Detrimental game nostalgia

[Menegrothx]

Quite many people have started game collecting because of nostalgia and it's usually harmless, but do you ever feel that your emotional attachment to the past is some times harmful?

Do you feel nostalgic about some game/era of gaming to the point that it makes you feel sorrowful and empty inside (cue in My Chemical Romance&Bullet for My Valentine)? Do you ever feel that you simply cant get emotionally over some game? Do you wish you could just get over those counterproductive feelings?

Even though there are things in the current generation of gaming that I appreciate, I frequently feel longing for the way things used to be back in the 1990s.

But that is nothing compared to how I feel about World of Warcraft. I haven't played it for over two years and I can say that not a day goes by with out me thinking back at all the good times I had with the game. I some times spend hours a day just watching old WoW movies, reading old threads on forums, comments on WoW related youtube videos and watching old screenshots while listening to music I listened to back when I played the game. It's always a very bittersweet experience, I feel very wistful and "empty", knowing that those times will never come back. MMORPGs evolve with expansion packs and the world of WoW/Ultima Online/Everquest isn't these days anything like it was years ago. Even if you start playing the game again, you can never have the same experience you had years ago because the world, the game and the playerbase has changed so much over the years.
It seems that feeling this way is quite common amongst ex-WoW players, but how about single player games?

Single player games are a bit different story since the gameplay experience remains the same year after year (and isn't affected by things like server community and what kind of people you play with). But do you ever feel like playing your old favorite game just doesn't feel the same anymore because the whole gaming industry is very different now? Playing on a Neo Geo certainly isn't the same thing nowadays compared to what it was like to play one back in the early 1990s. The games aren't outdated and are still as good as ever, but they don't feel relevant anymore. The world has moved past that era. You dont have to look that far back in to gaming history to feel the same way, even Xbox and Gamecube games or early Xbox 360 and PS3 games can feel the same way.

There's also the fact that replaying your favorite game never/rarely feels as good as it felt to play it through the first time around. Atleast you need a really long break (5+ years) so it feels fresh again.

[c0wb0y]

I've never been heavily involved with an online game like WoW, but I do miss the magic of some games when I first experienced them. Tie Fighter and X-Wing come to mind. I really liked FFX, and have yet to finad another turn-based RPG that is quite as fun to me. (Though Persona 3 is pretty good.) I even miss some online Rock Band.
Detrimental - maybe I'm close with my love for pinball. I could drop money on machines and really get in trouble. When I see a good deal, it may occupy my mind for hours. I feel like I won a fight if I resist the urge to pick up a potentially great deal.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

It's harmful to my wallet and shelf space, nothing more.

[pierrot]

Sounds like you need to take a trip to Portland, friend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVmq9dq6Nsg

[Pulsar_t]

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=39739

[EricL]

Oh, I know what you mean about World of Warcraft. I had the same experience with several MMORPGs. They all changed and left me behind. Looking at modern gaming in general, though, I eventually overcame it. I have no problems resigning myself to join the ranks of all of the many great gaming folks of the past. The old-school people have been leaving the industry ever since the end of the '80s. I just think about the past and savor the games from the old days. It's not detrimental in this case. What else am I going to do, just stare at a wall? Online games have changed a lot since the 2000's. It took a while to sink in that they're never going back, but I'm sure that for people like me it eventually will and we will be able to say our good byes.

[Menegrothx]

Playing my favorite childhood games still feels great, it's when I stop looking at them individually and put them in a wider context (A game like this would never be released nowadays, the gaming industry was so different back then and so on) I start getting misty eyed for the past. It doesn't even have to be a game I played back in the day for me to feel this way, just a game that represents it's own era really well.

This online gaming affair is very different. I don't want to constantly reminisce WoW. I don't want to go back and play it again. I want to get over it and stop wasting my time longing for it, it never does me any good. But I cant stop thinking about it.

Sounds like you need to take a trip to Portland, friend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVmq9dq6Nsg

Cant watch that video in my country

[Gunstar Green]

I don't really feel this way about single player games because I either still enjoy playing them today, or I don't. I can still experience them and though they may not have the sense of wonder and discovery that they once had the good games are usually still good.

Multiplayer games however come and go or they completely change over the years so this is pretty common for MMO players. I get this way over Tribes 2 even though there are still fan servers available it's not the same as it was in its prime.

I also miss having guilds in games with my highschool and college buddies and stuff like that.

[Menegrothx]

Damn, I relate so much with the OP, especially about vanilla wow. I can still remember the feelings I had when I explored all the new zones and how amazed I was whenever I found something extraordinary.

Those were the times when I played with my friends (now all have jobs/wives/kids and no interest in the game). I sometimes here some tune that I listened when playing wow and I get a nostalgia feeling about all the things I used to do in wow, about how I was raiding or just wasteing time with my guildies.
I honestly, don't want to have those feelings since I think to myself that it's just a game... but I just can't.. stop.. them . R.I.P wow past!

I miss vanilla wow (what I would pay to replay it from day 1!) but my TBC nostalgia gets triggered more often largerly due to the fact that I listen to songs from Nihilum's PvE videos quite often. In fact I got the idea to make this thread after listening to Groove Coverage's Force of Nature, which played in Nihilum vs Void Reaver. I looked up to the guys of Nihilum as gaming Gods back in early TBC. It was just so crazy how fast they cleared content back then. There was just so much hype surrounding them, like TotalBiscuit's Kungen parodies on WoW radio. I remember watching Nihilum's PvE vids in school all the time over and over again just because of the awesome music.

I miss the World PvP (thank God TBC had Isle of Quel'danas), community and the epicness vanilla WoW had the most though. Nowadays WoW doesn't feel like a massive world you can explore anymore since you can travel anywhere via portals and so on. Even though there are some nice new features in modern WoW, it's sad how in it's attempt to make the game as efficient (and casual friendly) as possible, Blizzard destroyed the magical feeling you had back then when you explored the magical world of Azeroth, totally immersed in your character and the game world (really hating the players of the other faction and so on).

Multiplayer games however come and go or they completely change over the years so this is pretty common for MMO players. I get this way over Tribes 2 even though there are still fan servers available it's not the same as it was in its prime.

I do feel this way when playing Warcraft 3, Counter Strike, Half Life 2 Deathmatch and Day of Defeat online. Even though the games are exactly the same (unlike TF2), the servers are half dead and the games feel some what barren and absent even though they are still fun to play. Like the life would've been sucked out of the game, it doesn't feel the same anymore.

[Zing]

But do you ever feel like playing your old favorite game just doesn't feel the same anymore because the whole gaming industry is very different now? Playing on a Neo Geo certainly isn't the same thing nowadays compared to what it was like to play one back in the early 1990s. The games aren't outdated and are still as good as ever, but they don't feel relevant anymore.

No, because I have been ignoring the gaming industry since around 2006. The only reason I am even aware of what consoles or games are available is from seeing thread titles on forums. I am perfectly content to play my SNES and PSone for the rest of my life.

However, the feeling when acquiring games is certainly not the same. I do miss the days of being able to spontaneously walk into Best Buy and see at least one game I wanted to purchase. The days of going to the local video game shop and being excited for the games advertised on the posters, and awaiting the release date of a certain game. Never again will there be a "Mortal Monday" for me. Now, my game purchases happen almost completely in silence, as I quietly discovers old games I missed previously, and place bids on Ebay.