It's a phrase often thrown around, but also very often has little to no meaning to it. "The golden age of gaming" refers to a time period when games were just universally better than ever, and current games don't even come close to that level of greatness. For everyone, this period of time seems to be a little different, because everyone's preferences are different too. Do you have a "golden age" you wish to go back to? Or do you think the whole phenomenon is ridiculous, and shouldn't exist in the first place?
I don't think there was or is an actual 'golden age of gaming'. There are just ages that come and go, wherein video games are focused more on particular facets (and audiences) than others. A lot of it depends on what resources game developers had at their disposal, and how they would use it to win over an audience. To use a weak example, graphics hasn't been able to be a real draw for video games until about 7 or 8 years ago. Of course, there are multiple draws and quirks that are out there for all video games, and gamers are drawn to one particular subset over another. I myself am particularly fond of the GBA era of games, especially with its music style/instrument setup that I have enjoyed more than pretty much every game since, a library with games easy to pick up and which have great replay value, and memories which last a lifetime due to being rooted so far back. I'll admit that most of my library is DS games right now, but only because the DS had games I like that came in 'series', which necessitates having more games (1 for each entry into the series) - the GBA is still my favourite console overall, and most of my all-time favourite games are from the GBA.
I don't really think there was a golden age for videos games. People like to say that there is, but the fact it is that it is ever-evolving, there is no time to stand still and be like, this is good, this is what we should be doing for the rest of the time we have. Developing new things, genres, hardware, is what keeps the industry alive.
