Topic: I miss the good old days of gaming...

[NWR_pap64]

WARNING! BRAIN FART APPROACHING!

When discussing RE 0, MK Wii, Brawl and many other games I realized something; I miss the days in which we just waited for a game to come out and we either enjoyed it or hated it. Then we moved along to the next game that came along. The worst it ever got was when the concept of being a fanboy was born and you got into heated arguments about your favorite games and companies capitalized on that (I'm looking at you, Sega and Nintendo!).

But now thanks to the internet it allows us to further discuss gaming, read into the details of a game's development cycle and the expectations of its release. And I think it might be destroying gaming...

Now some of you will either agree or disagree with me, but hear me out. What I mean is that when you were younger you didn't have any expectations. You either bought or rented the games, if it was good the world was well, if it was bad a lot of hearts were crushed. You didn't dissect it or questioned its value. It was a game and that's it...A game that you played on a certain console.

Nowadays, we can't help but look at a game and dissect the living hell out of it. Same deal with the latest consoles.

Nintendo has betrayed us, Brawl lacks potential, HD gaming is the next best thing, games cost way too much, X game is going to be X console's killer app, if X game flops the studio will stop supporting X console, X game is a cheap port we don't want it, if you want X game to be released sign the petition, Sony sucks and the PSP and PS3 are flopping, the 360 has a high failure rate and the list goes on and on...

While I admit its fun discussing our favorite hobby I think we are looking way too much into them and ruining their main essence; which is to bring us hours of fun.

I remember when the original SSB 64 was released and it was this silly and extremely fun game featuring our favorite Nintendo characters. Now, its a juggernaut that I think is taking itself way too seriously.

Goldeneye was just a very good 4 player game. Now, every game that follows its multiplayer formula has to be grand, be online, offer a crapload or options or else it will flop.

Now, I know that this is the product of the videogame world evolving from a mere hobby to a massive industry and that our nerdy nature will not prevent us from looking at a game and discuss it. This has it pros as well. I mean, if we didn't have the net and forums like NWR to discuss games like Ninjabread Man and Vampire Rain would sell by the dozens because we would have no idea how hard they suck.

Plus, games need to evolve, otherwise the industry wouldn't be as successful as it is today and games would be stuck in the dark ages.

Once again, what I am saying is that maybe we are taking gaming a little too literary and now can't look at a game without either thinking is has a crapload of potential or be bitter about it, and we should just chill out a bit and enjoy them. If a game or system doesn't tickle your fancy, fine. If you want to eagerly play a game, fine.

[bustin98]

I would say that I have become more jaded in regards to the video game industry. But I think that is the result of being a fan of an industry and not having control over the direction of the industry.

When I first started reading comics as a lad, I would bring home these awesome tales and I just could not wait to digest the contents time and time again. Then as I became knowledgable about how the industry works, even owning a shop and attending industry events, the luster grew dull and I longed for a time previous. Too many foil covers, incentive covers, guest artists covers, cross-overs, delayed promises, etc..., destroyed the love affair. Even now I cannot raise enough interest to hunt down a comic shop just to browse the latest books.

A parallel is being drawn with video games. I have been exposed to ideas and thoughts about video games that perhaps I would not have if not for the Internet. With the N64, my life with video games began anew. And I bought so many games based not on previews and reviews but commercials and boxart. With the Gamecube I tried to be as open, but I was stung a few times with my previous practice. So I began looking for information. Pandora's Box was opened. I flung myself down the path of the fanboy, even paying for a year to IGN.

Now, I can't wait for the next juicy tidbit of info. And when it comes I am always thinking 'thats fine, but not as cool as the hype wanted me to think', and the downward spiral begins til that little rumor of the next big thing pops up on the Net. I find myself measuring time not by days or weeks but by release dates, wether its a release date of actual product or the date that more details can be released. (It wasn't called 'May', it was 'the month E3 comes around').

I do it to myself, and to fix it means I have to drop my habits and community memberships. I still enjoy the great games. I just do not give lesser games the chance they need, and I grow weary of 'could have been's.

[NWR_pap64]

Yeah, learning how the industry works also takes away a lot of charm. I mean, I doubt the industry has changed that much in the last few years (save for a few things, like take overs etc.), but learning about it after so many years of ignorance does take a toll on your enjoyment.

[Adrock]

The good ol' days of gaming are gone because I'm in my 20s. It'll never be the same as it was. I don't blame the internet. I blame growing up. Sure, I didn't have the internet when I was younger, but that's besides the point. My brother is 14. The internet was always there, he just never used it to look up videogames news and announcements. He starting to get into it because he knows he can.

[Sessha]

I think there is a definite case of too much information.  You may love hotdogs but you may not want to see how they are made.  And after seeing it you can probably never look at it the same way.  

And like Adrock says is simply we grow up.  True when I was younger I loved games but I also loved watching Taekwon V (Korean equavilant of a children Gundam show) As we get older our tastes change and we begin to crave not only fun but we want to know why we like them.  Star Wars was a movie I loved when I was a kid and it wasn't until I was older did I realize how much thought and history was weaved into the story. 

[NWR_pap64]

Once again, I certainly agree with the "growing up" sentiment as getting a better perception of life changes things dramatically. However, its all about perception. Who says you can't be a 20, 30 or even 40 year old and enjoy games as if you were 10?

The way I see it, adults have the tendency of over analyze things. We forget to turn off our better judgment and just have fun with something. Its a nature of living, but we sometimes forget to realize that we have more control over our perception and we can alter the way we do things.

[Dasmos]

Oh wow. Solution: Stop taking it so seriously.

[KDR_11k]

Meh, I've mostly stopped caring about game news, I have no idea what's supposed to come out in 2008. I do use reviews heavily though, my money is too precious to waste on a 60 Euro piece of crap.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm the opposite of KDR, I can't get enough news and previews, but I try to rely on reviews as little as possible. I use the (usually positive) previews to learn about games, and then I buy what I think I'll like. Of the 20-some Wii games I've bought with this method I only regret one, and it's a game that got pretty good reviews (at least from NWR), Star Trek: Conquest. That includes games like Heatseeker and Alien Syndrome that got bad reviews but I enjoyed and am still glad I bought.

[Sessha]

KDR is right reviews are very important.  Because no one wants to be Kairon.

[Ian Sane]

"I don't blame the internet. I blame growing up."

I agree.  I think the internet is somewhat of a red herring because for most of us it didn't exist when we were kids.

As a kid it wasn't my money being spent on the game.  Most games I played at friends houses or on very rare occasions my parents paid for me to rent them or on even rarer occasions I got one for birthday or Christmas.  You become a smarter shopper when YOU are forking up the dough.

And as an adult you see EVERYTHING in a different light.  In some cases you're more critical but in some cases you're more open-minded.

I have cut back on looking up too much info about games so that I go in more fresh but at the same time that might just be because I find as I get older other things are grabbing my interest more than games.

I don't know THAT much about SSB Brawl however and that will make it more entertaining to play.  I know about Sonic and Snake but you know what?  As a kid some kid at school would have revealed that anyway.

[KDR_11k]

I've always bought games on a limited budget but without the internet didn't have the means to get reviews for most of them. I don't have a single RPG for my SNES (discounting Secret of Evermore because I bought that somewhat recently) despite the system being famous for its RPGs since I never heard about many of them and couldn't afford the rest (120 DM is a lot when your allowance is maybe 30-40). I mostly bought games from fleamarkets or for the Gameboy because the SNES was just so freaking expensive. Birthdays were the few occassions that let me buy a new game at full price. And yes, I'd still pay with my own money, I'd just get money gifts from relatives (even without money, "you can only have one game" is still a budget).

[darknight06]

What made the older days of gaming better to me, especially the 2600 and NES era, was that this was the main time period where a lot of stuff that was being made was NEW NEW NEW, and the new was amazing despite the graphics and simplicity.  I think another big thing at least for me, is that these were the eras that everybody around me was playing video games, dad, mom, aunt and uncle, grandpa, grandma, everyone.  Even bigger though, was the idea that in both eras, one console was all the majority of people would ever need.  Most any interesting game you ever wanted to have was going to be on your console, whether it's arcade ports like TMNT2, or Atari Ms. Pacman, or cool original stuff like Ketstone Kapers and Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden.  There wasn't anything of this backstabbing userbase **** like there is now and has been since the SNES/Genesis days.  You got the third party stuff along with the first party offerings and there was none of this "we can't sell on the console due to high first party sales, so we'll leave it alone." BS.

To be very honest here, this may very well be my last console generation unless some huge industry shakedown/revolution happens.  Owning video game systems for the most part isn't fun anymore, having you throw down $1,000 plus a generation along whatever other payments they decide to shove down your throat just so you can get full library access is not only prohibitive, it's insane especially for something that's just a damn game.

[Nick DiMola]

One day when kids now reach our age, they will be saying the same thing. The internet has so little to do with it. It is all about growing up. As time passes, your time and dedication to actually playing the games you enjoy decreases dramatically due to real life obligations. When I was a kid, I could sit in my basement and play a game for a whole week straight and not bat an eye. Now I can barely find time to play a song on Guitar Hero, or a quick 5 minutes with my DS. Weekends here or there I have a good chunk of time to dedicate to gaming, but those are few and far between.

I still revel in everything gaming. It is my true passion in life and the one thing outside of my family that really makes me happy. I like to know as much as there is to know and own as many great games as I can, but I can't enjoy those games the way I used to.

In many ways, if gaming was your passion as a kid and still continues to pique your interest now, gaming can be seen as a microcosm for your entire experience in life thus far. As a kid you can enjoy all things in life to a much fuller degree due to the lack of obligation than you can now.

Of course, you have the flip side where you are experienced and weathered and as a result your eye for gaming is more developed and experienced. The fact that everything is critiqued so heavily is because of the lack of time and funds you have, you want to make sure you invest your hard earned money and limited time into something spectacular. It really all goes together. That's at least my 2 cents on the whole thing.

[Maverick]

I agree with just about everything Mr. Jack just said.  Now that I'm grown and working a full time job, I have to balance that, house work, yard work, a relationship, taking care of a pet, etc...  I just don't have the time I used to have to dedicate to my favorite pastime.  Nor do I have people making these purchases for me anymore.  It's MY money going into these products and MY time being spent on them, so I do considerable research.

Every now and then I do an impulse buy, such as my recent purchase of Umbrella Chronicles, and although I'm enjoying the game, it is in no way worth 50 dollars.  I kind of feel swindled, but it's my own fault.  I KNEW it wasn't worth that much, and was planning on waiting to buy it when it went down to 20/30 dollars.

In conclusion, I want to be 12 again. 

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Actually, we just need a 1-console future.

[KnowsNothing]

Yeah, it's all about growing up.  It's not that you enjoyed games more as a kid, it's that you enjoyed EVERYTHING more as a kid.  That's just life.

Mr. Jack put it very well.

[Ian Sane]

My brother has noted one thing when we compare today to the "good ole days".  This applies to movies, TV, music, videogames and damn near anything else to do with entertainment.  As he puts it "cool stuff isn't cool anymore."  He notes how in 2D era of videogames stuff like ninjas and tough guys beating up punks and Rambo knock-offs taking out entire armies was common subject material.  That's cool stuff and today's games don't have that.  Though the thing is kids today think that hip-hop culture and Pokemon-esque knock-offs and faux anime and all that stuff that us old farts can't stand IS cool to them.  Emo and metrosexuality is popular these days.  In comparison to the 80's it can come across as a culture of sissies.

Though I do find the 2000's to be a REALLY lame ass decade even from the perspective of stuff targetted towards adults.  I would probably struggle to fill even a whole CD of music from this decade that I liked while in any decade from the 60's to the 90's I could probably fill an entire iPod and still have good stuff left off.  This decade seems to be associated with texting on cellphones and Facebook and iPods and stuff like that which I don't have anything to do with.  Everyone is tethered to some small portable electronic.  I have talked with other people my age who also feel equally out of touch.  I think things just change so fast now that you can become an old fuddy duddy before even turning 20 where as before you were probably fine until at least 30.  In the future we'll probably have people encountering a generation gap with people only five years younger than them.  Hell I already can't relate at all to people who are 10 or even like 8 years younger.

[Kairon]

I don't get it. It's very easy not to be cynical. All you have to be is naive.

It's really refreshing! Accept everything at face value and you accept delays (they should've delayed Brawl a second time, I swear...) and you just enjoy games for what they are(if they're bad games, put them down as soon as you stop having fun, if they're good, enjoy them as long as you have time to play them).

[bustin98]

I enjoyed gaming on the N64 more than the NES. I was 23 or so when the N64 came out. Its not exactly about growing up, but rather growth in the relationship between you and your hobby. And that growth doesn't have to be in one direction.

I've accepted that my relationship with games has changed over the years, but I still enjoy gaming. I can go back to older games and still have fun along with anticipating what the future holds. When that changes is when I think I'll be too old and jaded for anything.

[Kairon]

That's brilliant bustin98, and you're so right. It's your relationship to gaming that defines "the good 'ol days." And when that relationship changes to one of doubt, skepticism, non-belief and becomes bogged down in the specifics of the way things work instead of how much fun you're having, then I can see where jaded viewpoints emerge from.

[NWR_insanolord]

My relationship with the games industry is the same as my relationship with the Cleveland Browns. I'm disappointed with them a lot and I sometimes get extremely mad about one specific thing they've done, but no matter how bad shape they're in I always stay optimistic for the future and believe that things can and will improve.

[KnowsNothing]

Brawl SHOULD have been delayed again.  I completely agree.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Always optimistic and never happy?  We must be Nintendo fans.

[NWR_insanolord]

I forgot to put happy in there, I really did mean to.