Drove My Chevy to the Levee

Hey folks, SinSynn here.

When I was a larvae, my parental units would bring me to the Terran institution known as Nathan's, where the culinary delights know as 'hotdogs' are served aplenty. Hotdogs were only one of the reasons I loved to go there, though, because in the back of Nathan's was a gigantic arcade.
I believe I was about 5 or 6 Terran standard years of age when a new cabinet was nudged in between the endless rows of pinball machines. That cabinet contained....

*Somehow ironic, or something*

My memories of that day are quite clear. I stood on a line to play this new thingy, and when my turn finally arrived, the gathered crowd chuckled at my diminutive stature. I was too short to reach the controls properly, you see.
'Silence, future slaves! Fetch me a milk crate, that I may engage this primitive game device in mortal combat. Be quick about it, or I'll disintegrate the lot of you!'
A milk crate was rapidly fetched (fortunately for the hapless fools in the arcade), and I experienced my first taste of video gaming....
Ah, so good...

Several years later, a friend in school introduced me to Strategy Games. I already harbored a great affection for Chess, and games like Stratego and Risk, but he had something different- a WWII hex based affair I cannot for the life of me remember the title of.
While I may not remember the name, the game itself left an indelible impression on me. A standard sized game board unfolded to reveal tiny, mapped out terrain. Dozens of tiny chits represented tanks and such. We took one look at the game manual and tossed it. We were like, eleventeen, waddayagonnado?
House rules for the win, amirite?


A couple of years after that, I fell away from gaming altogether (sigh and yadda yadda- you know the story), only to return to it with a vengeance over a decade later. Go figure.
In my first year as a Union Electrical Apprentice here in New York City, I was sent to some nameless construction site in Manhattan where I met the Ultimate Rival. He was into modeling WWII stuffs. Turned out he lived seven blocks from me.
The rest shall we say, is history.

True story.

*Cheers, meme guy*

In between the then and now, there have been so many good times. So very many hard fought victories and tragic losses, both on the tabletop and on various monitors and screens. The Ultimate Rival is a brother to me now, and his wily corruption is responsible for me being here...
...dunno 'bout you, but I'm really happy about how everything has worked out.
:)

There comes a time when a gamer reflects upon the 'then,' I suppose. When we've played so many games a new one arrives and we're all like, 'Oh, man, that reminds me of [insert name of old game no one but you remembers, or cares about].'

Maybe you're playing your ten millionth game of whatever, and you just can't muster the enthusiasm to do anything but sigh at your lack of ability to simply roll...friggin'...statistics....
-_-


A new model comes out and it looks suspiciously like that...one...from way back when...You know the one, right? The one with the thing? C'mon, help me out here...

It's at times like these that a 'back in my day' story is in danger of occurring.

*That's mathematically impossible, Gramps...you burnout*

Nowadays, these stories are not exclusive to elder Terrans, either. My stepson laments 'the good old days' of video gaming,  for instance. 'When it was measured in bits,' he'll grump. He gets angry when Castlevania and '3D' are mentioned in the same sentence, and I worry about Final Fantasy 7 getting re-made. If they botch it, he may very well snap.

I have more than a few acquaintances that mourn what 40k and Fantasy have become, for various reasons. I can't help but wonder if the rise and fall of gaming franchises (and eventual return, for good or ill), no matter how big they are, isn't a natural thing at this point, however.
*shrug*

Times change, our games and the companies that make them change, as well. Sometimes they get bought up, sometimes they screw the pooch, and sometimes they just fade away when the next big thing hits. Often times, they linger on in the background until, for some inexplicable reason, they make a resurgence.
Then jaded gamers crow about how they played it 'back in the day.'
'...and it was better back then.'

*Like gettin' drunk and streakin'*

Look, I'm not here to make dire predictions about 'they-who-shall-not-be-named,' but the whole pattern of employees leaving and starting multiple competing companies simultaneously, in an already saturated market, is one I've seen before. Dunno what else to say 'bout that.
Sometimes, all it takes is a new Edition to come around, y'know. Anything could happen.

Honestly, I can't be bugged about it anymore, or bitch and moan about how it was all better 'back in the day.' Whether we're talking about tabletop games, FPS games, RTS games, whatever kinda games- I'm a gamer, I guess, and a gamer's gonna game. The only thing that really suffers is my finances, and the Crazy Lady I Live With.
Regardless, I'll be playin' sumpthin,' you can bet on that. One thing may eventually give way to another, and I cannot deny that even my own jaded eyes aren't occasionally drawn to the latest hotness or new shiny. Then again, I may fall victim to another of the Ultimate Rival's plots.

As I write this, my eyes stray to several boxes of Infinity models I have on the hobby desk. They're buried in sprues from half a dozen boxes of Plastic Soldier Company tankie-tanks.
I'm thinking it's time to order some 20 sided dice, though.
;)

Ah, the good old days.
Time to make some more.


Until next time, folks- Exit with catchphrase!

-SinSynn