Nostalgia Is Ruining Video Games

From The Atlantic

In the recent bestselling video game Life Is Strange, a teenage heroine gains the ability to rewind time. She uses it to solve problems, address regrets, and return to a period in her life when she was completely carefree. It’s a game that seems deliberately crafted to make the adults playing it long for their own youth.

Which is understandable. From rock bands doing farewell tours (Black Sabbath, Grateful Dead), to reboots of canceled shows (Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Gilmore Girls), nostalgia is a powerful and lucrative tool in pop culture. The Force Awakens is banking on multiple generations of adults who grew up with Star Wars wanting to experience another adventure with their childhood heroes. If a septuagenarian Han Solo can still rattle off one-liners and win firefights, there’s surely hope for everyone. But the medium of video games in particular makes it easier to profit from players’ nostalgia—and it’s threatening to take a major toll on the gaming industry’s creativity and financial stability.

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Beyond using nostalgia as a blunt marketing technique, video games as a medium in particular appeal to players’ longing for the past. Clay Routledge, a psychology professor at North Dakota State University who’s made a career out of studying nostalgia, has said gaming lends itself to the feeling more than other mediums because of its immersion factor—games have the potential to be more immediate and personal than other forms of entertainment. Players aren’t remembering the time they watched a hero defeat a bad guy (as in a movie)—they’re remembering the time they beat the bad guy.

Jamie Madigan, who’s written extensively on the psychology of video games, points out that nostalgia tends to be at its strongest when people are reminiscing about socializing. Gaming has always had a communal component to it, and it’s only more so now, with the rise of “Let’s Play” videos on YouTube. (The site’s most-subscribed channel for nearly two years has been PewDiePie, who’s known for his game walkthroughs and commentary.) Last year, Amazon paid more than $1 billion to acquire Twitch, a company whose sole purpose is allowing people to watch other people play video games, as The Atlantic’s Robinson Meyer wrote.

It’s by now fairly common knowledge how powerful nostalgia is as a marketing tool, but with video games, there’s another component that makes players more likely to stick with what they know and love. For many, it comes down to time: It’s one thing to watch a 90-minute movie, but squeezing a 30-hour fantasy epic into your schedule is a serious commitment. It’s a bit like taking on a new TV show, but it’s easy to fit an episode or two into an evening, whereas gameplay tends to be less structured. As a result, about 90 percent of people who start a game won’t finish it. And because the average gamer is aging alongside the industry (the typical player is 37 years old), he or she will tend to be mid-career, perhaps with a family. In other words, with more responsibilities and less time to form an emotional connection with a new game.

Interestingly enough, those 37-year-olds are part of the first generation who can feel nostalgic for old games. Gaming doesn’t have much history before the 1980s—with all due respect to Pong, no one reminisces about the time they whiled away hours moving a paddle. So nostalgia for games is a novel phenomenon that the industry’s taken note of. One of the biggest announcements to come out of the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo was about a remake of Final Fantasy VII, a beloved 18-year-old game. IGN named it number three on their list of the 11 biggest expo stories from 2015, a list that’s remarkable in that every entry except one is about a sequel, remake, or existing game.

As a child of the 70s and 80s I am agreement that this recent remake bubble we are in is truly killing off the industry.

What say you System Warriors?

Ok I don't understand how Nostalgia is killing the videogame industry.

Cool story bro. I am completely interested in what you have to say. Please go on.

Blog it.

i read the whole thing, I SWEAR IT.

well, people shit on good survival horror games because it doesn't meet their Alone in the Dark standards from decades back, I'm sick of that

I'm also a child of the 70's and 80's. They are definitely not remaking those games. They are remaking last gen's games and I'm not the least bit nostalgic about that!

There's nothing wrong with making remakes of truly old games and appealing to nostalgia. The problem lies in making remasters of less than three year old games because companies are lazy, afraid to take risks and are more than content to re-sell boring same-old shit to gamers that are either dumb enough or have low enough standards to eat them up.

@skelly34: In essence that is what the article is saying. Remasters are developing an industry that takes no risks and leaves us with UCC, and MCC as a big draw for what should be the best time of the year for games. I truly look forward to ReCore just like I did with SunsetOD. New IPs like Ori push the boundaries of the industry.

Or maybe some games back then were actually better than comparable games of today.

Really? I was thinking zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I'm a retro/modern gamer, I don't agree, blog it.

*golf clap*

Bingo, only difference is that I'd say Most

Totes. Most of today's games (with a few exceptions, you know who you are) are mindless shooters, sports titles or pretentious indie games. Devs aren't even trying to create original content these days, because consumer bots will stand in line to pay for crumbs from the table and the same games they've been playing for years now.

you know what at first I was a little apprehensive about reading but turned out to be a good and interesting read....

Nostalgia always stifles innovation when people are more comfortable with revisiting the past rather than experiencing new things. Sadly it's just human nature for people to reminisce and think about the "good old times" even if those times weren't really all that good at all but time always clouds memory and judgement.

rather than remake of ff7 I would've been more excited if they were making a sequel to it or doing something in the same universe 7 took place with new characters which still allows you to visit some of the areas in 7 and interact with some of the characters in 7 but with more powerful technology to experience them with modern day graphics

Ironically said by the guy with the Fallout 4 sig. :P

No nostalgia does not stifle innovation. Lack of vision does.

Well... Fallout 4 is the game Fallout 3 should have been. :D

But that hardly plays on true nostalgia. It's more like, "We'll give them more of what they liked a short time ago but just a hair upgraded for the easy cash grab because we assume they are idiots." They aren't saying, "Those 40 something guys really loved their time with Atari, Commodore 64, and NES. Let's make something that will give them that warm and fuzzy feeling again!" I wish they did! Indie guys do anyway and for that I love them. Us old guys and our nostalgic tastes aren't going to make anyone rich though.

How can you have vision for the future when you're too busy stuck and looking back to the past?

“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it”

"don't test deep waters with short stick"

"Take a long walk on a short pier"

LOL

I hear it's still light-years behind New Vegas in terms of content.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Now there is a classic! Something for the "innovators" to ponder.

At this point I can't confirm or deny that claim. I know the map is smaller than NV, but 4 does have a lot of content so far.

I grew up in the 80's....and I don't feel for those days one bit.

Some ppl might be jaded and think games were oh-so much better, but games today are a blast.

Go buy a NES or PS1 if you long for those days....or find another hobby be apparently this one has evolved without you.

You're pandering evolution as a synonym for progression instead of change, change is not always good. Also telling people to adapt to something they find to be inferior, lacking or bland is asinine.

You must buy Apple products.

I never stopped playing video games and I agree they are better today than ever. But do you have no heart or good feelings towards the days long gone? I can still play Super Mario Bros any time and enjoy it thoroughly. There is a pick up and play for ten minutes quality to the old stuff that they are not even trying to compete with in these times. Thats without even getting into the arcade games of the day. They weren't better but how can you come this far and not have feeling for those magical early days! Our overly profit driven games just don't have the same feel.

@mark1974: of course I have fond memories and feelings for those days. I'm in the generation that is literally growing up with this industry.

But I played those games to death....I want something new.

At least half my top 10 of all time are games from 2001 and before.

But I'm having a great time with gaming now...about as much fun as I did when I was a kid. But those days were special and it was a different time so those games will always have a place in my memories, yes.

I would say we are in total agreement then on this.

There has not been a single game to match the godliness of Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night since.

Some genres reached their peaks at different times.

@foxhound_fox: some genres or maybe a franchise, sure.

But remember when we thought how cool it would be to play Mega Man in first person? That genre is FPS.

Not nearly as much plat forming but the shooting is there.

While some franchises might be stuck in there ways others come along and take the torch and expand on it.

Lara Croft got stale. Then Uncharted came along.

Skyrim is like a new age Simon's Quest. All the exploring and dungeons.

Some might have peaked with the way they were, but like I said.....its evolved. A lot of these games are old 2D games now in a 3D world....at least in some shape or form.

And even if you don't agree with that, just bc some genres or franchises peaked long ago doesn't mean there aren't other ones out there.

We live in a time where you can: play the battle of Hoth from Star Wars, sit back and follow a heavy story driven experience like Beyond 2 Souls, play a FPS with friends against a big boss in Destiny, play either a swordsman in an open world game like Skyrim or run n gun in an open world like Farcry, you have different RTS games, mod GTA 4 and be Iron Man or add dinosaurs.....there's literally shit to for any type of person.

You even have card games on your phone like Hearthstone.

It's honestly a great time to be a gamer.

While they may not all be what any one person considers "good"....there's bound to be more than a few things that spike your interest. You just can't have a nostalgic stick up your ass.

@mr_huggles_dog: That's a whole lot of great examples of games dumbing down older ones.

Without the nostalgia Halo as a series would've been long forgotten.

@foxhound_fox: I'm not being rude but I hate to burst your bubble....but those older 2D games aren't that hard now if you go back and play them.

Mega Man can be beaten in one sitting by anyone over 30 years of age given some warm up time.

Look at it this way: I beat Mega Man 2 when I was 10 or so.

Its not that hard.

I'd rather have those than new 1st part mario games. I wont buy any more of those games.

@Heil68: there are reasons for some remasters that some seem to want to ignore.

MCC was a collection of games from years and years....2 of which were 2 gens ago.

NDC was an effort to get many who bought a PS3 late or never since many 360 gamers went to PS4 into the series.

TLoU was sorta the same. It was one of the big games in the last year or so of the PS3 and many ppl who now owned a PS4 never played it.

God of War remaster.....stupid.

Gears of War remaster....stupid.

Tomb Raider remaster.....stupid.

But not all of them are inherently bad.

That sounds like something the corporate fascists at the ESA would believe.

I dont think they are stupid at all. They give people who never owned the previous console a chance to play the game or fans of the series a chance to play updated version. They will never stop making them as it has shown they sell.

Look like some idiot professors and gaming journals have no clue about gaming...

If nostalgia mean more crpg, space sims, tbs and others then I'm all for it

Remasters? Wtf is that? Never heard about it

@Heil68: God of War 3 should not have been the only one in that remaster....that was a pure cash grab. I mean they all are but some serve some other purpose.

Tomb Raider was near the end of the gen and it was on ALL platforms. Who didn't at least already buy it?

Gears, maybe not as stupid, but it's one of the biggest franchises of last gen and could have easily just began a new story or something on the new console.

It's just my opinion.

Not really, a lot (I mean aaaaaaaaa lot) of games have aged poorly. Even one of my top 5 games (kotor) has aged pretty badly and that game came out in 2003. I mean hell it was even worse playing Super Star Wars which was released in 1992.

@Heil68: That's a horrible excuse.. I'm willing to bet that over 90% of the people who currently own an 8th generation console had one from the previous gen. The seventh generation consoles have been out for ten years now. Lol

... Anyways, I feel like a game shouldn't be remastered, or remade until it's been out for atleast 8. It should be good and outdated by then, lol

Didn't bother reading the OP

Is the point of it basically complaining about people that complain about gaming not being as good anymore? If so then yeah it can be pretty obnoxious hearing that stuff.

What I've found that is a common thread within the industry is that gamers, as a collective, literally have no clue what they want.

Then you get bullshit terms such as 'next gen gameplay' which are purposefully vague in what people actually mean when they utter them.
Protip: No-one has a clue.

Gamers want the industry to 'innovate & progress' but no-one has a clue what the next step is or even know if they'd like it or not.

Dread to think when gamers suddenly get tired of Third & First Person games/shooters because they make up pretty much most of the AAA industry.

I can't say that nostalgia is ruining the industry but what I can say is ruining this industry is currently a lack of creativity for the AAA developers and games. The indie games aka the smaller developers are playing around with different gameplay and concepts but your AAA market isn't and it's kind the same that has happened to the movie market. If your game/movie is going to be about over 100 Million to make then the companies tend to play it safer because you need a lot of people to buy the product to make up for the money spent. But if you make a game/movie for less than 10 Million then yeah you can about go crazy with the ideas and concepts because you just need a niche group of people to buy your product.

They remake a shit ton of movies too so yeah. But for us old gamers, those old video games are just as fun if not more than the newer one that are beautiful but hold your hand so much