Monday, July 27, 2009

It's a nostalgia thing

And that's ok.

I think a lot of the heat generated over Tweet's comments about Swords and Wizardy (which, as I said earlier, I thought was mostly dumb) is that, at heart, he's saying one of the main appeals of games likw S&W, OSRIC and 4C is nostalgia.

Obviously, this might lead one to assume Tweet believes the inverse as well, that these games are leaning on nostalgia because, well, they're not that good AS GAMES. The game is a vehicle to remind you of your glory days, like the smell in an old musty comic.

The thing is, I think Tweet is right that nostalgia is a draw.

I just don't think that says anything one way or the other about the games' quality.

I draw this conclusion because I can look at which old-school clones attract me and chart my own gaming history.

OSRIC, which is a clone of AD&D and 4C, which is a clone of Marvel FASERIP are both huge draws for me.

Swords and Wizardry, which is a clone of OD&D, holds no interest for me. I was an AD&D kid.

Its like telling me Claremont is writing X-Men, vs. Jim Shooter writing Legion of Superheroes. One got me STOKED and the other was like "oh, that's cool I guess".

So yeah, nostalgia plays a part.

I guess I'm at that old fogey stage of life where I don't really see nostalgia as a bad thing. Some things about my past were awesome and worth reliving.

4 comments:

mikelaff said...

does anyone get stoked about shooter writing something?

Chuck said...

Many people did, including Geoff Johns!

His is considered the definitive Legion of Superheroes run.

But since I practically never read LOSH at any time, him returning to the book left me cold.

mikelaff said...

Guess that was under my radar because I never cared about LOSH

Vigilance said...

Like me!

I've always been more interested in the story of Jim Shooter than in reading LOSH.

I believe he was writing for DC at 14, was a regular writer for LOSH at 17, in his 20's he was writing the Avengers (including the Korvac Saga) and at 27 he was Marvel's Editor in Chief.

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