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How much does nostalgia impact your opinion on games?


KWKBOX

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Happy New Year!

I decided to start off the new year with a big adventure video/experiment. I have followed the Zelda series since the beginning and have a great appreciation for the franchise. My buddy who is around the same age surprisingly has never played any of the games in the series so I decided to record his initial reaction/playthrough of the game. In doing so I noticed that as we progressed and he pointed out things that I remember being charming about the game he in fact found them to be a nuisance and explained why. After assisting him to complete the game I started rethinking my opinion on it. At first I defended the game without any question but after a while some aspects of the game took their toll on me as well and I started to realize that my memories of the game in my youth definitely gave me quite the bias that a neutral gamer of today would not have. I am not saying the original The Legend of Zelda is a bad game by far and it is a masterpiece for it's time but unfortunately I am starting to see the age of the game and the magic dissappear that I felt it once had. What do you guys think about the first Zelda today? Have you introduced it to a person that has never played it? If so what reactions did you experience?

 

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I'll have to give this a little more thought, but you're asking a fascinating question. I think it's very likely that my opinions are biased by nostalgia on many games. With no prior exposure to them, I really think many of my favorites from back in the day just wouldn't have as much appeal.

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First of all, happy new year and welcome to AtariAge! :)

Personally, nostalgia is rarely a factor for me, honestly. A lot of my favorite games came out years before I was even born; by contrast, some of the games I loved as kid just don't do it for me anymore. The ones that do, do so because they're good games that stand on their own merits. And even with those all-time great games I'm not so myopic that I can't see whatever faults they may have.

As for the first Zelda game, it's great, it's a classic, but it's clearly kind of rough and a little basic compared to later Zelda games (which it should be; it would mean later games weren't getting any better otherwise). FWIW my favorite Zelda is Link's Awakening DX on Game Boy Color. But I don't know if that makes it any less enjoyable today, unless the only Zelda game you've ever played was Ocarina of Time or something. However, chances are that unless you had it growing up during the NES years or you're a latter-day vintage enthusiast or (ugh) "game historian," you probably don't care about games this old anyway.

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First of all, happy new year and welcome to AtariAge! :)

 

Personally, nostalgia is rarely a factor for me, honestly. A lot of my favorite games came out years before I was even born; by contrast, some of the games I loved as kid just don't do it for me anymore. The ones that do, do so because they're good games that stand on their own merits. And even with those all-time great games I'm not so myopic that I can't see whatever faults they may have.

 

As for the first Zelda game, it's great, it's a classic, but it's clearly kind of rough and a little basic compared to later Zelda games (which it should be; it would mean later games weren't getting any better otherwise). FWIW my favorite Zelda is Link's Awakening DX on Game Boy Color. But I don't know if that makes it any less enjoyable today, unless the only Zelda game you've ever played was Ocarina of Time or something. However, chances are that unless you had it growing up during the NES years or you're a latter-day vintage enthusiast or (ugh) "game historian," you probably don't care about games this old anyway.

 

I think the best way to describe it is like literature. There are classics out there people still enjoy to this day and others do not. Playing the original Zelda is like reading Dickens.

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I don't know if I'd have the patience for the first Zelda today. When we were kids running around exploring and sharing what we'd found on the playground was the way to do it. Then of course there was that one kid with NP that could answer all of our questions. Beating that game was a collaborative effort with everyone in my grade. I remember I had the patience to run around bombing virtually every rock face on the overworld map to find the hidden stuff.

 

I did eventually buy this guide after we moved to AZ that was for LttP but padded itself with full guides of Zelda I and Zelda II as well and it helped me find the last couple things I hadn't been able to.

 

With modern games though, you're so used to hand-holding and waypoints that sure, a game like Zelda I must feel antiquated.

 

Coincidently, I grabbed Final Fantasy XI as part of the Steam winter sale. That game doesn't tell you shit! I've had to run around like a chicken with my head cut off, either figuring stuff out on my own or googling it. I was pretty aggravated by it at first, especially after coming off FF 13 where every single zone is a straight linear path! Eventually I started to enjoy it though. Straightforward games might be more popular with the masses but I think we lose something but not having more obtuse games that challenge you to figure them out.

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There are very few older games that don't have pretty serious flaws in their design. Tons of stupid Repetition, tons of unfair Level design, unbalanced mechanics, and the list goes on and on. They might not be bad games, and specially considering the time and what came before they might be great. But some aspects of game design did evolve quite a bit. Playing something like Shovel Knight or Super Meat Boy does Show that a lot.

 

Now games like MS. Pac Man, Asteroids, Centipede, is interesting for the same reasons. Very well polished games even being that old.

 

Going on Topic, Nostalgia does Play a role for me. Also, if you know all the tricks to These unfair games it's much easier to enjoy. A Player starting now has much lesser Chance of wanting to put up with the beginner's traps and Repetition involved in learning These games. So it's not just simple nostalgia that makes us enjoy certain games, it's also Training. If you're an 8yo kid you don't care about playing the same Level for hours untill you get it down, and once learned it's not an issue anymore. As an adult I just have better things to do.

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I'm not sure whether I'd say nostalgia is a large factor for me, but it's certainly true that my biases were formed back during my heyday of gaming. The games I like now are the same types of games I liked back when, with the exception of having even less patience for bad design.

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Nostalgia plays mostly to me with two players games that I enjoyed with people.

I recall that when I was young, I never played far in Zelda. The game was in english, so I had no clue about how to play. It was an used one, so it came with no instructions not map not anything. And being used to linear games, I never though about making one.

So if anything, Zelda nostalgia does NOT work for me. In fact, I enjoy it now because I can read the clues, I have access to a map and solutions (because frankly, go figure out the order in which you gotta play the castles... Saves much time).

Of course I added the extra fun of playing the original Disk System version (on a real disk, either). So I still CANNOT read the clues :D But yeah if I had the map and knew the clues, I would have liekd this game much more as a kid.

 

So, bottomline, nostalgia have impact on me on games like Super Mario Kart (I mean, even after all those yers and playing on the Wii U version, I STILL get annoyed at the fact you can't jump with both shoulders buttons and still get surprized because all races have 3 laps and not 4) or Brutal Paws of Fury, but for many other games, it's mostly the feeling I have with each game.

I can't stand A Link to the Past, and this isn't ited to the game style, as I like Link's Awakening and the Oracle games. I can't Stand A link between times as well, so it feels like I simply dislike the storyline in this game. Strange :D

Edited by CatPix
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This is a great topic, I've brought this up on numerous occasions. Nostalgia plays literally almost zero role in my retro gaming and I see a ton of holes in a lot of retro gaming opinions that simply do not match up. Everyone is so enamored with original hardware and not using cheats and playing the game "as it was intended", yet they're oftentimes entirely full of shit. Many times I've seen these people streaming and they'll quit because the game sends them too far back with cheap difficulty, lacks adequate continues, etc, but yet blab about having to experience the game as intended. I've seen them have to farm health in the original Metroid for an hour just to get their health back up to take on the boss, only to fail to have to do it again. I've seen people say games today lead us by the hand too much, but it is simply and utterly untrue. These old games were very, very flawed. Be it technically, design wise, whatever, these "classics" are classics and we love them, but a lot need some TLC. That's why save states make 100% sense in today's gaming world. Back in the day when you were a kid and really had no idea of the art aspect that goes into video games, you could jack around all summer if you wanted. As adults, things change. No adult wants to spend hard earned bread on a game they can't beat or are totally lost through the whole time. It makes sense the exploration side is often optional.

 

And then the nostalgia and memories cut into the reality of a lot of games, much like the Zelda example above. It also makes sense with that stupid whirlwind thing in Simon's Quest. Who in the fuck would ever figure out how to progress in Simon's Quest back in the day if not for a Nintendo Power book (which for some reason isn't cheating to these people)? That type of shit is 0/10 on a gaming scale if you get right down to it. We're just accustomed to looking up guides and all that shit to figure the old stuff out because we always had to. And no one has the balls for some reason to say just how flawed a lot of these games are that they played as kids, yet they'll totally take it out on other similar games they didn't play. I read a review on Axiom Verge where they gave it like a 7.5. In the entire review, they praise Super Metroid constantly, then they say there is too much backtracking in Axiom Verge. Despite the fact the game at least auto-saves all your exploration progress. It's total hypocrisy. Whining about backtracking in a Metroidvania game?! The fuck?!

 

Mega Man games are another good example, they might not seem hard to you if you've played them for years, but I absolutely can see why people don't like mucking around with the disappearing block trial & error bullshit. Trial and error is not fun. When you had 15 games in your collection as a kid, it was ok, but nowadays, it just seems like a waste of time. I could honestly play through a RPG with infinite health almost because with all the figuring out of where to go and solving puzzles and all that shit, it's enough to focus on the adventure aspect of just finding where to go. I don't want to be dying all the time in games like that because they're so different from games like Pac-man where you are trying to stay alive and get a high score. In an RPG, you're solving a mystery, in general. Dying in a turn based duel is not fun. I just want to play games and have fun, they don't have to be hard, they should be a fun experience. I don't want to be immune to everything in a game, don't get me wrong, but I also want to feel like I'm progressing. I do not wanna re-play a level after I've beaten it just to have a chance to see if I don't fuck up on the hard part the next time.

 

So yeah, I do think the vast majority of retro gamers need to take off the rose tinted glasses and admit these games were flawed as hell in a lot of ways. It's not trashing the game to do that. Frankly, games like Zelda are the perfect medium to sell game guides and Nintendo Power subscriptions. Not exactly the ideal way to make me feel good about "playing the game as intended" when you need to read a book to figure out how to beat a game.

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Nostalgia has a HUGE impact on my opinion of games, but it's also a big reason that I play old games. Basically, I want my outlook to be colored by nostalgia because for me that's the point. I don't care what some millenial thinks of The Legend of Zelda because he should just go play whatever makes him feel nostalgic (PS2 or N64 or something.)

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This is a great topic, I've brought this up on numerous occasions. Nostalgia plays literally almost zero role in my retro gaming and I see a ton of holes in a lot of retro gaming opinions that simply do not match up. Everyone is so enamored with original hardware and not using cheats and playing the game "as it was intended", yet they're oftentimes entirely full of shit. Many times I've seen these people streaming and they'll quit because the game sends them too far back with cheap difficulty, lacks adequate continues, etc, but yet blab about having to experience the game as intended. I've seen them have to farm health in the original Metroid for an hour just to get their health back up to take on the boss, only to fail to have to do it again. I've seen people say games today lead us by the hand too much, but it is simply and utterly untrue. These old games were very, very flawed. Be it technically, design wise, whatever, these "classics" are classics and we love them, but a lot need some TLC. That's why save states make 100% sense in today's gaming world. Back in the day when you were a kid and really had no idea of the art aspect that goes into video games, you could jack around all summer if you wanted. As adults, things change. No adult wants to spend hard earned bread on a game they can't beat or are totally lost through the whole time. It makes sense the exploration side is often optional.

 

And then the nostalgia and memories cut into the reality of a lot of games, much like the Zelda example above. It also makes sense with that stupid whirlwind thing in Simon's Quest. Who in the fuck would ever figure out how to progress in Simon's Quest back in the day if not for a Nintendo Power book (which for some reason isn't cheating to these people)? That type of shit is 0/10 on a gaming scale if you get right down to it. We're just accustomed to looking up guides and all that shit to figure the old stuff out because we always had to. And no one has the balls for some reason to say just how flawed a lot of these games are that they played as kids, yet they'll totally take it out on other similar games they didn't play. I read a review on Axiom Verge where they gave it like a 7.5. In the entire review, they praise Super Metroid constantly, then they say there is too much backtracking in Axiom Verge. Despite the fact the game at least auto-saves all your exploration progress. It's total hypocrisy. Whining about backtracking in a Metroidvania game?! The fuck?!

 

Mega Man games are another good example, they might not seem hard to you if you've played them for years, but I absolutely can see why people don't like mucking around with the disappearing block trial & error bullshit. Trial and error is not fun. When you had 15 games in your collection as a kid, it was ok, but nowadays, it just seems like a waste of time. I could honestly play through a RPG with infinite health almost because with all the figuring out of where to go and solving puzzles and all that shit, it's enough to focus on the adventure aspect of just finding where to go. I don't want to be dying all the time in games like that because they're so different from games like Pac-man where you are trying to stay alive and get a high score. In an RPG, you're solving a mystery, in general. Dying in a turn based duel is not fun. I just want to play games and have fun, they don't have to be hard, they should be a fun experience. I don't want to be immune to everything in a game, don't get me wrong, but I also want to feel like I'm progressing. I do not wanna re-play a level after I've beaten it just to have a chance to see if I don't fuck up on the hard part the next time.

 

So yeah, I do think the vast majority of retro gamers need to take off the rose tinted glasses and admit these games were flawed as hell in a lot of ways. It's not trashing the game to do that. Frankly, games like Zelda are the perfect medium to sell game guides and Nintendo Power subscriptions. Not exactly the ideal way to make me feel good about "playing the game as intended" when you need to read a book to figure out how to beat a game.

 

I've read somewhere that the issue with Simon's quest is that who ever did the localization at Konami really screwed the pooch when it came to translating in game hints and such. From what I understand, the hints dropped by the locals in the Famicom Disk System original are still cryptic but easier to understand if you thought things through a little bit. But these hints became nigh incomprehensible somewhere along the line during the localization and transition from disk to cart.

 

Also Axiom Verge, by all accounts, is a consistently good game. The only people who gave it 7.5 was Destructoid. Destructoid is one of the modern gaming review sites that tend to score games not on mechanics or fun but on arbitrary and nit picky things.

 

As to your overall point though, I can see where you are coming from. However, I think a lot of the community miss the point of the early JRPGs or games like the Legend of Zelda or Metroid to a certain extent. And the people who miss the point of these games are found in both the detractors of the games and the hardcore fans . The point of the Legend of Zelda is that it is a game that was formed by the childhood experiences of Shigeru Miyamoto growing up in the outskirts of Kyoto. Where as a child he would regularly go on long nature walks and explore the forests and caves of the woodlands of western Japan.

 

The legend of Zelda is a game that is supposed to evoke the ideal coming of age experiences that nearly every boy has experienced at some time or another. That sense of traipsing through the woods, and exploring every nook and cranny to find a new secret that you didn't know before and before every one else for that matter. All the while fighting off our demons, both real and imaginary. This I think is the fundamental reason why this game was as popular as it become. Both as a single cartridge at the time and as a series as a whole. It gave you a plot and a setting and from there the game simply said "go."

 

I think simply what we see as flaws or what we see as strengths in early games like these ignores the intent of why this game or that game was designed in the way it was. We forget or maybe have forgotten that these games weren't designed for us as we are now. But were designed for us when we had the time to go on long adventures or when it was enjoyable to do so.

 

 

 

 

As to Mega-Man, I just think you need to get good. :-D ;)

Edited by empsolo
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Also Axiom Verge, by all accounts, is a consistently good game. The only people who gave it 7.5 was Destructoid. Destructoid is one of the modern gaming review sites that tend to score games not on mechanics or fun but on arbitrary and nit picky things.

 

I heard the combat in Axiom verge isn't very good with the Auto targeting weapons...

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I heard the combat in Axiom verge isn't very good with the Auto targeting weapons...

Since I don't have a PS4 or Vita, I can't comment on the mechanics. I can say that the game is highly respected in the gaming community with consistent 8's and 9's by gaming journalists and having an 84% on metacritic. That shouts to me that this is a solid title.

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Since I started actively gaming as an adult, I mainly enjoy playing games for the first time that I have never experienced before. Basically catching up on missed childhood since I never owned an NES until 2002. So I guess you could say I am creating nostalgia. Atari is even bigger gap. I got my first Atari in 2012 and had zero exposure during my childhood. But I am experiencing games for the first time. Or subsequent play through. A first playthrough is still a first playthrough, whether in 1987 or 2016. The nostalgic feelings are the same, just without a prior point of reference. You want to experience the 1980s, surround yourself with artifacts from that time period. Ditto for 70s, 60s, 50s, et al. It is not a prerequisite that you have memories or were even born yet.

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A factor, but a small one. There is a feeling of "recapturing the simpler time of my youth" when I sit down and play Atari and that's fun, but it's not necessarily about the individual game. There are lots of games I enjoyed as a kid in the 80s that I wouldn't enjoy now, and there are lots of old classic games I never played back then that I really enjoy now.

 

I think it has more to do with judging a game based on what you enjoy and what you're used to. As for the Zelda example, if you've never experienced the type of game that requires patience, persistence, working through seeming dead ends, and figuring things out on your own - and it's not something you've decided you want to enjoy - then you probably won't have as much fun.

 

As for nostalgia clouding judgment in terms of ratings or rankings - I'm not sure it's even valid. If you enjoyed the game as a kid, you did. Would you give it a different score now? Maybe, but what difference does it make? Nostalgia didn't make you like the game back when you played it, obviously. If you replay a game 30 years later maybe you notice things (flaws) now that you didn't back then but that's fine. I don't think it's nostalgia, I think it's comparing based on experience and updated expectations as mentioned above.

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With video games, nostalgia will make me pick something up and play it but it won't make me play it for a long or again after that thin veneer over my memory wears off.

 

With music or other art forms that are much more passive I might enjoy it more based on associated experiences though.

 

Simple example: Skies of Arcadia (DC). Loved it and feel very fondly for it but the encounter rate is sooooo high I'd never slog through that or rate it well at this point.

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For me, nostalgia is a way to categorize games that actually work in terms of gameplay and fun factor.

 

If a brand new Zelda game is announced, I'll check out the earliest videos available just for the kick of seeing what the new Zelda incarnation looks like, and see how close (or how far) it is from the original Zelda formula which I like. I'll do this because it's called "Zelda", and Zelda means something to me.

 

Same goes for other franchises like Metroid. Just before posting this, I checked out Axiom Verge on YouTube just because someone mentionned that it was reminiscent of Super Metroid. I had the same reaction when I first heard of Shadow Complex a few years ago, and the same thing happened when I first heard of Mighty Number 9, which is (deliberately) a lot like Mega Man. It's the nostalgia factor that sharpens my curiosity about such titles.

 

So I guess for me nostalgia is related to the good games I played when I was a kid. I feel nothing for the crappy games that came out during the same era.

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That's a valid question. Realistically, a lot of the games I loved as a kid are not held nearly as high in regard as they once were. That's not to say that certain games haven't aged really well. Take SMB3 for example: the best game ever! But is that my nostalgia talking? It could be. Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and several other Mario games have certainly passed it's greatness, in my opinion. Do I acknowledge that, or do I refute those claims, solely based off of bias memories from years long passed? It's an amazing game, but it's been outdone by it's successors. My actual favorite game is, Final Fantasy 6. Has been since the first time I laid my eyes on it. Playing through the game now, I still feel the game has aged very well. Is the story as engrossing as a modern RPG, or does it have as many hours of playtime, DLC, or online capability? No; it doesn't. But that doesn't make it any less amazing than the day I first played it. In regards to Zelda, I never really enjoyed the first one; even as a kid. I thought it was cryptic and really not that much fun to play. Even as an adult, I still don't consider it anything more than a building block for the series. I appreciate it as a landmark piece in gaming history. I have played through and beaten it multiple times. But I really don't think the series started to shine until ALTTP. That is definitely in my list of favorite games of all time. But yeah. To answer question, I suppose it does in a sense. But at the same time, if a game is good to begin with, it will always be a good game. Games don't just turn bad over time. Then again, good is just a matter of perspective. Everything is subjective, based on one's own opinion.

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Personally, nostalgia is rarely a factor for me, honestly. A lot of my favorite games came out years before I was even born; by contrast, some of the games I loved as kid just don't do it for me anymore. The ones that do, do so because they're good games that stand on their own merits. And even with those all-time great games I'm not so myopic that I can't see whatever faults they may have.

To follow up on this thought, I think a big reason I feel nostalgia doesn't really affect me is because the games I played and loved as a kid, for the most part, I never stopped playing.

 

"Nostalgia" implies revisiting something left in the past, but the games I grew up never really left me (or should I say, I never left them). They were, by and large, with me all the way to the present day. My NES didn't get abandoned when I got a Genesis or PlayStation, for example. Those systems didn't get abandoned* when we got PlayStation 2 or Wii. I went from Resident Evil 2 to Super Mario Bros. to the then-brand-new GTAIII to Sonic 2 to Pick-Axe Pete! (I had just gotten an Odyssey 2) and back and forth and between, it didn't matter. They all complemented each other as my collection grew (I didn't know I was collecting at the time, or that game collecting was even a thing!) and as my collective gaming story grew.

 

*Although I did eventually fall out of love with the Genesis for some reason, which supports my statement.

Edited by BassGuitari
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To follow up on this thought, I think a big reason I feel nostalgia doesn't really affect me is because the games I played and loved as a kid, for the most part, I never stopped playing.

 

"Nostalgia" implies revisiting something left in the past, but the games I grew up never really left me (or should I say, I never left them). They were, by and large, with me all the way to the present day. My NES didn't get abandoned when I got a Genesis or PlayStation, for example. Those systems didn't get abandoned* when we got PlayStation 2 or Wii. I went from Resident Evil 2 to Super Mario Bros. to the then-brand-new GTAIII to Sonic 2 to Pick-Axe Pete! (I had just gotten an Odyssey 2) and back and forth and between, it didn't matter. They all complemented each other as my collection grew (I didn't know I was collecting at the time, or that game collecting was even a thing!) and as my collective gaming story grew.

 

*Although I did eventually fall out of love with the Genesis for some reason, which supports my statement.

 

This is exactly what happened throughout my life, too. I begrudgingly couldn't play my NES because the blinking light got so bad it would barely play anything. After a couple more NES systems doing the same, I basically gave up and bought a SNES basically just for Mario All-Stars. I never, ever stopped playing my older games either and I rarely feel nostalgia towards these things. It's weird the system I'm most nostalgia based is the Sega Master System, since I played one and never had one. When I finally did get one over a decade ago, I was so pumped. My memories always take me back to playing my cousin's system at my grandparent's house, but when it comes to all the game systems I had when I was a kid, I kept playing them up to this day, so I can't pick and choose an era to associate nostalgia with them since they never went away. It's like when the game's in, it's just an artistic style. Gaming is just gaming to me, the personal memories always stem from Christmas gifts or getting a game in a store or whatever are what I relate my nostalgia to. I always hear people talk about the first time they played x game when they were 7 or 8. I remember looking for Playboys or watching hockey games or slasher movies more than playing video games.

 

It's always the people who are getting back into these things that will try to explain that you just don't understand "that feeling you get when" or how a game is good because of childhood nostalgia. The funny thing is these crazies actually think we, the ones who have stuck with this stuff for years, don't get it. Hah. I think some people take the nostalgia thing a little too far and blow it way out of proportion when it comes to video games. It just seems like a generic idea that's leaned on way too much, like a stereotypical answer to why we game or collect. I think there's a small element of truth to it, but people don't spend hours tracking down games over a long period of time from childhood memories. These people have a genuine interest in video game history and want to experience all types of games is a much better assessment of hardcore retro gamers. I would always read about the Jaguar in magazines and I never got to even see one in real life until I bought one as an adult. I don't see this as reaching back to my childhood so much as I always was interested and finally I get to experience it because I had the money to do so. We also all really liked tits when we were 9, doesn't mean we're reliving childhoods when ogling a pair now.

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The OP is thought provoking, for sure. Over the years, I've thought a lot about this general subject. IMO, nostalgia is just the "window dressing" of retro gaming, and tends to get way over-stated in its ability to account for why one might spend years of their adult life enjoying decades-old video games. The reality is, every retro gamer represents an exception to the common rule, in that he or she sees something desirable in old games that the masses do not; generally speaking, it's a preference for the game characteristics and design philosophies of yesteryear over those of today. That's the meat of it anyway, and there is a clear distinction that can be made between this and liking something just because it evokes childhood memories.

 

 

 

After assisting him to complete the game I started rethinking my opinion on it. At first I defended the game without any question but after a while some aspects of the game took their toll on me as well and I started to realize that my memories of the game in my youth definitely gave me quite the bias that a neutral gamer of today would not have.

 

I won't deny that "being there" when certain games or systems were current--or, at least, immersing oneself in the retro gaming hobby for an extended period of time--has the effect of helping one to "forgive" aspects that would likely be deemed flaws by objective assessment in the present day.

 

But, the counterpoint to this is, I'd be wary of assuming that most newcomers are going to be "neutral" when playing old games.

 

Let's face it: lots of people believe in their bones that to take an active interest in playing old games is backward-thinking and dumb, when there are so many new games out there to play, with realistic graphics powered by state-of-the-art hardware.

 

In order for an old game to get a fair and meaningful critique from a complete newcomer, there needs to be a certain level of open-mindedness on the part of the player. Genuine, unfettered curiosity about the myriad ways games can provide a sense of enjoyment is a necessary precondition if there is to be any hope that the player will be responsive to positive traits beyond the skin-deep. Unfortunately, what you often see from modern-oriented gamers is an obstinate, hard-wired tendency to summarily equate blocky graphics with inferiority; in other words, the verdict precedes the trial.

Edited by Cynicaster
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In order for an old game to get a fair and meaningful critique from a complete newcomer, there needs to be a certain level of open-mindedness on the part of the player. Genuine, unfettered curiosity about the myriad ways games can provide a sense of enjoyment is a necessary precondition if there is to be any hope that the player will be responsive to positive traits beyond the skin-deep. Unfortunately, what you often see from modern-oriented gamers is an obstinate, hard-wired tendency to summarily equate blocky graphics with inferiority; in other words, the verdict precedes the trial.

Or they just don't understand how to have fun playing a game for a high score. There's no story (outside of the manual), no cut scenes, no ending, on online leagues... The "why am I playing" question doesn't get fulfilled with classic games for some people. It's not a bad thing, people play games for different reasons.

 

 

 

 

To follow up on this thought, I think a big reason I feel nostalgia doesn't really affect me is because the games I played and loved as a kid, for the most part, I never stopped playing.

Hah, I never thought about that but it's certainly true for me. I did take breaks from certain consoles here and there, and from gaming in general a little bit, but mostly I've continued playing 2600 and other classic games consistently for the last 30 years. Nostalgia is probably a bigger factor for the person who hadn't played an Atari for 20 years and them goes and buys one on ebay, or gets a Flashback or something.

Edited by BydoEmpire
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