The Devolution of Gaming

From the resurgence of old gaming consoles to reshaping our collective memory: how nostalgia became so prevalent in video games and why it’s going to be a key pillar of the metaverse.

The quick change of seasons in Tel Aviv got me a little sick this past weekend. To make use of my time at home, I decided to scratch off a bolded item on my to-do list: “C̶l̶e̶a̶r̶ ̶o̶̶̶u̶t̶/̶d̶o̶n̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶j̶u̶n̶k̶”. I was doing pretty well at first— filling bags of clothes, old gym equipment, and some books — until I stumbled upon an ancient relic, comfortably nestled in the back of my bottom drawer. It was a Gameboy Advance, with a “Wars” game cartridge still loaded in the back. When it came down to things I need to do versus the euphoric sense of nostalgia, the winner was clear. That tiny screen kept me pretty engaged, for a pretty long time.

Why are publishers doing this? The short answer is, well, money. But that’s an oversimplification — there are also a few other things involved. The first is efficiency — it is much more effective to revive a title than create a new one. The blueprints are in place, and there is a clear framework of what can and should be done creatively. So much so, that the majority of these revivals are outsourced to a third-party studio with little resources required from the original publishers’ human capital.

There is a shift in how we view nostalgic feelings — a sensation that was once considered negative, and now widely accepted as positive in many of life’s aspects. In his book from 2000 — Remembering: A phenomenological study, Edward Casey defines Nostalgia as being close to homesickness:

Unlike feelings that are usually derived from a void, nostalgia is often triggered by elements that remind us of a familiar surrounding. Something, or somewhere, that we are yearning to experience again.

Mind you that Heinmann wrote about this in 2014, but in 2021 with the metaverse hype - this intensifies significantly. Spatial audio, avatar embodiment, haptics, and even smell will play a part in making these virtual spaces more and more familiar as we return to them. At some point, they might even be described as artificially designed flashbacks.

Innovations like NFT’s are the epitome of this. We want to have an undisputed connection to virtual moments, frame value around them, and “immortalize” them in the virtual realm before they are replaced. This desire to linger on digital experiences a little longer, begs for the question — where will our memories live in the metaverse?

Re-entry and re-experience are nothing like Google Photos or Facebook Timeline that serve as a representation of our past. In a metaverse context, we will be able to freely explore and “live” our memories again. They could perhaps be available to us in the form of artifacts scattered in creatively generated locations like virtual living rooms, or through spaces that serve as part of memory themselves — like our old childhood home or late grandmother’s kitchen.

Want to improve your gameplay? Why not visit your virtual clan hall, pulling the best moments in eSports history and actively playing the scenarios that the original players were facing. Perhaps your friends can join as well - in the enemies’ shoes or as viewers from the side. Either way, with AI and ML-powered NPC’s, having real humans join you while you explore these playable highlights, won’t matter much.

It might be a sharp and morbid extension to that train of thought - but how about meeting your deceased relatives? Will it matter if they are real as well?

Many things have happened since the release of Rising Sun in 2003. Players have more influence on how games look and feel, not just for themselves, but for others as well. Game economies are evolving to include player ownership of assets and publishers are starting to focus their efforts on building platforms for creation — rather than filling them with content themselves. This will pave a way for storylines to be more distributed, but will not necessarily make them more accurate.

Yes, I know — it might feel a bit ludicrous to start a conversation with Nintendo 64 and end up with the consequences of a digitally simulated existence. But there is a lot we can learn about nostalgia and memory through digital outlets, and through gaming in particular. After all, game design elements, resources, and human capital will be driving much of the metaverse — and disciplines like natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and arts will be widely influenced by it.

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