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Comment by Biganon | Hacker News Reader

I've been thinking about that quite a lot, but with Zelda games. I've come to the conclusion that the old games feel beautiful and mysterious and nostalgic because I played them as a child. I'm no longer a child, life is no longer the same. It's not necessarily worse, it's just fundamentally different. I will never blame Shigeru Miyamoto for that, it would be absurd.

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There is a large component of that, but it's not just that for me.

Minecraft evokes much of that sense of magic and wonder for me and I didn't start playing it until my later 30s.

Other key components are:

* A world that is interactive enough to feel like a place where you are and not just imagery that you're skimming over.

* Art that is detailed enough to be evocative but not so detailed that it reaches the uncanny valley of looking real-ish but not actually real.

Minecraft does both in spades.

I think this is a big part of why I still enjoy playing Morrowind more than pretty much all newer open world games.

It felt like you were really in a place, and the lack of HUD directing you to "points of interest" made it that much more exciting and interesting when you discovered something new.

> It felt like you were really in a place, and the lack of HUD [...]

In a word - immersion. The vast majority of RPG games suck at it. In-your-face tutorial pop-ups, GPS quest trackers, complex HUDs, full-screen menus, etc.

For a taste of what properly immersive RPGs are play the Gothic series.

"Other games of this era, and even a lot of modern games, are content to resort to more video-gamey designs that remind you you're playing a video game. Gothic 1 and 2 took the extra steps to ensure that everything was as immersive as they could possibly be." [1]

Videos that give a good overview of the immersive design of the games: [2], [3].

Guide on what exactly to play:

1. Gothic 1

2. Gothic 2 Gold Edition

3. The chronicles of Myrtana Archolos - a fan-made total conversion mod for Gothic 2 that follows in the spirit of the past two games. It's as high in quality as a professional production would be. Seriously. See [4] for a preliminary review.

All are available on Steam.

[1]: https://youtu.be/_V6tdH6YRy8

[2]: https://youtu.be/qvyzjFfxiXo?t=194 (this part refers directly to immersion, for more context you can start from the beginning)

[3]: https://youtu.be/_V6tdH6YRy8?t=597 (whole video is good, but the most relevant parts start here)

[4]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2F4-2i9gGY

(not associated with the particular youtuber in any way, his content just happens to be good)

“Their minds ranged far and wide inside dreamscapes Daphne wove for them, for she knew all the secrets of that art, and many of the techniques of false-life sculpting, and story-crafting, which, to her, were trite and worn, to him, were new; and she found pleasure in his delight.”

--The Phoenix Exultant by John C. Wright

I was thinking about this quite a bit replaying ocarina of time. It's now very apparent to me that a lot of the world is giant sheets of 2d textures, with some scattered doors as 3d objects, like castletown. Then I started to notice some things that were... surprisingly good? My favorite: Link had IK foot placement! His feet would land on individual steps as you went up stairs.

Yeah, it's a sad fact that I've realized myself as well. No matter how good a game is, I'll never be able to experience again that magical feeling when I played Pokemon for the first time on the GB.

But you can experience it with new things!

If you approach stuff with positivity, openness and wonder you'll have a blast! This is my current experience with learning Go, having learned Python previously.

I don my explorer's hat and force myself to live into the text, subject or code (Herder's Einfühlung). Personally it makes the journey so much more entertaining than merely as a tools to an end.

I mean yes, the joy is still there when trying new things for the first time, I would be lying if I said otherwise. But it's just not the same. You know that feeling of total absorption/encompassment when you played your favorite game for the first time in your childhood? There's nothing like it. I went to dinner thinking about the game. I went to sleep thinking about the game. I went to school thinking about the game. The joy when my starter Pokemon evolved was indescribable. The game was the only thing that was on my mind. What's even more amazing is that I'm not a native English speaker, and I did not understand a single word in the game back then, yet somehow that did not impede me at all, in fact I think it even added to the joy of exploration.

I think it's something you have to work harder to find, and perhaps find less often as you grow up.

It's joyful to obsess over stuff; to try and get better; to try and understand.

There's two things, IMO, that get in the way as an adult:

* The crush of ordinary responsibility can not leave enough time for exploration and wonder.

* Related: We just get used to following a routine and not completely losing ourselves in something new. Maybe we tell ourselves we can't get good at new things anymore like we used to.

Revisiting old stuff, like Monkey Island, is fun; but it's not nearly as intense as something new. I'm looking forward to it and it will be entertaining to share with my family. It's been awhile since I've found this kind of pure fun and intensity in video games, but I'm sure it'll happen again.

I've had this feeling not so long ago when playing horizon zero dawn. I don't know why but I loved this game so much that it reminded me of the feeling of playing secret of mana as a kid.

I did play Life is Strange when I was 36. The story wasn’t so great, but the atmosphere? Just great.

One of the few games I've played in my 30s. I really liked the story actually, until the final chapter where Max is navigating some weird Dreamscape that goes on a bit too long.

I played MI1 for the first time last year and I can tell you it's not just nostalgia. It's just a freaking great game.

I'd agree with you completely if I hadn't played Breadth of the Wild. It somehow managed to bring that child back and front again.

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