How to explain classic games’ significance to my wife (a non-gamer)?

Submitted by cetaceanbiologist t3_10ohl3n in gaming

Basically what the post says. The experience of playing 20 year old games is very colored by nostalgia and how innovative they were at the time. A lot of the time they don’t seem particularly impressive to somebody who has only seen games that stood on their shoulders.

For instance how to explain how mind blowing Psycho Mantis, Fission Mailed, or the ladder climb in MGS games were. Or how I and all my friends cried when Aeris got stabbed through the heart.

Just lost in translation and hard to explain why it was special.

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Marwen_Lah t1_j6emlke wrote

I read Fission Mailed : Mission Failed. I need more sleep

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Xano74 t1_j6epx0l wrote

I don't think you're going to get even the casual gamer to understand much about Metal Gear games.

I would focus more on how games inspired games of now. Like how instrumental Doom or Half-Life was to first person shooters.

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dat_potatoe t1_j6esful wrote

I mean, just explain it.

You can fairly easily make someone understand why something was instrumental to the creation of something else. Or why it holds so much value to you.

What you can't do is make them share your personal nostalgia or personal emotional investment in it...they didn't live those experiences.

And to be honest I don't get why we put games on a pedestal just for being important in their day. I can acknowledge that Wolfenstein 3D was very important for the development of FPS games...while still thinking it sucks ass as an actual game.

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ItsPinkEye t1_j6esnew wrote

They’re like classic movies. Mario 64 pioneered 3d platform in a similar way that Casablanca forged the tropes prevalent in modern romance movies. Or like how mgs opening the door for a new kind of 4th wall break isn’t dissimilar to Ferris Bueller bringing 4th wall breaks to the mainstream. Gotta find the pop culture equivalent and hope for the best honestly

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Sycokinetic t1_j6exd1f wrote

There's not much that can be done? You can't get her to share your nostalgia because that's not how nostalgia works. If she was a gamer, she could learn to find the relationships between titles like the Zelda/Metroid influence in Dark Souls or the Half Life influence in Dead Space. But if she's a non-gamer, the best you can probably do is explain that those relationships exist, give examples, and see if you can find any older titles that are legitimately still fun today (Doom and Super Metroid are potential candidates).

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SaphironX t1_j6ghlju wrote

Let it lie man, someone who never experienced that is not going to get it, and you’re going to bore the poor lady.

Literally nothing you say will convey how you felt when you were young and playing classic games. She did not.

Especially metal gear, man. If you make her curious and she googles the psycho mantis scene she’ll think you’re on drugs. And similarly if she googles aeris’ death, she’ll see a couple of geometric shapes with a sword through them.

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