My Top 10 - Experiences My Kids Will Miss

We all have memories of classic gaming experiences. And like those old guys who yell at us to turn our music down, I find myself lamenting the fact that my kids won't get to experience some of the things I did simply because they're becoming antiquated. So here are some things I experienced throughout my childhood that my kids may never understand, in no particular order because they're all a bit sad in their own way.

Strategy guides. I remember a strategy guide being a mandate for many games. There's no way I'd have made it through Pokemon or Morrowind without one. But with the internet being a thing, strategy guides are basically useless. I don't know why Gamestop keeps pushing them when I preorder a game, but spending $20 for information I can get for free on my phone just won't happen again, nor will making a strategy guide practically fall apart because of all the bookmarks I've put in it.

Arcades. Now maybe, maybe my kids will be able to find one of these in 10 years, but I don't see it happening in Iowa. The days of chucking quarters in to an arcade cabinet for 2 minutes of fun are behind us. I don't think they'll ever completely die, but the atmosphere is something that just can't be recreated. Wandering around the arcade at 10 years old with my cargo shorts bursting with quarters holds so many happy memories. Approaching game after game, waiting to find that perfect one you want to spend 6 hours playing, just isn't part of our mentality anymore. Ten years from now my kids will probably be able to download information straight to their brains - the mysteries held in an arcade full of games just doesn't click with our ability and desire to know everything about everything.

Window shopping at the LGS. With games so easily (and cheaply) available online, local gaming shops are struggling to compete. Like arcades, I don't think shops will ever completely disappear, but I don't think we'll have dedicated, physical shops in the next 10 years. More than likely they'll have to carry a lot of other merchandise, diluting the feeling of a shop bursting with comics and games. Getting out of school and hanging out at the comic shop for a few hours is an experience that isn't long for this world.

Midnight releases. Not that these are particularly magical, but I always enjoy the mild sense of camaraderie with the other games around me, shivering outside of Gamestop in the middle of November. Talking to people about videos you've seen, features you're excited about, or even swapping gamertags is something that's almost natural in this setting. But by the time my kids are old enough to be excited for a game's release, they will be able to just download it to their console on release day - and they won't even have to tell someone "no" to buying a strategy guide!

Being the only gamer in the house. While being the only gamer in the house can be hard when you want to play the same game for an hour, it's also nice that there's no one to battle you for the controller. Already my kids are swapping the iPad back and forth as they play Temple Run, and I know it's going to carry over to consoles when they're ready. They won't know what it's like to spend a crappy day hiding from a blizzard and playing a game all afternoon. Shutting your door and only interacting with your family when it's time for lunch and dinner will be completely alien to them. Not only will they have to share with each other, but Dad will also have to be kicking them off the TV so I can play too!

Nintendo. Let's face it, Nintendo is dying. It's the company that turned many of us in to gamers, and we thought it would be around forever. But with a long list of bad decisions and poor sales figures, Nintendo just can't last under its current leadership. While their characters will likely become available on Sony and Microsoft systems, they won't know that feeling of playing first party games on a Nintendo system, experiencing gaming in its purest form.

Cheat codes and devices. I still remember when my mom brought me home a Gameshark for my N64. I had no idea what the heck this thing did, but I had books of cheat codes that became my best friends. While I grew bored of things like "god mode" or "infinite health," goofy codes like enabling big heads or alternate graphics never got old. While a few games today still have these options, they just aren't a staple anymore. While it means that game developers have more control over making sure their games are experienced properly, it also removes that "stupid fun" we all loved.

One screen, one controller, no nonsense. This one makes me feel really old, even though it's a more recent trend. Up until the Wii, the majority of gaming was spent when a controller and nothing else. Sure there were some novelty things like Guitar Hero, Playstation Move, or Dance Dance Revolution, but "real" gaming hadn't changed for quite some time. After the Wii's reliance on motion controls, Xbox started pushing the Kinect and Playstation sort of upgraded their camera. Now we have a new generation of consoles that are changing everything, and I'm too set in my ways to like it. Xbox is forcing the use of the Kinect to encourage developers to make games for it, the Wii U has games that let a person play different from everyone else using a tablet, and interacting with games with tablets and smart phones seems to be the direction that XB1 and PS4 are moving. In the next cycle of consoles, who knows what the new gimmick will be?

Game Rentals. I'm not even sure kids today know what this is. Friday nights at my house involved going to Hollywood Video or Blockbuster, complaining because all the good games and movies had been rented, and settling for whatever was there. Now we can get games delivered to the door, or you can grab one outside the local McDonalds. No more shelves full of games and no more overpriced candy.

Game Magazines. Like strategy guides, these things are quickly becoming irrelevant. I still demand that I receive my Game Informer in the mail, but there's 0 reason to choose that over a digital magazine other than my insistence on being a curmudgeon. Years ago I had stacks of gaming magazines for no reason other than because I could. Now I can get up-to-date gaming info on a plethora of gaming news sites and blogs, all for free and with 0 risk of my sources taking up space on my bathroom floor.


So what gaming experiences will your kids miss out on?


See you tomorrow!