Is Nostalgia The Only Reason People Play Older Games?

There is a common thread among funded creative types and it goes like this. If you want to get funding for a movie, TV show or video game, you need to be able to say it is the “Something of Something.” You need to say it is the Dark Souls of Zelda games, it is the Diablo of Pokémon games. Just like in movies and TV shows, you have to be able to point at something and say, “Our product will be like this, which is why demographic A, B and C will like it.” That is the world of modern gaming and is why the indie gaming markets keep pumping out these surprise winners because they are not bound by similar constraints.

When it comes to older games, there is a degree of nostalgia that comes into play. We have happy memories of playing something in the past, and that happy memory interferes with our current appreciation of the game. That is why it is one of the reasons why it is very difficult to go back to old games and play them.

In most cases, you simply cannot get over the dated graphics and the lack of quality-of-life features. It is true that nostalgia is a reason why people play older games, but you also have to remember that they were not constrained by the same restrictions that current games are. The old developers didn't have to point at a game and say, “Our game will be like this.” Developers of older games had an idea and ran with it. Sometimes to great success and sometimes to oblivion.

Older Games Allowed Developers To Experiment More

People enjoy older games because some of the gems have rare qualities that are hard to find in modern games. The examples given above are part of that scenario. They were not bound by the same restrictions as newer developers, and this meant they could experiment a little more.

Video gaming and console gaming was in its infancy. It is true that things like first person shooters and platforms took a big role in gaming back in the old days, but even they were more experimentative than what we see today. You played as an earthwork that shot through mud, or a pack of Lemmings that would die if you didn't save them. You could have lived a life of hell in Doom or a life of suburban bliss in the Sims.

Developers of older games were able to experiment more, which is why some older games still seem more engaging and original than newer games. People may play older games because of nostalgia, but perhaps it is also because they fancy something different from the safer and more sterilized stuff that modern game developers offer.

Newer Games Are Railroaded Into Certain Styles or Formats

This one is difficult to explain, but let’s say that you want a nice smoke effect for your game, so you hop onto Blender.org, and you use its free tool to create a smoke effect for your game. However, you notice it already has a very good and very pleasing smoke effect. You can spend days creating your own, or you can use the one on offer right there.

This sort of thing happens all the time when people build games. Throughout all the tools and engines they use, there are easier ways to do things and there are more difficult/original ways to do things. If you take the easier (and much cheaper) route, then you are railroaded into doing things a certain way. It is a little like how most template-based websites on WordPress used to all look the same back in the old days. It is because the tools available are able to offer people shortcuts, and they would be fools to turn them down. Things like the re-use of assets that companies didn't even make themselves is now common practice.

Older games were not hindered by this. They had to build things from the ground up, and as a result, they were able to bring their ideas to life in a more fuller and creative way. They still had to make sacrifices and compromises, but they were more about budgets and hardware restrictions, rather than having to pick cheaper options because the cheaper options are there.

There Is Not Much Role Playing in Modern Games

The bigger the budget for a game, the more they hold your hand. A perfect example of this is in the Nathan Drake Uncharted games. Your hand is held from one set piece to the next, and where the theater and fireworks are impressive on screen, each part in between is just a smattering of gameplay before the next fun house set piece.

Even games like Mass Effect and the Fallout games, where you have plenty of dialog choices, you are still being shuffled from one scenario to the next. For example, what sort of a game would you play in Fallout 4 if you simply refused every quest given to you by NPCs?

People claim that you role play in games like Elden Ring, but you are only role playing different flavors of a power fantasy. In older games like Path of Exile, you suit up, you buy your PoE currency, and you set out to play a role in the world. You feel like you are part of the world, and it is more like role playing.

That is not to say that Elden Ring is bad. In fact, the intention in Elden Ring is to make you feel like you are just another speck of dust and that the world would carry out quite readily without you. Which is all great from a gameplay and world-building standpoint, but it doesn't really play into the role-playing element that many older games enjoyed.

Remakes and HD Remasters Keep Reminding People of Older Games

The many remakes and remasters do give us a nice insight into the past, and it is nice to experience old things. We may even enjoy the older games more if they had better graphics because they make the games more accessible to modern audiences. It is quite possible that remakes and remasters are a strong reason why people keep veering back to old games. If the games are still good after their upgrades, then it seems unfair to blame people's love for them on nostalgia.

It would be nice if older games were re-made and remastered, but they added in great graphics and modern varieties of quality-of-life improvements. Nobody wants to go back to pressing the button every time you want to create a unit in an RTS game or go back to a “No continues” feature in a platformer.

People Are Tired Of Certain People’s Mentality

In other words, some people are going back to old games because they want a game where Nazi flags are not banned because of Twitter, or where people can shout any type of curse/slur word without there being a change.org campaign set up by social justice warriors. Perhaps they want games where they are not lectured about their wrong thinking, privilege or biases.

Maybe people play old games because they just want to have fun. Perhaps to leave the frustrations of modern life and play a game where you are a hot rich woman with two guns who shoots tigers in tombs, or you want to be a purple dragon who is obsessed with collecting every darn crystal. Maybe older games offer us something that newer games have lost, or maybe it is nostalgia.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes