The Nostalgia Economy - We're Addicted! 💉

The Nostalgia Economy - We're Addicted! 💉
The discussion of how massive and omnipresent the tactic of nostalgia in today's video games and film is a common topic. Very few would deny how potent nostalgia is and how companies will not hesitate to use it. In today's video though, I want to go beyond the usual conversation of the behavior of the studios and companies (the suppliers) and instead focus my attention on the consumers of nostalgia. Why is it so compelling to us? How has it become so pervasive in all of our media? And analyze why I believe the millenial mind (I am one myself) is espcially supseptible to the powr of nostalgia and how we can bend ourselves into logic pretzles to both justify nostalgic pandering and deny it at the same time. I also go over how I think this addiction to nostalgia has altered our current artsist practices and why everything these days seems to be a copy of a copy.
Patreon
/ electricunderground
[$2 tier = Monthly Game Review Vote, Name in Credits, Exclusive Monthly Podcast]
[$5 tier = Double Monthly Game Review Vote, By Name Shout-out, Name in Credits, Exclusive Monthly Podcast]
Electric Reddit:
/ electricunderground
Website Archive:
web.archive.org/web/202012201...
👕Official Shirt!👕
amzn.to/2XghV9J
Twitch:
/ the_electric_underground
STG Revision 2020 Discord:
/ discord
00:00 THE HYPE!
02:11 Why do we LOVE nostalgia so much?
07:50 Where does the demand for remakes come from? Is it more than money?
13:00 The Past is Untouchable and the Review Option Selects
18:00 The Millenial Mind is Wired for Reboots
22:30 Nostalgia is our Generations Vice, and it's not going ANYWHERE.
#residentevil4remake, #finalfantasy7remake, #nintendoswitchonline

[@riggel8804]

Excessive nostalgia is a technological problem. Technologies such as the internet, streaming, and large hard drive storage have allowed us to preserve cultural media trends that in prior generations would have died out naturally. For example if you were nostalgic for Universal horror movies in 1970 you would have a hard time finding those movies. You might watch them a couple times a year on tv. You couldn't even record them. You would spend the majority of your movie watching time consuming movies from 1970 because that's what was available. In 2022 if you are a fan of Universal horror movies you can watch them exclusively and spend none of your attention or money on current movies. This example extends to music and video games as well. This results in current media being suffocated by all the prior generations. Current media can never gather steam to emerge as a distinct art form. There isn't enough money and attention for it ever to be born. This is why, since the 90s (and the birth of the internet), the decades have blended together. Old media is like a vampire staying alive by sucking all the life out of this generations art forms. If we killed the metaphorical vampire, and with it R type final 2, we would create space for new games. However I don't think we can put the genie back in the bottle. It doesn't matter what mellinials or gen z do this phenomenon is going to persist.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

This is some amazing insight! I really think you are onto something here. Because pre internet artists were forced to produce media for their time, whereas now they must compete with all art across all of time. That s really interesting

[@riggel8804]

@@TheElectricUnderground some big boi thinky pants wrote a book about it. I can track it down if you want.

[@ShamanNoodles]

​@@TheElectricUnderground Wild to see Riggel here, I watch both of your channels consistently! Wholesome independent thinkers. I wanted to add a couple thoughts to Riggel's point here. Many talented investors know younger people are typically the first to adopt new trends, so they will invest in these innovations that are so treasured by youth. This could hold it's place here in the argument because young people aren't so affected by/chained by nostalgia. They find those new ideas quickly and adapt to them. Old investors who hold their beliefs too tightly(nostalgia) and don't adapt(innovation) fail. A good modern example of this might be Peter Schiff, a gold bug, who talked negatively of bitcoin for years because it was a new, innovative competitor to his nostalgic store of value(gold). Obviously, he missed a gigantic opportunity, despite knowing about bitcoin so early in the game. There are many more examples outside of this particular market but it's just one I'm familiar with. Excellent show, bro!

[@RocketSlug]

A great insight! But I wouldn't necessarily say that the preservation is a bad thing. From a pure anthropology perspective, things like Joseph Campbell's research on the Hero's Journey and the Monomyth wouldn't be possible if we didn't do this kind of preservation. Same with cultures and languages that threaten to die out. You can definitely argue that 90's commercials don't necessarily deserve the same kind of archival diligence as say a folk tale from an endangered indigenous native tribe, but I just wanted to inject a little nuance into the discussion. I think an aspect that is also worth mentioning is the impact of copyright law and remix culture. We're much more aware of the importance of crediting our inspirations and acknowledging the media that influenced us (partially due to how draconian our copyright laws are). On the one hand the people who deserve the accolades for creating something new are rewarded for their work and vision. It protects against plagiarism, blatant rip-offs, and cultural appropriation. But at the same time lawyers are always on the lookout for anything that even has a whiff of something that already exists and try to protect their own IP. And I just got to the end where you were talking about how Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter had to draw inspiration from outside sources instead of video games. While I think it has merit, I think there's some weird conflation of carrying forward the standards in game design with being derivative. A lot of early video games were super experimental and didn't always work because they didn't have anything to reference, like you said. But once there was something successful, it made sense to carry that forward. Look at how long it took for 3D camera controls to solidify. I think when you asked people to think about "the fundamental basis" of the design decisions in art, the artists of the successful properties are in fact aware of it. There's a lot of Sonic Mania footage in the video, and at least according to my Sonic obsessed friends, the fangame developers Sega brought on to make it were exactly the kind of thoughtful artists that understood "the fundamental basis" of the properties they were bringing back. Now is this true for every nostalgic throwback property? Most definitely not. 90% of everything is crap, after all, according to Sturgeon's Law. We haven't gotten the benefit of time and distance to weed out the modern day classics at the moment, whereas time has most definitely allowed the best of the 90's to bubble to the top.

[@BlunderB]

Very well written comment I’m glad I had the pleasure to read it. Very realistic look at a complex problem.

[@Fattydeposit]

I've long maintained that nostalgia absolutely rules our tastes as adults. It's unquestionable in my mind.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I think you have been right for a very long time :-) There is no doubt, i think it could be backed up statistically at this point ha.

[@jackrussell3084]

But why is that?

[@AyeYoYoYooo]

I would argue that the further east we go geographically, the greater the degree of attachment and devotion to nostalgia. Unquestioning devotion to ancient Traditions, is much more prevalent and held dear by a larger majority of far eastern societies.

[@Joe-Rad]

I remember talking about this back in the 90s. It was the best conversation back then. I wish I could go back and re-live those conversations about nostalgia. They were the best.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Ha one day you ll look back on this video and think ... Remember when KZbin had a comments section, those were the good days XD

[@ShmupJunkie]

True nostalgia is one of the greatest pleasures in my life. Doing something or being somewhere that actually takes me back to a time in my life I really enjoyed and miss, knowing full well it’s not possible to recreate, but enjoying the memory. As much as I enjoy seeing modern updates and remakes like you discuss here (if done well), none of that’s very nostalgic for me. It’s playing my actual old games on the hardware and CRT, watching old films, or walking through my old neighborhoods that means the most. Walking into the old 7-11 where we used to play Street Fighter 2 every weekend even if the cabinet is long gone. Oh man… that’s the stuff that hits me hard and I go out of my way to savor when I can. I’m going back to my old stomping grounds in Oakland soon to walk down the hill from where I lived to the old historic grand theater. Where I used to watch Sunday matinees for 75 cents like Last Starfighter. It’s going to be a trip and I can’t wait. That’s true nostalgia in my mind. For a brief moment having those vivid memories and feelings of what it was like then, knowing full well it’s now a romanticized view. I still love it anyway and seek it out on occasion. And it likely shows in my content as its genuine. But it always involves the original place, game, film or environment for me. Those things are more than products. So to your point… getting modern takes and remakes is fine enough though it’s clear many are cash grabs. While others are true labors of love like Pocky Reshrined was by the original devs. But none of it can replace the moments of true nostalgia I get from the simplest of things. No product or marketing necessary. It’s healthy as long as it doesn’t dominate one’s life to the detriment of creating new experiences. It would be nice to have new nostalgic memories when I’m 80 as well instead of only recycling my childhood. Like those days we were making kickass KZbin videos about shooters and interacting with some of the coolest people and community around haha. Now that’s a memory to look forward to.

[@JohnshiBRPG]

Did you say Oakland? There is Emproium Oakland, and arcade bar with some arcade video games. I go there sometimes and the SF East Bay has a good deal of arcades, with most of them being bars.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I know exactly what you mean. Whenever I visit my hometown, which is rare (I don't live where I grow up), I get hit with nostalgia vibes to the max. It's both comforting but also a little sad because there truly is no going back. I think this is the key to what I am getting at in the video. I don't think nostalgia is an evil or anything like that, but it does carry serious emotional weight and sometimes that can be well placed (visiting your old hometown) and sometimes it can be misguided (like getting wrapped up in products and IPs as they are actually gates into the past). I think as long as my generation especially understands this emotional side of things is larger than the products themselves, I think that will lead to a much healthier outlook on these types of products and hopefully a cooling down in jumping to personal feelings about them to the point where critique and all that is like a personal attack.

[@ShmupJunkie]

@@JohnshiBRPG It’s been ages since I’ve been back to Oakland though I’ve been to SF on and off. I’ve noted that name down as no reason I can’t give it a visit once I’m back! Discover some new spots.

[@benjismith593]

Your Sunday videos take me back to arcades, convenience stores, and even bars letting us kids play arcade games while grandpa drank. Me, and my daughter played 1943 at our local retro arcade, and it was like I was her age (12) playing it with another kid. We had a blast! Now she wants to play co-op shmups with me more often! That there is more out there than mobile BS games. Can't wait for your new vid tomorrow!

[@RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS77]

In theory, imagining the best possible revival, I think it could work toward this goal by recreating games "the way you remember them" rather than as they actually are, flaws and all. How many succeed there? A different question lol.

[@NerdicWarrior]

I remember back in the early to mid 2000s there was an interest in nostalgia. The thing is it wasn't as overblown back then as it is now.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah back then it was a novelty, not the default

[@thomasffrench3639]

It was in the 80s, remakes and reboots were huge during that period. But let’s ignore that because it goes against the narrative that it didn’t happen back then.

[@franciscor390]

Wow this hit a bit deeper than expected, I'll almost certainly will revisit this video again. At the same time it's almost bizarre how differently wired people are, i think the default wiring is probably nostalgia, but then there's the people like me who had a shitty childhood and many of these products served as a piece of escapism to the bad surrounding. And now revisiting i would say these serve as a way to help them put certain things into perspective. In a sort of uncomfortable good-bad way but with a net positive.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes I think there is that aspect to our connection with the games. I can only describe my childhood as very fortunate so I don't have that type of relationship with stuff from my childhood, but I was also extremely imaginative as a child as an adult that capacity is basically lost. So when I look at certain games it really does help me connect with that mindset of childhood, but I am constantly reminding myself that nostalgia is also a trick of the mind that there is no going back to the past, there is only moving forward :-)

[@ShakyDawn]

The sad thing is that the nostalgia factor could be used in a ton of creative ways, it would be an added value and open a lot of new possibilities, instead is merely used as a cash grab (to embarrassing levels nowadays) and 90% of times on stuff that belongs to the trashcan at best. It's a bitter feeling knowing that one day (if it's not the case already) they'll sell us the complete nothingness and make us belive we're happy obout it... Curious to know your take on the subject! Awesome topic!!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes stay tuned! I ll go over a lot of these points and some new ones :-)

[@kingj9664]

I mean they kind of somewhat do if you think about properties like Cobra Kai, creed, A lot of the Transformers cartoons.

[@vsear5911]

The excessive focus on old properties (nostalgia) is a consequence of value escape velocity captured in intellectual property law through infinite expansion of its expiration dates. IP holders have a critical incentive to keep selling the same thing over and over again because they can. For most of human history that was not possible, as there was a reasonable expectation that every product would go into public domain and therefore it was not worth it to focus your enterprise towards propping up your ephemeral rights industrially.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yes that's a great point. That's a disney thing as well right, didn't they basically re write out copyright law for Micky Mouse, an IP no one ever cares about anymore ha.

[@PaulvonOberstein]

@@TheElectricUnderground Is this sarcasm? Disney makes billions off those stupid IPs people supposedly no longer care about. They have a powerful incentive to maintain exclusively rights to properties their company either created or legally acquired (Star Wars, Marvel). OP has a point that companies are to an extent motivated to milk old properties that they spend money to maintain rights to, or acquire (again, Star Wars and Marvel re: Disney), but I still think the main problem was correctly identified by you in that media that was once "ephemeral" in terms of access in now readily accessible thanks to technology, so if people have the choice of reliving old memories from their adolescence (and I think it have been scientifically demonstrated that people always feel more attached to the things they consumed when they went through puberty, which is why people have always been strongly attached to the music of their youth) versus consuming new, unfamiliar stuff, they have a tendency to choose the former. Which is precisely why companies like Disney spend so much money acquiring old properties like Star Wars in the first place. Changing copyright laws won't make the nostalgia plague go away. Actually, it might even make things worse if everyone can freely make products based on Star Wars and Final Fantasy 7.

[@aeugnewtype]

This is essentially the argument I’ve been making for several years now since I saw the insane amount of nostalgia that dictates most of our age group’s taste in recent years. People aren’t happy with the lives they’re leading as adults, so they turn back to things that they loved when they were young, trying to revel in not having responsibilities or having to face some of the harsh realities every human faces as they age. It’s absolutely astounding and is a whole philosophical study of its own that I’ve been so tempted to really delve into more, but it’s also so frustrating to even spend that much time thinking or writing about it when I know it’s not going to actually change anything for the better. I guess I still talk about it just in the hopes that at least it makes the few people I do have direct contact with to think more about their tastes and maybe not be so swayed by nostalgia for consumer/media products and judge things on their own merits. I don’t see enough of this critical discussion nowadays, especially in the video game community, so kudos for putting it out there

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah it can often feel like shouting at the wind when we try to discuss more complex topics ha. Glad you enjoyed the video! The main goal is to spark thought and discussion so I m happy the way it s been received :-)

[@SylvesterInk]

To be fair, there are plenty of original properties coming out that are fresh and new. (Made by both younger generations and older generations alike.) Consider games like Minecraft, Factorio, Kerbal Space Program, Skullgirls, etc. There are plenty more, but these are what quickly came to mind that were big-sellers and were very well received. Some of these are not only new properties, but have new gameplay concepts that haven't really been implemented before. The issue is that big companies that own big properties will tend to play it safe because they need to keep making big profits to survive. They know that using existing properties are free marketing because consumers already know what they need to know about those properties, and so they'll put their focus on these properties, avoiding the risk of trying something fresh and new at the risk of losing money. On the consumer side, when people are younger, they are more willing (and have more time) to try strange and different things, but as they get older and have more distractions to deal with in life, they will gravitate to the things they already know they like. This, coupled with the tendency of big-name properties to primarily be familiar and nostalgic pushes that cycle further. This is a reason I tend to focus on indie games more often than big-name games. I tend to find more strange and interesting gameplay in those, though there's certainly plenty of trash there too. Also, nice shout-out to The Best Guy Ever.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes in this video I'm not saying that there isn't new stuff being made specifically, it's just sort of the mentality of the past is untouchable and in the present artistic compromise for the sake of the past is all good. I think the situation we saw with turtles vs final vendetta is a really interesting case study. Because even though they both have nostalgic qualities in their own ways (tmnt vs neo geo), it is clear that the nostalgia factor for turtles was at full on 100x capacity to the point where people in the comments section said they really didn't care about the gameplay issues, that's not the point of the game. It would be a fascinating case study if the IPs were swapped, would the people defending turtles feel as passionate if that game had the exact same gameplay, but with a less iconic IP? I'd be surprised. And yes that Best Guy Ever vid is one of my favs :-)

[@SylvesterInk]

@@TheElectricUnderground Fair enough, and I agree that from the customer standpoint, you have to have that mentality of wanting to focus on games for their gameplay and quality rather than just the nostalgia. I guess I got burned out on nostalgia when I saw too many sequels and remakes that ended up being disappointments, but I don't doubt that in my earlier days I'd probably overlook a game's flaws for that nostalgia factor, much like the folks in the comments. Live and learn I suppose.

[@WayToTheGrave]

Ironically Skullgirls is inextricable from nostalgia. Its systems are a lovesong to fighting games of yore like CVS2 and MVC2.

[@legless8528]

As a zoomer I feel that the nostalgia economy is going to become far less centralized and oligopolistic than what's currently being marketed to millennials. The thing is that now, kids don't often experience original works as their identity (such as identifying more with new entries to a franchise rather than the original work), and also the fact that there are so many more places to get your culture from (websites, platforms, etc.) makes it so that there really aren't as many single pieces of media that you can say encapsulates the whole generation, or even subcrowds of those people. I don't know if I'm just talking out of my ass considering that my "nostalgic media" is so far removed from almost everyone I know that it seems like no one likes the same stuff, but I really think companies are going to have a harder time getting hordes of zoomers to spend so much on single IPs going forward... Regardless, great video since I've often had a hard time understanding the discourse of millennials I talk to in my life regarding their nostalgia.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I think you are right. I can't really speak on the zoomer experience (I'm old now), but I do think millennials hit the peak of the zeitgeist this stuff in gaming specifically, my younger brother for example, who is 1 year older than a zoomer, has very very little video game nostalgia, his first console was the ps3. Is the ps3 really that different than today's mainstream gaming even? so it all blends together in his mind.

[@notnoaintno5134]

you're just going to be nostalgic about extremely obscure shit and you'll have no one to share your feelings with.

[@legless8528]

@@notnoaintno5134 Yep. Already happening

[@SeekerLancer]

I've thought about this too. As a millennial we basically had shared experiences media wasn't as easy to access and the pool of it wasn't as overwhelmingly vast. We all watched the same movies, played the same games, read the same comics. That's not the case today where there's a sea of media available at the tap of a finger and as a result a lot of media has become more disposable and rapidly produced to keep the content stream going.

[@kingj9664]

@@TheElectricUnderground Would a 10 year old kid want to play Resident Evil 1st of all Resident Evil is an M rated game so depending on the type of parent I'm not sure They might enjoy it I feel like a better example would have been maybe sly Cooper or crash bandicoot or the Spyro series

[@KrieGor27]

Video game companies with cherished IPs like Capcom and Nintendo could have for slogan: your past is our future. Very nice analysis. I shared your review about Shredder's Revenge on a french board I follow and someone did answer "he just seem to want that game to be Turtles in Time, which it's not" (don't worry, I defended your arguments like a chef ^^). It's a perfect example of a game who did capture the aestetic feel, with all the moves graphically there, and yes, many other nods/easter eggs, and on this aspect, they usually provide. Like, for instance, Star Wars 7 has the Millenial Falcon, it is there, and we have a new Death Star and a new galactic empire, and light sabers, and the new heroine's clothes look more than a bit like what Luke wore, plus she share the same modest beginning on the same kind of desertic planet, has the same predispositions... But they seem to have a much harder time to understand the fundamental basis that made the originals apart, stand out, models for countless to follow. The roots on which to build, or from which to depart. And not arguing about those changes and if they feel good or bad on the pretext that we have our madeleine de Proust is not going to help build new models, ones that could be in their turn sources of inspiration for the next decades.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thank you for defending my honor!!! Yes that s a great example of the IP option select. When the players get the nostalgia hit (which they are after) any gameplay analysis or things on the critical side are waved off, cuz it feels good now and then when they get board in a week they quietly move on

[@steverogers8163]

In his older years Henry Ford literally had a whole town built that replicated his home town from when he was a child. Ironically cars were not allowed in it.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

That s fffing awesome! Shout out to the legend Henry ford :-) that's a really cool use of nostalgia

[@KidYoureAHomo]

@@TheElectricUnderground Henry Ford worked for hitler tho

[@juan.v9952]

The quality of education our generation has received is also lower than what Gen X got. It was a much freer society with actual standards to uphold, that still taught critical thinking and moral concepts of right vs. wrong (now everything is subjective). They also lived a more balanced life outside in the real world since their tech wasn't as advanced as ours is, which also stole a lot less of their time. John Romero has gone on record saying that it was easier to focus and concentrate on work when they were making Doom, which isn't exactly the case now. It takes considerable self-control to focus down on your tasks now, which ultimately lead to deeper thoughts, which lead to greater creative breakthroughs. I also think Social Media channels create preemptive censorship in the minds of creators, since they have exposure to more messaging of "don't talk about x,y,z / these list of things are wrong, avoid them or get canceled / if you want praise, you must include these things in your work / etc." Perhaps creating new properties in an enclosed bubble lead to more creative freedom and the courage needed to pursue it in an honest manner. There could also be the issue of corporations having a say in what gets approved and funded. Pretty much every single relevant corporation's leadership also belong to the same club now, so we see the roleout of exactly the same objectives and rules almost simultaneously. It's clear they speak and are on board with each other, which I definitely don't think was a thing in the 90s and early-mid 2000s. I could write more, but it can be summarized as a drastic drop in people's education standards/expectations, not being taught how to think for oneself, a deliberate misdirection as to what healthy relationships look like between people, and omnipresent messaging of what is allowed to be created.

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

It's probably a huge influence on what kinds of creative projects that get greenlit, that so much of the wealth (funding) is in the hands of a smaller and small cabal of elites. As you said, it's a lot of very rich people who are largely of a similar opinion about most things. I'm not saying they only greenlit projects along political lines. "Same opinion about most things" can also include the opinion of what kinds of products can do well and which ones can't. Which risks are worth taking. What genres have worth. What the end goal should be for the product, in terms of what a finished product looks like and if there's any post-launch roadmap. All of these things can be shared by the people who hoard all the world's wealth. I think this is why we're seeing AAA embrace certain types of games so heavily and devalue others. And also why we're seeing loot boxes, predatory monetization and short-term income-chasing (even at the cost of brand degeneration) adopted nearly universally.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Juan I am right there with you. This is the exact reason I stopped using twitter and left it 2 or so years ago. I could tell that it was trying to hijack the creative part of my brain and was literally getting me to think like a pigeon to fit it's format. Flee social media my friends.

[@roleplayingpain4349]

As an addict of many different things over the years. Video games is by far the strongest of the addictions. It's a stronger addiction than drugs. And it's widely accepted, which is terrifying. I simply cannot drop this stuff.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah the line between dedication and addiction with video games is a thin one! They hit some serious receptors that a lot of other mediums cannot reach

[@steverogers8163]

I'll also add when it comes to nostalgia reboot/remakes/whatever I always try to ask myself, "If this didn't have the name of a popular old IP attached to it, would anyone care?" Disturbingly the answer, IMO, is far to often no. Using the old IP name is primarily a marketing gimmick. Similar to hiring the same actors, over and over. Not because they are good or the right fit for a particular role. But because people recognize their name.

[@SimplySunky]

As someone who is Gen Z and plays a good chunk of new, old, and obscure games, both original properties and sequels to other franchise, nostalgia can be a very tool that can help expand on existing ideals in new creative ways or guide us to make 100% original ideals, if used correctly.

[@kingj9664]

That is the exact same thing I feel as well.

[@MrEverythingX76]

I've been feeling this in my life lately. Over the past couple of years I've pretty much lost interest in keeping up with new things. (The newest thing I'm into is Chainsaw Man, and even that is set in the late '90s, and I don't think that's a coincidence.) I haven't really been all that interested in going back to the exact things I liked from my childhood-through-college years, because I already experienced those things, but I have been very interested in checking out the stuff from back then that I missed because I didn't have access to it. I have complex feelings about this. On one hand, I appreciate having easy access to all this stuff that I was never able to get my hands on. Even though I never actually experienced this stuff back in the day, stuff from that time period hits me in a way that most newer stuff just doesn't. On the other hand, it does sort of disturb me how little I want to seek out the new. On a third hand that is growing out of my chest, I am a 37 year old father of two. I'm on the other side of the 18-to-34-year-old demographic that mainstream entertainment has traditionally targeted for my entire life. If new things don't appeal to me, that's fine. If young people make fun of me for being out of touch, oh well. That's the way of the world. I'm at the age where I don't have to care anymore. My children's tastes will baffle me, and that's fine. It's natural. On a fourth hand that has erupted from my mouth and is shaking hands with the third hand, it also disturbs me that so much of the new stuff being made is nostalgia bait that is supposed to target me. I will admit to being a small Part of the Problem because I enjoy some of it (RE2make is excellent, I have FFVII Remake queued up to play on the 25th anniversary and I'm looking forward to seeing how they Rebuild of Evangelion'd it, I think Street Fighter 6 looks excellent, etc.), but most of it feels repulsive and cashgrabby to me, and the sheer volume of it weirds me out. I'm a dinosaur. I should be on the way out. Culture shouldn't be trying to cater to me even more than it did when I was actually a kid, but that's the way it seems to be going, and that just feels wrong to me. Kids deserve new shit. I should be pleasantly surprised when my kids like something that I liked when I was a kid. It shouldn't be the norm. It feels like a natural cycle of death and rebirth has been disrupted and turned into an eternal feedback loop.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

This is a great comment! I definitely enjoyed the part where you played with the language of the hands bursting forth Goro style ha. On the topic of being over the hill, I have a funny story about this I think you will appreciate. When I was in my teens, I always looked at the older people who tried to hang out with us younger people (dudes in their thirties) and always thought they were pathetic. I made a promise to myself that the moment I hit 30 I would hard shift away from trying to be young and accept being old and washed up (these were the thoughts of a teenage Mark). Well, I'm 31 now. So I'm right there with you and have decided that teenage Mark had a good point about men of our age needing to accept our age. That being said, 30's is still really young when you start to hang around people in their 50's who look back at their 30's with longing. So I think the way forward here is that we in this age demographic should try to carve out our own sub culture that doesn't miss the past (we still have a lot of future ahead of us) but is a little wiser than we were in our 20's and teens. :-)

[@tequila_tibbs7938]

The essence of nostalgia is longing for a better past. More nostalgia is linked directly to an unconsciously perceived, worse present. We are hurtling towards many different potential catastrophes, and people want something to comfort and distract them.

[@iraplikeyoubreathe]

Mark with the tascam, i got nostalgic for that 4 track.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

absolutely! That is actually where the idea for the video came from, I found it in my closet at my parents and the vibes hit me hard ha.

[@lunaria_stg]

My opinions on this are the same as what I've said before: I evaluate each game on its own merits. If I like games from my childhood, it's because they were actually better than whatever half assed sequel/remake came out in modern times. Take the Pokemon franchise for example. I grew up with Emerald and Platinum, but I consider B2W2 to be the peak of the series, and my second favourite game is HGSS. And this is in spite of me playing those games a lot less than Emerald and Platinum. But the games that came after B2W2 just flat out suck. The 3D models don't have nearly as much charm as the 2D sprites, the difficulty is completely absent, and the changed battle mechanics greatly reduced the need for proper strategy (just press one button to make your Pokemon super strong and sweep the opponent). Dressing up is like the only good part of the 3D games lmao. Another game that I grew up with was Halo CE, but after playing the other Halo games when I was older, I definitely like 3 and ODST a lot more. I also like 2 more than CE, just because there is a much larger weapon sandbox and more enemy types, even though 2 can be kinda janky. But when 343i took over the development, the quality just went downhill. The new weapons in 4 were so boring, and the new enemies were so cheap (teleporation + regenerating shield means they can instantly hide whenever they are weakened, and so you waste tons of ammo on them). In both of these cases, sure, I hate the newest entries, but only because those games are so lackluster. I don't like the older entries just because of blind nostalgia, but because they were - and still are - pretty good games. And I can recognise when other games in the franchise are actually better and like them more. In fact, many of my most favourite games are those that I've played very recently (I'm going to shill Rabi-Ribi again; it's the gold standard of game design to me). I can't speak for the rest of gen Z, but at least for me, nostalgia is barely even a factor to consider for me. Also, going back to the last video, how can anyone say creativity is dead when Raizing made a racing shmup lol. That idea is just so wild.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes I think there is a very important distinction to be made between liking things of the past due to their quality (battle garegga) and liking them due to warm feelings of association (pogs)

[@ShamanNoodles]

Really liked that your answer to "why" is failure and cope. Must agree, even though it's a hard pill to swallow.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah I think as millennials we are a bit too quick to deflect our feelings towards outside sources, I think something our generation was taught honestly, but now that we are grown up, these tendencies make us very easy to manipulate and less resilient.

[@ShamanNoodles]

@@TheElectricUnderground Great point! Goes right along with "everyone gets a prize," greatly reducing incentive to compete at all.

[@mosesh06]

Your topics are great. Thanks for the content sir!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

No problem!! I am glad you enjoyed it!

[@zazenbo]

you see it weaponized in music too. Oh you were never part of this beautiful music scene from the 90’s, but you’ve seen all the documentaries? Here’s 1 billion products to buy, new bands to listen to that sound exactly like that, and guess what, YOU TOO CAN LIVE OUT YOUR DREAM OF BEING FROM THE PAST AS LONG AS YOU BUY THE PRODUCTS AND REGURGITATE THE SOURCE MATERIAL! Don’t miss out on the new wave of old! Buy now!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yeah music it is very strong there as well! I think music might be even more confusing of a mess than video games in this regard.

[@kamadoma715]

Wonderful video, loved the points you made. I'm glad I could easily relate as I'm already in that spot where I do acknowledge that nostalgia is indeed being used as an easy cash grab these days. And yes it does make cringe sometimes when people give in so much to it. To quote from the first Jurassic Park film: "I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it!"

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thanks so much my dude! That is a really awesome quote (I forget how cool the first park film was). That is exactly right, I think that really encapsulates a lot of the millennial attitude and why all these reboots and remakes come across as poor fan fiction, because the understanding and respect for how these franchises were put together is not there. Ironically, if they did understand they would probably abandon the remake project all together ha.

[@williambargery5855]

I'm so guilty of this. But I'm pretty comfortable with it though. And I love going back case in point I bought a copy of chrono trigger yesterday haha

[@TheElectricUnderground]

We all are my dude. It's deeply ingrained. I think as long as we keep it in the reasonable sphere and keep an eye on the temptation it will be ok :-) Hopefully, the copy of chrono wasn't one of those scammed sealed ones that cost you $5,000 or something ha.

[@williambargery5855]

@@TheElectricUnderground yeah right. Nah spent Around 30 on it unsealed. I've never been the sealed collector type

[@mariahanover9335]

So many things to address here. The nostalgia economy is real, yes. It is a new phenomenon stifling creativity, not at all. I think your worst argument is that borrowing from other mediums is somehow creative and fresh while borrowing from your own medium is uninspired nostalgia bait. That doesn't jive. Star wars borrowed heavily from Flash Gordon and many other movies of its time. There's entire videos on youtube dedicated to showing how george lucas basically stole cinematography from older movies and put it in star wars. Movies have always been based on other properties inside and outside the medium. The warriors is based on an ancient epic. The Thing is a remake of a very old movie. The Godfather is based on a book. Ocean's 11 is based on a very old, and very bad movie. It doesn't matter where the source material or inspiration came from, the only thing that matters is execution. Media has always borrowed from older media. Rap music literally took slices of rock music, remixed it, and then used that as a hook. These cartoons from the 80's people are nostalgic for were only ever created to sell toys. They weren't inherently creative or superior. People have always been nostalgic for old media. Your anecdote about someone from the 40's is really bad. Someone from the 40's would be nostalgic for the music and movies of the 40's! It's not complicated. The difference between our generation and older generations is we actually use nostalgia to create new things instead of fermenting them. Someone who grew up in the 80's who loves 80s rock music won't start a nostalgia 80's band, they'll just listen to the same music over and over for decades and refuse to try anything new. That's actual creativity being stifled. A millennial will hear 80's music then start a band like Bleachers who sticks to the beautiful sound of 80's pop music and the unique synth effects but invent a whole new genre of music. Same with these phenomenon of 80's synth wave. They stayed inside their own medium but created brilliant things. Your comment about nostalgia economy in movies and video games is greatly misinformed. Millenials aren't drawing on nostalgia to make these new star wars movie, a very old executive, probably in their 70s or 80s, is looking at a shit ton of market research and basically investing in nostalgia by greenlighting these movies. No one is sitting in their studio deciding what movie they're going to make, it's very old executives deciding what movies are allowed to be made based on millions of dollars of market research. And nostalgia doesn't always work. You talked about a citizen kane reboot, well they did something like that with the lone ranger reboot, and john carter of mars, but no one saw them. Just because something's old doesn't mean you can reboot it and harvest the nostalgia economy. And one more thing about movies. I guarantee you don't think old disney movies are nostalgia bait even though every single disney animated movies is based off old literature. Just because they went outside their medium doesn't mean those movies have more artistic integrity. Not to mention Disney has completely rewritten copyright law so now therse a drought of media entering the public domain, the same public domain disney was completely reliant on to make their most popular movies. And with video games, you seem to forget that all the most popular retro games were based on nostalgia. How many super mario games did we have based off the first one? Same with mega man, castlevania, resident evil, street fighter, sonic the hedgehog, king of fighters, metal slug. I don't understand how you can say a movie based on something outside of movies has creative integrity when games based off older games in the series are classics, were games made when people didn't rely on nostalgia. But if a game is based on an older game outside its series is lazy nostalgia bait. Look at how many good things we have based off nostalgia. Mad Max Fury Road, Dredd, Ghostbusters Afterlife, Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls, GG Aleste 3, Blazing Chrome, Blaster Master Zero, Bloodstained, Cadence of Hyrule, The Batman, the Spiderman movies. Tl;dr Nostalgia has absolutely nothing to do with creative integrity. A property can absolutely drip with nostalgia and still be good on it's own merits. A property can suck because it relies too much on the source material. An original, high concept property can fail in execution. An original, high concept story can be breathtaking in its originality. We shouldn't fear nostalgia because we think it will cause creative stagnation. Older Ip's have always, and will always influence new media.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I mention this in the video but I think where we are disagreeing is that you see an equivalence across things that I do not and I think should be distinguished. You say, for example, that Star Wars OG is influenced and takes ideas from Flash Gordon, right. I would not refute this. But I think it would be hard to argue that Star Wars could not succeed without Flash Gordon, as most Star Wars fans aren't even aware of Flash Gordon. On the other hand, Disney Star Wars is absolutely dependent on the success and legacy of OG Star Wars. It not only needs the IP to get people to look at their story in the first place, but it also borrows to the point of plagiarism if Disney did not own the original IP as well. The Force Awakens is A New Hope to a degree that is silly. I think you (and many of my generation) underestimate the power of an existing franchise and there is a huge difference between starting a new ip with sources of inspiration and just rebooting the same ip over and over. I mention this in the vid, but by your scale you argue in this comment everything is essentially the same. You do not have a distinction between plagiarism and creative inspiration from other sources. Based on what you say here it's all equivalent. If everything is nostalgia then nothing is.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

Sir, you did not just hit me with the Delfino Plaza theme!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I did! Max nostalgia tunes overdrive.

[@brainwashalpha5495]

woah! awesome topic choice i cant wait!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

it'll be a good one!

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

19:00 I've recently completed Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus. After putting them on hold about 25 years ago. Finally, closure.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

mission accomplished! I actually did the same thing with donkey kong country 3 ha, that damn game I could never beat as a kid.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

@@TheElectricUnderground Lol, that's a good one!

[@benevans7564]

Great video Mark, the 4 track definitely has a warmer sound! In the case of beat em ups, I feel this genre died prematurely during the jump to 32 bit and I'm ok to get some new iterations of it :)

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I'm glad you liked it! I was actually impressed with how clear the 4 track ended up sounding, I thought it would sound like the bottom of a coke can before I recorded :-) Stay tuned on the beat em up point, because oh boy I have one hell of a beat em up video in the works, it will cover the entire history of the genre.

[@MrBreakfastCereal]

Citizen Kane SHMUP when?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Sounds fun!!! The 2nd it becomes public domain let's make it happen ha

[@pastluck]

Great video. Another reason I see as being central to the “why” of people caring so much about these IPs is that it validates our tastes and, to many people, whole parts of our identity. Consumerism has become such a huge part of modern generations (the identity of “gamer”, “film buff”, “book worm”, etc., are all based on this) that we hold what we consume extremely close to us. We think it is a part of us and who we are. So when a studio comes along, spends millions of dollars building on or remaking these parts of us, we feel validated. We think, “Yes, someone high up out there recognizes how important this thing is and how great my taste is and now the whole world is getting a chance to see it too!” I think many modern generations, myself included, have been guilty of this consumer-as-identity attitude, and the implications of that are complex in both good ways and bad. I do agree that it creates a worldview where it is harder to create something original because we are simply too attached to what we love that it becomes difficult not to recreate it.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

that's a great point pastluck! yes fandom has gone from a shared hobby or something we enjoy in our spare time to fundamental to our identities. You say something against tmnt, you say something against me!

[@lordofd7111]

Nostalgia is pretty much what occurs when you don't really learn and grow from what you experienced in childhood. "Reconnecting with your childhood" is shorthand for re-experiencing what you *felt* of something without taking a step forward into the light it shines or the shadow it casts and really getting to know what that something is or what it meant to inspire and bringing that knowledge forward to the next generation. There's nothing wrong with feeling for the past. But nostalgia is a trap that, as all things have these days, has proven incredibly profitable and recyclable as such.

[@Snyperwolf91]

Amen! Consuming from our past just for the feelings of comfort and memories of the days in the past is is okay and gives us joy but its much more valuable when we learn fron our nostalgia and create from that something new and inspiring that can bring good things for others . And sadly , almost nobody wants to learn that and just take the pure consumeristic approach instead being inspired and create from the things they themselves like so much from their favourite shows.

[@lordofd7111]

​@@Snyperwolf91 Nostalgia is one hell of a drug. But the thing about drugs is that they only hint you towards God. In that hint lies the risk of getting lost in the feeling of the hint - and thereby caught up in the substance itself. When God is something much more simple and subtle.

[@stewpidmoney6634]

LOL the rich evans clip. Great video sir!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Ha yeah it went to perfectly with the others XD thank you my dude

[@davivman6009]

There are a few things that I don’t think you fully consider in your analysis. Specifically with regards to video games I think you have to take into account that that form of entertainment is relatively new. Street Fighter, Final Fight, Metroid, etc. didn’t harken back to earlier forms of those types of games because they pioneered their respective genres; genres that wouldn’t have been realistically possible earlier due to the level technology. So yes lots of games in those genres will harken back the games that popularized them. But there are still new types of games and genres being put forth. In the last 10 years we have seen how games like Demon Souls, Minecraft, Fortnight, etc. have established new styles of video games. Whether you like those like those games or not, they are popular and were not based on nostalgia. So bottom line, yes nostalgia is pervasive in the video game industry but people are still innovating and creating new things.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yes I wouldn't deny that there are still new ideas being put out there (though I do view fortnte as cynical as hell), but I think the rate has come to a brutal crawl. Resident evil is a great example, there is definite energy among that team to make quality games, but before they can get to anything new they need to spend years remaking the entire franchise, why ha? Especially with resi 4, resi 4 simply does not need a remake, I don't even know how that makes sense outside of this attitude to reboot and remake everything viable ha.

[@truxardus4331]

This is a good video and I agree with your points. Reboots and remakes are creatively bankrupt. Excessive referencing for its own sake is tiresome. An annoyance that I do have (which you do not do in your video), however, is when one dismisses valid preferences as "nostalgia". I think pixel art looks way better than polygonal graphics. Is this nostalgia? I don't think so, polygonal games were mainstream when I was a kid. If I like an old game because the gameplay is on point and not bloated with gimmicks, this is likewise not "nostalgia", especially if I never played it previously. A bit of tangent, but thank you for not falling into what I consider a misuse of the term.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

that is a very good point of distinction. Yes it's important to be careful because an artistic choice of the past is not always necessarily "nostalgic." I don't view pixel art in that way for example, as you bring up. I think the best way to avoid this is to place aside the emotional connections we may have with certain aspects of art, and try to analyze them from a more objective standpoint. I personally agree that when people look at pixel art and call it "nostalgic" that is way too broad of an outlook.

[@Randhrick]

Great video ! Nostalgia is normal, almost every humans can feel it for anything. when it comes to games now, yeah you have people who are blinded by their nostalgia. I dod not mind nostalgia myself I like the feeling when hearing an old song I did not heard in a while or playing any old games. But I am not blinded to it I like modern games and retro games equally, I also think that these remakes are not a bad idea in some cases, one thing is certain, nostalgia is being used to make money for sure. I would not say it's such a good thing because companies nowadays are doing 2 things mostly, 1, they keep making the same games over and over 2, they use nostalgia to remake old games, there is no place for new IPs, which will lead the video games ecosystem to a stagnant state with nothing new and innovative anymore (thankfully we have indie games). A very deep and divisive subject, but it's nice to see someone talking about it !

[@TheElectricUnderground]

yes, what I am getting at in the vid is that I don't think nostalgia is bad or anything. But rather by examining where it comes from and asking ourselves why it is triggered, we can avoid falling into the trap of associating so much of our emotion with the products themselves.

[@mon11nom]

Never heard a millennial be so generous to gen xr's before lol. I think KZbin itself has played a role in the nostalgia economy. It's given really easy access to music and shows from our youth. The millennial obsession with nostalgia prob in part has something to do with this. Very thoughtful post.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I m really glad to hear that you enjoyed the vid!

[@AyeYoYoYooo]

The highlight reel of nostalgia to open was masterful.

[@glizzdawiz]

This is very inspiring to make something different. I think only a few devs want to take the risk in making something new and would rather take the safe cash grab.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I m happy to hear that!!! Yes new and fresh please!

[@Phantom_Zer0]

To witness the transition from mega drive or mega CD to the playstation was simply mind-blowing, i never forget coming home from toy's r us and telling my brother "holy s💩 i saw the best console ever, the graphics are incredible, and the console looks beautiful, the controller looks like an alien thing, it's insane", and describing wipeout, and Tekken from the first demo disc that was on display. From sonic, Shinobi, or virtual racing to something like wipeout was quite a leap, it was the console that changed videogames forever, of course it wasn't the first to do 3d, but the titles were actually great, so great that people can't even surpass some of them and keep remaking the same thing lol. The idea that there is nothing new is just an excuse for the terrible state of the media, since people cannot make anything decent anymore they need to convince everyone to lower their standards, and that's total trash. If squaresoft messed up final fantasy 7(ps1) they would have probably gone bankrupt, just like it almost happened with the first final fantasy, that's why it was called "final"fantasy. The people regurgitating such nonsense don't want to take a look at the making of groundbreaking games like dragon quest, it's like the stars aligned to bring such geniuses together to make a game that became a phenomenon. Whatever existed before diablo was very different from what diablo is, the same is with zelda, metroid, devil may cry, dune(rts), resident evil, and so on, and on. Taking inspiration from different sources to create something is not the same as remaking the same thing with some new colors, they have to remake something because they have no imagination anymore, and they don't want to take risks with experimental titles like it happened with devil may cry. And what existed before star wars was very different than star wars and everything that came after, it's just utter denial, this is why mediocrity will continue to spread, because people are willfully lowering their standards, and for no reason at all because no one benefits from this.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Right on point about "nothing is new" is just deeply pessimistic excuse making. This sort of rhetoric can only exist in these little bubbles because over time they will fall apart one way or another

[@Phantom_Zer0]

@@TheElectricUndergroundand you know what? that could be a good topic for another video, how will this end up? These companies are so large that they refuse to make anything good, i have no idea of what will happen, unless it's a total collapse of society lol. Normally i can see years far ahead but i confess that in this case i don't see the end of this.

[@sibbyeskie]

Kids grow up, and eventually have money which they can easily be separated from if it makes them feel like a kid again. It’s practically a universal law. By the way I agree its ties to consumerism is new. Just a product of the world we’ve grown up in that has rapidly slanted towards those ideals since the 80s onwards. Can’t really do much about that once it’s baked in. With that said, overconsuming (eg: buying the same game umpteen times) reduces my sense of nostalgia. Even the culture around hype (endless trailer deconstructions/orgasms) reduces it for me since that wasn’t a part of the original thing I’m nostalgic for. I try to conserve my nostalgia rather than hold it out like a platter if that makes sense.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I m the same way ha. I play hard to get when it comes to my nostalgia, companies won t get me so easily ;-)

[@zuffin1864]

I think this is why i enjoy kpop, and jpop, manga and games. There are so many new things in the forefront of those media industries, it is genuinely exciting. I gave up trying to relive my past all the time. i look at old things that are new to me, not just the same games i played

[@silent_blues]

I remember reading somewhere that there is a link between nostalgia and depression - people who don’t feel good in their lives essentially pine for better times, and given the mental state and general sense of hopelessness that pervades younger generations, it makes sense. Ultimately it’s a mix a lot of different things.

[@mangobitchslap9895]

love the 4 track aesthetic🔥

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I m glad to hear it! The damn four track was so much work ha

[@then1533]

Great video.I think there's generally two types of nostalgia, the one relying almost completely on rose tinted glasses( the blind one), and another that is maybe more empirically based such as for example "games were more creative,stimulating and challenging GENERALLY than nowadays ( this is subjective to an extent but can be I believe be empirically proven if needed). The first one comes from sentimentality,something we are all a bit.For example I have fond memories of my Sinclair zx81 with its 1k ram memory! It was a great little computer back in the day but I would soon be fed up with it and see it as totally inadequate to my needs if I were forced to use it today- however the memories of that time are nice to enjoy and reflect on. The second type of nostalgia I still enjoy immensely and see it as a way to build on and improve the future. For example the Darius games are probably my favourite shmup series of all time.This is because I see them as still a good play even today ( apart from master system Sagaia).However, do I hope they will remain the best games for me ever?Hopefully no because I see empirical nostalgia as contributing hopefully to better and better titles, that is to say reference points can enable creativity.An example of this is Ketsui that I can see has influenced tons of modern shmups which I also think are good Have any of these games beaten Ketsui yet? No for me yet yet but I hope it happens one day. I think the remakes thing can be done well - a continuation and modernisation of classics as long as they are 'empirically' good. Modern features such as save states, no checkpoints and impressive graphics etc can enhance a title as long as the gameplay is still good but the other copy and paste concept often doesn't work especially if the gameplay no longer holds up or has been ruined in the reinterpretation. Maybe I see this as possible as I don't agree with the millennial post modernist self-contradictory absurdity which you rightly criticise!!sorry for the long post !

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

I think a lot of retro-style games that are selling well today are doing so not because of nostalgia so much as emulation of older gaming practices (gameplay-first design) which AAA has abandoned.

[@then1533]

@@TheSamuraiGoomba yeah, I agree.I think if people play retro games that are good gameplaywise then they'll probably seek out more of them.On the other side if they play a game that states it emulates the past hut is crap gameplaywise then they'll probably move on. Then there is the contentious side where some people will state they love a game that others cannot understand why from a gameplay point of view.I haven't played it but r type final 2 seems to be one of these titles.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes this a great point! It s very important to seperate out the design choices of older games from our rose tinted glasses. In some cases the older design is excellent and there is still a lot to learn from, and in some cases it s jank but endearing ha

[@gtf9733]

The Electric Underground 4 track is a thing of beauty. Nostalgia or not 😉

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I'm glad you enjoyed that part of the vid. That damn 4 track was like half of the production time and effort for the vid ha

[@gtf9733]

Paid off tho. love your stuff mate, proper inspiration for the 1cc's. Props from Scotland lad 🙂

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

I think this ties in with your other video about a game industry crash. Or at least, a crash in terms of AAA and AA game development. I don't know if the same applies to movies as well, so I'm just going to speak about games. See, when nothing good is coming out, and all the new IPs are walking sims and bland, turgid attempts to craft the gaming equivalent of Netflix Original Series, then gamers naturally lap up any new game release that even reminds them of a good game. All these older, nostalgia bait kind of games harken back to an era when games were about gameplay, which modern games largely are not. So if you like playing games and you want to play fun games, I think it's natural to get hooked by the nostalgia factor because hey, at least it's SOMETHING. At least a game that trips the nostalgia feels for an era of gaming without walking simulators is going to have *some* kind of gameplay that you might enjoy. When I boot up The Last of Us, I know that 0% of that shit appeals to me. If, by contrast, I pop in Gunlord X, Razeon or whatever the hell retrobait the limited run guys have on tap, then I might have a decently fun time. I think Shredder's Revenge was so praised partly because of the environment when it released. What the hell else is there even to play? And it hits that prime nostalgia selling factor of reminding people of a fun, gameplay-first series that they used to play. The kind of games that the mainstream isn't making and doesn't want to make. So people buy it. Is it all entirely nostalgia? Are they buying it because they want to be reminded of old shit they already played? Or are they buying it because it's emulating a gameplay-first design philosophy lifted from those older games, and releasing in an environment void of mainstream devs fulfilling that market?

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

Design philosophy..... I do hope to see more games with the same design philosophy as my favorite rpg series. Its really hard to find one that is close to it.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

This is a great analysis! Yeah in the sphere of modern gaming, nostalgia bait can often be the lesser evil ha!

[@victorerice9837]

Great video. And I think you put your finger on it in your discussion of closure. There is a lot of anxiety for us millennials and our standards of living have declined in many ways from the standards of our parents. Housing, education, childcare are all more expensive. Pay is flat. On and on. So there is this interest in going back, and then an inevitable frustration that there is no closure there, just a hollow and fleeting feeling of comfort that will never live up to what you remember. But one really important point you mention is this idea that you should abandon your critical faculties and just consider whether something accomplished its own goals - or achieved what it set out to do. This is a pervasive idea - it has come up recently a lot in THOR discourse where people will say its good if you turn off your brain and don’t expect too much. But under this standard even the most cynical, dull art can be a success so long as its aims were low. You should be able to criticize the terms a piece of art sets for itself if those terms are absurd. “The goal of this shmup is just to keep the franchise going and it will do that if people give it a break” - ok well that’s not good enough.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Exactly victor. I do think the millennial generation is a fascinating story. We basically started off as the most promising generation (in our parents minds) and I honestly believe we had one of the best childhoods in human history. But around the adolescent years the whole story takes a very sharp turn and millennials ended up totally losing our footing as to what the future will hold. The perfect examination of this is Rory from Gilmore girls. That's why i included a little gif of her at one point. Her story is 100% the millennial story from the golden child beginning to the lost and confused adult ending.

[@PalaceMidasMusic]

I think nostalgia takes power from a sense of loss. RE 2 is a good example, when RE remake 1 came out the expectation was it can and should be better, we still felt newer was better. The same people were still in the industry. Now we say "can they capture that magic again" and vicously debate it. Now I actually kind of fall more on the nothing new argument you mention. Not totally, because the technology and mediums develope (as they should) but I would say those things we are moved by don't really change. The parts in stories that move us have done so for thousands of years. Only their medium changes. So even in modernism, with books like Ulysses, although the writing is highly experimental and new, the same themes and myths are at play but they're in the context of one day in a modern city rather than ancient Greece. The book deepens and expands human feeling in relation to these things by expanding context. And it inovates technically. That's modernism really. But modernism still believes in things which are constant to the human condition. Love, fear, aspiration, challenge, obstacles, dreams and so on. Post modernism is actually new, and in general reactively breaks from the past. It constantly wants to let us know this isn't to be taken seriously (take self referential marvel jokes for example). There's even an undercurrent of we are bad people for being moved by stories of the past. It thrives on lampooning and subversion. It also thinks we can easily change the things that move us and human experience, or presumed we are "beyond it". The problem is there's nowhere for post modernism to go except subversion, and it needs to attack and reference older things to be understood at all. So it's kind of dead. In that artistic space, we are starved of things that really did move us, so a general nostalgia takes root for older things. And that suits post modernism too as it loves most of all to reference and critique the past. Resident Evil remake 1 appreciates and is influenced by the past. Remake 2 is longing for and desperate for a presumed better time and is trying to repeat something. It asks "when was the last time things were good?" Rather well actually. Like Stranger Things. But it's not really moving forward. And its making money off nostalgia. Still 9/10 game am I right ha. For me, real nostalgia unfettered from exploitation is when you find yourself missing 240p KZbin videos like I do! That's the truly puzzling form that's closer to Grandad's tobacco. Thanks for the video.

[@TheRestartPoint]

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I think we are seeing nostalgia at full power right now, it's might is not to be challenged XD

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

nostalgia was better in the old days when i was young, dude

[@opaljk4835]

Poor Rich Evans will never feel that high like that ever again

[@TheElectricUnderground]

the Disney star wars reboot franchise was a gift from god to red letter media ha.

[@BlunderB]

This is a great comment section. Oh how I wish more comment sections could be this intriguing. There’s so much additional content here from the comments, this is what KZbin was built for.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes I m really proud of my channels comment section :-)

[@PaulvonOberstein]

Reminds me of the James Bond novels. Ian Fleming wrote the original novels based on his experiences in the intelligence world, and based on people he knew in the intelligence world, and grafted a lot of his own personal tastes into the James Bond character, so the novels were very much grounded in the real world experience, perspectives, and knowledge of Ian Fleming himself. All of the post-Fleming James Bond novels are written by people who don't have any experience in that world, but are very experienced at writing novels, so consequently while they may be competently written from a technical standpoint as novels, they do not have the sincerity or genuine quality of the James Bond novels written by Ian Fleming. Just as you could make a competent imitation of EarthBound but at the end of the day it is only an attempt to ape EarthBound lacking that spark the original creators brought from their own experiences, knowledge, and artistic tastes when developing the original. EDIT: You should make a critical review of that YIIK game from the perspective of this video. The millennial lack of creativity.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

This is a great example! Yes and look at the Bond franchise these days, it is completely disconnected from it's roots and floating out in space without any hint of that original spark. Now Bond is no different than a generic super hero basically.

[@PaulvonOberstein]

@@TheElectricUnderground Another thought: the original Ghost Busters versus the new sequels/revivals. The original Ghost Busters was lightning in a bottle. It wasn't great because of the "Ghost Busters" franchise or brand. It was great because of the talented writers, actors, special effects people, etc., who worked on it. My understanding is a lot of the dialogue in the original Ghost Busters was improvised by the actors. The talents of the specific people involved are what gave the movie it's particular quality and character that people found so memorable. So if it had a different cast and crew, the first Ghost Busters could well have been a forgettable movie. Same with the original Star Wars films versus the prequels and sequels. Lightning in a bottle -- it's futile to try to recapture that. Make something new instead.

[@Taurine75]

Gen-Xer, here. Completely agree. Media nowadays is boring and derivative. I even see it in the fashion. I hardly buy new movies because much of todays stuff are glossy knock-offs of my generation. Then again, a lot of my generation do not take risks because new ideas are too risky and expensive. Still, I LOVE being in middle school during the 80s. We really “ate” well!

[@PaulvonOberstein]

I think there's also an issue where people just don't know when they've had enough so they constantly want more, even if it means "more" will mean something inferior. Take The Simpsons for example -- the show has been atrocious since at least 2002. The newer episodes just make me wish I was watching the 1990s ones. Now they're talking about bring back King of the Hill, which already had a respectable 13 seasons (although quality dipped in the last few). Do we really need more seasons of this show, especially knowing they won't live up to the show's original run? Wouldn't it be better to say we've had enough and have Mike Judge give us a new animated show?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Exactly paul. That is right on the money! We need to learn to stop trying to squeeze and squeeze these properties till they bleed out and die. I think it's depressing all around, not only for the fans but the creators. Imagine having a career where you make 1 or 2 things and then just need to keep re doing it over and over (George Lucas, essentially ha).

[@jackrussell3084]

I have four words for you - Watch the Cable Guy. You have asked questions to which you will find the answers in that film. The film was made as a psychoanalysis to the Gen Y generation.

[@rurouni82]

The way I see it is we hunger for nostalgia when originality stops becoming original and starts becoming redundant. For example, call of duty 3 is probably the pinnacle point and what revolutionized the fp shooter craze. Well problem is now there became many attempts to copy and paste that game with minimal tweaks. Same is going on now with the battle royale concept from fortnite. Basically the market is being saturated with the same thing. This is when we start to look back at the past and start missing things or I guess for millennials desire to experience things they hear about. This is a very complex subject as there’s more reasons. Mark I wish we could have a friendly discord or something chat one day as we seem to have a lot of the same views on things.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah that seems to be out things have settled out. The mainstream games sort of just coast on the same recycled stuff and then when a newish idea comes along, like PUBG, the devs snap up the concept and create something like Fortnite (or Fortnite-mare ha). Feel free to message me on discord :-) I'd be happy to do a little voice chat on there :-)

[@mcmcmify]

I think nostalgia is somewhat a reaction to the overall degeneration of media, which is caused in no small part by the consolidation of creative power into a few corporations. So now games/movies/music are split into two categories: modest indie productions and massive corporate productions. The big corporate productions are so astronomically expensive that corporations cannot afford to take creative risks, hence all AAA productions now have to be based on proven formulas and ideas. Conversely, indie productions tend to be much more creative, but they often lack the polish and refinement that comes from big studios. However, there are times in the history of a medium where these two modalities were united. There were times when there were lots of well-funded groups who were taking creative risks that ended up paying off. This was due in part to the cost of entry being lower and the existence of lots of competition. So Star wars was an original idea that got picked up by 20th century fox and was given enough resources AND the artists working on it retained a lot of creative control because it wasn't "too big to fail." The new star wars movies have the resources but are subject to strict control and oversight because disney is not going to put up $200 million or w/e unless they can minimize the risk as much as possible.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes exactly! I talked about this a lot in my laundering vid as well! This video I m more interested in the audience participation. Why is it that bringing Star wars back is so solid of a prospect (which I agree that it is) where does the demand for reboots and such come from in the first place

[@radiorah768]

Very well said.

[@mcmcmify]

@@TheElectricUnderground Hmmm well it's much more difficult to decide why people desire a certain thing. I think I would argue that (in America especially) there is a general pessimism about the world presently and where things are going. It also makes sense that if people perceive that modern creations are inferior somehow, then it is easier to just update things that were good in the past. I also question how much of it is genuine desire on the part of the consumer and how much of it is cultural programming on the part of media corporations. It is much easier for them too to just rehash things, so it would behoove then to try to get people to long for the past using advertisements and such. Hearing people say "ohhh this makes me feel like a child again so I like it" seems kind of sad to me.

[@dariuseviltwin]

Removing the rose tinted nostalgia glasses reveals that quite a lot of games,movies and music which I loved as a kid/teen were crap... But it's the memories that they evoke from the era which is special. A brand new 16 bit style game or remake will not have that attachment so will fail if it's bad. However, if in twenty years someone remembers enjoying it as kid, then the cycle continues.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Absolutely!!! The cycle of memory and association is really interesting

[@ty-xq7bl]

I only miss being a kid not the stuff I consumed, i bet those people who have nostalgia do not recognize that

[@TheElectricUnderground]

exactly! That absolutely plays a part, a lot of us are looking for gateways into the past, at least temporarily.

[@neontetra1000]

I’m Addicted to buying the Tamiya rc cars that I used to drool over in the model shop and catalogue when I was a kid. They have rereleased them Over the last few years. I really love it but hard to catch that pure feeling you had when you were a kid and played with them with your mates and really appreciated having even one car .

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yep I went through that with pogs ha. For a hot minute I wanted to buy a bunch I had when I was a kid, then realized why? Ha

[@AnthonyFlack]

That's funny because I guess one the the things that keep me coming back to older games is they have less of this baggage. Stranger Things got on my nerves with its constant referencing. But I'm probably just nostalgic for simpler times... Another one that got on my nerves a bit recently was Hotshot Racing. Too many callbacks to other games. It does start to feel just like bits of other things stuck together.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I really think you are onto something here. I think there is general insecurity among our media right now that cannot be streamlined and committed. Instead, there needs to be constant check ins with the audience to try and jog our nostalgia to hope to keep us engaged

[@mcjumic]

The internet is nothing but a giant database. It stores, sorts and makes accessible. That's where the money is now, the question of what is stored and sorted is secondary, old shit is perfect in the current model because it's already there just waiting to be stored and (re)packaged and paywalled. All the money going into that model means lots of moollah being pumped into various opinion-making operations to sell it, and nostalgia is a good way to do that so it takes on a life of its own. That's my 2¢. Great video!!!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

That is a good point! There is also that factor of constant accessibility to older media that crowds out the newer stuff.

[@LixeiraDoFrost]

Yo, I was thinking on something: there is this shmup I have been playing that I don't think it's mechanically as polished as a Treasure game, but it kinda fits in your usual description of how shmups should update themselves to appeal to a larger audience. Wonder if you'll ever make a video on it, it's called Astebreed and it's a pretty good game in general (even if not a particularly replayable or deep SHMUP imo), seems to be inspired by Radiant Silvergun quite a lot too.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yeah this is an interesting one. I've never played it, but it does look interesting, I'm curious how strong the game play is. I do like the 3d visuals though!

[@LixeiraDoFrost]

@@TheElectricUnderground I do dig how unique some mechanics are but I do think this game could use a better level design. Still, it sold quite well and even if it's far from being perfect, I'm sure you might take some interesting notes on it. Level 5 became one of my favorite shmup levels of all time simply because of its aesthetics. Hope you enjoy it if you ever tackle it. Been just trying to finish my Akashicverse Akashic mode 1cc, wonder if you will ever make some content on this one too. Cheers from Brazil

[@RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS77]

Thought-provoking as ever. Star Wars itself does have some pretty heavy homages -- critics in the 70s noted that parts of it were pretty clear homages to Lawrence of Arabia. But I think there's a difference in that nobody pitched it as "hey, remember Lawrence of Arabia? Well, check out Star Wars -- it will hit you right in the childhood!" They're more incidental. I struggle with this sometimes because, as I'm sure you've noticed given the focus of this channel, this is a big thing with retro video game content. I'm more interested to hear about what games are out there, what are their influences, what are they like, what the developers said, etc. But there's a popular strain that's more like "remember eating pizza and playing this?" But like... that's your memory, not mine. If I played something different it falls completely flat (more obvious now that I'm old enough for people to do this with stuff that came out after I was already an adult). And even for stuff I do have fond memories of... like, Sonic 2 is one of the greatest games of all time, but how many times can I play and talk about it? I'd like a little bit of variety in my life. Also I did get a laugh out of your opening montage. The fact of the matter is that most of these revivals of long-dead series end up completely sucking ass so it's a little embarrassing how hyped up people get about them.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yes I'm glad to explain the distinction where something like ninja gaiden 2 will have little nods to old films like yojimbo versus the aggressive pandering of stuff like, oh remember when you were a kid! (shredders revenge). Yeah imagine looking at the hype levels and what we ended up getting with shenmue 3 ha. I remember when shen 3 was being shown I thought (this looks bad), but the shenmue fans were so hyped and nostalgic charged that saying anything otherwise would be met with wrath ha. I still think I ended up saying that shenmue 3 looked bad on gamefellas ha.

[@alexcherrypicks]

Fran Lebowitz said, "You know what is always true about the past? You were younger, and being younger is better." What a great video, there is so much I could say... Have you seen Everything is a Remix? It compliments your points well. At a certain point though, I do think it was just as simple as companies going, "Shut up and play the hits!"

[@ChrisStoneinator]

Tbf I think the Shenmue reaction is pretty legit. That was a sorely needed sequel we thought we'd never get, not a revisionist remake. The game ended up sucking, but that's neither here nor there eh!

[@dingo535]

Really enjoyed this, almost as great as R Type Final 2! 😘

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I'm glad you liked it Dingo! If there one apex of quality we should all aspire to, it is absolutely R Type Final 2 XD

[@davidbuckingham8046]

I think the reason the Residen Evil 2 Remake and FF VII remake work is because they remind us of what we played before but present the games with a huge technological overhall that changes the camera perspective and gives you way more immersion. They're not what I played back then, but they're what I imagined I was playing. They also have some differences to keep you on your toes. The reason the Star Wars sequels don't work as well is that Star Wars itself was the advancement into modern era of special effects filmmaking. And other than a few effects looking a bit shoddy here and there, the original Star Wars isn't really out of date. And the newer movies aren't doing things to really justify their existence. Some of them don't have great scripts and/or execution either.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I definitely think the graphics side of things is a strong factor for video games having more of a basis for being remade. But that does introduce it's own complicated implications for how we view these remakes because does the graphical overhaul serve as a replacement for the original or is it a distinct entity? In the case of ff7 remake the studio clearly made it a distinct entity since they change the story and stuff, but now that leads into even more questions on how the story is viewed post Remake. I'm not a big ff7 fan (nothing against the property though, and I do like the story just not super invested) but I've had the experience of reading the abomination that is the "Cursed Child" that's supposed to a sequel to Harry Potter. As a purist to the Harry Potter story, I can absolutely sympathize with the plight of the ff7 og fans that watch as all these new sequels and remakes come in and dilute what was once a clear artistic message. So I do think there is a larger conversation that is interesting about whether the juice of improved graphics is worth the squeeze or not. I think in some IPs why not, doom for example, but in other like FF7, that's a trickier question.

[@TheCyclicGamer]

@@TheElectricUnderground I don't think graphics serve as a justifiable reason to replace an original game, even if it is the main reason millennials usually demand remakes, because if there is one thing that is often lost in a remake of game that has superior graphical fidelity to it's original counterpart, it's art direction, and art direction is much more timeless in comparison to super-fidelity graphics. You talked about how RE4 Remake lost the art direction of the original game, but I also think RE1-3 lost their art directions in their remakes too. RE1 to me is the most standout because while the remake has the better graphical fidelity, the original has way better art direction, particularly with how bright, colorful, and minimal the mansion looked in the original game, like it was designed to be a front for a bioweapons research facility, compared to the remake's where it feels like you walked into Dracula's mansion, especially with how unnecessarily dark some of the rooms are even with their lights on (Like the hallway where you encounter the first zombie). Talking about FF7 here, the original has better art direction and one of the reasons for this is in the low poly models everyone loves to complain about, because every single low-poly human character model in the original FF7 had a sense of consistency with how they all feel like they belong in the same world or town, but in the FF7 Remakes, Cloud and the gang feel like they're aliens due to how unusually normal mostly everyone else looks in comparison to them, there are some character models that have unique character designs in the remake like Kyrie and the gooney triplits, but everyone else look so basic in comparison.

[@J.J._777_]

19:46 "Millennials aren't very original people," this is true. I think Millennials are too pessimistic and cynical to be capable of creating and nurturing anything that seems new. If the future is bad, then everything "new" is bad by default and won't be given the chance to prove itself. I think a lot of confidence and optimism are required to get something "original" off the ground. When too many people are dependent on anti-depressant / anti-anxiety medications and feel cynical about the future and the present, then the past is the only safe haven. Based on mental health statistics of Gen Z, unless something dramatic changes in the near-future, then I think Zoomers will actually be even MORE hooked on nostalgia than Millennials. The objects of nostalgia 20 years from now will be whatever the Zoomers are into nowadays. Probably Fortnite and League of Legends and whatever shit is currently popular on TikTok. I think nostalgia ebbs and flows in big cycles. From what I can see, the last time period that was most similar to nowadays was between 1865 and 1914. It was a time of economic downturns, dramatic inequalities, social upheavals, and eventually a global war. Nostalgia was normalized while interest in mental health intensified. Most people today probably aren't familiar enough with that time period to be able to draw the parallels with nowadays, and perhaps that time period didn't contain enough originality to be memorable.

[@0oCalumo0]

There is a certain irony in this being discussed on a channel primarily concerned with arcade games.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

This is one of my motivations to make this video. Because one of my goals of this channel is to try and move past the pure nostalgia elements of discussion of these genres and instead talk about the merits of their design and gameplay, regardless of the player's age or past. So I always try to avoid arguments that involve emotional attachments or appeal to childhood. See my turtles shredders revenge review for example. I talk about turtles in terms of the game's mechanics and design, rather than how much it reminds me of my childhood and saturday morning cartoons.

[@0oCalumo0]

@@TheElectricUnderground love it. Keep it up

[@WWammyy]

Due to nostalgia I felt for the last 20 years media wise I'm still playing the exact same games and quite often older games in the same series are much better overall. Also modern games take the same basic concepts of old games and pad them out to ridiculous levels. In breath of the wild you can't simply find hearts you must now cook the food and you can't find ancient armour you have to craft it.

[@user-qr8ti7xi5d]

Хороший ролик по важной теме. Человек в детском возрасте переживает самые яркие эмоции. Вот почему время детства - самое запоминающееся. На всю жизнь. Продавцы это давно усвоили, по этому обращаются к этому спекулируя на ностальгии. В детстве не было денег купить всё это. А у взрослого есть деньги. И он заплатит что-бы вернутся в детство. Это не хорошо и не плохо. Так работает рынок. Единственный момент - возможно подобный подход производителей тормозит прогресс. Ведь они могли изобретать что-то новое, вместо постоянного обращения к прошлому. Добавлю, почему некие миллениалы не могут придумать ничего нового. Моё предположение: массовая культура остановилась в развитии, упёрлась в невидимую стену. Ничего нового не изобретают, потому что ничего нового и не надо (наверное). Кроме конечно того, что приносит деньги. Базис неизменен, а форма может быть какая угодно любая.

[@DIASTCartoons]

I'm part of Gen Z (born in 1998). I'm not that into nostalgia as much as I used to. This is due to recognizing problems with the things I grew up with and finding how to improve them along with most games and TV shows I enjoyed growing up not catching on with mainstream audiences. I can't speak on Gen Z as a whole, but I notice a lot of us dread nostalgia pander due to a lot of franchises we grew up with getting either still going on past their prime, getting mediocre remakes, or something to the equivalent to how 80s kids reacted to Zelda Wind Waker where more serious tone franchises comeback with a very cartoony artstyle and aimed at a younger audience. There are still some Gen Z that are too attached to their nostalgia that they reject everything new. There are some things I'm nostalgic for that I would love to see get improvements. One game series I wish got a remaster was the Tak series. This was a series of 6th gen 3D platformers that Nickelodeon (yes, the TV channel) released from 2003-2009. I really enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd releases from that series, but there are some jank and missing features with the original games that could make the experience better. I feel that it would never happen due to the franchises' lack of popularity (even in nostalgia spaces).

[@ps3inquisition441]

Remakes are definitely going to continue for the foreseeable future, as they seem to be the big sellers and get the most hype when announced. I was quite excited for the FFVII remake, and enjoyed playing it. However, in the future when I want to play FFVII I’ll be playing the original. Same with Resident Evil. I enjoy playing the original games on my PS1, even with all the issues they have. I can’t think of a remake that has replaced the original for me.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes it is a reality of our generation, and I don't think it will stop. We're just too ingrained in it at this point. I am hoping more for a slow weaning back more than anything ha. There's no way the devs and fans are going to stop cold turkey.

[@thewhyzer]

To me, nostalgia is basically comfort food. Why task my brain with new concepts and new mechanics, why take risks on something that may turn out to be "not be my thing", when I can just relax and do something that I know feels good from past experiences?

[@eltiolavara9]

i do miss when nostalgia wasn't the defau... wait

[@LawrenceAaronLuther]

Part of it is definitely nostalgia, the other part is the fact that human civilization has climaxed already and on our road to extinction the only thing we have to look upon fondly is our peak

[@chasepalumbo2929]

Take the Electric Underground pill, Morbius. Seriously though, you’ve really, really thought this stuff through. Excellent arguments fr fr

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

Me at the start: "Eh, nostalgia schmostalgia, whatever. Guess I'll listen." Me at 5:34: "Wave Race 64, fuck yeah, baby! I quote: You ALMOST had it!"

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Ha yes in the clips for the vid I used games that I personally find nostalgic, so shout out to wave race, harvest moon, all these games ha.

[@javorgeorgiev6130]

I definitely do not want to go back in time and relive any of it, but I do like to think of specific designs as fundamental blocks for building something. Identify the base thing that makes something enjoyable and build upon it. For as long as the same label is used to refer to it, that one thing is not allowed to change the main blocks it consists of. If you think you can't add anything that doesn't change what it's about, then leave it as is. I don't want to erase my memory to experience the same thing again. I want to make better memories using what I already have. I remember all the bad from that nostalgic time very well too and am not looking forward to it at all. I can't just isolate the specific good memory, because it needs the background of the bad ones to make sense. Just as that nostalgia is an escape now, it was escape back then too. It's the new forms of escapism that don't work on me that I try to go back to something that did at some point and attempt squeezing that last drop of juice left. It's not that new creators aren't doing those different things that spice up the old ones. I don't appreciate their direction. Their improvements don't do it for me. The thing they hated and changed was the thing I liked. We don't like rules that don't suit us, so we take something we liked and make it be about what we want. Someone thinks they're not good at focusing hard for a long time, make a faster version of the same game, so there's less time to think. We don't make good decsions, change the focus to be on how we execute the mechanical movements after those decisions and limt the options. Maybe we are not confident we can improve our skill so we make the game be purely about dedicating more time with a guaranteed reward solely for it. We don't have free time to fail and repeat, so we make it that we can't fail. Games now are built as a reflection of our faults and assumed qualities from the genre defining ones we experienced before. We aren't making this new thing nobody has experienced before. It's all about us and how we relate to it. It's no different with music and writing, we're just now catching up with it in gaming.

[@MeltaRay]

Funny you mention Citizen Kane, isn't the whole idea of a movie was about his nostalgic feeling about childhood?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

It absolutely is! +100 bonus points for picking up on that! remember when I said people in the past were nostalgic for different things, like their childhood sled ha.

[@CC-fi3pp]

I love it! Don't give me anything new ever again! Just keep rebooting the past!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I am anxiously awaiting resident evil remake, the remake ha XD

[@tonberrymasta]

Which past? The past from the 90s? Or the past from the 50s? The problem with nostalgia is that everyone has it for a different period of time in their lives.

[@2emo2function]

All art is derivative, gaming has become so derivative that honestly it's fun to look at the design of the past and see where they succeeded where so many modern games fail. All nostalgic throw backs allow for introspection to understand what did a didnt work from things of that time and what we can learn from them. Nostalgia when coming from a non gentrified place can allow for amazing artistic pieces.

[@etnabq5236]

To get to the point of the video. Most of what is made today is not inspired by life but simulations of life. That is why it feels derivative. Maybe it is time to start living life more, instead of living in a simulation.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Very good point!

[@ree2449]

What an intro 😎

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I had some fun with it ha

[@Ronsard1979]

I write thinking good things about nostalgia and what it means to the new games I play (or decide to buy). I feel like all the games I played in the past weren't enough so I like to play "new" games that are done like they where meant to be played on old platforms (and by "new" I just mean games that I never got the opportunity to play properly). I ended up with a great appreciation about shmups because, like many people, I love Vs Fighting games and beat-'em-ups... and you can't go very far wanting every good game in those categories to feel new. So I turned to shmups, a very pure and "simple" game category I didn't appreciate in my childhood. I need to feel something new is interesting, so, shmups became my new go to thing. I dont't think nostalgia driven games need only to exist. I prefer to play Shredder's Revenge than to go back to a game I just played once... an be able to play it with better graphics and, probably, moves that coudn't be made in Turtles In Time for the SNES. So, I don't think developers are immune: for me, if the "new" game isn't at least as good as the old one, it isn't worth it. And I do prefer a graphically updated version of Turtles In Time where, probably, the gameplay not only copies cool references of the past but it's also more refined.

[@magicjohnson3121]

So Treasure tweeted this recently: “On this 30th anniversary year, we are working hard in development to announce the highly requested ‘that’. Please continue to give Treasure your support going forward.” So Treasure for their 30th anniversary will make a game that’s either a sequel or a port. Just reminds me of this video. Treasure for the last 10 years have relied on nostalgia. They didn’t bother hiring/training new people when the old ones left. Sad fate for a company who started off because they were sick of sequelisation and Arcade ports (look it up they said game companies in the 90’s were relying too much on sequels). They started off very original, they stuck mostly to 2D games despite 3D being the big thing. They didn’t follow modern trends. Their games were old school but fresh at the same time. It was during the PS2, GameCube, GBA, X-Box generation that most of their titles ended up being either sequels or licensed properties and it remained that way till they stopped making games (That being said they still made some great games during that period). So the moral of the story is prepare for the future. Take what’s good and timeless in the past and improve upon it but try new things that will make things fresh. You don’t have to follow terrible modern trends either (looking at you PlatinumGames) cause let’s be real just because it’s modern it doesn’t mean it’s gonna age well or it’s even good now.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

exactly my dude, they really did hit the gear shift from innovators to IP holders in the past while. I honestly wondered if they were out of business. I'm curious what they will come out with. But, as in the spirit of the video, I won't just start doing backflips because it has the treasure name on it. If the qualities there, I'll start warming up the handstands though ha.

[@AoiHeartStranger]

As a zoomer who wants to dabble in some creative endeavor at some point, the quality of older works is harrowing, how can i live up to that? Also, i think part of the appeal of videogames for me is how derivative they were, playing megaman x3 for example and noticing parallels between enemy design in that game and mecha design in old tatsunoko anime, specifically work by Kunio Okawara on Gatchaman or Yatterman, its very hard to not be derivative of cool shit i mean.

[@rodneyabrett]

I'm deeply in Generation-X, but I know exactly what you're saying because I work with 90% Millennials. Even old video games that reference 80s films(games tend to take from film too literally, by the way. Straight up copy scenes) like the PS2 God of War game that has Kratos being bored on his throne is right out of Conan The Barbarian, but when another game or media references it today, they'll say that it came from God of War. It's a derivative of a derivative. Pulling from the original well is too far back in media history.

[@benjismith593]

Imagine if Capcom, Konami, Square, etc., came out with $100 rom boxes. That had all of their games from the 8, and 16 bit eras. Plug n play systems. The money to be made would be 100s of millions of $$$$. Instead they bs, focus on remakes, or half ass things. Not to mention micro-transactions. Capcom could come out with a rom box with all of their fighting games on it, and charge $200. It would sell out.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I would love it if companies sold their roms directly, that would be a great step in the right direction

[@benjismith593]

@@TheElectricUnderground can you imagine how much Nintendo would make it they sold their roms for $1 to $3 each? They'd be rolling in the dough, and their shares would go through the roof! Even in a crummy economy! Yet they sh1t on all of us!

[@metaldiceman]

Very fun and entertaining critique of millennials (I'm also one). In high school I saw animated music videos on KZbin, and learned Windows Movie Maker and made some of my own. I've gotten the craft down pretty good, to where I feel far away exceeds the quality of your average AMV. But the craft is derivative by design. I take someone else's song that's meaningful to me, and grab footage from someone else's game or movie, and hack it together into its own beast. Oh the end product and delivery is quite far removed from the individual artists, but no getting around the fact that it's literally built from their work. But, I'm very limited by video footage available to me. In an ideal world I would love to go out and record and articulate and edit my own source video footage, to *really* get my vision across in the art. I'm limited by time and my own perception of it, but do recognize that pushing the boundary of my art requires generating original content.

[@jeremygregorio7472]

Honestly it's just because the economy is weak and continues to be so no one wants to take any risks. Also using a recognized property it's essentially free advertising and comes with a built-in fan base that will advertise for you for free.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Those are some definite advantages! Another factor I think is that consumers are not pushing for new ips, for reasons I outline in the vid :-)

[@76mmM4A1HVSS]

nice 4track bro

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thank you my brother :-)

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

I see "Chrono Trigger or Earthbound" inspired rpg, I immediately get disappointed. I also feel like this towards metroidvania.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Me too! I don t enjoy modernetroid vania at all, most lean way too hard on the rpg side

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

Nostalgia? I 'member! You 'member?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I do remember, and I believe too

[@narwhal9852]

Idk about you guys but I'm kinda sick of all the nostalgia and it's like no one can create anything original anymore

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Agreed 💯

[@HPPrintervx4p5q]

They actually did an experiment on mice and concluded that nostalgia is more addicting than meth. And coke. And actually also diet coke... Combined