Off topic here, but if you are a "lifelong gamer" you are far from the oldest silverback ape in this jungle... Some of us were already in high school when the first Magnavox Odyssey home videogame was offered and "Tank" first appeared in the local bowling alley.
I was programming before there was such a thing as a "video monitor", we had to play "Star Trek" or "Hunt the Wumpus" with a paper printer for output, one sloooow line at a time. LOL That's old, altho I never had to use punch cards in trays, by then we did at least have magnetic tape for data storage.
I do certainly hope I'm wrong about MS and the decline of Minecraft. It's pretty much the kind of video game I always hoped for, relatively non-violent and creative, cooperative open-world. It would be a shame to see it all end, but what game that I loved didn't end eventually? Life goes on I suppose.