Monday, 28 September 2015
10th Anniversary Classic Rant: Gaming "Nostalgics" and "Futurists"
Two of the problems with the hobby today.
Let me say this: I am neither of these things. I am one of those who believe that the hobby is really great, today. Granted, there was a level of overall prosperity in the 80s that we do not have today, and there are certainly problems today, I'm not a pie eyed idealist. But in general, there's been no better time for gaming, either in general or personally for me as a gamer than today.
The Swine are in full retreat, the games that are coming out are some of the best and most interesting in years.
In general, the people who put down the hobby are either the "nostalgics" who dream of what once was (either old-school 80s nostalgics who can't stand to play anything invented after '89, or worse, White-Wolf-Swine nostalgics who pine for the time when they and their ideologies dominated the industry); or they're "futurists", who are concerned not with gaming as it exists today, but with gaming as they would like it to exist in some imaginary future. They want to dream their dreamey dreams about when gaming and gamers are the way they would wish it to be. Where everyone is playing Forge games, or D&D has ceased to exist.
You know, make-believe.
Those are the fuckers who cause the most problems.
The Buddha said: Be in the moment.
That's pretty good advice as far as the gaming hobby is concerned, because the moment is pretty fucking sweet.
RPGPundit
(Originally posted May 19, 2007)
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Hey Pundit! How has your view changed since then? Do you still agree with this statement, or do you feel the social landscape is somewhat different? The White-Wolf nostalgics are still hanging around (see: all the WW shiny crappy re-releases).
ReplyDeleteAnd "The Swine" (which I most days like and some days tolerate, though I know you detest them)... what do you think of their status today? Still on the retreat? Retreated?
I think that the groups may have changed, but there are still people who keep being focused on a nostalgic past, and others who keep trying to force the hobby into a direction they envision.
DeleteWhy the eff can't people just play their friggin' games and stop running their mouths about a good old day that never existed or a shiny new future that will never happen?
ReplyDeleteIf people would stop trying to inject 'narrative' elements into the games I like/play then I'd be relatively content...
ReplyDelete