The Atlantic did a survey to find out when people thought the United States was great and they most people found this was a time when they were young.(theatlantic.com) This is a phenomenon known as the reminiscence bump that is the tendency for older adults to have increased recollection for events that occurred during their adolescence and early adulthood. This bump causes people to believe that this time was one of the best time in their lives. This is also around the time we pick up what tends to be our favorite music and people recognize it as a time that music was the best.(slate.com) This made me wonder, do we carry this same bias with video games?
I thought this was going to be a hard question to answer but luckily this question has been tackled in what now one of my new favorite websites www.psychologyofgames.com, which delves into the psychology of video games. (If you are a reader of my general content articles where I go into these matters, this is definitely a site you want to check out.) In the article "The Psychology of Video Game Nostalgia" by Jamie Madigan they talk about the important time in your life when you are forming preferences. Your youth.
The argument is made that in your youth what you were doing was experiencing new things, finding things you like, and finding out who you were as a person. Your taste for video games, sports, and music all came from this time and defined specifically what it is that you liked. There was also the association of good times with friend or family that go along with these games. People then associate this to the games they played and give it greater importance than a game they play later. Video games are not excluded from the same preference towards this time as any other industry.
I was dancing around this subject when I talked about how game companies use nostalgia to sell us games. They take what we remember as a great game and reboot it by updating graphics and sometimes controls. They know they can do this because people will have such a high memory for the game they will buy it the thing that it should still be good. Whether it is good or not is subjective still but you would be hard-pressed to say that gaming experience hasn't improved.
My personal example is Quest 64. I loved that game and I thought it was a great RPG when people widely believe its objectively crap. Looking at you ProJared. There is also a deep an undying love for how great Final Fantasy 7 was when objectively games have become much better. I still sit and think, no that was a great RPG, which for it's time it was. A recent play through though reminded me of how far and more user-friendly games have become. The story is still pretty good though.
So yes. Many of us do carry a bias in video game much like the other hobbies we have formed in our lives. It doesn't mean the games were better it just what set our standards for what we thought was good and it's always hard to match people's expectations. It worth thinking about the next time you are looking at a game and comparing it to a past game you have played. Was the past game really that good or was it just around at the right time?
I thought this was going to be a hard question to answer but luckily this question has been tackled in what now one of my new favorite websites www.psychologyofgames.com, which delves into the psychology of video games. (If you are a reader of my general content articles where I go into these matters, this is definitely a site you want to check out.) In the article "The Psychology of Video Game Nostalgia" by Jamie Madigan they talk about the important time in your life when you are forming preferences. Your youth.
The argument is made that in your youth what you were doing was experiencing new things, finding things you like, and finding out who you were as a person. Your taste for video games, sports, and music all came from this time and defined specifically what it is that you liked. There was also the association of good times with friend or family that go along with these games. People then associate this to the games they played and give it greater importance than a game they play later. Video games are not excluded from the same preference towards this time as any other industry.
I was dancing around this subject when I talked about how game companies use nostalgia to sell us games. They take what we remember as a great game and reboot it by updating graphics and sometimes controls. They know they can do this because people will have such a high memory for the game they will buy it the thing that it should still be good. Whether it is good or not is subjective still but you would be hard-pressed to say that gaming experience hasn't improved.
My personal example is Quest 64. I loved that game and I thought it was a great RPG when people widely believe its objectively crap. Looking at you ProJared. There is also a deep an undying love for how great Final Fantasy 7 was when objectively games have become much better. I still sit and think, no that was a great RPG, which for it's time it was. A recent play through though reminded me of how far and more user-friendly games have become. The story is still pretty good though.
So yes. Many of us do carry a bias in video game much like the other hobbies we have formed in our lives. It doesn't mean the games were better it just what set our standards for what we thought was good and it's always hard to match people's expectations. It worth thinking about the next time you are looking at a game and comparing it to a past game you have played. Was the past game really that good or was it just around at the right time?
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