Why Can't I Call Star Wars, Star Wars Anymore?

So the other day I put on Star Wars. I was also online, and I was chatting with someone. He wanted to know what I was doing. I told him that I was watching Star Wars. He asked which one. I said, "Star Wars". He wanted to know which episode. I just went by instinct and said, "oh, the first one". "Episode 1", he answered. So I was thinking, "that's right, I forgot that George Lucas messed up one of the coolest movie series of all time and gave all of his movies extremely long titles". I guess what I was supposed to say was Star Wars - Episode 4: A New Hope.

There was a time (before 1999) when somebody would ask which Star Wars you are watching and you would answer with the first one and they would know what you were talking about. Now you have to say, Episode 4 or, A New Hope, or the full title. To be honest, I didn't even realize it was called, "A New Hope" until middle school. Alright, I'm done.