I arrive back to the very first thing I wrote about when this blog was created, and that deals with the nostalgia problem. A quick summary of my definition of this; when someones past experiences and good feelings with something, be it a movie, video game, or whatever, clouds their judgement towards new things being made. This is best seen whenever there is a new movie or game made from a long running franchise, especially if this new installment came after a long gap of waiting. I am visiting this issue again because it seems like things are getting worse, not that I expected my first post to suddenly fix everything, but the way I see arguments happen and with how intense they become, more needs to be said on this.
A new twist to the nostalgia issue comes when someone's nostalgia has been "broken." This means that they find themselves not liking something now that they may have adored years ago. Sadly, even though I personally enjoyed the game, Duke Nukem is a great example of seeing nostalgia in both ways. The initial way was how Duke Nukem Forever was put up to such a high standard due to nostalgia building up his reputation. It also didn't help that with the Internet becoming the huge hype factory it is now was just fueling the expectations for this game. Once the game came out, people were shocked to see how they no longer approved of Duke's humor. His typical one-liners and macho-manness to any and all situations worked great in the 90's, but in 2011, that was no longer the case. While I personally enjoyed the game, it got blasted by old fans and newcomers alike. With their nostalgia "broken," they began to reevaluate everything about the game and if it really is all that good, but in the end the simple manner is that the game was made in the same fashion, mostly, as the previous ones and what most likely happened is that the people who liked it then have matured in their humor and playing preferences. Though I must say that bashing a game just because the graphics aren't state of the art is completely idiotic, but that is a whole other conversation.
The reason I believe this is worsening is because people get upset whenever a long standing franchise makes a new addition to their franchise, but they add new twists so that it stays fresh. These same people will also get upset if a franchise always sticks to the same thing when making new additions. This is very much a love-hate relationship. As stated with Duke Nukem, the core of the game in terms of the character and thin plot is the same as it was in the 90's, yet it got bashed heavily; then you get something like the newest Legend of Zelda which introduced some new concepts and tricks to use so that the series doesn't become stale, and although it has been adored by reviewers, other people have just gone crazy with flaming it. There is a phrase in theatre that perfectly sums up this situation, "You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't."I know I have focused on games in this, but it can be seen in movies, TV shows, and books.
My suggestion for this is to take away the cloudy goggles of nostalgia when looking at new things. Yes, I enjoyed games I played back in the 90's as well. Street Fighter 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & 3 are special to me since they're amongst the first games I've ever played, but I won't get so caught up in old memories that I will think that all new Street Fighter games or Sonic games are instantly horrible because they aren't exactly like what I remember back then, of course remembering is the key word since our memory tends to be selective. Now, new games can be terrible, but what I'm saying that we need to at least give them a chance, not just cut them out at the knees before they even have a chance to show how good or bad they are. On the flip side, we don't need to build up things to such a high standard that there is no way they could possibly succeed. I believe if this is done, people will just be happier in general, because although some amount of entertainment can be derived from reading pointless arguments on the Internet, it can also be depressing/angering. Angering because you find yourself getting caught up into the argument, and depressing because it is sad to think that some people appear to have that much hate and anger just boiling inside them.
On a final note, never forget that all forms of media are meant to do one of three, possibly four, things. These things are inform/teach, persuade, and/or entertain. We tend to forget that movies and games are meant to do one or more of those things, though it is usually to just entertain. So in the end, take a deep breathe, relax, enjoy your good memories, and don't get so caught up in the "all new things are terrible, it was better in my day" arguments.
