I have been itching to run a game of classic Traveller lately. I love that fucking game.

Quote from: AosI have been itching to run a game of classic Traveller lately. I love that fucking game.

It loves you back, man.  Seriously, you're all it talks about.  I'm sittin' there in Math class and CT is all, like, "You know, the other day, Aos was looking over his shelf and I kinda smiled at him and..."  I looked down at its notebook, and I swear I saw the words CT and Aos 4EVA-787665-B Ri In, 4 Batteries Bearing, DM +2 if Str 6+.  

You better do somethin' quick, dude.

Quote from: mattormegI have a suspicion that we tend to view our retro-gaming experiences with rose-colored glasses. That being said, I tend to enjoy the simplicity as a respite from some of the Forge-type productions that are so popular now.

I have a suspicion we massively type cast it.

Seriously, I hate this vibe that old school means random dungeons and no character growth.  It's bollocks.

By the early 1980s, 1982 say, there were already a huge range of different styles of rpg, some hack and slay and some not even slightly.

Old school included Traveller, Runequest, Call of Cthulhu is pretty damn old school.

Retro gaming is a meaningless term IMO.

I disagree, I think "retro gaming" is really all about playing the way you did when you were a teenager when you didn't ask yourself too many questions about life, you just spent the summer doing 12 hour game sessions.

It's a mid-life crisis much like any other.

But you are right that the idea that gaming suddenly got complicated in the 90's is clearly nonsense.

So retro gaming is nob jokes and giving everyone the most powerful items in the book out of boredom?  I think I may pass in that case.

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalI disagree, I think "retro gaming" is really all about playing the way you did when you were a teenager when you didn't ask yourself too many questions about life, you just spent the summer doing 12 hour game sessions.

It's a mid-life crisis much like any other.

But you are right that the idea that gaming suddenly got complicated in the 90's is clearly nonsense.

I think gaming got more self conscious in the 1990s, though.

My own concept of retro gaming is just playing an old game that I played a long time ago. For example, I could apply this to video gaming- I got Gametap for a while and it had stuff like the Ultima series, a bunch of C64 games, stuff like that.

Quote from: BalbinusSo retro gaming is nob jokes and giving everyone the most powerful items in the book out of boredom?  I think I may pass in that case.

Ehhhh...I define it the way Abyssal Maw just did: less self-conscious.  A littl more about the fun and a little less about the craft.  Seizing upon that fresh, exploratory, everything-is-new sense of wonder and possibilities.

'Least, that's what I'm after.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!It loves you back, man.  Seriously, you're all it talks about.  I'm sittin' there in Math class and CT is all, like, "You know, the other day, Aos was looking over his shelf and I kinda smiled at him and..."  I looked down at its notebook, and I swear I saw the words CT and Aos 4EVA-787665-B Ri In, 4 Batteries Bearing, DM +2 if Str 6+.  

You better do somethin' quick, dude.

Sadly it hasn't been on my shelf for years. My dad threw out all my gaming stuff during the period when we weren't talking. It's okay though, because he's dead now.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Ehhhh...I define it the way Abyssal Maw just did: less self-conscious.  A littl more about the fun and a little less about the craft.  Seizing upon that fresh, exploratory, everything-is-new sense of wonder and possibilities.

  When I look at these people trying to play retro games I see a quite sad bunch of people.  On the one hand, I see people mourning their lost youth when their hobby was still fresh and new and you could play all day and on the other hand I see quite a reactionnary anti-intellectual manifesto against the more novel things done in games today.

  It's like right wing newspapers that talk about the good old days when you could leave your door unlocked and middle-aged guys buying red sports cars and dating women much younger than them... it's self-consciously trying to be unself-conscious.

  I can totally empathise with where the feelings are coming from, I just don't think it's healthy to look backwards to improve our lives.  Firstly because actually being a teenager was pretty fucking horrific.  Sure you got to game all day but you never had any money, the closest you got to sex were like 5 hour make-out sessions after which you had to get the bus home with balls like bowling balls and you had to live with your parents.  The idea that gaming in the old days was better than it is today is an illusion just as misleading as the idea that we were happier when we were younger.

Golly, I thought it was just that  liked classic traveller as a system.

I wouldn't count that as part of the same phenomenon.

What if i wear disco clothes while we're playing?

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalWhen I look at these people trying to play retro games I see a quite sad bunch of people.  On the one hand, I see people mourning their lost youth when their hobby was still fresh and new and you could play all day and on the other hand I see quite a reactionnary anti-intellectual manifesto against the more novel things done in games today.

Unfortunately, the only response I can offer is "OK by you, but I'm enjoying it and that makes me happy".  If you think that makes me a "sad" person, umn...you might've missed the part where I said "happy".

Sure, but that doesn't stop it from being a mid-life crisis does it?

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalSure, but that doesn't stop it from being a mid-life crisis does it?

Is it a mid-life crisis?  You can call it whatever you want.  I'm'a call it "gaming", and do some tonight.  

Plus, I should hope I don't check out at 64.