Do you think big games today will become the nostalgia of the future?

[MrBaguette]

So me and my friends were chatting about stuff and like most conversations we have, the topic starts to revolve around games. And we started wondering if big games today like Skyrim or Bf3 of Cod3 will be seen as nostalgic as games like pacman, pong...
If yes which ones and why?
If no then why not?

 

[Xprimentyl]

My initial response was going to be "Duh, temporal logic dictates that it be so," but upon thinking a bit more... I'd have to say... no. Wall of text to follow:

Don't know how old the OP is, but I'm soon to be 32, and while I can't claim to have been there and aware at the advent of the PONG and Pac-Man, I can say that I've been involved in video gaming long enough to have a fairly wide perspective and can honestly say that the games I'm nostalgic about have one unifying quality: they were NEW and UNIQUE for their time.

The first Zelda was [I believe] the first console game to offer a save feature; for the first time ever, I could power on my NES and NOT start from Level 1 and 3 lives every time, not to mention the game was awesome and exploring a blast. Sonic on the Genesis, with his [then] insane speeds and dizzying loops paved the way for the 16-bit generation making the 8-bit side-scrollers seem lethargic and tame by comparison. After leveling the field with the Super NES and an endless list of memorable titles, Nintendo struck a killing blow when they rendered Mario in 3D on the Nintendo 64 and arguably one of he greatest games ever in Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. The coin-op Mortal Kombat made international controversy and mile-high legal waves with it's [then] realistic portrayal of [then] unheard of acts of violence and sadism. The last significant jump, IMHO, being when GTA III dropped every curse word in the book, made light of vehicular manslaughter and, don't lie, how amazed were you when you pulled into an alley with a hooker in the passenger seat only to see the car start to do the "humpty-hump?" These were moments that changed the industry and brought us out in droves to experience the "bold," the "new," the "amazing," the "daring," Etc.

Then...

Developers hit a complacent stride with the PS2/Xbox generation. Technological focus became about making things "look" better and not so much about innovating and re-creating that child-like awe inspired when Sonic first dashed through a loop on my 19" tube TV. Innovation then became about the multiplayer experience, connecting gamers all over the world in copy/pasted environments for simulated violence, foul language, racism, misdirected aggression and trolling. Remember when Halo's recharging shield was a neat new dynamic rewarding strategy and patience over guns blazing? How many games have recharging health systems now? Remember when talk of Gears of War's cover-based system was all the buzz? Now how many games prompt you to hit "whatever" button to take cover?

I liken this to the way comic and sports card collecting has aged. Back in the infant stages of baseball cards, those kids then had no idea that in 30, 40, 100 years, those 2-cent cards might fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. That kid who bought the first issue of Superman and was amazed by this brand new "Man of Steel" had NO IDEA that flimsy, little book could fetch over one million dollars today. Once older generations started to realize these seemingly unimportant items had become records of history, unique and rare gateways to yesterdays, we've begun hoarding our crap in the hopes that one day, the same thing will happen. What's wrong? Supply and demand; if every kid is saving his comics in bullet-proof, water-tight cases, there will be MILLIONS of then sitting around in pristine condition in 50 years, and how can something be rare and invaluable if there are millions of them? There are so many games today that leech off of each other's successes, how will we ever be able to look back and truly distinguish which ones were "great?" Of course, we'll each have our own personal feelings towards one game or another, but isn't it funny how we can look back only a couple of gaming generations and come to a near consensus on what was "great" then? I mean, Call of Duty 4 made significant waves when it launched in 2007. We just started 2012, so in under as many years since it launched, we've already had 4 more CoDs and countless titles copying their success. CoD4 will bright star, but a mere singular star in a sky filled with billions.

And this process of graceful and memorable aging is further complicated by the fact that rush to be new and different is so "on," that we're barely scratching the surface of something promising to be new before it's whisked away into obsoletion and replaced but the bigger and better version...

It's tiring, really. I don't think I'm looking forward to nostalgia so much as I am just ready for this long-fought and futile battle for significance in a sea of clones to be over...

 

[daveman247]

Probably.

If things keep going the way they are now it'll be, "remember back in the day when you had to at least slightly think in a game? Hints everywhere now"
Or "remember when you had to aim in a shooter, its all automatic now".
Or "remember when you could actually fail the game?"
Exagerrated but

 

[veloper]

I reckon all the current sequels and clones will tend to blur in gaming history with nothing standing out. It's all minor increments and graphical updates nowadays and that's just not memorable.
Doom is the only FPS that took a major leap.
BF3 and MW3 will be forgotten when everyone will be playing BF4 and MW4.

 

[CrashBang]

Yes.

People who grew up playing the games of today will have a nostalgic bond with them.

Also, it's no particular game(s), just personal preference that will dictate it.

Exactly, I get all nostalgic about Ape Escape but does everyone? Definitely not. There's always a general consensus on classic games being nostalgic for a specific generation of gamers. For mine (I'm 21) it's LoZ: OOT, Goldeneye, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid and so on. I predict that Bioshock, Fallout 3, Skyrim, CoD 4 and Portal will be considered nostalgia-centric in the future.

 

[Henkie36]

Probably not. The only reason a game can become nostalgic if it sets itself apart from other games. If it make big changes that stuck with you. Something as brown and generic as MW3 or BF3 is nowhere near memorable enough to become nostalgic. And something like Skyrim will be forgotten as soon as the next big generic RPG pops up.

So I think that the only game that will be rememberd from this time is Portal. That really turned some heads and did something new, something that you can actually call an integral part of the gameplay.

 

[The Last Nomad]

An interesting question, but I imagine it will happen to a certain extent. At the moment you can't mention a recent Bethesda game without "game-breaking bugs" being mentioned. I imagine in the future, people will remember the amazing gameplay and not the bugs in a very nostalgic way.

Having said that, I've actually seen very few bugs in those sorta games in my experiences with the games.

 

[Dr Namgge]

Of course it will. Every generation has nostalgic games. But it depends on personal preferences whether or not you will find them nostalgic, as well as your own lives. We all end up with songs that remind us of our pasts, TV shows and films we used to love, and games we used to play. But it really depends what you do with it. For instance, I have great nostalgia for playing old Tony Hawk's games with my friends. Not for the games so much as I do because it was hanging out with a couple of like minded guys after school, loving the music, and having a laugh at/with each other. That was a good chunk of my teenage years, and I remember that.

Now will I remember all the games? Nope. A lot of games get forgotten, mainly the ones that form no personal connections, or remind me of any particular times in my life. Will I get nostalgic for the one time I played Halo and died a lot? Not really. Sure, I remember it, but nostalgia means remembering it and almost yearning for that sort of thing to return. Hence me not enjoying Halo means I don't get nostalgic for it.

You can't say for certain what games will and will not give you nostalgia, as it all depends on your own life. Go look at any comment for any old game on Youtube, most the nostalgic ones will relate back to events in peoples lives. It won't be just "I remember playing this game" It'll be "I remember spending weeks stuck on this boss", "I remember camping out for the midnight launch - man that was a waste of time", or "I played this game all the time during college".

That game you played for a half hour around your friends house, two years ago, that won't be nostalgic for you, as it was just another game to you. But to your friend it might be many an evening playing against his brother on the multiplayer before said brother moved away. The game may have no nostalgia to you, as it was just a game you played once, but to your friend, it's a reminder of a brother he misses, and to him the game will be nostalgic.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Well doi.

At some point in the future, probably ten-fifteen years from now, there will be a group of people sitting around commenting on an internet forum, and the topic will be 'Battlefield 3 is such a deeper game than Final Fantasy LXXX, when did game developers stop caring about story and start caring about flashy graphics?'

Because people don't change, and the influence of nostalgia means that not only will the above discussion take place, but Final Fantasy LXXX will in fact exist, as probably will Mass Effect 7, Battlefield 18, Halo 10, and a whole load of other games that should have been discontinuedwhen their stories ran out but were kept alive because while people will always claim they want something new and original and intelligent, when you actually try to give it to them they will react in fear and confusion.

If people genuinely wanted new and original things, there would not be a 'Dark Fantasy' seciton in Waterstones just to sell Twilight knockoffs to teenage girls, there would be no need for the various sporting games to release a new installment every year. Dan Brown would be nothing more than a footnote in the annals of the English canon and something decent and different would be better known.

But people want the same old homogenised crap, and they always will, the most terrifying part? In fifteen years you will be the 40 something right wing Conservative/Republican voter complaining vociferously about how whatever the next big thing is (rock and roll, videogames, holodecks) is destroying the youth of the world and we are obviously doomed.

 

[Strain42]

I dunno, and here's why.

A lot of people here (and if you were, fine) probably weren't born yet when games like Donkey Kong, Tetris, Galaga, etc. etc. came out. So those games aren't necessarily nostalgic to them because they remember them coming out, more because it's nostalgia for the history of the medium.

Let me use Pokemon as an example. Almost every Pokemon fan who was around in 1998 when those games hit the states fell in love with them and certainly has fond memories of playing it. Most people remember their first Pokemon, where they were when they did such and such.

But compare that to a person born later, who got into Pokemon later. They can still be fans, and they can still be nostalgic about the first game they played. But they usually aren't nostalgic about Red and Blue.

Meanwhile any gamer, whether they were around for it or not can care about the first Mario game or Pac-Man as both a gaming and cultural icon.

So yes, I'm sure a lot of games today will hold special parts in the heart and mind of those close to them. But I don't think they'll ever have the same impact as the earliest of gaming titles that have become some embedded in the history of gaming.

 

[DioWallachia]

Lets see this idea but applied to movies instead. Citizen Kane is "remembered" as the best movie ever and it was new and unique for its time..................and it flopped at the box office. And keep in mind that there wasn't many movies to compete with back in 1942, i mean sure, there were a few but its not like today where you have to compete with the Internet, Web series, games, other movies, radio shows and the zoo.

So tell me, if people back then didnt like it even if its the most awesome thing ever then why are we caring about it now? Is it nostalgia or we are just embarrassed that we fucked up this badly at making decisions??

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Well to me yes. Games that are unique, like portal, will likely be nostalgia games. I would like to add games like Halo and Mass Effect but they will likely never die (and they arent fairly unique either). Thats why as a fan of the series I will never buy any other Mass Effect games after ME3.

 

[Dandark]

Some of them. I will always remember halo 3 and the brilliant custom games we were able to have on their thanks to forge.
I don't know about the "big" games like Cod and Battlefield, I will probably remember the fun times we had on Battlefield: 1943 or Lost planet: colonies with it's Akrid Hunter but there are plenty of titles I will easily forget such as Halo: Reach, all of the Cod's after WaW and most of the battlefields.

EDIT: The ones above are the recent ones im thinking of. I already look back with Nostalgia at games I grew up with like Jack and Daxter or Ratchet and Clank.

 

[Manji187]

It's tiring, really. I don't think I'm looking forward to nostalgia so much as I am just ready for this long-fought and futile battle for significance in a sea of clones to be over...

Excellent post, sir. It's just that the quoted part caught my eye in particular.

It makes me wonder. How can there be anything of significance these days when there is too much of everything and it is shat out with ever increasing speed.

Even the supposedly epic games of today feel "manu(re)factured", i.e. devoid of authenticity and quality (especially in the writing department). "Soulless"; lacking genuine imagination (and innovation for that matter).

Where is the Chrono Trigger of the 21st century? Where is radical imagination and innovation? The way things are going the medium may well be headed for another crash.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

I think it'll happen. It doesn't necessarily take an innovative or unique game to feel nostalgia, just having had a ton of fun with it is enough. I'm nostalgic for Time Commando and Messiah as well as UT'99 and Space Quest, so take from that what you will.

It could be something as big as the innovation it made in the industry or the immersion you felt, or something as simple as the "feel" of a front-end. Part of why I adore Nintendo games so much is that they feel like last-gen's games in their completeness and ease of access. No "signing into Xbox live, do not turn off the power" bullshit, no live feed bar telling me to buy more DLC, no shoehorned multiplayer...Just the whole game. And that shit happened only last generation. I'm already nostalgic for those days and graphics.

 

[Xprimentyl]

It's tiring, really. I don't think I'm looking forward to nostalgia so much as I am just ready for this long-fought and futile battle for significance in a sea of clones to be over...

Excellent post, sir. It's just that the quoted part caught my eye in particular.

It makes me wonder. How can there be anything of significance these days when there is too much of everything and it is shat out with ever increasing speed.

Even the supposedly epic games of today feel "manu(re)factured", i.e. devoid of authenticity and quality (especially in the writing department). "Soulless"; lacking genuine imagination (and innovation for that matter).

Where is the Chrono Trigger of the 21st century? Where is radical imagination and innovation? The way things are going the medium may well be headed for another crash.

Very true. Disposable, is what most games are today; big developers are essentially striking while the iron is hot and making money with no real expectation of longevity. I can see the big-name devs in a room like the floor on Wall Street; a bunch of guys running around in disheveled button-down shirts and ties running around screaming "MULTIPLAYER!! ADD IN MULTIPLAYER!! OH, NOW IT'S CO-OP!! CO-OP IS HOT!!! HD RE-RELEASES ARE GOING FOR $1.25 A SHARE!! BUY NOW!!"

Another thing that is killing the potential for genuine (or perhaps I should say "deserved") nostalgia in the past couple of system generations is a lack of 1st-party developement and titles going cross-platform. There was a time when being an owner of a particular system meant you had unique access to a list of titles that non-owners didn't; those games could stand out and developers could focus on making titles geared towards the known target audience of a particular system. As development has transitioned to 3rd-party and everything is now avaialable to everyone, the audiences have broadened to the point that most developers try to be everything for everyone, piece-mealing ideas from everything with a modicum of success to generate "The World's Most Average Game IX." That being said, I would hate to see a backwards transition, less games available to everyone; I just wish they would combine the mentalities, "quality games for everybody."

 

[Vegosiux]

It's tiring, really. I don't think I'm looking forward to nostalgia so much as I am just ready for this long-fought and futile battle for significance in a sea of clones to be over...

Excellent post, sir. It's just that the quoted part caught my eye in particular.

It makes me wonder. How can there be anything of significance these days when there is too much of everything and it is shat out with ever increasing speed.

Even the supposedly epic games of today feel "manu(re)factured", i.e. devoid of authenticity and quality (especially in the writing department). "Soulless"; lacking genuine imagination (and innovation for that matter).

Where is the Chrono Trigger of the 21st century? Where is radical imagination and innovation? The way things are going the medium may well be headed for another crash.

Very true. Disposable, is what most games are today; big developers are essentially striking while the iron is hot and making money with no real expectation of longevity. I can see the big-name devs in a room like the floor on Wall Street; a bunch of guys running around in disheveled button-down shirts and ties running around screaming "MULTIPLAYER!! ADD IN MULTIPLAYER!! OH, NOW IT'S CO-OP!! CO-OP IS HOT!!! HD RE-RELEASES ARE GOING FOR $1.25 A SHARE!! BUY NOW!!"

Another thing that is killing the potential for genuine (or perhaps I should say "deserved") nostalgia in the past couple of system generations is a lack of 1st-party developement and titles going cross-platform. There was a time when being an owner of a particular system meant you had unique access to a list of titles that non-owners didn't; those games could stand out and developers could focus on making titles geared towards the known target audience of a particular system. As development has transitioned to 3rd-party and everything is now avaialable to everyone, the audiences have broadened to the point that most developers try to be everything for everyone, piece-mealing ideas from everything with a modicum of success to generate "The World's Most Average Game IX." That being said, I would hate to see a backwards transition, less games available to everyone; I just wish they would combine the mentalities, "quality games for everybody."

This, basically. For a game to be a subject to nostalgia, it needs to have stood out in its time. Nowadays, most games are generic.

I dare say, the modern day games that will become the nostalgia of the future are the little games. Like Bastion, for example, or Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

 

[TehCookie]

Some people are nostalgic for Halo, so I'd say yes (last gen isn't old dammit). I dislike most big titles of this generation so I couldn't say which ones kids in general will remember but everyone will have that special game they played the shit out of as a child. Frogger or Jumping Flash aren't the most popular games remembered but to me that's instant nostalgia goggles.

But it really depends what you do with it. For instance, I have great nostalgia for playing old Tony Hawk's games with my friends. Not for the games so much as I do because it was hanging out with a couple of like minded guys after school, loving the music, and having a laugh at/with each other. That was a good chunk of my teenage years, and I remember that.

So here I am growin' older all the time but getting older all the time feeling younger in my mind. So here I am doing everything I can holding on to what I can, pretending I'm a superman!

I never knew how true that would be.

 

[Random Fella]

Yes
Everyone will get nostalgia over the amazing Duke Nukem forever
But in all seriousness, there are still great games developed now that are worthy of such nostalgia, and will surely provide it in future.