Why are you Nostalgic for Video Games?

retroupgraderetroupgrade
in Everything Else
I'm curious about your personal reasons for spending time, money, and energy re-visiting particular parts of your past.



Old video games remind me of growing up with my little brother under my wing, seeing my parents every day, and living a simple life that revolved around making my parents and teachers happy. I think that owning games and systems I couldn't afford back then is a sort of accomplishment, making my teenage-self happy. Beating video games always created a common goal for my friends and I to bond over.



What are your thoughts?

Comments

  • zfleming54zfleming54
    I ponder this often. I had a happy childhood that involved quite a bit of video games. Playing and collecting them gives me not only a nostalgic feeling but also helps revisit the feelings/memories of staying up all night with friends/family playing super mario, donkey kong, goldeneye, etc. Collecting can also sometimes be a bit addictive. I have to keep myself in check on the buying aspect because it is WAY too easy to go overboard...
  • SixFistedNinjaSixFistedNinja
    Because the games I play are the last I really cared about video games, or feel they're worth my time. That isn't to say there aren't any good games being made now, I just can't stand how it all functions. DLC, broken games delivered with a promise to fix it later, too many politics involved in the creation of, the non-stop endless stream of bullshit that follows many games, and the fact that there are a fair number of games that require me to connect to some random server just to enjoy it.



    There's something comforting knowing that any time I feel like playing my copy of Final Fantasy VII, Splatterhouse 2, Ghostbusters, Mega Man X, Gogol 13, Pokemon Blue, Bomberman GB, I just have to have the game within grasp of me and the accompanying system. Little to worry about outside of routine maintenance. I don't have to worry about losing an entire collection of games because my system's hard drive shit the bed and I thereby lost hundreds of dollars in downloads with little to show for it.



    It's simple, it's still fun to me, and little else besides Dark Souls pulls me in any more.
  • empireempire
    Im not overly nostalgic, most of the old games I enjoy now I never played as a kid. Of course there are some things I only enjoy because of nostalgia, and thats because it takes me back to an easier time in life, when that game was the most important thing in the world to me.
  • Natty BumppoNatty Bumppo
    Can't say that I feel I am nostalgic per se - I bought my first console in 1985 and since then have spent a lot of time playing games on various systems fairly continuosly - the only time I didn't play a whole lot was when we bought our current house in 2003 and there was several months worth of downtime as we moved and got things unsorted (we had a fairly long move since we had no time constraints on when we had to get out of the old house). So game playing has just been something I have always done.
  • ne$_pimpne$_pimp
    Im really only Nostalgic for a few games that I enjoyed playing when I was younger.
  • avatar!avatar!
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201203/whats-so-nice-about-nostalgia
  • theirontoupeetheirontoupee
    Memories of better times and I'm not satisfied with many modern games.
  • IBtiMIBtiM
    NES 4 Life.
  • retroupgraderetroupgrade
    Having grown up with cartridge games, I don't think I'll ever prefer download/digital games. Perhaps kids that have grown up with broadband internet, XBOX 360, or PS3 may not care or notice cartridges.



    There have always been crappy games, but I don't remember the publishers over-promising like they tend to do, now. If I wanted to try an unpopular game, I could rent it from the grocery store for a few dollars. I'd run and pick out a SNES game while my parents were in line at the register. I didn't need no stinking internet!  
  • SnowSauceSnowSauce
    I'm nostalgic for games that I had because I've associated them with being part of a happier and simpler time in life.



    In any case, nostalgia is only a small fraction of what drives my interest in games.
  • GandlinGandlin
    I grew up with video games my whole life. New games are fun and immersive just as older games strike a nostalgia chord and bring back good memories. The cartridge era was certainly a more simple time in my life as a kid.



    Sometimes I like to play old games that I didn't own at the time on let's say Genesis or Playstation. Maybe there's a game that a friend of mine had but I only played a handful of times so years later I can finally enjoy it. There's times where I'll be reading an article or watching a YT video and see an older game I never knew much about so I might buy it.



    At the end of the day I simply enjoy video games and I think that's why most of us are here.
  • FluffyFluffy
    They are fun. What else would I do... socialize? hang out in real life???
  • VGS_captmorgandrinkerVGS_captmorgandrinker
    Originally posted by: ne$_pimp



    Im really only Nostalgic for a few games that I enjoyed playing when I was younger.

    Same here.



    I used to feel the same way about getting things I didn't have as a kid (more of a curiosity factor?), now I realize that both my space and free time are at a premium, and I find myself retro gaming far less.   Since that's the case, I have been dumping off large portions of my stuff.  







     
  • tarkusABtarkusAB
    Nostalgia does not drive my game playing or collecting. I seek out and enjoy games that provide me with a fun or challenging experience, old or modern.
  • kamakaze_ekunkamakaze_ekun
    Growing up I played Nintendo and Sega. But as I got older I moved toward the Playstation favor of its more mature titles. And now as an adult I collect the games I played through all ages of my life.
  • GuntzGuntz
    Because older games are better than newer games.
  • pegboypegboy
    Originally posted by: Guntz



    Because older games are better than newer games.

    This.  I don't play old games because of nostalgia, I play them because they are better than the garbage that they make today.  Most of this new stuff I wouldn't even call it video games, more like interactive hand holding applications.  I've also never for a second considered myself a "retro gamer", whatever that means.
  • NostalgicMachineNostalgicMachine
    Because my subconscious mind is infiltrated with memories from early childhood, before culture and society tainted it with expectation.

     
    Originally posted by: Guntz



    Because older games are better than newer games.



    Also, this.
  • TheToxicCollectorTheToxicCollector
    Video games have always been a big part of my life. I grew up watching my grandpa play NES and Genesis, then when I was 4 I finally got my own Genesis. There was no looking back after that. I decided pretty early on that I wanted to own ALL the game systems at some point in my life. I no longer wanna own all the systems, but I do wanna own all the games for a few different systems. Newer video games just aren't fun for me. I continue to buy the newest systems but I rarely find anything fun to play, I mostly just use them as media centers.
  • Astor ReinhardtAstor Reinhardt
    Originally I started collecting to buy back all the games I had as a kid (I still have yet to get a few of them...) but then I realized...I had money and I was an adult. I could buy all those games my mom never let me play because they were to "violent" for a girl...and a kid. So stuff like Contra or Mega Man I could buy and play!



    Then I started getting jelly of all the huge collections here...so I wanted more...and more...and more...and I ran out of money. That's when I learned to be a bit more selective on what I buy.



    But the original drive to collect was the nostalgia for those old games I used to spend hours, days...hell even months in the case of SMB 3...freaking thing...took me forever to finish that bastard.



    I had so many happy memories playing those games. So it was a real draw, when at the time I started collecting, my life was bleak. Still is bleak but I use collecting as a crutch so I don't have to think about life. Between the depression, anxiety and autism, life is a real shit show for me. And I'm not even including the physical sicknesses I have to deal with daily. It's an endless hell and if I didn't have gaming and collecting to keep my sanity and help me escape from my horrible reality...well I wouldn't be here...let's just put it at that.



    My reasons are dark and not fun. So I try to sum it up nicely by just saying it reminds me of a happier time in my life and leave it at that when I get the question. But sometimes I like to vent a little.



    Plus in games you can be anything or anyone you want...any gender or race...look like anyone you want to...and your surrounded by NPCs to talk to...so it helps fight off that loneliness I get. At least for a short amount of time. But when the games stop, it comes back and hits hard enough to make me cry.



    Anyways...yeah on the surface it reminds me of a happier time in my life.
  • MrWunderfulMrWunderful
    I'm not nostalgic at all. I just enjoy the medium of video games for multiple reasons.
  • Webhead123Webhead123
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OifpC0T6eo
  • ookii_risuookii_risu
    I've played games for as long as I can remember, and I feel nostalgic for certain ones because I played them as a kid and they were an escape from not so good things happening in my life. There were very few weekends between elementary school and high school that I went without renting games, and I tend to remember aspects of my past by recalling which game I was playing at the time. My father liked to go hunting and fishing to relieve stress. I play video games for the same reason.
Sign In or Register to comment.