Detrimental game nostalgia

[J T]

I feel this way about 90s arcade fighting games. I spent all of my teenage years in an arcade playing series like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Samurai Shodown, Virtua Fighter, Killer Instinct, and so on. I had a group of friends and we went to the arcades several times a week, especially once our neighborhood got a Nickel Arcade, where you paid a small entry fee and everything was a Nickle after that. I miss all the competition, trash talking, and laughing. Modern fighters are well designed, but online multiplayer just can't capture all of the interaction that would happen in the arcades.

[GamerMON]

I feel this way about 90s arcade fighting games. I spent all of my teenage years in an arcade playing series like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Samurai Shodown, Virtua Fighter, Killer Instinct, and so on. I had a group of friends and we went to the arcades several times a week, especially once our neighborhood got a Nickel Arcade, where you paid a small entry fee and everything was a Nickle after that. I miss all the competition, trash talking, and laughing. Modern fighters are well designed, but online multiplayer just can't capture all of the interaction that would happen in the arcades.

This is why I don't like online fighters as much as the arcade. You know you are badass when there was a line of people waiting to challenge you.

[dogman91]

So who are these mysterious two new users that registered on the same day both feeling the same about vanilla WoW? Not saying it can't be a coincidence...

About the topic... well I play older games AND newer ones. It's just certain ones that are more or less enjoyable happen to be retro, and some happen to modern. I don't really divide them as there's tons of horribly-made games today, as well as back then, and really good ones too for both eras.

There's also tons of retro-style games being released today; take a look at the indie scene. Tons in the way of platformers, top-down Zelda-type games, RTS, sandbox etc. while innovating the genres. Playing Super Meat Boy right now and it's amazing; I love it just as much as older platformers like Donkey Kong Country.

In terms of collecting, it's for the time when I have that itch to play something, I have the option to.

[ninjainspandex]

wow can I relate to this post, especially towards WOW that game definitely had the biggest impact on my memories. To this day there are songs on my ipod that trigger memories of leveling and grinding up alts, having a good laugh in vent. i quit about 2 years ago and since i got a new pc ive been thinking about getting back into it, but i found out in my absence the account was hacked and banned. Kinda sad to think all those characters are gone, level 80s of every class. Alot of memories with those toons, who knows maybe ill just make a new account, you shall be missed Luvtosplooge (my main lv 80 haha)

[Blu]

I totally understand what you're going through Menegrothx. There are a few games that give me that feeling of no closure. Since the games still exist today, but aren't playable in the same context we remember it's hard to let that nostalgia go.

Diablo II I dumped tons of time into. I look at Diablo III and it's not the same and I'm fine with putting that one to bed. I just know that Diablo III won't ever be as good as Diablo or Diablo 2, knowing that they gave me tons of entertainment.

However, Phantasy Star Online makes me feel this nostalgia. There was so much to do in this game in terms of replayability. Logging on with a 56k modem on my Dreamcast to play games over the INTERNET on my TV!? It was so enjoyable. You could get a few runs in and feel good about it. There was something addictive about the loose combo-based combat and loot grabbing. The later games are great--but the desire to be able to go back online and play these games with the community I knew and loved leaves a little emptiness. Initially logging into PSO, checking your guild cards to see if your buddies were online, then sending them messages, that always generated excitement.

WoW I am totally with you. I still play it, but it's rather just a social experience for me now. I used to raid pretty hard in Vanilla and phased out in Burning Crusade. The world pvp used to be infuriating, the community had its clear top players of the server. You ninja looted, you got black listed. You dreaded leveling in Stranglethorn. If you were good at PvP, PvE, people knew about you. If you were terrible, the same. The buildup to epic ground mounts--saving, saving, and the breakthrough excitement at how fast you were travelling.

Some of it I have rose tinted glasses--grinding for nature resistance gear was horrible. I don't like that you can stand in cities waiting for pvp/instance/raid finders to pop you in. There's a level of anonymity when questing in cross-realm zones now, you can gank people and they'll never complain on the forums. Getting ganked now? Vanish mount and get away.

One of my favorite moments in WoW is when our guild summoned Thunderaan for Thunderfury. We kited him all the way from Silithus to Orgrimmar. Needless to say it was the coolest thing I had seen done, and to see this raid boss coming through the Barrens and a train of lowbies following us back to Org was hilarious.

[ninjainspandex]

wow you can quest in cross realm zones now? i guess alot has changed, i assume you can probably raid and do dungeons cross realm now too right? man all this wow talk and im getting some serious nostalgia, i always wished they could make a console version of vanilla wow, i think ps3 has mouse and keyboard support not sure about xbox, or at least make servers that are vanilla only.

[Menegrothx]

wow you can quest in cross realm zones now? i guess alot has changed, i assume you can probably raid and do dungeons cross realm now too right

They added cross realm dungeon seeker in WOTLK. You could just quey to a dungeon in the same manner you enter battlegrounds and the tool would find people from different realms for a party, and when it was done it would teleport you in to the dungeon. You dont have to look for a party for yourself and you dont have to travel to the dungeon, so you can basically do group based tasks like 5 man dungeons with out ever having to actually communicate to your party members In Cataclysm they added cross realm raid seeker afaik. I cant even imagine what cross realm zones are like.
I personally think that even cross realm battlegrounds suck.

[J T]

One of my favorite moments in WoW is when our guild summoned Thunderaan for Thunderfury. We kited him all the way from Silithus to Orgrimmar. Needless to say it was the coolest thing I had seen done, and to see this raid boss coming through the Barrens and a train of lowbies following us back to Org was hilarious.

As someone who has never played World of Warcraft, this sounds like a complete foreign language to me.

[fastbilly1]

One of my favorite moments in WoW is when our guild summoned Thunderaan for Thunderfury. We kited him all the way from Silithus to Orgrimmar. Needless to say it was the coolest thing I had seen done, and to see this raid boss coming through the Barrens and a train of lowbies following us back to Org was hilarious.

As someone who has never played World of Warcraft, this sounds like a complete foreign language to me.

Ive not played it, but i imagine that Kiting is just pulling a boss from its standard zone. A train is a long line of characters following eachother in line, like Tusken Raiders.

I did this in Dungeon Siege years ago online with a buddy of mine on a public game. We ran the Beholder like creature out of its den near Crystwind (the third town) and dropped it on a party coming out of the caves. They were like level 10, its a level 50 monster...needless to say we got booted. We just wanted to see if we could do it.

[pierrot]

However, Phantasy Star Online makes me feel this nostalgia. There was so much to do in this game in terms of replayability. Logging on with a 56k modem on my Dreamcast to play games over the INTERNET on my TV!? It was so enjoyable. You could get a few runs in and feel good about it. There was something addictive about the loose combo-based combat and loot grabbing. The later games are great--but the desire to be able to go back online and play these games with the community I knew and loved leaves a little emptiness. Initially logging into PSO, checking your guild cards to see if your buddies were online, then sending them messages, that always generated excitement.

PSO was a huge part of my freshman year of high school. I used to play it in the dark, late into the night, in secret, because I just couldn't pull myself away from the game. That said, the community was replete with assholes. I learned very quickly into ver. 2 to never drop first for a trade.

I get similar feelings as OP with FFXI, though. I'll hear songs that I used to listen to while farming or nm hunting, or something, and remember the mindless toiling I did for days of my life in that game. I don't look back on it all that fondly.
I did idolize this one linkshell (Order of the Blue Gartr) and aspired to have a character that could fit into an LS of their caliber. Once I got up to a point where that seemed feasible, it felt a lot less glamorous and exciting, though.