Are YouTubers Ruining Retro Gaming?

[Osgeld]

I dunno whenever I watch Cinassher or whatever that channel is, I sometimes forget what game they are playing cause they get off in the weeds so often and for so long

 

It was about the time where AVGN took like 9 seconds of gameplay and 45 min beating up some doof in a bugs bunny costume I stopped watching them. It will pop up here and there and I will look at it and its just some halfwit talking head playing a game poorly and bitching constantly, bleh

 

anyway the effect is about as long as peoples attention span, and what I have learned by interacting with people in this hobby is, for A LOT of them, its about the length of a dragon ball z episode ... the older guys already know and either

 

A) have it

B) dont give a shit cause we have moved to emulators back in the 90's instead of filling every square inch of our house with mostly crap

[keepdreamin]

I wonder if any of these youtube clowns who know they're messing up prices on games in part by their actions ever look over their shoulders out in public ever at all, or at the least at trade shows. All it takes is just one unhinged person to ball up a fist. I keep seeing for years now a select small pool of names of the guilty so it's not that large of a stretch typically with Matei taking the lead.

"Messing up the price of games"

 

Lol, GTFOH

 

The folks raising the price of games are you folks buying em.

 

If you're going to take that stance, let's make it fair. you're not allowed to buy any new video games that you didn't see in a retail setting.

 

so that means any reviews you read or any YouTube videos you watch and find out about new games you didn't know about you're not allowed to buy them.

 

if that doesn't sound fair then I'd like you to explain to me how you think you're entitled to buy them but nobody else is.

 

if you think you're entitled to buy them then you can't complain about other people talking about them

Edited July 31, 2017 by keepdreamin

[Tanooki]

Don't look at me. I haven't bought an NES game in probably 5 years now, almost as long for the SNES and N64 too. The prices began to repulse me so I just quit buying, then decided I really had enough and sold off the stuff if it wasn't (more or less) what I got first hand in the 80s and 90s. I never pay up on stuff, even today with Gameboy or MVS stuff. I try and shoot for 20-50% off the average and if it doesn't happen I'm fine not having it or waiting another year or two to get it, if ever. Hell I finally relented and got a Super Everdrive v2 with DSP so I can ignore the idiotic SNES pricing, have another for my NGPC, and considering another Everdrive on the GBA (since it can handle NES, GB, GBC, and PCEngine too.)

 

Not sure why you're getting that butthurt about my comment and then deflecting into some crybaby horse shit about me being the source buying stuff (I don't buy) and calling me entitled. Hardly. All I put out there was a vague comment about if those guys ever wonder about some unhinged person with a temper coming after them. Kind of like how you're getting angry and unhinged with that post.

[keepdreamin]

Don't look at me. I haven't bought an NES game in probably 5 years now, almost as long for the SNES and N64 too. The prices began to repulse me so I just quit buying, then decided I really had enough and sold off the stuff if it wasn't (more or less) what I got first hand in the 80s and 90s. I never pay up on stuff, even today with Gameboy or MVS stuff. I try and shoot for 20-50% off the average and if it doesn't happen I'm fine not having it or waiting another year or two to get it, if ever. Hell I finally relented and got a Super Everdrive v2 with DSP so I can ignore the idiotic SNES pricing, have another for my NGPC, and considering another Everdrive on the GBA (since it can handle NES, GB, GBC, and PCEngine too.)

 

Not sure why you're getting that butthurt about my comment and then deflecting into some crybaby horse shit about me being the source buying stuff (I don't buy) and calling me entitled. Hardly. All I put out there was a vague comment about if those guys ever wonder about some unhinged person with a temper coming after them. Kind of like how you're getting angry and unhinged with that post.

 

That post was "unhinged"? So you're a drama queen, too.

 

You should put those games you bought 5 years ago up for sale.

I don't believe for one second you haven't purchased anything since.

Edited July 31, 2017 by keepdreamin

[Tanooki]

You're the one acting like a drama queen are you serious? Look at your response to my original comment which had no bearing on it other than getting on a soap box and screaming your head off like a petulant child about entitlement and other bs that had nothing to do with anything.

 

Too damn bad if you don't believe me. I don't have to qualify it to you at all. I quit buying Nintendo console games years ago and have stuck to just Gameboy DS/3DS branded stuff and SNK in the last year. Not sorry if that's surprising to you but I got tired of being annoyed by it so I backed off.

 

And anyway why the hell should I sell off my childhood game collection anyway? I like it, just don't like the thought in the current market of adding to it.

[keepdreamin]

Why are you buying MVS stuff now? Strongly doubt that was from your childhood collection. If you weren't done with MVS by 2004, you're just driving up prices. Guilty as charged.

[Tanooki]

I bought it because I ended up getting a cabinet locally. Your logic is so flawed it's sad. And while I may not be paying 2004 prices anything I've picked up so far has been well off the going rate thankfully.

 

I guess whatever you're into you're just as guilty as making it more expensive for anyone else who cares too by your own words eh?

 

Basically I bring up if youtubers at all feel a little worry someone may see a correlation between their videos on gems and prices on games going up if someone with a temper might come after them.

 

Somehow you relate that to buying any games at all, being entitled, and more or less basically yelling at me for no good reason. And that I'm more or less banned from watching youtube because if I see a game there I can't have it which again had nothing to do with what I said. I wasn't even complaining about the videos in that post it was a general comment, that's it.

 

Then that devolves into you calling me out for not buying old NES/SNES era stuff online in years as a liar. And finally then twisting it towards MVS because I brought that up because your last train of thought ran out of steam.

 

Perhaps it's just best to drop it eh? You're yelling at a brick wall made of don't give a fucks at this point. You're not going to change my mind, get me to do whatever you want, or anyone else for that matter because you're just being obnoxious.

 

Facts are anyone who buys anything that's not new on the market is going to drive up the price at least some after it initially bottoms out, so is anyone here not guilty as charged?

 

I'm done with this petty arguing over crap that has nothing to do with the topic at all.

[Good_Times]

YouTube bastards have ruined my LIFE! And it's totally NOT a jealousy/spite-based thing either, DAMMIT!!

 

[Good_Times]

the older guys already know and either

 

A) have it

B) dont give a shit cause we have moved to emulators back in the 90's instead of filling every square inch of our house with mostly crap

 

[Austin]

[Osgeld]

well really what's more important, consuming all our lives and money to have plastic shells filled with lead, or the games contained in them, meanwhile people are spending gobs of money, and that's their choice, on cheetahmen just to have a boxed copy sitting on a saggy ass walmart bookshelf

 

PS:

should have included flash carts as well as emulators

 

and yes I know the hunt is fun, I still hunt for retro stuff, I like to go out hunting, but its not my white whale

Edited August 1, 2017 by Osgeld

[Good_Times]

 

[keepdreamin]

 

 

I wonder if any of these late to the party Neo Geo MVS clowns who know they're messing up prices on games in part by their actions ever look over their shoulders out in public ever at all, or at the least at trade shows. All it takes is just one unhinged person to ball up a fist. I keep seeing for years now a large pool of n00bs jumping into the Neo market and competing with long term collectors who were buying when MVS games were still being made.

Edited August 1, 2017 by keepdreamin

[Good_Times]

...I like to go out hunting, but its not my white whale

 

Hey now, c'mon; there is no need to drag Louie Anderson into this!

 

[Osgeld]

touché

[Tanooki]

well really what's more important, consuming all our lives and money to have plastic shells filled with lead, or the games contained in them, meanwhile people are spending gobs of money, and that's their choice, on cheetahmen just to have a boxed copy sitting on a saggy ass walmart bookshelf

 

PS:

should have included flash carts as well as emulators

 

and yes I know the hunt is fun, I still hunt for retro stuff, I like to go out hunting, but its not my white whale

Good point. I kind of wish I still had my GBA and my NES one over the years more, but the powerpak was annoying to work a bit. I'm sure I'll get an everdrive in time, just like the other 2 kits. Nothing says you can't use the old hardware and play the games without paying into the insanity. They used to look like a premium and now they're the smart choice which is a shame. At some point I'd maybe even consider a NeoSD too but now that one is up there in expense all up front at once.

 

I hunt too, but for a wide range of stuff as games just got pointless but I won't avoid a pre-boom era deal at all.

[Good_Times]

NES games that were $5 ten years ago now selling in the hundreds?

'Rare' carts for various systems - more often than not games that are lackluster, broken, or simply suck sweaty balls - selling for the same?

 

Not if I choose not to participate in the lunacy!

 

[BassGuitari]

B) dont give a shit cause we have moved to emulators back in the 90's instead of filling every square inch of our house with mostly crap

Let's not act like this isn't a fairly recent phenomenon. The number of topics in the "Show Us Your Collection!" subforum alone is enough to dispute this.

 

People collected in the '90s and '00s. It used to be cool to try to build up collections, and many people did. Before emulation was widespread (or even very good), that's what retrogaming was--collecting and playing old games. It even got obnoxious and dick-measurey among some people, kind of like how the Nintendo scene is now.

 

Now, we practically get shamed for it. Interesting flip.

 

Thing is, people who had been collecting since back then eventually ended up with such much stuff that it became impractical. And they got older and their priorities, tastes, and inclinations changed. They started shitting out kids. Emulators got better. Flashbacks and Harmony Carts started coming out. They found themselves at a point in their lives where all the stuff just didn't make sense anymore. Which is fine and perfectly reasonable. But it took time to get there.

[Flojomojo]

I think splitting hairs about different factions of nerd culture is counterproductive. Some people like collections, some people like emulation, some like measuring e-peens, some don't play that game. There are plenty of younger retro gamers coming up to replace every geezer who feels too jaded and bored to keep doing it. Some people like watching ranty lectures on YouTube about old games. I prefer podcasts, so (1) I can do something else while listening to dumb stuff, and (2) don't have to look at the people doing the ranting. The more you play, the more you weigh.

 

YouTube may or may not be ruining retro gaming, but watching too much video, just like playing too many video games, can't be good for you.

[Keatah]

For children of the late 70's and most of the 80's, videogames were life, and life was videogames.

 

Always been interested in this stuff since I exploded the revolving christmas tree stand when I was 4. I don't know why but I put a screwdriver in there while it was powered up. And while I didn't get an electrical shock. It sparked and blew up in my face and stunned me stupid for 15-minutes.

 

Then I got into the electronic project kits from RadioShack. The spring-loaded ones. Great fun! Then came calculators and LED handhelds like AutoRacing and Football and BaseBall.

 

Next on the agenda were computers and videogames. I was batshit crazy over ICs and what they were like inside, then I moved into reading all about single-board computers. Eventually got an Apple II, VCS, Intellivision, and other consoles as they came out.

 

The point? I still had no notion of collecting or what it meant to have a wall of cartridges. It was extremely vague, and it looked cool and everything. But a collection? Naw. I had the same "problem" with Apple II disks. Still got my piles of originals and demos and handouts and everything we traded in school. I had them organized in a series of "Apple Software Bank binders, 40 disks per book. But still, no collection.

 

So I don't really know when the term 'collection' took hold in my psyche. It was all very slow. Very gradual. It was never about how much stuff I had. The amount was meaningless. Like my TRS-80 Pocket Computer 1, 2, and 4 collection, small, mostly complete. Same with the Ti-59, mostly complete too. Some time ago they were an accumulation. Now they're a collection.

 

And now in 2017, they're mementos.

 

---

 

I suppose the "collections" that bother me personally and piss me off are the ones that have like 10 of each item, like a stack of System X consoles NIB MIB CIB, what the fuck ever. That's trolling. That's inciting jealousy. Maybe even an off-center form of Schadenfreude. I got 10 of these, you don't hahahaha hahah kinda thing. Ya'know?

 

Then there's hoarding collections. It's different than just getting 5 identical NIB MIB CIB items. It's literally scooping up everything in sight (not out of malice) and then calling a collection. It's a ratbag pile of junk. This mostly happens because the "collector" doesn't know the lay of the land.

 

I believe that the best collections are concise, and have 1 of each item, perhaps 2 if there's wear and tear involved. Needs spares.. Anyway. A genuine collection should make you feel warm and fuzzy and proud to display it. It doesn't have to be 'complete'. It isn't a contest to see how big your dick is. It isn't a something to brag about, stealth or not. It should be documented in the form of a list. It should be able to be added to on occasion without adding in bullshit filler material 10x over. It should be right-sized for your living arrangements. Visitors should not be overwhelmed by it - it shouldn't be a shocking one-trick pony that blows away everything in its niche. There is a point when excess makes it unattractive. It should represent you and your style.

 

If I go to a buddy's place and see a basement full of arcade cabs, I'm like standing there rolling my eyes. I've seen rooms where it was like a maze and where a layout on paper would prove useful. On the same token, if I go to a different friend's pad and see 2 cabs and a bartop.. I'm like yeh! Now that is cool.

 

---

 

I suppose the best way to build a meaningful collection is to aggregate bits and pieces over a long period of time. This allows for thoughtful acquisitions and not piles of rat-infested garbage. And it lends meaning to each and every item.

[BassGuitari]

Exactly. I'd add that if someone is going to have a large collection, they need to invest in the infrastructure for it. Well-built, good-looking shelves, bookcases, or cabinets (hint: if it comes in a flatpacked box or two, that ain't it). Organize it. Rein it in and make it presentable. Trim out stuff you're not that interested in or that you don't think you'll miss. Your home should look like a home that happens to house a videogame collection, not a videogame collection that you live inside of.

If your collection looks like it's overrunning your home, it's overrunning your life. Take a step back.

Interesting point about accumulation vs. collection, too. Now that you mention it, when I started out collecting, I don't know if I thought of it as "collecting." It was more like, "The Atari 2600 seems awesome, I want to get one." And then once I did, "I want to get these games, x, y, and z." I'd already had (accumulated, really) NES, Genesis, PlayStation, Game Boy, Game Gear, and then on the way to the 2600, an Odyssey and Intellivision; this was just one more thing. And then another (5200). Then another (Telstar Alpha?).

I think my mom actually might have been the first to remark that I had a "collection." By that time the term seemed to have come into common usage. But yeah, I don't know if I really considered myself a "collector" at first. "Collectors" were the guys that had a hundred systems, thousands of games, all kinds of expensive rare stuff, would demo museum exhibits at shows, and knew everything about everything. I was just a kid with an accumulation of '90s systems I'd gotten as they came out, who had also gotten an Odyssey, Intellivision, and 2600 to go along with them, and who was always trying to find out more about games from the stone age.

[Eltigro]

...some like measuring e-peens, some don't play that game.

That's why I don't play many online games... lol

[Eltigro]

I don't have a huge collection. I do have a few games I'm not really that interested in, but it's mainly because they were part of a lot that I got or something. For example, I have Rocky for the Master System. It was part of the auction when I got it on ebay back in like '04 or so... I wouldn't have bought it separate. It's not that great a game. I'm not going for any complete sets or anything. But since I have it, I'll keep it. There are several other games like that in my collection. If I buy a game these days, it's because I want that game. Last retro game I bought separate was Shinobi for the SMS. It was cart only. I'm gonna play it, not let it be a shelf queen, so I don't care that it doesn't have the case or manual. It would've been nice to have those, but not necessary.

 

Mainly, I don't collect just to collect. The games in my collection, for the most part, are there because I like them or they hold some meaning for me. The others are games that "came with the frame" so to speak.

[TheTIGuy]

[+swlovinist]

Well, this has been a lively topic. Alot of factors to consider before I wade into this debate so here it goes. Gaming and collecting are two different things.

 

YouTube has not ruined gaming. If anything YouTube has gotten people to play roms that were forgotten about. Where it differs is gamers who collect on the side.

 

YouTube has impacted collecting the physical media and original devices. Increased awareness plus media spotlight equals a drive in demand. This affects prices.

 

So yes if you are gaming on original hardware and pursuing physical media to play stuff you will now pay more. Buying just cart/cd only to play a game means that the prices will still be lower than a complete in box copy. Did Youtube cause this? Probably, along with people remembering games that they grew up with and now have disposable income.

 

As a major collector, I try to offer a channel to bring awareness to those who want to collect things. My channel is far from perfect. I also guest on MJR to again inform collectors on what is out there.

 

The issue I see more and more with the market is that with the increased value of things, it attracts a type of person who want to use videogames as an investment. More and more people get caught up in the price of things, when to flip a game for profit, and looking to buy low and sell high. Not everyone is doing this, but there is enough people doing it to make other annoyed.

 

For the issue of YouTubers who are being sensational or are giving misinformed info about things, just dont watch their channel.