Quote Originally Posted by stonecutter View Post
Yesterday I played Super Mario World with my 12 yr old son for a fair while. We started a new file and completed all 96 goals later into the evening. Of course a break was required to watch canada win the Olymic gold in hockey. He has a SNES in his room, and plays a lot of it. As we played Mario, he says dad we should play E.V.O. we haven't played that for a while. He loves a lot of classic games, however I don't think many of his friends do. Sometimes I think a lot of kids have not had enough exposure to the older stuff so that has a lot to do with their level of appreciation.
That's very true. I think most people, be them kids or adults, would be able to appreciate older things if they're simply raised in an environment that values them. My fiance's little sister, who I've known since she was 7 and is 16 now, has spent her entire life around two considerably older brothers who play older games just as frequently as new games. Her exposure has been completely mixed and varied, and as a result hops from era to era herself without a second thought. I can see her playing a new Wii game one day and SNES game the next, and I've never once heard her comment about the graphics or audio of older games being inferior. She just takes a game for what it is and has fun. I'm actually a little envious of the children and younger siblings of our members here. What a wonderful opportunity they have to try so many games, both through our collections and emulation. When we were kids, we were lucky if we got a couple new games a year, and old games were out of our access unless they were ones that we or our family members personally held onto for years.

Sadly, we really grow up in an "out with the old, in with the new" world. For the most part I didn't have anyone encouraging me to appreciate older stuff when I was a kid, but I did have a family that was generally behind the times and I watched a lot of black and white Nick at Nite. I never got the message that older things lost their value. I think most parents mean well, but when Dad measures the size of his penis with his plasma TV and Mom gets a new wardrobe every year, kids get the message that life is all about constantly getting new stuff to replace older things, even when there's no need for replacement. Remember when people would actually repair their electronics, shoes, clothes, etc.? Does the average person even know how to sew on a button or stitch up a hole anymore? Almost no one has any interest in preserving and valuing what they have these days.