Discussion - Two types of nostalgia and how it applies to video games

[ryvrdrgn14]

A lot of companies these days rely on nostalgia from older titles/style of games to get players hyped up about their 'latest and greatest' product. I was just doing some research about psychological techniques used in sales and marketing so I was going through some articles about nostalgia. I'll link the article at the bottom of the post if you want to read it for yourself, but I'll just get to the gist of it in my post.

I came across an article that defines two different kinds of nostalgia:

• Restorative Nostalgia - A desire to recreate an experience from the past.
• Reflective Nostalgia - An acceptance that the past is the past and cannot be relived, but you can still enjoy the emotions brought about by remembering it.

I assume that a lot of the marketing tactics for pre-existing IPs or styles of games is targeting people with restorative nostalgia. We have the upcoming Classic WoW servers, various 'old school' MMOs that are popping up like Pantheon, and decades old IPs revived like Mechwarrior Online.

For the other side of the coin, I think that those who drastically alter the experience in the name of innovation are leveraging reflective nostalgia. There is familiarity, but they are not promising the 'same old experience' since they are always adding new systems or even going so far as to change the art style, characters, timeline and even style of game (from maybe PC to mobile) and they are hoping you have fond enough memories of the old experience with the IP that you'll try something new with their latest release.

I'm sure it's not as cut and dry as what I have stated. I'm not a marketing or psychology expert. I just find the topic interesting.

Do you think that being trapped with restorative nostalgia is a bad thing? Always chasing an experience that is difficult, if not impossible to relive? Is your reflective nostalgia allowing developers and creators string you along into pre-ordering multiple iterations of their products? Are you fine with how these things are being used to constantly sell similar games year after year? Are you easily upset when these publishers and developers fail to live up to your expectation after you get their products? Are you fine with it and you're glad they can keep the good memories rolling?

It would be nice to know what you think about it. I'm not making an argument for one side or the other. Feel free to post your thoughts and have a great day.

( Also link to the article - https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl...aces-nostalgia )
( Archive link for those that prefer it - http://archive.is/Ow3kr )

[CyberJ]

I would have to say that personally I'm must be a Reflective Nostalgia person. I'm not the same person I was 2 days ago let alone several decades ago. I'm also much more interested in new experiences rather than trying to recapture some feeling I had when I was 12. Even when I'm dealing with games that are part of a franchise or sequels I tend to take each game separately. While it is nice for a game mechanic or system to be familiar I find that I get bored too fast if all the new game has to offer is the same game as the previous iteration with maybe some new graphics or one new gimmick.

I figure if I really want to relive the old game I'll just boot up the old game. New games should offer something new.

[ryvrdrgn14]

It's a good thing for us gamers that a lot of the old games were preserved through emulation. When the current offerings are not to my liking, it's always fun to go back and play something made back then. I also agree that for the most part, new games should try to provide a new and unique experience. I suppose where it falls flat is in the category of 'live service games' where if the server goes down, the game can no longer be played except in some instances.

I actually like that the ones that own Hellgate London turned it into a singleplayer game and sold it for a fixed price. It used to be a mostly failed multiplayer game, but it was still interesting enough for me to want to play again just to try out stuff I didn't get to do.

[CyberJ]

The server shutdown is probably one of the top reasons why I don't like online only games. Currently the only game I play that way is D3 because there is no choice but I'm always concerned that one day they'll flip a switch and all that game is goes poof!

I agree emulators are nice. Then you have the collectors that still have working versions of old hardware. Sometimes I wish I had been a little brighter when I owned some of those systems and had held onto them instead of selling them.

[RevolverGirl]

Using Nintendo as an example since they have a lot of decade old IPs

Mario uses a mix of both restorative for its 2D games and reflective for its 3D games, Mario Oddessey goes completely new and off the wall in its concepts while throwing just a bit of reflective content to appease nastalgic Mario fans and pleasing both crowds.

Breath of the wild does this a bit less, it took a risk with attracting newer fans who were getting tired of the Zelda formula (and I'd say it worked for the most part) but the next game needs to have more restorative and go for the older formula of expansive dungeons and story to appease the fans who disliked the new Zelda.

While Kirby is still an amazing series I think Star Allies has a lot of restorative nastalgia and relies WAY too much on reflective to the point where some fans are getting a bit sick of it. Every Kirby game has a refelctive level, and while its cute, they need to cut back on it.

Pokemon on the other hand relies WAY too much on restorative lately, Sun and Moon were on the right track, but the Gen 1 pandering is too much. Gen 8 BETTER be on the level of freshness that Gen 3 and Gen 5 was.

Metroid doesn't rely on nastalgia at all other than Ridley.

[ryvrdrgn14]

Nintendo certainly has a lot of nostalgia credits to burn and they haven't done too badly so far. I liked Mario 1-3, but they didn't get me onboard when Mario started going 3D. Just wasn't my think after being used to the sprites for so long, I guess!

[Firaphex]

I'm a huge fan of restorative nostalgia.
sure it can be used to trap people in a sales/marketing perspective but if done right I believe it is a great thing.

There were a lot of great games back in the day. Not just because of what was done back then technically but because of the experiences they provided. If those experiences can be brought into the modern day era of games without loosing what made them special I consider that a win.

A lot of indie games I see have kind of a spiritual take on this. Not so much recreating the old, but in that they rely upon the same things that made older games great in their time. Mood, atmosphere, dialogue and gameplay over technical prowess. All the thingst that in the olden days made us gamers overlook the technical limitations and still enjoy games for the experience they provided.

Of course these things are not mutually exclusive. It's perfectly possible to make a modern, technically evolved game and still keep these 'soft' elements. It's just hard and requires more feel for games than for business. And that's where I think it fails a lot of the time.

My favourite example is the remake of resident evil 1. They updated the looks, they added content and changed things around. But it still feels like RE1. It still feels like beeing back in a dark room terrified of what comes next in the same way it did the first time around.

The same thing goes for FO3. I remember the outrage over a fallout in first person. "It's not fallout!! Argh!!!". But yes it was. Sure it had flaws and problems. But it had that same solemn, slightly scary adventure to it. It was way different from previous, but the feel of it was there. And it led to New Vegas.

Path of Exile brought Diablo 1/2 to the modern day. It's not even the same series, but playing PoE gives me flashbacks to internet cafés and D2 runs from the early 2000s.

Technically different, but bringing the experiences of old into today. That I can get behind easily.

But then there is the "look, old stuff. Please buy it because blargh"-BS. That would be trying to cash in on reflective nostalgia. That just plain sucks. Reflective nostalgia is nice, but doesn't contribute with anything. It's for cold, quiet autumn days and daydreaming about how much more fun stuff was when you were a kid.

[ryvrdrgn14]

Nostalgia is definitely not bad. It's just that people in marketing know it's something they can use to get people to buy stuff, even if it's not the best product. It's important for people to realize when they are being led on a leash towards something subpar. And yes, Path of Exile did remind me of the days of non-stop Cow Level farming in D2!

[Firaphex]

ryvrdrgn14 Yeah that's pretty much my take on it too. Nostalgia itself is not bad. But it can be used in, let's just say less-than-nice ways. Awareness can be used to counter this but it can be tricky sometimes. I certainly have a few games i wish would have bought with my head and not my heart so to speak.

But then steam-sales kinda makes it easier to take chances too ^^