The Tip.It Times

Issue 199gp

Remembering the Good ol' Days

Written by and edited by Tip.It

What is it with nostalgia? Every day in Runescape you hear someone say, “You know, back in the day…” or “Oh man, Runescape was so much better before so-and-so was introduced.” But were things really better back then? Why does everyone want to relive the old days? Were the old days really that great? Now don’t worry, I’m not about to delve into narrative mode and reminisce about stories past. Although that in itself brings up an interesting point: Why do we like to reminisce, but at the same time we usually aren’t interested in those older than us reminiscing about times before we were born? If an elder starts a sentence with “In the good ol’ days...” we usually roll our eyes and pay no attention.

On a quite similar, yet quite opposite note, people play Runescape and look down on lower level people. People get annoyed when lower level players ask obvious questions; the more seasoned players roll their eyes and think “Oh, c’mon, I wasn’t that lame when I was his level.” Is that really true? Does that really matter? Older players complain that ever since Miniclip linked to Runescape, the demographic of Runescape’s players changed “for the worse.” They say that the influx of a younger crowd made Runescape more of a kid’s game, and that back when they played everyone was more mature.

This mindset is hardly anything new, people in general seem to hate change. Let’s back up a minute here and look at real life. Pick any time period and I’m pretty sure its changes over time were looked down upon by the elders. When the Roman Empire took over all of Europe there were those in Rome who probably thought “All these Spaniards and Slavics now calling themselves Romans, this sucks, remember the good ol’ days when only Italians were Romans?” Or imagine what the mindset of the elders was in 1800 “Bah, all these young’uns running off to live in unexplored lands in the Americas, when I was a kid we cared about England and only England!” I mean, jeez, has the world’s youth ever done anything looked upon favorably by our elders? I’m sure some things came close but there are always a few cynics, no matter when or why.

The same thing applies to Runescape. Sure it’s entirely possible that many of today’s elder players may have been more mature at level 10 then today’s level 10s, but that’s not the point. The point is back when they were level 10s, regardless of how smart or mature they were, they were looked down upon by the elder players of years past. I’m not saying every generation of Runescape players is worse than the last one, I’m saying people are just nostalgic. No one wants a younger crowd to come in and change everything, even if it’s for the better. People seem to have the idea that everything was perfect they way they had it when they were younger. Take this attitude and mix it with the attitude of the youth that seems to encourage ignorance and satisfaction that comes with doing things differently, and it’s no wonder that the youth and their elders (or level 10s and level 100s) never really get along.

A newspaper article that inspired Baz Lurhman’s “Everybody Wear Sunscreen” song has an interesting, accurate definition of nostalgia that I think is fitting here. “When we give advice, we are really giving nostalgia. Dispensing advice is really just fishing the past from the disposal, cleaning it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it’s worth.”

Did You Know...
... that JaGex runs polls that F2p players can vote in?





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