What does it really mean to be a "retro gamer"?

[CRTGAMER]

I consider a Retro Gamer not the age of a person. It is anyone that enjoys playing games and also enjoys older titles. Basically not ignoring the older great games just because they are last generation or even all the way back to first generation. Non Retro Gamers will only play the latest current generation popular gotta have game. End up missing out on the older great titles, even older current generation great games.

[RCBH928]

Sometimes I kind of feel like "retro gamer" shouldn't even apply to people 25 and older. We're not a bunch of gamers with a strange interest and curiousity for old, out of date classics or hidden gems beyond our time. We grew up with these games, they're not retro or out of style to us. Someone whose first system was a Playstation and he's now seeking out NES games and Atari 2600 games. THAT'S a retro gamer

but what if "PONG" is the only game that surpassed my childhood?

I guess most of us here have played with atari in younger years
i consider atari the first console, as others were just mere "testing the market "
atari was the first one that is a videogame console as we know it today,
or am i wrong?

[final fight cd]

would you call somebody that reads the bible a "retro reader"?

would you call somebody that listens to bach a "retro listener"?

not too constructive, but just a thought.

[YoshiEgg25]

would you call somebody that reads the bible a "retro reader"?

would you call somebody that listens to bach a "retro listener"?

not too constructive, but just a thought.

Where the heck were you planning on going with this?

[final fight cd]

would you call somebody that reads the bible a "retro reader"?

would you call somebody that listens to bach a "retro listener"?

not too constructive, but just a thought.

Where the heck were you planning on going with this?

i really don't know.

but why is it necessary to label somebody who likes to play older games a "retro gamer?" by this logic, wouldn't you have to call somebody that listens to older music a "retro listener?"

[GSZX1337]

would you call somebody that reads the bible a "retro reader"?

would you call somebody that listens to bach a "retro listener"?

not too constructive, but just a thought.

Where the heck were you planning on going with this?

i really don't know.

but why is it necessary to label somebody who likes to play older games a "retro gamer?" by this logic, wouldn't you have to call somebody that listens to older music a "retro listener?"

Well, there are people that won't listen to anything over five years old...

[the7k]

Personally, I feel whether a game is 'retro' or not has more to do with design choices than anything else. The way I see it, there are games being made even now that are more retro than many of the titles I grew up with.

It's not just a visual thing, in my opinion. I felt that even a game like Demon's Souls had a pretty strong retro flavor. Perhaps like JT said, it's simply a matter of putting the emphasis on the 'Game' part, not the 'Video' part.

[pepharytheworm]

would you call somebody that reads the bible a "retro reader"?

would you call somebody that listens to bach a "retro listener"?

not too constructive, but just a thought.

As another member mention earlier retro is stuff that has gone out of recent fashion, not hundreds of years. Basicly if nobody is alive who experienced it first hand, its not retro anymore.

[Razzmatazz]

I don't like the retro gamer tag, which basically means you play 2D games from ages ago. All my friends are playing on their PS3 and 360 games, yet I am discovering the joys of Beyond Good & Evil and Metal Slug 3. On PS2. Is that retro or not?

I have the same problem with music. You see, I love my hip hop, but if I tell someone I like hip hop, they assume I listen to the Eminem, or whatever is selling or on the radio. This is not true, I am listening to what people now consider "old school" or "traditional" hip hop. But 10, 15 years ago this was just called hip hop.

I suppose we could class ourselves as "classic gamers", as we all have good tastes in games (from what I have seen on this forum, mostly anyway ). Gamers want to play what's new, what everybody else is playing. Retro gamers enjoy playing the pinnacle of gaming, the classics, checking out games they didn't get to at the time. That's how I view it anyway. But then some people won't consider me a retro gamer as I didn't have an Atari or a NES.

[jfe2]

Is the tag "retro gamer" really considered to be a bad thing? I see a lot of negativity towards the term. I actually embrace it. I tend to enjoy games that were made around the time of my youth and before, so I really don't see how the term is inappropriate. Meh, just a thought.