About Nostalgia

He had a strange feeling as the slow gurgling stream slipped by: his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Games are a rich source of memories and meaningful experiences that transcend flat digital screens and find long-term residence in our minds. Playing familiar games is like time-traveling to simpler times.

Why are games capable of evoking such powerful feelings? Samwise Gamgee felt nostalgia as he was moving away from the Shire but, Samwise lived there. The future is uncertain, but well-known places are a constant in our lives. Even though we didn’t live in the lands of the Skyrim province, we feel deeply nostalgic as we walk, once again, to Whiterun while Secunda is playing.

I can’t deny that a contradictory reality lies beneath this entire situation. Games used to be more but, at the same time, less… simpler. How do simpler games have such an impact on our lives, while AAA games nowadays just feel the same? Is it just a matter of nostalgia?

Immersive games don’t necessarily look like reality, but they immerse us as if they did. It’s all about the journey, not just how it looks. Game rules don’t need to entirely obey our world’s logic, but they do need to intertwine with the game’s own logic. A game is a multidisciplinary object, and its immersion depends on how well these disciplines communicate with each other. As life feels natural, so does a good game.

A couple of years ago marked a shift in the game industry: a wave of remasters and remakes of well-established titles, and genre repetition. Sure, it’s a worst-case scenario for AAA games, but even indie titles are following this “low-risk” mindset, with a significant number of roguelike/roguelite or horror games that don’t offer any real sense of freshness.

Appealing to nostalgia, or to nuances of familiarity, is not about repeating the same flavor, but about evoking that same old-school feeling in new ways. We can still play “old titles” such as Old School RuneScape, Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Mythology, American McGee’s Alice, or even Dark Souls, and they will evoke nostalgic feelings; but newer titles, such as Call of the Sea, even though I hadn’t played anything similar before, evoke similar feelings too. It is how multiple disciplines create the mood of the game. But as I stated, it evokes similar feelings, not the same ones. Nostalgia is exclusive and tied to each person’s life.

So I must restate my previous question: is it just a matter of nostalgia? Time has passed, and games have changed a lot; many have become more complex but shallow. Old games certainly appeal to our deepest feelings, but their design still teaches us a lot. Games were made to be fun and to transport the player to new worlds. Nowadays, some mainstream titles lack this “transportation” capability and even the fun.

Again, unlike Samwise, we didn’t live inside these games, so how can we feel as if we did? This is probably a question for another time, along with a future design analysis of these old-school titles.

A not-so-humble but honorable desire is to be able to create these memories, to evoke those nostalgic feelings in other people. Nostalgia is a heartfelt and warm feeling that, although it comes from the past, is partly the strength that drives us in the present and inspires us to hope for a similar future.