Fear of the Future
Occasionally, I give some thought to the time I was born. No, I don’t try to recall those first moments of my life outside the womb or anything, I dwell more on the age in which I live. Some may feel that they were born too late, or perhaps too early, not content with the state of the world around them. I can’t say for certain that I wouldn’t want to live in various periods of time. All I know is what surrounds me now, and I can barely relate to most of it as is.
What I do know for certain is that I love that I’ve grown up during the fledgling years of video games. In years to come, games will become more a norm than what they already are. That…scares me. As a person who for many of my younger years was considered a slight social outcast due to my hobby, to slowly be looked at as average is off-putting. There’s a reason why people hate games like Farmville or any of the thousands of mobiles games out there. They’re people like me. They’ve seen the games industry before it was an “industry” and they’re scared of what it could become.
You can say that its progress, and you’d be correct, but sometimes progress kills the soul of things. There’s a state in which almost every life improving invention has been in, that it was considered to be amazing and magical. To have it become so normal means to take away the magic. The hate from people who have grown up with video games during its younger years is so because of the fear of that loss.
It’s for the same core reason you never forget your first MMO, or your first RPG, or your first wonderful anything. It’s new, it’s exciting, it’s life changing. But eventually it becomes normal. It becomes irreplaceable nostalgia. The magic you felt as a teenager, driving your own car and soaking in that sense of freedom, is the same magic you feel when you connect with a certain video game. The problem is that over the years it gets to be so damn hard to keep getting a fix. So hard that you start to point blame at the games business and all of whom you would consider outcasts of your social group. The moms, the kids who never grew up with games like you and don’t have your experiences, etcetera.
I can’t say I’m not fearful. All I can say is I’m more of the optimist. I cling on to the knowledge that there are very creative people involved in the industry that are always finding new ways to try and sate my appetite for games and the magical experiences within. I also cling on to hope. Hope that I can resist becoming that fearful, hating, overly nostalgic gamer.
I’ve already given loved ones permission to punch me if I do.
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“I’ve already given loved ones permission to punch me if I do.”
That just reminded me of the scene in Airplane where they are all lined up to “calm” the girl freaking out by slapping her around. LOL!
This post seems to be in response to something but I’m not sure what. Seeing that middle pic however reminds me of the time ten years ago when I was playing a little Hibernian elf nightshade. I remember it almost like it was last week.
It’s not really in response to anything. It’s just thoughts I’ve had lingering. =P
Yes, I’ve felt the same way. I got into gaming around the Atari era, maybe a little before, I recall my dad having a pong console at one point, and a Sinclair computer that had no memory-you had to spend all day copying a program into it, then it wuld last until you had to shut the computer off or you wanted to type in another program. Yikes. But a lot of the older generation of gamers got into gaming as an alternative to other, more social(ly accepted) pastimes. Now, gaming is mainstream, and we are no longer special. Sure, we have the jocks and popular kids playing consoles and casual games now, in the fields we once had to ourselves. I think we can learn to share though, and be big boys and girls, yes?
Yes, I’ve felt the same way. I got into gaming around the Atari era, maybe a little before, I recall my dad having a pong console at one point, and a Sinclair computer that had no memory-you had to spend all day copying a program into it, then it would last until you had to shut the computer off or you wanted to type in another program. Yikes. But a lot of the older generation of gamers got into gaming as an alternative to other, more social(ly accepted) pastimes. Now, gaming is mainstream, and we are no longer special. Sure, we have the jocks and popular kids playing consoles and casual games now, in the fields we once had to ourselves. I think we can learn to share though, and be big boys and girls, yes?
5 comments
“I’ve already given loved ones permission to punch me if I do.”
That just reminded me of the scene in Airplane where they are all lined up to “calm” the girl freaking out by slapping her around. LOL!
This post seems to be in response to something but I’m not sure what. Seeing that middle pic however reminds me of the time ten years ago when I was playing a little Hibernian elf nightshade. I remember it almost like it was last week.
It’s not really in response to anything. It’s just thoughts I’ve had lingering. =P
Yes, I’ve felt the same way. I got into gaming around the Atari era, maybe a little before, I recall my dad having a pong console at one point, and a Sinclair computer that had no memory-you had to spend all day copying a program into it, then it wuld last until you had to shut the computer off or you wanted to type in another program. Yikes. But a lot of the older generation of gamers got into gaming as an alternative to other, more social(ly accepted) pastimes. Now, gaming is mainstream, and we are no longer special. Sure, we have the jocks and popular kids playing consoles and casual games now, in the fields we once had to ourselves. I think we can learn to share though, and be big boys and girls, yes?
Yes, I’ve felt the same way. I got into gaming around the Atari era, maybe a little before, I recall my dad having a pong console at one point, and a Sinclair computer that had no memory-you had to spend all day copying a program into it, then it would last until you had to shut the computer off or you wanted to type in another program. Yikes. But a lot of the older generation of gamers got into gaming as an alternative to other, more social(ly accepted) pastimes. Now, gaming is mainstream, and we are no longer special. Sure, we have the jocks and popular kids playing consoles and casual games now, in the fields we once had to ourselves. I think we can learn to share though, and be big boys and girls, yes?
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