Do you think Nostalgia is BS?

[Revi]

Indeed, but the memories from eight years ago are already severely distorted by now and you can't really be sure.

Well. I played TBC from start to finish, never once considered quitting. Same with vanilla, but i preferred tbc. I think i'm allowed to make that distinction since vanilla is even longer ago, so by your logic i should remember that even fonder.
In WotlK i quit after a month, didn't start again until a year later. In cata i was subscribed around 50% of the time. In MoP i subscribed 4 months after launch, but kept playing since that.

I'd say those facts seem to fit with my personal preference off TBC > vanilla > MoP > rest, in terms of enjoyment.

Memories of enjoyment or feelings might be distorted in time without people realizing, but specific game design preferences do not. I'm not saying i enjoyed the "feel" of TBC more, I stated examples of specific differences in the game that i liked better before.

Please stop using nostalgia as an argument, it's on the level of putting your fingers in your ears and shouting "lalala". If you disagree, say why.

[Giscoicus]

Nonstalgia does influence us, but the idea of it all being nonstalgia is ridiculous.

[foxHeart]

I saw someone streaming Home Alone earlier this week. Hadn't seen that movie in years and years, so I decided to stick around and watch it. That movie is so bad. There are definitely funny parts, but I remember it being way funnier as a kid. I also loved Metal Gear Solid on the original Playstation as a teenager. Re-played that last year. The story I loved as a kid I now found to be just total tripe. Don't get me wrong, I still love the game and it definitely has some classic moments, but it definitely not nearly as good as I remember. That's what nostalgia does. It's a warm and fuzzy nonfactual ideal you have in your head of what you think the past was like. You may have fond feelings for something, but you probably are choosing just to focus on "the good times" and just forgetting all the bad things. It's not necessarily a bad thing but it can definitely throw off your judgement a great deal. I personally think that a lot of nostalgia would die off if Blizzard would actually release some kind of legacy server for BC content. The forums would be flooded with "OMG how did we play this game???" and "wow this game is so inaccessible!"

[wariofan1]

I think by default it's both. It can pertain to something you liked or hated, the feeling mostly comes from something you experienced while growing up, mostly from the good times, but also bad times in certain cases. Heck, I've caught myself getting nostalgic over terrible times back in elementary school, it happens. Wrath doesn't really make me nostalgic though, the newest thing I feel nostalgia for is Vanilla WoW, the line kind of ends there for some reason, so I still hate Wrath as much as I always did, and I still think TBC is as mediocre as it always was.

[Raiju]

Of course it's not applicable to things like gaming, but having distorted memories and remembering mostly good things does affect your online gaming and will almost guarantee that in few years all you have left is nostalgia and nothing that even closely resembles reality. Reality tends to kill childhood nostalgia pretty fast when many (not all) simply can't stand computer games or TV shows or movies today they thought they loved as a kid.

i've never picked up a game I enjoyed 10years ago and not felt the same about it after playing it again.

[fixx]

Please stop using nostalgia as an argument, it's on the level of putting your fingers in your ears and shouting "lalala". If you disagree, say why.

Because...

Memories of enjoyment or feelings might be distorted in time without people realizing, but specific game design preferences do not. I'm not saying i enjoyed the "feel" of TBC more, I stated examples of specific differences in the game that i liked better before.

... this is where you go wrong. You might remember liking TBC more than WLK or vanilla, but nostalgia makes you forget the bad parts. It happens to everybody, and it's really hard to be objective after all those years unless you actually stop to think and list down pros and cons and evaluate how big pros and cons those actually were in the big picture, not just for you personally.

I'll put some numbers down to illustrate my point and this is just an example. You might remember TBC had 5 good things and WLK only 3 good things which means TBC was happier place for you than WLK, but because nostalgia you probably have forgotten TBC had 10 bad things while WLK only 5 bad things. In reality when you count good and bad things on average TBC would have been worse but when you forget the bad things it seems to be better in comparison.

[Boredisme93]

Nostalgia is perfectly fine, I loved Vanilla and BC not because they were the best points in the game or what ever. I loved those era's of the game because the people i was playing with made the game the amazing thing that i was to me. Sure when i play in Cata or MoP i recognize that the game is better then it use to be. The people that made the game fun to me (my guild and RL friends that played) all slowly dissipated out.

[fixx]

i've never picked up a game I enjoyed 10years ago and not felt the same about it after playing it again.

I havent found yet a game played on emulator that I actually want to play for more than 10 minutes, and some of those caused all-nighters 15 or 20 years ago. I remember it was fun, but "been there, done that" is much stronger.

[lMishka]

Both.
Sometimes people think too heavily on one side (bad or good) and rely it on that.

[Raiju]

I havent found yet a game played on emulator that I actually want to play for more than 10 minutes, and some of those caused all-nighters 15 or 20 years ago. I remember it was fun, but "been there, done that" is much stronger.

I've frequently gone back and replayed emulator games. The few I don't play on occasion are ones that won't run (like R&C series lags like hell)

[wariofan1]

I havent found yet a game played on emulator that I actually want to play for more than 10 minutes, and some of those caused all-nighters 15 or 20 years ago. I remember it was fun, but "been there, done that" is much stronger.

I actually far prefer doing that over going on Steam and finding a current game (heck, I don't even use Steam anymore), especially since I can emulate the NES and SNES on my Wii. And that doesn't even have to do with nostalgia, that's how I discover old gems.

[Revi]

... this is where you go wrong. You might remember liking TBC more than WLK or vanilla, but nostalgia makes you forget the bad parts. It happens to everybody, and it's really hard to be objective after all those years unless you actually stop to think and list down pros and cons and evaluate how big pros and cons those actually were in the big picture, not just for you personally.

Stop telling me what I can and cannot remember, or what I like and don't like. You don't share my subjective opinion, that's fine, tell me why instead of telling me that my subjective opinion is wrong.
I remember plenty of bad things from TBC, I just think the good outweighed them more so then now. I think the good things still outweigh the bad, otherwise i wouldn't be playing.

You're not objective either, no one is. This is not a math problem, there's no right or wrong, this is a matter of preference. I prefer blue, you might like red better, that does not mean you're unable to see the big picture. Of course i speak for me personally, that's all anyone can do unless you poll the 100 million people that have tried this game through the years. If you want to pretend to speak an objective truth for "the big picture, not just you personally" then show me that poll. Or at least the trend to support you, like subscription numbers or growth (I think you'd be disappointed).

Stop telling me my preference is wrong or unfounded just because you don't share it.

[melodramocracy]

"It's just nostalgia" is uttered by folks who seem to think that all change is actually an improvement.

[fixx]

Stop telling me what I can and cannot remember, or what I like and don't like. You don't share my subjective opinion, that's fine, tell me why instead of telling me that my subjective opinion is wrong.

You would have understood the point long ago if you weren't so damn defensive.

The problem with nostalgia threads is that people only list the good things and blot out the bad things as if they never happened. If you can stay objective then fine, but 99% of "qq vanilla bwaah" posts on this forum never mention even one bad thing about it and claim it was all perfect.

[fixx]

"It's just nostalgia" is uttered by folks who seem to think that all change is actually an improvement.

People who suffer from acute nostalgia claim things were better in ye olde times, but if you objectively read through patch notes 9 out of 10 changes made into WoW since launch date in 2004 made the game better as a whole.

[-Superman-]

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Nostalgia is awesome or do you think it sucks like me.

Not sure it sucks like you :P (Sorry. Your grammar was placed just right. I had to)

When it comes to Nostaligia, I said Both. I think there are parts which are wonderful, like your first trip through the Dark Portal, or the first pet you ever tamed. On the other hand, I think people remember what they CHOOSE to remember and make it out to be some wonderful, magical, mystical time when everything was awesome and balanced and the community didn't suck. Nostalgia is subjective, and really hard to fit into a specific category. At least none other than None of the Above.

[Yig]

So I was leveling my wow character (got excited for WoD, got a new account) and as I was leveling in Eastern Plaguelands and revisted the old Deathknight starting zone. Now here's what happened, when I entered the area, I got a huge nostalgia feeling. I was looking around this area and wow, time has really passed...

But here's the thing, the majority of my memories of WOTLK was just a mess. I was in a horrible server, filled with people who were jerks and drama queens. I myself was a teenage and was so stupid back then. I also thought Wrath to this day was where Blizzard went horribly wrong, not Cata or Mop; Wrath. And yet, I somehow got feelings of nostalgia over a zone where I possibly remade deathknight characters like 3-5 times randomly. I know me and my brother did the exact same thing.

Now here's the thing. I got feelings of nostalgia over something so petty. I am sure I will get it again for TBC but can't help but think how stupid this feeling is. I get feelings of nostalgia over something that was so long ago, despite how terrible it was back then.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Nostalgia is awesome or do you think it sucks like me.

You have some serious existential issues to work out here. I mean like fundamental to the appreciation of your existence in the illusion of persistent consciousness and identity. I don't even know where to begin here.

[wariofan1]

Not that much different from the people who claim that literally everything back in the old days were better?

Isn't that pretty much what the WoW community comes down to anyways? There's the people who complain that things were better back in the days, and then there's the people who complain about those people and say things are better today.

[Revi]

You would have understood the point long ago if you weren't so damn defensive.

The problem with nostalgia threads is that people only list the good things and blot out the bad things as if they never happened. If you can stay objective then fine, but 99% of "qq vanilla bwaah" posts on this forum never mention even one bad thing about it and claim it was all perfect.

I'm defensive because you keep repeating that my opinion is invalid because my memories are either distorted or plain missing.

As far as I understand, your point is that "it's nostalgia" is a reasonable critique of someones argument whenever they claim things were better in a previous expansion. My point is that it's not, because saying "it's nostalgia" doesn't actually address any claims, it's just an empty statement used in place of actual arguments or opinions.

If i don't understand the point, as you say, then i guess you agree that nostalgia is not a valid argument.

Either way, let me know.

[Rheckameohs]

You would have understood the point long ago if you weren't so damn defensive.

The problem with nostalgia threads is that people only list the good things and blot out the bad things as if they never happened. If you can stay objective then fine, but 99% of "qq vanilla bwaah" posts on this forum never mention even one bad thing about it and claim it was all perfect.

1. Putting (and holding) together a 40 man raid was the worst thing anyone should ever have to go through, even with an organized guild.
2. Class designs were absolutely terrible. Warriors tanked, and that's all we did. Ever. Sap had a 10% chance to break Stealth, even when it was talented. The end talent in Survival was a melee DoT that dealt less than 100 damage at level 60.
3. PvP was considered so casual that Blizzard didn't think to introduce new PvP gear. Anyone wearing T2 or higher could absolutely wreck a High Warlord.
4. The Barrens.
5. Raid prep didn't begin the night of a raid. It began a full week or two beforehand. Farming resist gear and mats for elixirs took longer than the actual raid.
6. Nothing was ever sufficiently tested and ironed out before release, so new content always, always had something wrong with it.

Those are 6 off of the top of my head.