That Cartoon
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be1. Case in point: the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. I first saw it when I was seven and liked it because it was a sword-and-sorcery cartoon and at that age, recovering as I was from He-Man addiction2, I watched as much fantasy as I could get. When I saw it again at the age of twelve, I sneered because it wasn't much like the game -- a bunch of newbie kids getting magic artifacts? I ask you! I mean, really! -- yes, my Old Fart Gamer gene showed its first signs of activation after a mere six months of gaming. Who would have thought all that would change a mere ten years later? I've just dug out the August 2000 issue of Dragon Magazine, in which they interview Justin Bloody Whalin about his role in the then-upcoming D&D movie. In a sidebar titled 'The D&D Cartoon: The Legacy', the writer compares the film to the cartoon and the film comes out on top. If we knew then what we know now...
As cheesy as it was, the cartoon had a lot going for it. Towards the end of the run, Michael Reaves had actually started giving the series a storyline -- and unlike the attempts at fanservice from the film, concentrated on characterisation, tight plots -- the sort of things that make a teleplay memorable. Of course, chances are in ten years' time the next generation of Old Fart Gamers might get nostalgic about the D&D movie, Justin Bloody Whalin and all. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, but in the future, nostalgia won't even be on nodding terms with what it used to be.
Finished Yet?
Hardly. Like all disgruntled people who live in the past, I can't go without griping about how I feel the past's being plundered and left as a soulless shadow of its former self. Naturally I shall generalise in a crass way and claim this is a recent phenomenon despite the fact that this has been going on for years and will continue to go on for years to come.
I love Knightmare. Hugo Myatt should be sworn in as President for Life of the nation of British Old Fart Gamers and be forced to weather our unceasing adulation with mild embarassment. And yet, he's an actor, a job's a job and even a show as great as Knightmare has become subject of the latest bout of nostalgia mining. Televirtual (the latest incarnation of Broadsword, who created the show) are working on the new version of Knightmare. Great? Well... granted, the show always tried to embrace emergent technology and it is nice that technology might have caught up with the show, but... where's the band of jobbing actors? Where's the interaction between cast and players? Has Treguard been reduced to an avatar? He was the mouthpiece of the show: a few corny jokes at the expense of the players, a charismatic presenter, and more-than-able deliverer of the catchphrase 'Ooh! Nasty!' whenever a player died hilariously. The show may have been about the technology, but it was also about the actors. Mark Knight and Hugo Myatt's presence on the set made it all worthwhile; there was the chance of spontaneity, or amusing little slips 'twixt script and lip3.
Ah, well. There's always Big Finish, I suppose. Hugo Myatt in Dr. Who spinoff audios. Bliss.
I could do it better.
Oh, wait. Now I can't be bothered.
Ah, screw the whole thing.
Over the past few months my metamorphosis into Old Fart Gamer has continued at such a pace it's a miracle that I'm not exuding ecdysone from every pore. A couple of years back I fancied myself as a game designer. I managed to get some contracts, but following a rather bad experience (no names, no pack drill) and the increasing unlikeliness of being published I made the hard decision to shelve the half-ton of commissioned work I'd done. I then realised how unlikely it was that I'd get very far with game design, and now I'm looking at writing stories. And what am I doing now instead of making progress on that? Writing a retrospective rant on the subject of gaming nostalgia. In a few short months I've changed from wannabe game designer to wannabe writer to embittered meta-writer. Even writing this paragraph has aged me by another couple of years4.
Is there a point to all this?
Probably not. I suspect I'm just venting. Perhaps I hope this piece will reach a few others that have felt similar apprehensions of old or middle age. Missing the dungeons? Looking to recapture that spark of imagination that got you interested in gaming in the first place? In danger of thinking the next generation of gamers haven't the faintest idea of how things are done, even though they're gamers like you?
One of us... one of us... one of us... one of us...
Dammit, I really ought to put contact details on this site sometime.