Kickin' It Old School, RPG Style
By Chelsea House, GGR Contributor
Oh the days of pixels and text based adventures. The days where you’d spend twenty minutes typing in “get ye flask” and the game would state, “Ye cannot get ye flask” (Thank you Homestar Runner). The days where you didn’t have a ton of side quests or downloadable content to keep up with. You simply just wished you had purchased that game manual for a pretty penny. When it comes to gaming, I am by no means a purist, but my heart is always in the 80’s and 90’s.
The era of Indiana Jones, Laura Bow, Myst, Freddy Farkas, Monkey Island, and King’s Quest… This is the era that forever sweeps me off of my gamer girl feet. I know that this also makes me what some would call a “Retro”, “Classic”, or “Old school” gamer, but I am 100% alright with this. Why? Because those games forged the way for what you get to play now. Those games got to be clumsy and charming at the same time. They got to have terrible graphics accompanied by amazing stories that kept you playing, and they also got to go places games don’t tend to go these days. One of the things I miss about these games are their beautifully crafted story arcs that actually ended at the conclusion of the game. You didn’t have the concern of downloadable content or “Did I get the BEST ending, or only the /second/ best ending?”
In the era of classic games, you got the pleasure of game glitches being few and far between. You got simple clean cut directions, no side quests that you had no idea you even agreed to (I’m looking at you Dragon Age: Inquisition…) The way you played through the game just felt more clever, in part due to the small margin for error. You didn’t get to just run around in random places until you got a cut scene, or until someone gave you a hint of where to go (like the ever convenient quest marker). You had to find the right items, the right conversations, the right trigger that let the game know that it was time to end your misery and reward you with another level to maybe headache over.
The plot of these stories all seemed so much less predictable than today’s games. They were more focused on you just enjoying the game than having a massive shock factor here or a plot twist there. The existence of intricate plots and character relationships was completely null and void. You didn’t care about winning over Gloria, you just simply wanted to know if you had ever seen the hanky you were carrying. You didn’t need to do a loyalty quest for Sophia Hapgood to follow you around everywhere! She just did it because you were Indiana Jones!
I have nothing against modern games. I love all things Bioware and so much more. I certainly drool at the graphics of newer games and love the fluidity of their motions. There’s just always going to be that special place in my heart for the classics. They’re deemed that title for a good reason, and as stated before, they paved the way for what you play today. I will forever have a dosbox emulator on my computer, and I will forever enjoy the type-in actions over even the point and clicks. I can replay these games as shamelessly as I rewatch Pride and Prejudice and I dare you to judge. All in all, I love kickin’ old school.
