“Where’s mah column!?!” you’re asking yourselves. Actually, you’re not, and I’m very sorry for characterising you as redneck white trash (or internet lolspeakers). A combination of work and Skyrim have kept me from writing anything engrossing. I’ve managed to cobble together some thoughts on nostalgia for you. I should warn you, though, that I may have to shut the Mindless Movie Marathon down for a few weeks so I can huddle in my room and lightsaber my way to a level 50 Jedi Consular when Star Wars: The Old Republic comes out on December 20th.
This was going to be a post about Star Wars. One of the things I wanted to do before The Old Republic comes out (based on the advice of a columnist at Joystiq) was watch the Original Trilogy again. I had seen Star Wars on my birthday at my brother's house, so I want to get in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi over the next few weeks. But I got sucked in to Skyrim during my free time, and even a bit into World of Warcraft (a new patch dropped with a lot of content I wanted to try out), so I mainly played video games instead of movies yesterday.
But I got to thinking about why I liked Star Wars so much. Certainly, part of it is because many other people do, and I want to fit in. It's also because it's and action-adventure with Han Solo and Lightsabers (but only briefly of Han Solo with Lightsabers, but it was pretty funny). Also, Spaceships! But I think one of the main reasons I love Star Wars is nostalgia.
It's a bit surprising because I'm not that nostalgic a guy (it could be that I'm just not old enough to be nostalgic). Regardless, I'm generally not one to dismiss newer things just because they're newer, and I try and be rational when comparing them to the earlier counterparts.
The entertainment industry is particularly susceptible to this. Movies, music, TV and video games were all said to be better 20, 30, 40 years ago. Now, it could be a psychological thing. The good feelings we had of listening to music or watching TV as a child are sort of "imprinted" on our minds, and so every time we hear that music or watch that show (or movie), those feeling come back, like an endorphic Pavlov's bell.
Unfortunately, it also throws rationality out the window. The one exception I'll make is for music. While older music isn't my thing (Trance and dubstep haven't really been around that long), a lot of it appeals to too many people to say it's just nostalgia. The Beatles hold up, as do Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, AC/DC, and even some stuff that isn't classic rock. The only thing that's really improved is the quality of the recording, which has little to do with the talent of the artist. I think it might be because chords and melodies change little over time, or they appeal to us regardless of the time in which they were recorded.
Contrast that to something like Video Games. They've been around on mainframes since the late 60's, and in homes since the Atari (1972, I believe), but definitely hit it big with Nintendo. Since then, they've gotten bigger and inarguably better.
I downloaded an Atari emulator a while ago, and spent about 5 minutes playing it before the nostalgia wore off and I realized how crappy it is. Sure, you can remember the fun that Super Mario Bros brought to you as a child, but if you play it now, you'll realize how difficult (and blocky) it is. Its second sequel (Super Mario Brothers 3) was a huge deal. So massive they actually released an entire movie just to advertise for it: The Wizard, about an autistic boy who's fantastic at video games. It had Fred Savage,
But if you plopped a kid down in front of Super Mario Brothers 3, or in front of Grand Theft Auto IV, guess which one he'll say is better? The graphics are better, the gameplay is better, the story is better (although you don't have to call up Luigi after every level and take him bowling). And while I respect people who like Super Mario 3, if they say it's the pinnacle of gaming, they couldn't be more wrong (alright, they could be, but it would be hard).
I would much rather play through Mass Effect II again before I play through Chrono Trigger, and I like playing through Chrono Trigger. It's just that graphics are so much better, and the action so much better, and the music so much better (granted, Jack Wall in MIDI might not sound as great as it does in real life) that it's hard to say that Chrono Trigger is the greatest RPG of all time.
People try, though. Part of it is that it's hard to compare things from two generations. Babe Ruth wouldn't have smacked so many homers these days (mind you, Babe Ruth probably would've been suspended innumerable times). And any NFL team today (even NFC West teams) would've rolled over the Steel Curtain from the 70's. That's why sports generally compare how good a player is to how good he does against his chronological peers, not against everyone that's ever played. It's unfair to expect anybody to ever get 215 points in an NHL season again, because times have changed and the neutral zone trap killed hockey.
Similarly, video games get compared to their peers. That's why Ocarina of Time is held up on such an incredible pedestal. It was a stupendous technical achievement, along with fantastic story-telling and great gameplay. At least, that's what I've heard. I played Twilight Princess first, and now Ocarina looks (and generally plays) like crap. If I had played OoT and then TP, I probably would be among those stating that OoT is better (slightly). But if an older game is rendered unplayable due to the quality of a new one, doesn’t that mean the newer one is better? Not when Nostalgia is factored in.
Movies are the same way to, especially around the 90’s. That was when CGI was introduced, and suddenly we got Pre-CGI and Post-CGI movies. Plots are generally the same for both, and it doesn’t really affect dramas or most comedies, but older action movies get a lot more love than they deserve (or newer ones a lot more hate) just because of what computers can do these days. But CGI opens up vistas of possibilities. Transformers? Where would they be without CGI? And even if most things are still done live action, the advancements in today’s technology (say, for pyrotechnics or camera control) still allow for much wider variety than what we have before. You think Die Hard would be a good movie if it were released as is today? You think it’s possible to do Die Hard 4 in 1988? And yet, which gets held up as the better action movie? For my money, I’d actually go with the latter. Because I’ll Live Free (of nostalgia) or Die Hard.
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