Being a Gamer – How Nostalgic Gaming Affects Growing Up
Being a Gamer – How Nostalgic Gaming Affects Growing Up
I’m sitting here alone in my living room, the distant lull of my Xbox 360’s fans quietly humming, thinking about my life for the past 20 years.
As long as I can remember, I’ve been a gamer. Sure, there have been those times when other things matter most: comics, sports, girls, music, movies, and learning (in no particular order.) I’ve had my fill of moments where I just simply needed a break from gaming. We all have had these thoughts. However, I always ended up back in the gaming saddle; my hands firmly wrapped around a new generation’s controller. As the television screen begins to dim while I write this, I’ve begun to get caught up in the moment of realizing that this isn’t just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle.
A pixel addiction?
The crazy thing is that I have no idea how this happened. One minute, I’m six years old, unwrapping my copy of The Legend of Zelda, struggling to try out the new toy called Nintendo. The next, I’m in my late twenties, have video game pictures surrounding me like iron bars, my room a prison of nostalgia, listening to the soundtrack to Final Fantasy V, and spending more times researching games than actually playing them. I realize now that even though I’ve grown up, become educated, acquired a loving, healthy relationship with a wonderful woman, and have a steady, full time job as a technician, I’m still the boy who almost gave up little league just for five more minutes with Mega Man III. It makes me wonder though: am I fascinated with the memories of games, or am I just growing up the wrong way?
To answer this question requires some heavy history lessons. Before video games, we lived in a different world. Video games became popular during a time when glitz and glamour were all the rage. The computer age was upon us, sinking digital fangs into our culture every chance it could. Strange as it is, our parents grew up in a world much different than ours. Sex, drugs and rock and roll were dominant. Sports and music were the main hobbies of the 60s and 70s. Music was raw and natural; movies were social commentaries and deep dramas. The 80s brought about maturity through immaturity: it was all about simple digitized musical instruments, double the explosions, and escaping reality through as many markets as possible. Gaming was a big part of escapism and still is to this day.
Introducting the 'video game'
It wasn’t until the late 70s/early 80s when video games grew popular. Between Atari, Intellivison, Colecovision, and the Odyssey, the market was overcrowded with video games. The North American Video Game Crash of 1983 was due, in large part, to overpopulation and poor quality in games plus a lack of interest from people who were, back then, not gamers. These were everyday people. There was no lifestyle, no nostalgia. Nothing kept them but the moment they were in and it faded as quickly as it arrived. However, one interesting moment at the end of the crash came from Commodore, who tried to steal business from Atari by convincing parents to trade in their Atari’s towards the purchase of a Commodore. This marketing ploy involved feeding on the parent’s need to improve their kid’s lives, stating that their children would need these computers for school and not for play. This is a monumental moment, when looking back at the history of not only video games, but youth in general. Children were given a choice, and many of their decisions leaned towards growing up.
European gamer’s attention resided in the personal computer, with systems such as the Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum leading the pack. The notion of growing up intrigued parents and players alike, an important step for not just Europeans, but the entire world. One can even argue that this moment is an indicator of when gaming tried to grow up but simply couldn’t. In North America, PCs and Macs rushed in an age of the “PC Gamer,” an elitist bunch who strayed from consoles in favor of not only an everlasting experience on more mature hardware, but also something that will help them grow up. Things seemed to settle down for a few years until Japan erupted onto the gaming scene, introducing three companies that would bring back the Console Wars.
Leave luck to heaven
Nintendo, Sega and NEC all fought for dominance. While everybody had their own taste in games, they had to be reintroduced not as videogames, but as toys. Here, we see a regression in taste. This was a reversal that tore many gamers. There were those of us who grew up on this stuff, and who devoured anything these companies put out. Game mascots became more recognizable than Ronald McDonald or Mickey Mouse. Cartoons, movies, t-shirts, cavity-inducing cereal and cheesy video game-hip hop based albums; you name it, it probably existed and we were in heaven. The video game market was back in a big way, and we loved every moment. There were others who may have been a little older, and relied on the steady hand of quality that 8 and 16 bit computer systems dealt. These systems were brimming with the tools necessary to enhance the mind in not only a fun way, but also enlighten. Word Processors, coding, and eventually more advanced computer skills were required to work on these machines, most of which could not be retrieved from a simple console. Some of gaming’s biggest developers in the 80s even cut their teeth on making games in their living rooms on systems like the Commodore. The line was drawn, and while both appreciated gaming, they went in opposite paths.
As consoles pushed on, the companies battled for supremacy. Everything had to be bigger and better. Graphics and sound evolved, as did story and characters. Game mascots went from 8 bit messes to 16 bit heroes. While gaming tastes began to include longer games that relied more on experience than high scores, it was the lessons we began to pick up while playing that helped us evolve not only as gamers, but as people. While some gamers can honestly say they learned to read thanks to Final Fantasy, or improved their eventual real life driving skills with various racing games, this hobby was always meant to be a distraction. What we took from it, most couldn’t achieve from other mediums. Born and bred into a world where games were not only played alone, but were also debated, gamers began feeding off of each other. Lines in the sand were drawn: who you supported in the Console Wars was almost as big (if not bigger depending on the crowd) as what sports team you chose. Gaming was sealing its mark into a captivated audience, creating memorable stories, characters, and moments that got you excited to be a gamer. Nothing else matched the feeling of reading the pages of Nintendo Power or watching the Sega Channel. Even now, watching live coverage of E3, or trailers for the latest games on YouTube, the feeling is indescribable. It was a time where the games industry could do no wrong.
Here comes a new challenger
However, something changed in the late 1990s. New companies arrived on the scene, and they brought 20 plus years of experience in other markets. Gaming was entering a time that began to cater to a younger market again, and relied more on a PC experience than a gaming one. While Nintendo still continued to drive home family friendly experiences, and Sega struggled not only internally but with the video game market as well, our tastes changed. We became adults, and because we began to like sex, drugs and rock and roll (just like our parents,) we expected it to fill all aspects of our lives. Movies were swearing, stripping and slaughtering so why weren’t games? A hobby that was more about creativity became more about catering to two parties: younger children who wanted to have a mature experience thinking they could grow up faster, and the kids turned adults who wanted a more realistic experience out of a world built around escapism. The current generation’s focus is on recreating reality, something video games was never about. Once again, we are trying to grow up and lose focus of why we game to begin with.
I’m not trying to say that gaming should be about not taking ownership of your responsibility. Becoming an adult, starting a family and working hard to provide for them are all things we are supposed to be striving towards achieving. But retro games in general are based on nostalgia, a time when life was simple. Beating Dr. Robotnik on a Saturday morning in the first Sonic the Hedgehog was your big dilemma of the weekend. Life’s hardest choices revolved more around your breakfast variety than how to propose to your future-wife/husband. This is why nostalgia has reared its gorgeous 8-bit face in the recent years: gamers want to escape again.
Sonic the Hedgehog turns 20 this year...
Nobody wants to grow old. But as the grey hair begins to expand, and the pains of aging become clearer, retro gaming has become a mainstay in the gaming industry. While Nintendo has proven to be the kings of retro revival, other companies are making classic 8-bit and 16-bit games, referencing the good old days of gaming. Escapism has returned to the industry, and while it is a small fraction of gamers, it begs to question who truly is the more hardcore: The shooters and sports guys who call anything innovative or retro in style lame, or the gamers who just can’t let go?
After watching the E3 Press Conference for Nintendo, it becomes very clear. As the gaming industry continues to push forward and innovate, it can’t help but return to its roots. Retro gamers do the same thing. However, this is not an exclusive time for remembrance; as time goes by, and we begin to decay, we rely on our memories to show us that even though you grow up, you can never grow old. I’d say that even though we’re not the first generation to be nostalgic, we’re certainly having the most fun doing it.
Source: http://www.retrocollect.com
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