To what extent is Retro Gaming part of your Identity?

[Hammerfestus | 3,891]

Not an integral part of my „identity“.  I’m not a „gamer“. I am an obsessive person who behaves obsessively with various activities for relatively short bursts of time before I move on.  Collecting is a slow burn (sometimes ha) obsession for me.  I like the actual collecting of it most of all and it’s becoming harder and harder for me to sustain that.  If it all went away I’d get over it.  My only real must keeps are my childhood copies of Dragon Warrior and Suikoden II.  It’s Entertainment for me.  Not a lifestyle.  
If I’m forced to identify myself it’s mostly as a dad and a fuck up.  Not necessarily in that order.  
 

[RH | 4,980]

12 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

Old Man!

Its a weird feeling when you realize that the majority of years you’ve lived has occurred after high school. At least for me it was. 

I have this weird thing that I do with my brain about every few months where I calculate where I was and what I was doing "half my life" ago.  So, i remember well when I hit 36 and was officially out of High School.  I'm 40, going to be 41 this summer so I'm a year-plus from being half-my-life past college.  That's daunting, but the real number for me is right after my 48th birthday when I, officially, will be married longer than not.  Oh, I had my first kid at late 29, so 58 currently feels too far off to consider.

13 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Very little. I identify first and foremost as a musician / artist, secondly as a cyclist. 

I generally don't mention games to people aside from a few close friends. It makes for some awkward moments though, when someone does come by my home, I mean the amount of games I own versus the time I actually play... people would think all I do is game, when it's not the case at all. 

Yeah, I don't bring up my gaming collection unless someone brings it up, and then I see it as an opportunity.  I don't look to brag, but I really would like to have a buddy share this with.  I mean, I have you guys for sure, but there's a difference between buddies on line vs. a bro you can hang out with and game on N64, playing GoldenEye until 2:00AM.

6 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

I hang out with you nerds online because in the real world no one cares about old Nintendo games and how cool it would be to find Stadium Events at Goodwill.

Truth.

4 hours ago, fcgamer said:

People generally feel bad for me when they see my crt tv, they figure it's because I can't afford anything else.

Lol, yeah, I have a cousin that recently started dating a guy who's probably a few years younger than me.  I don't use Facebook, but my wife does, and she noticed that he casually threw out "I wish someone had a Game Boy Color they could sell me".  My wife told me and, of course, I was like ORLY!

Anyway, my wife snapped some photos of my collection to show him and his one question--why the old TVs?  My wife had an eye-twitch and was like "Can you give me a simple, one-sentence explanation for this?"  Haha, I settled on "they were designed to be displayed on these devices and therefore look different."  I know this hobby is so foreign to people that aren't into it, but I'm such a CRT enthusiast for so many reasons, just having that question asked with an air of shock that anyone would want one throws me off my game.  I need my legit scan-lines and phosphor bloom, or it's not an OG experience.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,092]

7 hours ago, CasualCart said:

@Hammerfestus @a3quit4s @MrWunderful @JamesRobot @Reed Rothchild @Dr. Morbis

It’s interesting to hear whether or not you share your hobby with people, but your identity runs a bit deeper than just what you broadcast to the world haha.

For example, I don’t talk about my games that much - not because they aren’t important to me, but because the average person usually can’t relate much. It’s not a reflection of my investment in the hobby, but of my discretion about what people can grab onto in conversation. It shapes the external element of my identity, but not my personal take. @OptOut explained that distinction nicely.

I guess the real question is: If you removed retro gaming from your life, would it feel like a big part of you is missing? Or would it be negligible?

-CasualCart
 

Well unless we're just getting into semantics, the word "identity" has a pretty distinct definition in my eyes.  People who associate with me in real life don't identify me as a retro gamer, and I don't consider being a retro gamer as my primary personal identity.  Yeah it's a large part of my personal life, especially in terms of my hobbies and how I fill my free time, but I wouldn't want it on my gravestone or put it in a resume or anything like that, so I don't really see it as part of my identity.  Big part of my free time: yes; big part of my identity: no - it's just entertainment...

Edited February 18, 2022 by Dr. Morbis

[AlternatorDelux | 61]

There's really never been a point that my identity wasn't entirely video games, and I'm just as likely to play games from one era as any other.  More generations become classified as retro over time, and so how retro I appear to be also changes over time.  But I don't count the retro label as part of my identity.  I prefer to feel like time is an illusion and I perceive all points in time at once.

[Kguillemette | 1,547]

I own it. I'll blast chip tune at work and not give a darn who looks at me with those "wtf are we listening to" eyes. I'll rock a FF7 shirt with my twilight princess baseball cap on and will talk about the annoying parts of Earthbound or how to homebrew mod a Wii with anyone who wants to listen. 

I mean, for one thing though, retrogaming as a whole is a heck of a lot cheaper than modern gaming. For example, a PS5 with a 2nd controller and 2 games will run you what, $650? You can buy a pretty spectacular PS2 or Wii collection for the same price. And games for the most part can be flipped when you are done with them for at least what you paid for them since depreciation has already set in making it a very low cost hobby. 

While retrogaming doesn't completely identify me, it's a hobby I choose to openly embrace because it is something I genuinely enjoy.

Granted I never used to be this way. I used to be very reserved and shy about the nerdy shit I was into, especially when I was in my 20s. It just clicked a few years ago and I just decided to own it.

[CMR | 522]

I agree with what Doctor Morbis and DefaultGen said on the last page.  I'll go on to add that I NEVER talk about any of my hobbies to other people because 99% of the people out there don't give a crap, and the 1% that do are a crowd of freaks.  It isn't just games either.  Old car lovers are especially inundated with weirdos.  Just about any hobby I can think of is a magnet for oddballs.  Those people from "The Hills Have Eyes" probably play D&D when there isn't anything else to do.  For every one person who might be fun to talk to about a hobby, there are ten who'll make you want to quit it forever.

 

Not you guys though, you're all cool.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

16 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

Not an integral part of my „identity“.  I’m not a „gamer“. I am an obsessive person who behaves obsessively with various activities for relatively short bursts of time before I move on

I can relate

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

5 hours ago, CMR said:

I'll go on to add that I NEVER talk about any of my hobbies to other people because 99% of the people out there don't give a crap, and the 1% that do are a crowd of freaks.

Replace "freaks" with "assholes" in terms of me identifying with what you are saying. Mostly because at the end of the day, those who enjoy the stuff I want to experience being in Japan. And they tend to be Otaku (like me), and not freaks. 

(I'll go into details if anybody asks. Otherwise I'll just say that much.)

Then again... I have seen fan-made content that might traumatize a lot of people here. Pokémon, Animal Crossing, and even Dragon Quest to name a few. So I can also understand that 1% as well. 

(But I can tolerate them, versus those that I tried to tolerate.)

In all cases... This "LINK (click here)" is technically one of those "non-people" related things I don't talk about with others. Even though something about it makes me want to play Zelda games again. 

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

Plus, I should note that I am a totally different person when I am residing in Japan.

This is where I get to be the real me. Because when I am not planning to attend an event, watching TV, or even playing games (on a console I no longer own), I am hunting for retro games and/or collectibles. As well as visit any store that has new games in stock, or even has something that ties into it. Including bookstores.

As well as the fact I almost appeared on a Japanese show. Which happened shortly after I won a few prizes at a SEGA arcade in Shinjuku. 

But even then, my #1 tie to my past (and is one I often forget is a tie-in) is the fact that I love wearing video game themed t-shirts that are tied to video games. (Especially my Uniqlo produced Pikachu-themed tee.) Which is stuff I should have mentioned in my first response, but forgot to.

So instead of apologizing... Here is another update to my previous response:

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

On 2/18/2022 at 3:11 AM, Dr. Morbis said:

Compared to my life in the real world, hanging out here on VGS and similar sites feels like a secret identity.  In fact, if someone who didn't know me were to enter my house for the first time, they wouldn't even know that I play video games at all unless I specifically made a point to show them my game room and collection.  And since I only play old-school games on CRT's, I don't even have a single video game system or item in my main living room.  So, to answer the question: outside of my house in the real world, Retro gaming is ZERO percent of my identity; inside my house, it's one of my hobbies, so maybe 33%...

I'm pretty much the same. I rarely even mention video games outside of here. I just have an AVS and Super NT hooked up to a small TV in the bedroom so someone that came into the house likely wouldn't even notice. Back during the 8/16/32 bit generations, most of my free time was probably spent gaming, but now it's more of a casual hobby.

[OptOut | 8,892]

15 hours ago, AlternatorDelux said:

I prefer to feel like time is an illusion and I perceive all points in time at once.

Um, can I get some of whatever this guy's smoking? 

[GPX | 1,374]

I have no problems identifying myself as a gamer/collector. Been touching games in various ways since around 7 or 8 (that sounded more kinky than was intended). Unashamedly, I know more about games than perhaps the field in my daytime job! Ok, maybe some shame..

My immediate family members all know I’m a gaming nut, but I don’t talk to them about games too much. I have friends who I played games with when younger, but they don’t have the drive to collect or play games much in adulthood. So whilst I admit to being a gamer/collector, I don’t broadcast it in my live social setting. 

I guess I have 2 split persona. By day, I’m a non-gamer. By night, I’m a super game nerd (where I look at or touch a lot of games).

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Tough question, CC.

I consider modern gaming and retro gaming to be related, but distinctly different hobbies. I play lots of new or newish games for fun and discuss them with a wide group of people. If you ask anyone who knows me well, they would say I'm a "gamer" or I enjoy video games. I mention videogames in social situations when they come up organically, but I don't force them into the conversation This isn't an issue of being ashamed, but rather respecting other peoples' interests. I'm not going to constantly bring up videogames just because I know a lot about them; this is just common courtesy and I hope they extend me the same respect when it comes to their hobbies I don't enjoy.

When it comes to retro games, I enjoy playing them from time to time, but retro gaming is really synonymous with collecting for me. Those games are displayed away from my daily play space and I only really discuss them on this website. I don't pick them up in the evening and dive into them the way I do new releases. As such, they don't come up in conversation often. And, just like I mentioned above, I don't want to hear about other peoples' stamp collection any more than they want to hear about my old games, so there is little reason to mention them.

So, to answer your question, I'd say that modern gaming is a small, but important part of my identity. Retro gaming/collecting is really more of a hobby for me, sometimes to the detriment of my free time. In this way, they are actually competing interests. I've referenced this before, but when I'm doing lots of collecting and research, I don't really have time to play games. Conversely, when I'm playing lots of games (like right now for instance), I don't really collect or play retro games and spend much less time on this website. If you follow me closely, you'll notice that my collecting has stalled out over the past two months because I've been playing a lot more games.

Edited February 20, 2022 by DoctorEncore

[drxandy | 3,236]

^^ I agree about cycling between collecting and gaming with free time.

I dunno, I don't think gaming really defines me but to me it's kinda the same as being a fan of other entertainment, like movies or music. 

I don't talk to people locally about collecting, might talk about a switch game here or there with someone but I feel like the kinda stuff I'm interested in not many people in my area would feel the same about.

Edited February 20, 2022 by drxandy

[twiztor | 855]

i have a number of hobbies that i can be obsessive about, and depending on my relationship with a person, they may see anywhere between 0-5 of these hobbies. So, some people (for example, my wife's family) sees me as a comic nerd. My sports buddies know that i'm the MMA guy. Another group of friends knows that i love music and music trivia. And others, of course, know that i'm all about old video games. i don't hide any of this from any person or group, but that's just kind of how these lines got drawn.

i'd view my love of video games (particularly Nintendo and the NES) and pro wrestling (especially from the 80s and 90s) as my #1 and #2 hobbies (in either order), as that's what i focus most of my free time on. 

so, to what extent is it part of my identity? i guess it depends who you ask. 

[Estil | 1,265]

On 2/19/2022 at 5:47 AM, OptOut said:

Um, can I get some of whatever this guy's smoking? 

Ummm, don't you know smoking is bad, mmkay?  Cuz if you smoke, you're bad...so smoking's bad, mmkay?

[Estil | 1,265]

10 hours ago, Estil said:

Ummm, don't you know smoking is bad, mmkay?  Cuz if you smoke, you're bad...so smoking's bad, mmkay?

@OptOut  Why would you disagree with this?  I guess you're not as big a fan of breathing as I am?  

I mean, of course smoking is bad...look what it does to your poor lungs...  

THAT MEANS YOU CAN HARDLY BREATHE!!

 

Edited February 24, 2022 by Estil

[OptOut | 8,892]

Smoking may be bad for your health, but it makes you look like a cool badass, and improves your sexual stamina to that of a Tyrannosaur. 

[Tyree_Cooper | 777]

you mean it shrinks your arms to the point that you can't masturb ehhr i mean put on your trousers by yourself

[Estil | 1,265]

11 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Smoking may be bad for your health, but it makes you look like a cool badass, and improves your sexual stamina to that of a Tyrannosaur. 

I wish I could find the Pee-Wee's Playhouse scene of Randy trying out smoking...not only did he look/sound like an idiot but I would think it'd be especially hazardous to his health considering he was a marionette (puppet with strings) made of wood!  

[Reed Rothchild | 9,594]

29 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Smoking may be bad for your health, but it makes you look like a cool badass, and improves your sexual stamina to that of a Tyrannosaur. 

Pics or gtfo

[OptOut | 8,892]

4 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Pics or gtfo

Sorry dude, your mom's camera shy! 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,594]

11 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Sorry dude, your mom's camera shy! 

 

[Estil | 1,265]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

 

Oh very classy and sophisticated...

NOT!!

(as my generation would say)

[G-type | 2,539]

If you were to do a family feud survey of things about me.. retro gaming probably is probably on the board, but further down the list.