The Internet Made Old Video Games Not Fun (and its Our Fault)

When I was 13, all I wanted was a Nintendo Entertainment system. No I'm not that old, it wasn't new, in fact the Switch was just about to come out. I've just been so fascinated with video games and the history of them, and this all begun with the community and discussion around them. That there was all this love and compassion surrounding these games, and that it felt like everybody had a shared love of these things in that space.

These days, in the retro game community, its not cool to like the NES. Its old, its stale. I have a frustration with ideas like that, because in a community to celebrate the history of games its strange to write off an entire era that began all these games because they're old. This was the first bit of cynicism built into this community, and it began growing and changing, slowly. 

The Gameboy isn't to be liked, its not in color. The atari is "unplayable", the nes is too old to be enjoyed. Playing a game on original hardware isn't preferable to emulation. Emulation isn't a way to enjoy games since its not the intended experience. Games aren't "old enough," games are "too old." But let's say you choose a game in the "accepted" sweet spot, in the intended way WHATEVER THAT EVEN IS.

Sonic Adventure DX on the gamecube is one of my favorite games, i think it improves upon the Dreamcast original in multiple ways and I sincerely enjoy it compared to the original. The original is just as fantastic, but the changes DX had makes it a game I enjoy a little more.

Why am I mentioning this? This is an EXTREMELY controversial statement. To the point where if you even mention the fact that you like it you will constantly have people argue with you, that its genuinely awful and not even close to the original despite being at its core the same experience. Not because its bad, but because the dreamcast version is seen as marginally better.

This is seen as a good example to me because at the end of the day, these games are pretty similar. In fact, liking DX more was the popular opinion until there was a popular YouTube video on the subject, and suddenly everybody changed their mind. Things like this happen ALL the time in this circle on the internet. Theres large popular creators that can change the general opinion on things of this nature because so many games exist, nobody can possibly play them all

...but everybody wants to have an opinion on everything. That's how this space of the internet works. Instead of spending 5-30 hours playing a game, you can watch an 20 minute to hour youtube video explaining what to think on the topic, and take that as gospel and move on. Its a one way discussion medium, a medium of consumption rather than conversation. Forums and blogs exist to argue, to celebrate, and to in general converse about this silly fun hobby, right?

The retro video game community is one of the most toxic places i have ever seen via forums and things of that nature. Even moreso than most places, it feels extremely toxic and averse to change. Each small subsection creates their opinion, usually based on nostalgia and other measures that are a constant barometer of change, and follows that to a point where everybody who doesn't fill in those opinions are to be constantly argued with, to be nitpicked, to be treated as a bad actor. Its a frustrating experience that makes it so the fun is completely destroyed, that makes a simple hobby something thats exhausting to even simply catch up with.

Even if you manage to get through all these hurdles, know what to talk about, what the general opinions are, know how to share dissenting opinions without getting people mad at you, theres the process of HOW you play them. Let's say you hook up a game console to a TV, pop the copy of the game in, and just simply state that you're playing a game. This will sometimes go well, but there are multiple subsections that are enragingly against this. 

Theres people who believe games can only be enjoyed via "improvement patches" or modifications of video games that are made to improve certain gameplay functions. Theres people who believe that things should only be played on Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) televisions, which have no lag and a more pronounced effect called dithering, compared to lcds, which show a cleaner image (which isn't always preferred) and have 1-5 frames of lag, even on the Game Mode setting. Theres people who believe games should not at all be played on original hardware, but rather emulation with all these effects to make them cleaner, to make them run better, among other things.

Its exhausting, dear reader. At the end of the day, its wholly unimportant, and its just watching a community I used to spend my time on fall into elitism and cynicism. To me, it is important though. This was where I spent my formative years, and it shaped how I view art. Not as something that exists and goes away once the new thing does, but as something that always exists, and can always be visited. 

Just don't get too wrapped up in all this. Find what you like, don't research endlessly if you see something you want to try, just try it. Don't constantly discuss things, just experience them

With love,

Your Unluckiest Clover