I too have problems reading rules these days
Are you having trouble with old-style rules too though? I feel that I can still absorb those fairly well.
It's as though the whole paradigm for how to present has shifted - IMO towards the sloppier in terms of giving a good view of
what is going on. But maybe it's just that every damned game is so different.
Good question. I am not 100% sure.
I assumed that a deteriorating ability to focus as I age was the issue, but perhaps it is how some modern rules are written. I have not tested your notion of late except that I was able to read those from "A Famous Victory" without an issue. So perhaps you are on to something.
For example, I had a dickens of a time with rules from the COIN series. Even though it is really quite a simple game. This was partly due to their having unusual mechanics (for me). But also I think it had to do with how they were presented. Now I have no trouble with them since I am used to the games.
Yeah. I felt like an idiot with GMT's CDGs when I first found them.
Then I went and learned OCS - which felt as I remember.
It's not just new ideas though (for me). New CDGs are harder to learn (maybe because
every damned one handles things differently), and so were fairly standard game designs
like GBoH and some VPG stuff. So, I'm blaming the rules mainly.