The Old vs. The New

by Brandon Daiker 

Yes yes, I know you are thinking "Oh, great. Yet another Old School v. New School argument I can waste my time with." Well I think it makes a valid point, so just read it.

I was hooked on video games at around the age of 7. My dad's friends had a Nintendo, which I never got to play because 'I wouldn't understand it.' Naturally, this made me want to play even more. I begged and I begged, and finally, when my mom got her new job, she bought me the family a Nintendo. I loved the Super Mario cart that came with it, and played it constantly. As I got older, my favorite types of games were the action games, like Street Fighter II on my Super NES, or Super Mario World. I never even contemplated what an RPG was - just another one of those 'weird' games they advertised in Nintendo Power magazine, which I was also hoplessly hooked on. I took a copy of that EVERYWHERE with me.

But then, one day when I was about 12, and in an adjacent town with my mother, I faced a dilemma. We were at the video store. There were literally HUNDREDS of Super NES games for me to choose to rent that day. I looked, and I looked, and I looked. There simply were not any newgames that caught my eye. I had beaten Final Fight, mastered Star Fox, and played the various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games way too many times. My mom was threatening to leave without me getting a new game, and you know how upset that made me. She came over, and looked around the games section with me, trying to get an interesting game as fast as she could so we could get out of there. She reached for a box and said "This looks good, do you want to try it?" I, being upset at the fact that I might leave without a game, reluctantly stared at the green box and said "Sure." She proceeded to rent it and we left the store promptly.

Once in the car, I began to examine the instruction booklet. 64 pages!! "WOW," I thought, "This game must be really long!" I opened the first page, and looked at the yellow text and strange looking clay people. "Secret of Mana?" I wondered. "What kind of stupid name is that? I thought it was going to be the stupidest game I'd ever seen.

Boy, was I wrong.

I played it, and I played it, and then I had to return it. And I rented it again and again. My friend played it with me, and finally, one day, we beat it. It had the coolest graphics, the greatest sound, and the best storyline of any game I had played before. I then found out about Final Fantasy for the regular Nintendo. It was on sale for 9.95 at the local Kay-Bee and I bought it. It blew me away, even after playing Secret of Mana. I loved how you could make your characters stronger, and there were so many quests to solve. I grew to love RPG's. I played Final Fantasy 4 and 6 and Chrono Trigger, and enjoyed them immensely. Yet, due to Nintendo Power, I also grew to love the Nintendo 64. I bought one, and had fun with it. While my friends were saying how the new Final Fantasy VII was so cool, I thought "Pfft! The Nintendo 64 will have Earthbound 2, and Super Mario RPG 2!" Then, one day while I was at school, my friend Tim showed me a video for this 'Final Fantasy VII'.

It was the commercial entirely in FMV. The first thing I thought about was the graphics. The graphics were soooooo good. I had to have one. I bought a Playstation, I bought Final Fantasy VII, and I loved it. I played it all the time, and all the way through. I thought it was the greatest game ever. Then internet access came to our small rural town. I was exposed to the 'Old-School v. New-School' debates. I came across such phrases as "Final Fantasy VII sucked" and "Final Fantasy VI was so much better".

Now I suppose you could consider me an 'Old-School' gamer, but let me tell you this. I enjoyed Final Fantasy VII just as much, or more, as I enjoyed any of the older games I had played. I do not believe that because I am an 'Old School' gamer, I am entitled to enjoy the newer games less. I am an "Old-School" and a "New-School" RPGamer. In fact I am not even really sure why these phrases exist.

I am simply a 'Gamer'.

~Brandon~

Flames, Compliments, Etc., can be sent to aepochkun@netins.net