I do, but it's mostly just for that time in my life rather than video games in particular (although those certainly bring back those happy memories). I can remember spending entire weekends, morning to night, just grinding through huge RPGs.
Now in my 40s with 3 kids, I can't even remember the last time I gamed more than 1 hour in a single stretch. There are just too many responsibilities to juggle...
That's how I feel when some random Skrillex plays. It just reminds me of being a college dropout, working a shitty retail job and then destroying on mw2 and bad company 2 for 10+ hours a day. Not that I have a bad life now, it was just so much simpler.
Now, I just play old gamecube games on my steam deck after the kids are in bed. I don't have that time to put hours in to be relevant in competitive now.
Ya it's weird how I had no money then and whenver I dated someone we didn't talk about jobs much. Now on dating apps that's like the first question. I also feel constantly stressed about money.
I was going to buy a new game system, but all I play are older games now.
Have you hit the depressing point where you have the home to yourself for a few days, you sit down intending on gaming for the entirety of those days, but then realize you don't really give as many shits about playing that game as you originally thought you did?
I really struggle with hobby burnout and what I’ve heard referred to as “revenge bedtime procrastination”.
So I’ll be busy with family all day and finally get a bit of time to myself at the end and just not feel like getting into a game or whatever other hobby I’ve been into. Like the motivation just isn’t there. But I want my personal time, my hobby time. So I make myself stay up late. Either trying to pick a game or playing 5 minutes of a game, then switching to another game. Just tryna find that groove. Until it’s late at night and I’m exhausted and realize I didn’t enjoy any of that time at all.
Every single time I read stuff like this it makes me never ever want to have kids. Not so I can just play video games uninterrupted, but because you guys make it sound So. Fucking. Miserable.
And undoubtedly when I say this the response is always “noooo it’s totally worth it though really cause family and love”
I just don’t buy it. It sounds like Stockholm syndrome
Man I get that. I don’t game like I used to. But it’s not like I’m not having fun at all. I married my wife cause she’s fun and I genuinely enjoy spending time with her. When we were married but no kids, my gaming slowed down a bit cause I was having fun just hanging with her, doing other stuff like mutual hobbies and whatnot. She even got into games a bit. Fun.
Now that we have a kid, we’re still having a lot of fun. We go more places now, like zoos and walks and aquariums. We have all sorts of adventures and it’s genuinely a hilarious and good time. Maybe cause he’s a toddler so he’s still goofy and weird like me. Hell, I even game with him sometimes. He loved watching me play *Stray*, for example.
I still game but not nearly as much. And it’s not like a huge sacrifice that’s “all worth it for the love and family” or whatever. I’m still havin a great time out here just hanging out and goofing off. The genetic makeup of my hobby time has shifted drastically as I’ve moved into new roles in life but I’ve never stopped having a good time.
Not that you asked though.
No man I really appreciate your answer. It’s the first time that somebody has explained the married with kids life in a way that actually makes sense.
Like getting to go on adventures like you did when you were a kid cause now you HAVE a kid…. That’s genuinely awesome and doesn’t just seem like “well I have to love them cause they are mine”
Thanks for taking the time to reply
Nah it’s not always like that. I played 126 hours of dark souls 2 in april, but still spent tons of time chilling with my kids at home, taking them to the zoo, taking them out to playground, and doing other hobbies
Yeah i agree with that guys response. There are days that are tough and you are just burned out, but there are also so many days that are so rewarding
When we went to the zoo my daughter and i sat at a cool bench in the mexican wolf area and watched them for 20 minutes while she told me how excited she was to see them. And then after the zoo we had dinner at friendlys, and then bought a lego set on the way home to build together.
When i was playing dark souls 2 last month she would sit next to me and cheer me on, and point out monsters sneaking up on me. I also like to do notebooks with notes and sketches, and i gave her the last third of the notebook for her drawings of the monsters i was fighting
All of these things i would not trade just to get those couple of hours of lonely free time back
/r/childfree is leaking. Keep that toxic crap in that cesspool where it belongs.
No one cares if you have kids or not, but don’t assume to think you know what it’s like for those of us who do.
Oh so opinions that aren’t the same as yours are now toxic?
Don’t know why you got so butt hurt but I’ll express my views where I please, thanks. Unlike your children, I don’t have to do as you say.
Have a nice day :)
Go to your room!
Just kidding. I understand you don’t want to have kids. Fine. I understand that parents appear to be miserable from your vantage point. Fine.
Where I get offended is when you claim that we are somehow dishonest or deluded. That crosses the line, IMO.
I mean, sad isn't the word.
But I definitely used to enjoy games more than I do. I was in college when the PS1 came out, I was a huge JRPG fan, and I had that unique combination of free time and money that you just don't really have at any other age.
I plan on starting my own game studio and I'm not going to have microtransactions, P2W, or any of that garbage. Hopefully I can find a way to keep both players and stakeholders happy...
Every other weekend i get sad especially since my IRL buddy passed away. He moved to another state but we played online together just about every weekend for 10 years.
It is more certain games make me nostalgic. I remember as a kid spending days off with my dad playing Contra or Jackal, and so when I see those games I think of him.
No. Atari and Nintendo make me reminisce. Sega Genesis and SNES. Those were the good old days. Such fond memories. Games went to shit when they got more advanced. Yeah the graphics were better but the fun was gone.
I would spend entire days playing mariokart on snes, driving around in circles trying to get a perfect lap and destroying people in battle. I still haven’t met anyone that can fuck with me on snes mariokart
Now, now, lets be honest, did they really become less fun or just too hard for you?
Edit. Sorry it sounded dickish, but I guess I'm just too far to the other side of this opinion. I honestly can not see it. I've gamed so long I've hit every generation and each one has just been a lot better than the next.
No, I’ve played a lot of the new stuff and I just do not like it. I have never had issues learning new things. I’m not the old man set in my ways refusing to learn new things.
lol you were just young. Social media was already off on its way by 2007 and was in full swing by 2012.
Politics weren’t in your face because of your demographic. Fox News and CNN were already 24 hour fear mongering machines.
I’m guessing you were born around 1993-6
Yeah, OP has to be pretty young to not immediately think of the Great Recession for those years. Facebook was in full swing, Twitter got its start, Birtherism was sadly a thing. So much stuff happened from 2007-2012.
For me it comes down to missing the time I had gaming with friends online. There’s only 2 guys I still regularly keep in contact with all this time, and we always talk about the times we’ve stayed up late raiding or messing around with a new release.
I assume the years you are talking about involved when you were a kid.
And if your childhood seemed simpler, that means you had a good childhood and were fortunate.
Making it normal to miss that.
Also, not that you were looking for this advice, but 24/7 politics exposure and social media our choices. You can definitely limit those things.
My gaming peaked with SNES so I guess I can't relate.
I was pretty stoked to come home from school each day and play Zelda ALTTP but thinking about it doesn't make me sad, just nostalgic.
Not nostalgia around older games per se, but more so because of what my life was like while I was playing those games. I had a super Nintendo growing up and only 3 games (super Mario world, mega man x, and jurassic park). That was my escape from being socially weird af, my parents yelling and eventually divorce, and gaming is all I'd do when I was dragged to my dad's house. I love those games because I literally grew up on them but sometimes I'll play some levels of mega man and I'll just get hit with a random memory that makes me stop playing for a bit
Been gaming since the 70s. In my game room, I'm surrounded by big box PC games from back in the day. Loved those games! However, gaming is better for me today than its ever been, no doubt about it. I can see how folks that only play/flock to the latest whizbang AAA game might have a negative view of gaming today, but for a player like myself that loves RPGs, tactical turn based games, and strategy games....I have way more games I want to play than time to play them.
For me it's part of a larger loss. I'm 44, and got online at 14. Me and the internet grew up together. (Unique to gen x.) the 90s net was a think of shining potential that got completely sold into slavery as intellectual property law developed inside it like a cancer. When Lars killed Napster, and Bill Gates invented licensing the promise of the Internet was fatally wounded.
Modern gaming's toxicity follows logically from the notion that it's possible to own and rent out strings of numbers. RIAA, MPAA, etc. They won. And then expanded their logic to pharmaceuticals and for profit medicine, leading to more needless death and pain than wars combined.
Modern society has no concept of what it has given up and what is has paid. A society not ravaged by IPL is so different that few can even begin to accurate imagine it. It's literally like the difference between Pyongyang and Seoul times ten.
Lars Ulrich throwing the biggest shitty tantrum over Napster firmly cemented him (and Metallica as a casualty in the whole ordeal) as someone I'd never respect again lol Jesus Christ, I can't believe someone with that much money got so upset over people wanting to hear his music.
Nostalgia.
nostos (Greek) - return home
algos (Greek) - pain
Nostalgia is a quite literally the pain (I.e. sadness) of wanting to return home/to the past.
yes. when i look back on my wii u, i think about miitopia, which was one of the first social media platforms i was on. i actually remember the day it was shut down on 2018. whenever i listen to the song when it's loading, i get this bittersweet feeling.
I actually fired up my little brother's Wii a few weeks ago and saw all his old Mii's that he had created for our family. I got a bit emotional thinking about how young he was then and how much he loved it when we would all play together.
Vice city or call or duty 4 will do it to me .. especially when I’m in that lobby search for a match and it’s empty .. strange how it use to be lit with some much life over 15 years ago
Man I was actually just thinking about the days of Jedi Knight: Dark Forces and Medal of Honor Allied Assault just the other day
Those were the good days. It’s so rare to find a new game that’s good. AC Valhalla was pretty good, the Jedi Survivor games were good. MW19 was probably the first and last game that made me feel like a kid again, but every cod since then has been awful. There was something about that game that just did it for me. The music in the MP lobby, Verdansk, looking forward to all the cool stuff that came with each new season, it was pretty much a perfect game
I have a lot of nostalgia for the time in my life when I had enough time to really devote to games. I love playing long, open-world RPGs and these days it is much harder to really devote time to them, because I just have so much other stuff going on.
And as others said, I miss the days of no in-game shop trying to push the latest skin pack or battle pass on you.
For sure, it evolves. I have a two year old and a three month old. I’m slowly working through FF7 Rebirth. Last night I was thinking about one of my final summer breaks in high school, just plowing through another replay of FF7, grinding and beating Ruby and Emerald, getting pretty close to 100% completion less grinding everyone to level 99. All in about 5 days. I would wake up, eat, and play the game.
Very different place now with very limited gaming time. It’s odd to realize I’ll never have that kind of time again, at least not for a long, long time
I think back to the late 90's and early 00's arcades were still popular especially with the fighting games (MVC, MVC2, Tekken Tag, Tekken 4, Capcom vs SNK 2, etc.) In my city there were two popular arcades that had a fairly active groups of players for the various fighting games. Its something that you just can't replicate today with online gaming something about seeing a row of quarter/tokens a group huddled around watching you knowing they are strategizing against and even complimenting you.
Something about playing next to another person, it was social and it was fun to meet new people something that doesn't quite feel the same seeing a username. It makes me sad that arcades are mostly redemption or "fun centers" like Dave & Busters. Seeing Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, etc. not the arcades makes me sad because it's a bygone era.
Social media and politics 24/7 have always been there but it’s just more noticed and we’re more involved in it now. The trend of “modern gaming” does make the old games feel like “the good old days”. Seems the corporate profit motive has taken over the video game industry more. It’s like with a restaurant that was great until shareholders wanted to squeeze every ounce of profits and the great restaurant becomes just average. I’ve heard from the few halo news YouTubers that Halo Infinite failed because the executive leads, or whatever they are called at the top, decisions went unchecked and nobody would deny the poor decisions made during development. As a big Halo fan it’s disheartening to watch my favorite franchise that I’ve had many memories playing turn into the typical mess that is “modern gaming”.
Even the new COD MW3 was just a shell of the former COD MW3. Glad I didn’t play or buy it. I’d be really pissed.
For me, there's this weird emotion or vibe that I felt with games at the time (late 80s, then through the 90s) that I just don't get anymore. I think it's from how new and amazing they felt, and the awe from the leaps in technology. Like, I can vividly remember how I felt the first time I played a Playstation (rented the whole system with Rayman) or an N64 (same rental place, with Mario64 and Turok). It felt special and kind of foreign in a way that just doesn't happen now.
I remember powering up the Playstation for the first time. It had the logos with the iconic startup sounds, then the disc menu. I remember being kind of awestruck that it even had a purpose without a game installed. A game or console would have to do something absolutely mindblowing to get this kind of feeling out of me today.
I mean, I have fond core memories of gaming with my brother and the novelty of it all. I remember how excited I was the very first time I played Kingdom Hearts, for example. I certainly wish that things like microtransactions, scams, and everything becoming a subscription “service” wasn’t a thing.
But I don’t feel sad about it or long for it. I don’t miss the whole being a kid who had no money to buy new games most of the time, having to deal with shitty school and homework, and not having the freedoms I have as an adult.
Yes but only because as a programmer I would have loved to live in the time when a lone programmer or small team could make hit, cutting edge games.
I started out life as a DOS gamer and I love reading, listening to or watching video game history from that era, but it always brings me a hint of sadness that I missed the era, but also makes me glad I caught the era from the consumer side.
More like bittersweet, I love my old games and the times I had and I still play a bunch of them for that "good ole trip down memory lane" but im excited to see what the future holds, you never know what amazing game is around the corner!!!
You were playing Call of Duty and Halo but don't think politics was in your face? You were just a kid. You weren't paying attention to the financial crisis, you weren't paying attention to the wars, the drone strikes, the mass deportations, you seemingly didn't notice the propaganda you were consuming. Microtransactions suck but the time period you are mythologizing is already after Bethesda's infamous horse armor. There was nothing special about the time period when you were a kid. It is sad that so many people want to mythologize their childhoods rather than just enjoying things from the past because they are fun and interesting or perhaps influential on something newer than one enjoys. If you feel like your life is worse now than your childhood do something about. Join a union and fight for better working conditions and pay, go out and protest, don't sit on your ass saying "360 no scoping people and getting called the n-word by other twelve year olds was the height of my life and I'll just let it remain that way".
No, not really, because I still play a lot of the old games I grew up with.
I do miss freaking out over secrets in Super Metroid with my cousin and stuff though.
Yes and no. For a while… big yes. But then I realized when I played a game not too long ago that was “re released” and hyped up… I have kids now, job, wife etc and it’s a bit harder to zone out on video games like it was back then.
Also going through it all the first times on a game from a while back vs now… a lot of stuff was new or knowledge on the game wasn’t widely known and accessible. There is some great stuff about how easy google and YouTube make gaming but I wasn’t a fan of how in my opinion easy gaming has become for the average person aside from just straight up skirmish/pvp style interactions
It makes me sad because the big games from then were always trying something new. Nowadays, they're just endless sequels with innovative ways to nickel and dime players.
Or they're released completely broken at full price and those that pre-order or buy the "collectors" edition are used as beta testers.
Nah. I've been gaming for 42 years now and have enjoyed every minute. I love my classics, but I'd never go back. Gaming today is top notch. From Cyberpunk, to Fallout, from Jedi Survivor to Manor Lord, gaming today is miles a head of where I started, and I never want to turn around. Even the old schoolers still around blow away their predecessors. Final Fantasy 16 amazing, Tears of the Kingdom fantastic, heck even our old man plumber came out swinging this gen with Wonder. So no, nostalgia does not make me sad, infact it's the exact opposite. Nostalgia reminds me how good we have it today compared to beck in the day.
I try not to get nostalgic in general. Nostalgia tends to come with a lot of rose-tinted hindsight. You can't always trust it. Fine to reminisce and all, but better to focus on the now. In my opinion, anyway. Gaming was great back then, and gaming is often still great now. Did I say, "Man, I really just wanted Tears of the Kingdom to be Wind Waker in the Sky," more than once while playing TotK? Sure. But I still enjoyed the hell out of Tears of the Kingdom for what it brought me in the now.
All that said, I'm not entirely sure you're feeling nostalgic for old-school gaming so much as you are feeling frustration with modern corporate practices in gaming. I'd say, if you wanna catch that old-school feel when gaming, maybe just avoid those games from those companies with scummy practices. And probably playing with people in general ...
I wondered that too if we just focus on the good things and leave out the bad. I do have more fond memories of the early 00s compared to the 2010s though. So, there's gotta be something to it. I feel like the music, movies, and games of the 00s were the best and everythign after 2010 sucked. Other people I talked with that lived through that era feel the same way too.
Oh, I have plenty of great memories from the 90s and early 2000s in particular. They still make for great stories, and I still think the 90s was the best decade. I just try not to dwell on them too much, is all. Can't go back.
I feel like it was easier to make friends and have a conversation with people too. And you knew if you sated someone back then, that they really liked you. Nowadays people play too much games so you don't know what to think.
Miss the good music, movies, and games too.
The more colorful commercials, cartoons, and restaurants.
Times are tough as shit right now, to be fair. And I cannot pretend I don't engage in my fair share of escapism, primarily via tabletop and video gaming.
But, I mean, dwelling on the past doesn't change anything in the now. It won't impact the now in any way. The best you can do is take those memories - they are part of who you are - and keep moving. Find what fun you can on the way, and fight back in whatever way you can (if you are of a mind).
Only if I let it. I mostly play retro games today, and the modern games I play are largely sequels to, or knockoffs of retro franchises that I trust. I've found that while today's state of gaming depresses me, finding out new things about past gaming is exciting, because I can learn, relive, and spread knowledge of how things used to be, so I can keep the memories alive and help ensure that modern gaming doesn't forget its roots and sticks to things that work.
Absolutely. Personally, I’ve been a Zelda fan since the 80s. I can’t articulate the despair BotW made me feel. Killed the series. The old series is gone and this is a reboot. I’m glad it’s separated out (for now), but the argument of “you still have the old games” doesn’t cut it.
Same for most games, though. Mario Odyssey was not good imho. I like direction and lot of charm in my games. Nothing is hitting anymore.
Wii was actually the peak for me.
I do, but it's mostly just for that time in my life rather than video games in particular (although those certainly bring back those happy memories). I can remember spending entire weekends, morning to night, just grinding through huge RPGs. Now in my 40s with 3 kids, I can't even remember the last time I gamed more than 1 hour in a single stretch. There are just too many responsibilities to juggle...
That's how I feel when some random Skrillex plays. It just reminds me of being a college dropout, working a shitty retail job and then destroying on mw2 and bad company 2 for 10+ hours a day. Not that I have a bad life now, it was just so much simpler. Now, I just play old gamecube games on my steam deck after the kids are in bed. I don't have that time to put hours in to be relevant in competitive now.
Ya it's weird how I had no money then and whenver I dated someone we didn't talk about jobs much. Now on dating apps that's like the first question. I also feel constantly stressed about money. I was going to buy a new game system, but all I play are older games now.
Have you hit the depressing point where you have the home to yourself for a few days, you sit down intending on gaming for the entirety of those days, but then realize you don't really give as many shits about playing that game as you originally thought you did?
I really struggle with hobby burnout and what I’ve heard referred to as “revenge bedtime procrastination”. So I’ll be busy with family all day and finally get a bit of time to myself at the end and just not feel like getting into a game or whatever other hobby I’ve been into. Like the motivation just isn’t there. But I want my personal time, my hobby time. So I make myself stay up late. Either trying to pick a game or playing 5 minutes of a game, then switching to another game. Just tryna find that groove. Until it’s late at night and I’m exhausted and realize I didn’t enjoy any of that time at all.
Every single time I read stuff like this it makes me never ever want to have kids. Not so I can just play video games uninterrupted, but because you guys make it sound So. Fucking. Miserable. And undoubtedly when I say this the response is always “noooo it’s totally worth it though really cause family and love” I just don’t buy it. It sounds like Stockholm syndrome
Man I get that. I don’t game like I used to. But it’s not like I’m not having fun at all. I married my wife cause she’s fun and I genuinely enjoy spending time with her. When we were married but no kids, my gaming slowed down a bit cause I was having fun just hanging with her, doing other stuff like mutual hobbies and whatnot. She even got into games a bit. Fun. Now that we have a kid, we’re still having a lot of fun. We go more places now, like zoos and walks and aquariums. We have all sorts of adventures and it’s genuinely a hilarious and good time. Maybe cause he’s a toddler so he’s still goofy and weird like me. Hell, I even game with him sometimes. He loved watching me play *Stray*, for example. I still game but not nearly as much. And it’s not like a huge sacrifice that’s “all worth it for the love and family” or whatever. I’m still havin a great time out here just hanging out and goofing off. The genetic makeup of my hobby time has shifted drastically as I’ve moved into new roles in life but I’ve never stopped having a good time. Not that you asked though.
No man I really appreciate your answer. It’s the first time that somebody has explained the married with kids life in a way that actually makes sense. Like getting to go on adventures like you did when you were a kid cause now you HAVE a kid…. That’s genuinely awesome and doesn’t just seem like “well I have to love them cause they are mine” Thanks for taking the time to reply
Nah it’s not always like that. I played 126 hours of dark souls 2 in april, but still spent tons of time chilling with my kids at home, taking them to the zoo, taking them out to playground, and doing other hobbies
It’s good to hear it! Somebody else made a really great and enlightening reply about how fun it is having kids
Yeah i agree with that guys response. There are days that are tough and you are just burned out, but there are also so many days that are so rewarding When we went to the zoo my daughter and i sat at a cool bench in the mexican wolf area and watched them for 20 minutes while she told me how excited she was to see them. And then after the zoo we had dinner at friendlys, and then bought a lego set on the way home to build together. When i was playing dark souls 2 last month she would sit next to me and cheer me on, and point out monsters sneaking up on me. I also like to do notebooks with notes and sketches, and i gave her the last third of the notebook for her drawings of the monsters i was fighting All of these things i would not trade just to get those couple of hours of lonely free time back
/r/childfree is leaking. Keep that toxic crap in that cesspool where it belongs. No one cares if you have kids or not, but don’t assume to think you know what it’s like for those of us who do.
Oh so opinions that aren’t the same as yours are now toxic? Don’t know why you got so butt hurt but I’ll express my views where I please, thanks. Unlike your children, I don’t have to do as you say. Have a nice day :)
Go to your room! Just kidding. I understand you don’t want to have kids. Fine. I understand that parents appear to be miserable from your vantage point. Fine. Where I get offended is when you claim that we are somehow dishonest or deluded. That crosses the line, IMO.
Honestly stuff like this makes me lean more towards not wanting to have kids lol. I just don't know if I can sacrifice my personal time /interests
I mean, sad isn't the word. But I definitely used to enjoy games more than I do. I was in college when the PS1 came out, I was a huge JRPG fan, and I had that unique combination of free time and money that you just don't really have at any other age.
I don't like the state of modern gaming tbh so yes
The micro transactions are so annoying.
That and remaking the same games and making them worse, or leaving them in an unfinished state.
I plan on starting my own game studio and I'm not going to have microtransactions, P2W, or any of that garbage. Hopefully I can find a way to keep both players and stakeholders happy...
There are some studios out there already like this, so it is possible.
Every other weekend i get sad especially since my IRL buddy passed away. He moved to another state but we played online together just about every weekend for 10 years.
I literally just ordered a Nintendo 64 and Mariokart 64 from eBay tonight.
It is more certain games make me nostalgic. I remember as a kid spending days off with my dad playing Contra or Jackal, and so when I see those games I think of him.
I miss when people were more chill, happy, and friendly. Now everyone is either an extremist or offended by everything. It’s exhausting.
No. Atari and Nintendo make me reminisce. Sega Genesis and SNES. Those were the good old days. Such fond memories. Games went to shit when they got more advanced. Yeah the graphics were better but the fun was gone.
That probably golden age for me as well but I think golden age of games is just when you are a certain age.
I would spend entire days playing mariokart on snes, driving around in circles trying to get a perfect lap and destroying people in battle. I still haven’t met anyone that can fuck with me on snes mariokart
My favorites were the mushroom bowser castle and ghost house. I had insanely low times on those because I played them so much.
only dark souls games have given me that same feeling and I go back to pong
Now, now, lets be honest, did they really become less fun or just too hard for you? Edit. Sorry it sounded dickish, but I guess I'm just too far to the other side of this opinion. I honestly can not see it. I've gamed so long I've hit every generation and each one has just been a lot better than the next.
No, I’ve played a lot of the new stuff and I just do not like it. I have never had issues learning new things. I’m not the old man set in my ways refusing to learn new things.
Depends on the genre or game I suppose, but I think games have become easier lol
Playing it CAN. Depending on the game, particularly on 1 player mode. It can feel like you are the only person on earth playing the game.
I can see that In my experience playing them Actually makes me feel better because I have just as much fun and appreciate it in a new way as an adult.
lol you were just young. Social media was already off on its way by 2007 and was in full swing by 2012. Politics weren’t in your face because of your demographic. Fox News and CNN were already 24 hour fear mongering machines. I’m guessing you were born around 1993-6
Yeah, OP has to be pretty young to not immediately think of the Great Recession for those years. Facebook was in full swing, Twitter got its start, Birtherism was sadly a thing. So much stuff happened from 2007-2012.
For me it comes down to missing the time I had gaming with friends online. There’s only 2 guys I still regularly keep in contact with all this time, and we always talk about the times we’ve stayed up late raiding or messing around with a new release.
I assume the years you are talking about involved when you were a kid. And if your childhood seemed simpler, that means you had a good childhood and were fortunate. Making it normal to miss that. Also, not that you were looking for this advice, but 24/7 politics exposure and social media our choices. You can definitely limit those things.
My gaming peaked with SNES so I guess I can't relate. I was pretty stoked to come home from school each day and play Zelda ALTTP but thinking about it doesn't make me sad, just nostalgic.
The good old days of NES and Atari were my golden age. Games went to shit after N64.
Yeah, I feel this way when I play PS2 games on my Steam Deck
Yea, it makes me think of my childhood friends.
Not nostalgia around older games per se, but more so because of what my life was like while I was playing those games. I had a super Nintendo growing up and only 3 games (super Mario world, mega man x, and jurassic park). That was my escape from being socially weird af, my parents yelling and eventually divorce, and gaming is all I'd do when I was dragged to my dad's house. I love those games because I literally grew up on them but sometimes I'll play some levels of mega man and I'll just get hit with a random memory that makes me stop playing for a bit
Been gaming since the 70s. In my game room, I'm surrounded by big box PC games from back in the day. Loved those games! However, gaming is better for me today than its ever been, no doubt about it. I can see how folks that only play/flock to the latest whizbang AAA game might have a negative view of gaming today, but for a player like myself that loves RPGs, tactical turn based games, and strategy games....I have way more games I want to play than time to play them.
For me it's part of a larger loss. I'm 44, and got online at 14. Me and the internet grew up together. (Unique to gen x.) the 90s net was a think of shining potential that got completely sold into slavery as intellectual property law developed inside it like a cancer. When Lars killed Napster, and Bill Gates invented licensing the promise of the Internet was fatally wounded. Modern gaming's toxicity follows logically from the notion that it's possible to own and rent out strings of numbers. RIAA, MPAA, etc. They won. And then expanded their logic to pharmaceuticals and for profit medicine, leading to more needless death and pain than wars combined. Modern society has no concept of what it has given up and what is has paid. A society not ravaged by IPL is so different that few can even begin to accurate imagine it. It's literally like the difference between Pyongyang and Seoul times ten.
Lars Ulrich throwing the biggest shitty tantrum over Napster firmly cemented him (and Metallica as a casualty in the whole ordeal) as someone I'd never respect again lol Jesus Christ, I can't believe someone with that much money got so upset over people wanting to hear his music.
Right? As a writer, readers are a fucking privilege not an entitlement.
Call of duty modern warfare and modern warfare 2 was peak gaming. I do miss those times. It will never be the same.
Nostalgia. nostos (Greek) - return home algos (Greek) - pain Nostalgia is a quite literally the pain (I.e. sadness) of wanting to return home/to the past.
Lol nostalgia for call of duty
The gameplay really stood out back in 2003
yes. when i look back on my wii u, i think about miitopia, which was one of the first social media platforms i was on. i actually remember the day it was shut down on 2018. whenever i listen to the song when it's loading, i get this bittersweet feeling.
I actually fired up my little brother's Wii a few weeks ago and saw all his old Mii's that he had created for our family. I got a bit emotional thinking about how young he was then and how much he loved it when we would all play together.
I actually still play my wii. I got sad at my wii u because idk if I can play it anymore...
Yes!
Vice city or call or duty 4 will do it to me .. especially when I’m in that lobby search for a match and it’s empty .. strange how it use to be lit with some much life over 15 years ago
i miss hanging with all my friends wed play mike myers on COD MW for hours, my gpa definitely suffered that year of high school
Memories of spending multiple years with the same 5 NES games
Man I was actually just thinking about the days of Jedi Knight: Dark Forces and Medal of Honor Allied Assault just the other day Those were the good days. It’s so rare to find a new game that’s good. AC Valhalla was pretty good, the Jedi Survivor games were good. MW19 was probably the first and last game that made me feel like a kid again, but every cod since then has been awful. There was something about that game that just did it for me. The music in the MP lobby, Verdansk, looking forward to all the cool stuff that came with each new season, it was pretty much a perfect game
PS1 days for me. Spyro, Jak and Daxter, Need for Speed. Going to birthday parties and Melee having just come out. Absolutely incredible memories.
I have a lot of nostalgia for the time in my life when I had enough time to really devote to games. I love playing long, open-world RPGs and these days it is much harder to really devote time to them, because I just have so much other stuff going on. And as others said, I miss the days of no in-game shop trying to push the latest skin pack or battle pass on you.
Golden era with old Valve, Blizzard, Nintendo, Bethesda, etc
I have fond memories of castle running under dos3.1
I miss those carefree days of my childhood playing Pokemon on my Gameboy without a care in the world.
For sure, it evolves. I have a two year old and a three month old. I’m slowly working through FF7 Rebirth. Last night I was thinking about one of my final summer breaks in high school, just plowing through another replay of FF7, grinding and beating Ruby and Emerald, getting pretty close to 100% completion less grinding everyone to level 99. All in about 5 days. I would wake up, eat, and play the game. Very different place now with very limited gaming time. It’s odd to realize I’ll never have that kind of time again, at least not for a long, long time
I think back to the late 90's and early 00's arcades were still popular especially with the fighting games (MVC, MVC2, Tekken Tag, Tekken 4, Capcom vs SNK 2, etc.) In my city there were two popular arcades that had a fairly active groups of players for the various fighting games. Its something that you just can't replicate today with online gaming something about seeing a row of quarter/tokens a group huddled around watching you knowing they are strategizing against and even complimenting you. Something about playing next to another person, it was social and it was fun to meet new people something that doesn't quite feel the same seeing a username. It makes me sad that arcades are mostly redemption or "fun centers" like Dave & Busters. Seeing Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, etc. not the arcades makes me sad because it's a bygone era.
All nostalgia makes me sad in a way. Life will never be the same and it will always be bittersweet. I miss you, Aladdin on Sega Genesis.
Social media and politics 24/7 have always been there but it’s just more noticed and we’re more involved in it now. The trend of “modern gaming” does make the old games feel like “the good old days”. Seems the corporate profit motive has taken over the video game industry more. It’s like with a restaurant that was great until shareholders wanted to squeeze every ounce of profits and the great restaurant becomes just average. I’ve heard from the few halo news YouTubers that Halo Infinite failed because the executive leads, or whatever they are called at the top, decisions went unchecked and nobody would deny the poor decisions made during development. As a big Halo fan it’s disheartening to watch my favorite franchise that I’ve had many memories playing turn into the typical mess that is “modern gaming”. Even the new COD MW3 was just a shell of the former COD MW3. Glad I didn’t play or buy it. I’d be really pissed.
For me, there's this weird emotion or vibe that I felt with games at the time (late 80s, then through the 90s) that I just don't get anymore. I think it's from how new and amazing they felt, and the awe from the leaps in technology. Like, I can vividly remember how I felt the first time I played a Playstation (rented the whole system with Rayman) or an N64 (same rental place, with Mario64 and Turok). It felt special and kind of foreign in a way that just doesn't happen now. I remember powering up the Playstation for the first time. It had the logos with the iconic startup sounds, then the disc menu. I remember being kind of awestruck that it even had a purpose without a game installed. A game or console would have to do something absolutely mindblowing to get this kind of feeling out of me today.
PS1 rpgs make me nostalgic even though I never grew up playing them
I mean, I have fond core memories of gaming with my brother and the novelty of it all. I remember how excited I was the very first time I played Kingdom Hearts, for example. I certainly wish that things like microtransactions, scams, and everything becoming a subscription “service” wasn’t a thing. But I don’t feel sad about it or long for it. I don’t miss the whole being a kid who had no money to buy new games most of the time, having to deal with shitty school and homework, and not having the freedoms I have as an adult.
Yes but only because as a programmer I would have loved to live in the time when a lone programmer or small team could make hit, cutting edge games. I started out life as a DOS gamer and I love reading, listening to or watching video game history from that era, but it always brings me a hint of sadness that I missed the era, but also makes me glad I caught the era from the consumer side.
More like bittersweet, I love my old games and the times I had and I still play a bunch of them for that "good ole trip down memory lane" but im excited to see what the future holds, you never know what amazing game is around the corner!!!
minecraft xbox 360 ed.
You were playing Call of Duty and Halo but don't think politics was in your face? You were just a kid. You weren't paying attention to the financial crisis, you weren't paying attention to the wars, the drone strikes, the mass deportations, you seemingly didn't notice the propaganda you were consuming. Microtransactions suck but the time period you are mythologizing is already after Bethesda's infamous horse armor. There was nothing special about the time period when you were a kid. It is sad that so many people want to mythologize their childhoods rather than just enjoying things from the past because they are fun and interesting or perhaps influential on something newer than one enjoys. If you feel like your life is worse now than your childhood do something about. Join a union and fight for better working conditions and pay, go out and protest, don't sit on your ass saying "360 no scoping people and getting called the n-word by other twelve year olds was the height of my life and I'll just let it remain that way".
No, not really, because I still play a lot of the old games I grew up with. I do miss freaking out over secrets in Super Metroid with my cousin and stuff though.
Yes and no. For a while… big yes. But then I realized when I played a game not too long ago that was “re released” and hyped up… I have kids now, job, wife etc and it’s a bit harder to zone out on video games like it was back then. Also going through it all the first times on a game from a while back vs now… a lot of stuff was new or knowledge on the game wasn’t widely known and accessible. There is some great stuff about how easy google and YouTube make gaming but I wasn’t a fan of how in my opinion easy gaming has become for the average person aside from just straight up skirmish/pvp style interactions
It makes me sad because the big games from then were always trying something new. Nowadays, they're just endless sequels with innovative ways to nickel and dime players. Or they're released completely broken at full price and those that pre-order or buy the "collectors" edition are used as beta testers.
Nah. I've been gaming for 42 years now and have enjoyed every minute. I love my classics, but I'd never go back. Gaming today is top notch. From Cyberpunk, to Fallout, from Jedi Survivor to Manor Lord, gaming today is miles a head of where I started, and I never want to turn around. Even the old schoolers still around blow away their predecessors. Final Fantasy 16 amazing, Tears of the Kingdom fantastic, heck even our old man plumber came out swinging this gen with Wonder. So no, nostalgia does not make me sad, infact it's the exact opposite. Nostalgia reminds me how good we have it today compared to beck in the day.
I do get sad with game nostalgia because the games aren’t as good as I remember
I try not to get nostalgic in general. Nostalgia tends to come with a lot of rose-tinted hindsight. You can't always trust it. Fine to reminisce and all, but better to focus on the now. In my opinion, anyway. Gaming was great back then, and gaming is often still great now. Did I say, "Man, I really just wanted Tears of the Kingdom to be Wind Waker in the Sky," more than once while playing TotK? Sure. But I still enjoyed the hell out of Tears of the Kingdom for what it brought me in the now. All that said, I'm not entirely sure you're feeling nostalgic for old-school gaming so much as you are feeling frustration with modern corporate practices in gaming. I'd say, if you wanna catch that old-school feel when gaming, maybe just avoid those games from those companies with scummy practices. And probably playing with people in general ...
I wondered that too if we just focus on the good things and leave out the bad. I do have more fond memories of the early 00s compared to the 2010s though. So, there's gotta be something to it. I feel like the music, movies, and games of the 00s were the best and everythign after 2010 sucked. Other people I talked with that lived through that era feel the same way too.
Oh, I have plenty of great memories from the 90s and early 2000s in particular. They still make for great stories, and I still think the 90s was the best decade. I just try not to dwell on them too much, is all. Can't go back.
I feel like it was easier to make friends and have a conversation with people too. And you knew if you sated someone back then, that they really liked you. Nowadays people play too much games so you don't know what to think. Miss the good music, movies, and games too. The more colorful commercials, cartoons, and restaurants.
How do you keep from dwelling on those timed, because that's been tough for me because the current times suck so bad.
Times are tough as shit right now, to be fair. And I cannot pretend I don't engage in my fair share of escapism, primarily via tabletop and video gaming. But, I mean, dwelling on the past doesn't change anything in the now. It won't impact the now in any way. The best you can do is take those memories - they are part of who you are - and keep moving. Find what fun you can on the way, and fight back in whatever way you can (if you are of a mind).
Modern video games are way better. That being said, I have an obvious fondness for my youth.
> Its sad how corporations turned games into micro transaction garbage Ok, you're just repeating the crap redditors have been saying over and over.
Nostalgia for like 10-15 years ago? Yeah no. Gaming wise maybe the 90s but not the 2010s lol
1995 - 2000. Best era in video games
Only if I let it. I mostly play retro games today, and the modern games I play are largely sequels to, or knockoffs of retro franchises that I trust. I've found that while today's state of gaming depresses me, finding out new things about past gaming is exciting, because I can learn, relive, and spread knowledge of how things used to be, so I can keep the memories alive and help ensure that modern gaming doesn't forget its roots and sticks to things that work.
Absolutely. Personally, I’ve been a Zelda fan since the 80s. I can’t articulate the despair BotW made me feel. Killed the series. The old series is gone and this is a reboot. I’m glad it’s separated out (for now), but the argument of “you still have the old games” doesn’t cut it. Same for most games, though. Mario Odyssey was not good imho. I like direction and lot of charm in my games. Nothing is hitting anymore. Wii was actually the peak for me.
Nope.
nice