Bizarre, Strange, & Twisted Aspects of Retro Game Culture

[noiseredux]

Well, I can think of one weird gaming thing that I regard positively. Trouble is most racketeers already know about him. It's Keith Apicary.

The guy is like every twenty-something year old live at home with mom and dad bum, the kind that's still playing with action figures and watching Saturday morning cartoons. By all accounts that should be pretty freaky. Yet somehow Nathan Barnatt manages to take that stereotype and make it gut bustingly hilarious. He's tapped into an entire genre of comedy revolving around gaming and the gaming subculture, whether he's pointing Justifier light guns at strangers on the steet, carrying a sword around in public and saying, "Anyone seen my girlfriend's mom? She ruined my life, I just wanna stab her in the chest real quick.", or taking a glass of water from Peter Jackson and James and Cameron at a gaming convention.

the Keith character is an anomaly. By all accounts, the stereotypical mom's-basement-gamer-loser character should be completely played out at this time. Yet somehow he's hilarious. I do think that part of the difference is identifying. I mean, Nathan actually is a gamer "IRL" -- so he, like us, is part of a certain crowd and acknowledge the stereotype from inside, even if the stereotype doesn't ring true for most of us.

[ChuChu Flamingo]

[quote="dsheinem"

Part of the idea of the "Games as Culture" forum is to have actual analytical discussion of game culture - including this outlying stuff. Yes, it can be weird. Yes, plenty of these people seem a little unbalanced. But once you get past that, what other interesting things can be said?

I honestly think part of the OCD collecting, or the need to get trophies or constant 100% accomplishments, or 1CC, etc is a bit of a subconscious need for control. I feel like it's really the same thing that causes people to become a bit addicted to Tetris, or addicted to anything really. It's the same thing that causes some people to engage in self-mutilation. I think that there are many people who feel a lack of control in their lives, and when that happens they search for some/anything to take control of. In the case of hoarding or trophies, it becomes a visual "hey look at this! I did this!"

thoughts?[/quote]


I agree, with the advent of achievements has brought up a generation of some people who play games just for achievements. Just look at all the people with 150,000 gamer score or above. I've played with some of these people and all they do is play games for achievements/boosting. A bunch of guidos if you ask me.

As for me I play games I want to play and could care less about high my gamer score is. Coupled with the fact that achievements are almost always poorly made and copy pasta.

And that is coming from someone who has 1000g Devil May Cry 4, SF2, TMNT reshelled etc.

[Flake]

First thing I thought reading this thread:

Spax3 and people like him. The obsessive attention mongers who post countless youtube videos of themselves emulating James Rolfe.

http://thegametoonzone.com/CNASN_Season_2.html

I mean these people seriously take the hobby to a new and scary level.

[AppleQueso]

oh god do I hate AVGN imitators. AVGN is bad enough as it is... and I say this liking the occasional AVGN vid.

[Flake]

oh god do I hate AVGN imitators. AVGN is bad enough as it is... and I say this liking the occasional AVGN vid.

Yeah, and the worst part is that Rolfe is actually a really clever guy and a great film maker. I watched his documentary on Rocky Balboa's affect on Philadelphia.

That said, he does seem to know which side of his toast is buttered and I think he panders to the fanbase a little too much.

[Inazuma]

Well I guess it is best to get it out of the way first. I really want to know what motivates them. It certainly isn't playing the games as i've seen some that have VGA grading and show them like they're going out of style.

So many things wrong with this video, and this is just an example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr-hwrUB ... re=related



over




CONTROLLERSSSSSSSSSSSS

Wow, she is awesome. That's a nice collection of controllers and Zelda stuff.

[Ack]

First of all, to address something in Ds' initial post, I'd like to separate the furry community from the retrogaming one. Yes, there is a definite overlap, but the furries are primarily interested in the anthropomorphic aspects of game characters. It's why Sonic is so popular to them, because he was a lovable and popular character from childhood that can ultimately be seen to represent their societal (and often sexual) fantasy. But this also extends to children cartoons, like Tiny Toons, Duck Tales, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. Still, I figure they focus on Sonic a bit more than these other examples because he's set in a world that's not goofy, along with a multitude of similar anthropomorphic animals, as opposed to worlds like in TMNT, where they're freaks of nature in a mostly human world.

Next, I collect video games. I have an interest in getting a complete collection of SNES games, partly because I'm interested in finding out what was on the console that I never played, or seeing how particular genres evolved over time. Eventually, yes, I will get around to playing all of them, though it's going to take a long time. While I prefer my carts to be clean, with good labels, I take what I can get, so some of mine have label damage, and a few are in particularly bad condition. I don't care to have boxes, though I have picked up a few. But they take up space, and I don't feel I have the expertise to care for them properly. Plus, as I said already, I intend to play all of them and let others play them, so having sealed boxes don't help me any.

So my question, to anyone who collects sealed games, why do you do it?

[Thierry Henry]

Yeah I've always wondered that as well. Why collect sealed games?
No intention at all to play them just there for display purposes? So gaming in effect is not involved in the thought process, just the fact of the items being in factory sealed condition to be showed off.

[saturnfan]

I never understood the sealed game either. However, if I were ever to come across certain games that were still factory sealed, like panzer dragoon saga, I would probably keep them sealed for their value.

But I would never go on to ebay to buy it for $500, it would just have to be a sweet find in the wild.

[noiseredux]

in the past year I bought a sealed copy of Phantasy Star Online I & II Plus and III for GameCube. I opened them. I played them. And I later traded them for games that I'd rather have to play.