The Difference in Old vs. New

While I could never put my preference of old school games into one single coherent short explanation, I just stumbled across this and it created a Lightbulb Moment of Zen and explains exactly why I like old school games more then 'modern' games:

It's interesting how, in a "modern" RPG, you create a powerful and strong hero, spending hours to choose your previous careers, skills and history while Old School RPG were all about BECOMING a hero and creating your character was rather simple procedure.

You strip away all of the mechanical simplicity or complexity and rules gobbelty-gook from any game and it's the mindset of modern games that already has you somewhere before you begin your career. It's the concept of older games that characters began as nobody, but through wit, guile and some amount of luck, could rise up and become someone. That part of the magic is gone...