembered them from older games. I disliked that I was so alone in Tamriel. Wasn't one of the best parts of BG that it simulated a party, a group of friends or likeminded adventurers that you could travel with? ME had a party and was the better for it, but it also had this garbage shooter combat that I didn't like, I remembered the tactical combat of the old games, what became of that? And where the hell did stats go? It occured to me that all the games these days seemed to be more like action games than what I considered RPGs. Fable was an action game, basically a Zelda-clone. Even independent stuff like Divinity 2 was action. Hell, Fallout 3 was a shooter.
It occured to me that somewhere along the line RPGs became what we, back in the old days, called action adventures. What the hell happened? So, since I am historically minded, I decided to go back. Still piss poor, but thankfully the Xbox360 was downwards compatible. So I played all the stuff that I missed .. I went back and played Morrowind, Kotor 1 & 2, Jade Empire.. soon I ran out of games .. that mustve been roughly around the same time I found the Codex (still a lurker back then). Not too long after, the Renaissance happened and I was happy to see that I rediscovered this genre roughly at the same time a new age arose and devs started to make games again like they used to. Party based. Story driven. Turn based. RtwP. Skills and Stats. C&C. Shit like that. Shit that should really go without saying but that was simply gone for a long time.
One thing that blew my mind about the Codex is that people were discussing and playing even way older titles, titles that were essentially the stuff of legend, mythical names like Might & Magic, Ultima and Wizardry that I had heard at one point but never really experienced myself. That encouraged me to go even further back and try that old shit, cause if they can do it, so can you. And sites like Steam and GoG make it easily possible, even for technically inept people, to aquire and play all these games. It was and still is a time of reeducation and new horizons.
I still don't really -ultimately- buy into that Codexian decline narrative, that dichotomy of old school, (indie) and decline. I am not entirely sure 'the decline' even happened. Something sure as hell happened, RPGs changed. But I like to play old games, I like to play new games, they are often fun in their own way. While many people here argue differently for whatever reason, I have seen that their steam profiles usually speak a different language, so I suppose what I am saying is not too far from the truth and I am just more honest.
Personally, I am tired of action adventures at the moment. I havent bought Witcher 3 or DA Inquision or Fallout 4 or whatever is en vogue now but I don't connect that sentiment to any kind of elitism. I simply don't care at this point in time, not with so many indies and classics waiting, but I don't blame people who do. If Tim Cain and Chris Avellone are allowed to have fun with these titles, why shouldn't we? (Likewise, not every single bug-ridden unpolished small-scoped shitty little indie is the second coming of christ.) That notion is just so hypocritical and dishonest. There are too many posters who take their mouth very full about 'shitty triple A popamoles', yet buy that shit and clock god knows how many hours into it, then shitpost about it here and how much they hated every sinlge one of these over 200 hours. Laughable.
Anyway. Not too long ago, I was basically running out of games to play, now I have way too much. I can barely follow all the newest Renaissance titles but I am also trying to catch up on a lot of classical titles which I missed out on .. meanwhile there are also other genres that may occupy me.. and life happens and there are too many games and not enough time to play them, let alone replay. And thats really a luxury problem.
I suppose I was lucky to experience the last days of RPG antiquity, then completely sleep through the dark age of decline and wake up right at the dawn of the renaissance. Either way, if it existed, the decline is over now. Just look at all the good stuff thats coming out each and every new year. I think people don't appreciate that enough. It is really the best of times.
, Diablo + Hellfire, Diablo II + LoD, UFO extraterrestrials Gold Edition, Planescape Torment, Dark Sun I & II, Old X-Com, Wizardry 8 (sometimes with mods), WH 40K : chaos Gate... 
