Age Matters

I think this is why I love these boards so much... the average age of its members is much higher than most, and it sure as hell shows.

Hell, I'm 22, I love games, and (trust me), I get excited about games, but not to the extremes as when I first had an NES in grade school. As you grow up, you have to share your time with games with more fruitful things, like, um, life.

Delirium: "Um. What's the name of the word for things not being the same always, you know, I'm sure there IS one, isn't there? There must be a word for it... the thing that lets you know time is happening. Is there a word?"

Dream: "Change."

Delirium: "Oh. I was afraid of that."

Well, I still giggle like a little schoolgirl when I see or hear about Metroid Prime and Steel Battallion, so I guess there hasn't been THAT much change in my life.
I have noticed that I'm not 100% happy and satisfied JUST playing games, like I used to be when I was much smaller. Things get complicated, and time moves faster. Trust me, your 20's will be the quickest years of your life as months slip by like, um, something quick that's been greased up. Or Serris (sp?).

Whatever, it's late. Back to Prime.

Yea i love having older gamers on the boards, since they can be like a voice of reason as uhhh...more experienced and for the most part more wise gamers.

Play Prime and all your worries will evaporate.

Man, I would love it if some more older gamers would join the boards. I would bombard them with questions about '70's games and machines.

I think that to a big degree your entusiasm about gaming has to do with whats going on in your life. Like through most of 98 my first year out of high school my life was hell and I didn't enjoy alot of games I thought I was going to love such as Resident evil 2 and MGS as well as Zelda oot. I mean I bought them and had fun with them but it wasnt as fun as it had been. But then a mere 3 months later its early 99 and Im havin a blast playin import Sonic Adv. and Silent Hill. By then I had moved out and was living on my own and most the things detracting from the games was gone. So you shuold never worry eventually the magic always returns.

Just the other day I had a couple females at work comment on how cute it was that I was getting all giddy and excited about something.

That something was Steel Battalion. As long as games can bring me joy, I'll never stop playing. And there will always be modern classics being made.

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Originally posted by teenwolf
Two of your favorite games? Zelda TOOT :p was fun, but FF7 was awful. Doesn't anyone remember FF4?!? Or for that matter FF6? You cannot even compare FF7 to their grandeur and radiance. Playing FF7 was like getting kicked in the gut after the great times I had with FF4 and FF6. Don't even make me whip Chronotrigger out.

Too many youngsters today who don't know their video game heritage and who haven't played so many of the great old games. I still have fond memories of my Odyssey^2. Or how about playing Demon Attack or Adventure for the first time on the Atari 2600, or seeing Super Mario Bros. for the first time in a Target and watching someone hit that invisible block on the first level, and then getting into a fight with that said person because they wouldn't get off the machine and let someone have a turn!@#...good times, oh yes....

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First of all, we are NOT having that discussion. You know what I'm talking about. And thanks for proving my point perfectly with your second paragraph. What do all the games you mentioned have in common? Yeah, they're all old games that you probably played as a kid. I grew up in a different era so the games that go on my list of "fond memories" are going to differ alot from yours, but the idea is the same. Sure, I can play those games you mentioned on emulators all I want, but it's alot different when you're growing up and changing with it all then if you're simply playing it because it was regarded as good. It's simply not the same experience, and that's precisely what this is all about. I can respect the fact that Chrono Trigger is a great RPG, taking a place right next to FF7 in my heart, as far as RPGs go anyway, but I was deprived as a child and only had Genesis, so I got to experience the wonders of this game only recently through the use of an emulator. I thought it was great, but FF7 had already left it's mark on me and there was nothing I could about it. This is why I also believe that the first RPG that you play, barring it being a flaming heap of crap, will always hold that place in your heart because it is the one that introduces you to this "world" and shows you what games can really do, but that's just from my experience, so I don't expect everyone to agree with me on that.

And to those of you who think I'm a jaded gamer, I don't believe that is the case at all. I still get a whole lot of enjoyment out of games, it's just different, and that's the only way I can really describe it: different. Don't fret Hero, because games haven't gotten any worse and aren't getting any worse. If anything they're getting better, creating more realistic worlds that many of us have ever imagined, but you experience something for the first time only once and that experience is going to hit you the hardest and stay with you the longest. That's just the way it is, and a thousand years of great games aren't going to change that.

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Originally posted by Cloud
First of all, we are NOT having that discussion. You know what I'm talking about. And thanks for proving my point perfectly with your second paragraph. What do all the games you mentioned have in common? Yeah, they're all old games that you probably played as a kid. I grew up in a different era so the games that go on my list of "fond memories" are going to differ alot from yours, but the idea is the same. Sure, I can play those games you mentioned on emulators all I want, but it's alot different when you're growing up and changing with it all then if you're simply playing it because it was regarded as good. It's simply not the same experience, and that's precisely what this is all about. I can respect the fact that Chrono Trigger is a great RPG, taking a place right next to FF7 in my heart, as far as RPGs go anyway, but I was deprived as a child and only had Genesis, so I got to experience the wonders of this game only recently through the use of an emulator. I thought it was great, but FF7 had already left it's mark on me and there was nothing I could about it. This is why I also believe that the first RPG that you play, barring it being a flaming heap of crap, will always hold that place in your heart because it is the one that introduces you to this "world" and shows you what games can really do, but that's just from my experience, so I don't expect everyone to agree with me on that.

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The first RPG I remember playing was some horrid Might and Magic for the NES.:) Flaming heap that it was.

As it is, I pretty much agree. I'm twenty-three, and gaming is not the same as when I was even sixteen. I can still remember the FF6 intro (to use a previous example) crystal clearly. The FF7 intro I have to force myself to remember. It's not that it's a better game (which it is:p ), it's that I played FF6 at a much more impressionable time in my life.

Beyond that, when I play games now, I still enjoy them, yet a feel a bit guilty about it, if that makes sense. I'm not a kid anymore, as to where I can play them all the time with no worries. I have bills to pay, etc., and it sits a bit heavier on my heart, if you will, when I play.

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Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
I don't think Final Fantasy 1 was ever even that great to begin with. It stands the test of time pretty poorly too.

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At the time, the only thing there was to compare it to was the original Dragon Warrior, so it was pretty awesome back then. I also think it's aged alot better than many rpgs *coughcoughPhantasyStar2coughcough*.

But I agree, I think it's impossible for games to hold quite the same magic as they did in youth, since the human brain simply doesn't get as excited over something that's not completely new. But Metroid Prime comes damn close to recapturing that magic, though.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Final Fantasy VII was a great game.

Wow, this topic sure took a nice detour.