With digital circus coming out recently I realised the 2000s game aesthetic can actually be kinda cool and endearing
It feels like games nowdays are kinda soulless and generic though, glossy and modern (Obviously except for indie games)
Will the 2020s aesthetic be microtransactions and lootboxes?
Nostalgia happens because you remember the good and forget the bad. People remember Mario 3 but forget Mario is Missing.
In 20 years, people will say, “Remember when they made good games like Baldur’s Gate 3 rather than the trash that is Baldur’s Cash Grab?” Kids today will wax poetic about how the 2020s was the last good decade for gaming.
The truth is, there will always be good and bad games.
I’m nostalgic for playing Among Us with extended family members during the pandemic, and that was just a few years ago
Yeah but you won’t have nostalgia playing among us in 2038 when the servers are shut down
I’ll have to go find some community run patch
Halo CE style
Larian have always been pretty good really hope they don’t go that way
That said they’ve got that wizards of the coast money behind them too
Mario 3 is still a good game today, and I know some kids that weren’t anywhere near born when it came out that still loved it.
Nostalgia isn’t the only reason to enjoy old games and “the bad” shouldn’t be assumed to be there for purposes of false equivalency platitudes. Even just counting predatory monetization, the modern game industry is worse on average than it used to be and its desired profit margins and methods of profit are different and worse than before with a more focused exploitation model.
Nostalgia is a funny thing. People are nostalgic for the 80s. And MySpace. And bad movies.
So I’m sure young people in twenty years will find things about any modern thing to be nostalgic for, even in a sea of mediocrity.
The best games of this generation will have nostalgia. No one really has nostalgia for the mountains of shovel ware that came out in the 90s and 00s but it still existed.
One interesting thing is that a lot of games these days are “live service” and so they won’t be able to experience them the same ways in 20 years where I can basically play any of my favorite childhood games as I experienced them as a kid
Honestly, I feel nostalgia for bad games too. I remember when I found out about Big Rigs, the “worst game ever made”. It was useless and full of bugs, but I feel nostalgia anyway when I think about me playing that
We are nostalgic of the best games or the things we played most. Nobody remembers all the shit shovelware that was as ubiquitous as today’s cashgrabs.
In 20 years people will remember BG3, Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild, Outer Wilds, Hollow Knight… And even if they remember Overwatch or Destiny 2, they’ll remember the good parts and the aesthetics, not the storefronts and lootboxes.
On a side note I never thought I’d be nostalgic for overwatch lootboxes. They somehow made it even worse
Not everything was awesome when we were young. We just remember the best things.
The voxel aesthetic of Minecraft and some indie games will probably be a source of nostalgia in the future.
That, and whatever Roblox is.
It’s a lovely day in the village, and you are a horrible goose.
The 90s and 00s had plenty of terrible cash-grab video games as well. Tons of cheaply made licensed movie games or basic platformers that could be finished in 30 minutes while costing 40 bucks. For every game like Deus Ex, you had 10 games like Antz Racing. For every Mario 64 you had a Bubsy 3d.
People will remember games like Elden Ring, BG3, Zelda TOTK and Mario Wonder from the 2020s, while quickly forgetting the cashgrabs.
Stardew Valley will probably be the game that looms largest in my kid’s nostalgia. They have both played the life out of that thing. Other things that come to mind: Minecraft, phasmaphobia, fnaf, Skyrim, duck game, BOTW, and Nidhogg 2.
There is no guiding aesthetic driven by the technology, just whatever is available and cool.
Re: loot boxes, there is no denying that fortnight is(was?) a huge deal in this gen of kids. I’m sure at least some kids are going to have fond memories of getting v bucks for their birthday.
Everyone finds things to be nostalgic about, even if they didn’t like the things at the time.
Yes - because the future of gaming is probably VR spaces so games on a 2D screen will become nostalgic to an extent.
The nostalgia may be loading up a space with a virtual pc and playing an old game on a mouse and keyboard or controller.
VR headsets aren’t yet there but but when they’re light weight and high definition enough, it may make more sense to play a game on a virtual screen which can be 40 inches or room scale, than your desktop. If I could see my hands and the mouse and keyboard I’d probably already be doing it. It already works with virtual desktop and controller based games.
agreed except the virtual apps wont have to be limited to a virtual screen.
Man I’m fucking old.
nostalgia isn’t about a game nostalgia is about the experiences you had with it while you were younger
There are plenty of cool/fun games out there that have a cool aesthetic. Hi-Fi Rush, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, any of the Borderlands games (even the new ones), the new Spider-Man games are ultra polished high-budget AAA blockbuster titles that I’m almost positive will make people nostalgic for in the future.
Yup, people will be nostalgic for LMFAO’s Party Rock music video, JJ Abrams’ Star Trek, and autotuned music. Just like I’m nostalgic for MTV’s Daria and Star Trek DS9.
