I just turned 27 this past week, and I've been playing games since 3... My first fighters were actually Karate Champ and Urban Champion, and then it went to Samurai Shodown, then SF2...
I do notice that over the years, the young cats don't really cling to fighters as much, and those that do I feel aren't as serious as others (there are some exceptions though, as tons of younger high level players have been appearing)... There are younger players who just simply play and go with the motion, playing 1 game for a bit then hopping on the other game that comes out-- following the more "trendy" route like followers of FPS games and RPGs (not counting MMOs)...
There are others that do enter into the 3d realm, but there's not a whole lot to offer in terms of solid 3d fighters... SCIV could've been good, if there was more than one balance patch made, and if the team was dedicated... VF5 is good and solid, but too many people are waiting for Final Showdown to be released...
The older generation that's still playing fighters might get into newer fighters, but always refer back to the "golden age" of fighters, which is cool, but I personally like for fighters to evolve somewhat; but when you look at the fighters that come out now, it seems more like devolution more so than evolution... Everything is getting pushed as a dumb down game that leaves room for so much more, but that empty space is never filled I feel...
Hopefully, with these new games (Chaos Code, VF5FS, KoFXIII, AH3, MK9, and some other games to come), there will be a true sense of what a fighting game is all about... I'm hoping that these games will draw both new and old fighting game fans, and that they bridge the gap that's needed...
Gotta face it sooner or later though: most of us are like dinosaurs on Cybertron (not talking about the DinoBots).
I was about to reply "What about dinobots?" as I read it before the parenthesis =P
I was thinking about the DinoBots, but then again there were dinosaurs in Beast Wars as well, Megatron being one of them...