Age DOES Matter

[Barry the Nomad]

I just woke up so all this probably won't be as cohesive as I hope it to be. This is a reaction to some communities belief that all is rosy in the world of gaming, that all fans are on the same level regardless of age.

bullllllshiiiiiiit. I say age does matter. It seems I keep encountering children, especially on the official Sega forums, who seem to simply echo what they hear through older gamers who actually have experienced the release of classics.

The Saturn was underappreciated! NiGHTS into Dreams is an awesome game! Okay, so games, like films, can transcend time and be loved by all. But when it comes down to arguing the impact of Sonic 1, I simply can't be bothered to think that a 19 year old knows what they're saying when they say "Sonic 1 was a revolutionary game! The music was awesome! I can still remember the first time I played it!". Yes, the first time you played it, and had cognition to understand and remember the game was in 1997. Not 1991.

Thoughts?



My reply to being called an "elitist":

I'm not saying younger gamers are bad, I'm just saying that there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom.

For example, I know that Super Mario Bros. (1986) was a revolutionary game, but I reached that understanding via the thoughts of those who played it at the time, not through my own experience of playing it at the time of release. I was 2 years old in 1986, so I can't claim to have a better understanding of mid-80's platforming games compared to a gamer in their 30's.

It's not elitism, it's a matter of experience versus hearsay.

[Sega Uranus]

I think you are mixing age up with just general experience, but I get your point. I am pretty sure most or rather probably all of us have reacted like that within our lives. The videogame medium is just so large and varied now that it really is impossible to know about everything going on, even if one were to devote their entire lives to it.

Years ago I hated Nintendo stuff for no reason other than thinking SEGA was hella awesome and Nintendo did not have Sonic games. I really did not even get to play anything Nintendo related until around 1998 or something even, I think.

What bugs me about this though is that because I never got to experience any of their games until around that time (as far as I know, but I could have played something of theirs long before) some people would not be considered much of a gamer at all. It is ridiculous that just because I was born later than someone or raised different from another person makes me somehow less of anything.

[Emmett The Crab]

I was in Jr. High School when the NES and SMS came out, so sometimes I feel a little resentment when young people (born in the '80's or '90's) talk with so much authority on stuff they don't remember... But then they have the internet and the time to do that.  Thanks to Wikipedia, everyone is a historian.  I come here to learn what's going on with SEGA, because I don't have time or inclination to track all that myself.  I trust the younger people to do that for me.  

Now if only we could convince them that grammar and spelling matter.

[Snowcat]

I can see how it can seem that way, but people feel the same about films, music tv shows ETC..

What bugs me about this though is that because I never got to experience any of their games until around that time (as far as I know, but I could have played something of theirs long before) some people would not be considered much of a gamer at all. It is ridiculous that just because I was born later than someone or raised different from another person makes me somehow less of anything.

Agreed.

I didn't own a Saturn until two years ago... But, surely that doesn't make my views invalid on the games I have played on it?

;P I think sometimes Older gamers are like little Cranky Kongs (of Donkey Kong)

[Barry the Nomad]

I think a game or console can be enjoyed by players young and old. But when it comes to nostalgia and retro talk, younger gamers are usually left in the cold, which unfortunately is due to forces we can't control (such as when we are born). I really wish I could get into Sega Master System talk, but unfortunately all I have to connect with older gamers are the Game Gear versions of SMS games.

Reassessing what I wrote, I'd have to say that I'm totally cool with gamers and fans young and old, but cannot stand bandwagon jumpers. Of course, bandwagon jumpers can be of any age, but recently I've been running into a lot of younger forum users (not here) who will praise the Dreamcast or talk shit about the 32X despite not even growing up with those systems. It seems watching AVGN and reading blogs makes some younger gamers "experts" on games and systems that came before them.

Like the teens who buy the 8-bit Mario shit from Hot Topic.

[George]

I disagree, age does not matter. I think its all down to attitude and I hate most of the elitist (age does not matter, when it comes to this) that think you should pass a long set of 'rules' to like something. If you like it, you like it.

[Ulala5]

Agree with Barry, of course i've nothing against younger gamers but is annoying to read/listen comments like "i remember how much money i've spent to play Shinobi on the arcade" written from a 17 years old guy.
Not everyone is like this and for example i've found a bunch of young guys playing PSU that asked me a lot of stuff when they knew i was playing PSO on the dramcast years ago... that is how young gamers should be.
In my opinion the problem is that the new generation of gamers have not so much interesting games to talk about  :|

[Snowcat]

Reassessing what I wrote, I'd have to say that I'm totally cool with gamers and fans young and old, but cannot stand bandwagon jumpers. Of course, bandwagon jumpers can be of any age, but recently I've been running into a lot of younger forum users (not here) who will praise the Dreamcast or talk shit about the 32X despite not even growing up with those systems. It seems watching AVGN and reading blogs makes some younger gamers "experts" on games and systems that came before them.

Like the teens who buy the 8-bit Mario shit from Hot Topic.

This I agree with, it annoyed me. this kid in my college class (im older then everyone else by two years) just bought a PS3 and thinks he knows everything about games ¬_______¬

...I would only be able to comment on a console I have played and I hate regurgitated AVGN crap. I love my 32x...

But ... meh, it happens ¬_¬ unfortunately retro is cool... and that's annoying. I never stopped playing my Megadrive 0_o I got it when I was like 4 or 5... but, when this retro thing started it was like "OMGZ!! EMMA YOU HAZ LIKE A MEGADRIVE....YOU ARE SUDDENLY COOL" ...I hate that.

[George]

Disagree, depends on the situation. If someone is trying to tell me what it was like when Street Fighter II came out and they are 10, fuck off. But I'm not going to say they can't appreciate Street Fighter II as much as me because of their age.

[MadeManG74]

I wouldn't mind it so much if they were just talking in general terms like 'When Street Fighter 2 came out, it was a massive event that changed the arcade industry', since that's true and it's good for people to know the industry's history and major games.

I find it more annoying when people miss the point, or argue something that just seems flat-out wrong because they ignore the past. Like when someone on Sega.com was arguing that most people knew NiGHTS and became fans of him from the pinball table in Sonic Adventure, and saying that the new NiGHTS is too childish, the one in Sonic Adventure was cooler.

[upsidedown fuji]

I think age does matter when it comes to fully enjoying past generations of games and their consoles. You can still enjoy older games if you didn't grow up in that era, you just won't have the exact same circumstances surrounding your experience. When you grow up with the MD/Genesis and Saturn as being the top of gaming tech, you kind of have soft spots for the games that came with them.

The reason I say this is that they were the best tech you could put under your TV at that time. When kids 15-20 years from now look back on the piddly little XBOX360 and PS3 they won't even think twice about saying they sucked or were too simple.

So yeah, we're just getting old Barry.

[Barry the Nomad]

Yeah, we're getting old but at least we have the happy memories of Sega the console maker.  

That's another thing. As we come up on 10 years of Sega the publisher, we reached that point in which gamers who were 6 years old in 2002 are now 14/15 years old and can type cohesive thoughts online. A whole generation that only knows of Sega as a publisher. Really wild stuff to think that three generations of Sega fans can talk about the same company, and IMO that's where "age DOES matter" lies. The 80's arcade/Master System generation (born in the 70's), the Genesis/Saturn Dreamcast generation (born in the 80's) and the Sega the third party publisher generation (born in the 90's) are all interacting. Obviously every fan, even of the same age, will have differing opinions. But A 25 year old is going to have a VERY different perception of Sega than a 15 year old would.

[fluffymoochicken]

Meh... I have a lot of nostalgia and am madly in love with arcade games from the 80's, even though I didn't have memories of being alive until 1990.

As a 90's kid, I can't say that I remember when Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Bubble Bobble came out. However, I did get to play them, and I adored them from childhood all the way to now... so I dunno. I don't really understand what your whole annoyance is. So long as a person isn't lying about their gaming experiences, it shouldn't matter that much.

[upsidedown fuji]

Meh... I have a lot of nostalgia and am madly in love with arcade games from the 80's, even though I didn't have memories of being alive until 1990.

As a 90's kid, I can't say that I remember when Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Bubble Bobble came out. However, I did get to play them, and I adored them from childhood all the way to now... so I dunno. I don't really understand what your whole annoyance is. So long as a person isn't lying about their gaming experiences, it shouldn't matter that much.

There's no problem with you as you are the exception to the rule.

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

I think you may be underestimating the whole cognition thing.

I first played Sonic games on the Genesis like in 1993 when I was like 5 years old or something. Yet I still clearly remember playing them at the time and appreciating them. (And being quite obsessed with them.)

Before all that, I have extremely vague memories of playing Intellivision and first playing a Game Boy. The memories of first playing these consoles may be cloudy, but they are still there.