@ Paul_L_Ming:
I like your post very much! I started the same way, as an avid gamer (and I'm still an artist looking for the easy way for a lone wolf to get things up and running for potential clients/ideas), with 3DGS.
I see it as a monument, a pioneer of the evolution of game engines.
I stopped using it many years ago, but i still respect it and lurk here from time to time.
I think that an engine can be judged by its forums... its very easy to sense the general energy around the user base and very importantly the gallery and the WIPs... Unity3D's forum and gallery speaks for itself... we can flame all year long, but what we see and play there is a fact.
I was a big SEGA fanboy and when it died as a major console player i felt very bad... but i cant close my eyes to the 360 and the evolution in gaming. I'm saying this to illustrate that fanboyism doesn't help us... and the engines are just tools.