Legacy Gaming

I'm sorry in haven't posted in a few weeks, I've been busy with fencing, school, and Zelda. This week, though, I'm going to talk about something that is always on my mind.

What do games like The Legend of Zelda, Mario, Pac Man, and Elder Scrolls have in common that makes them so great? They don't have competitive multiplayer, none are considered "hardcore gaming", some of them don't even have decent graphics. What all of these games do have is legacy.

All of these games have made an impact on the industry, the developers, and the gamers in one or more ways. These include such things as raising industry standards, giving gamers more than they expected and forever raising their expectations, introducing new mechanics that opened an entirely new genre or subgenre of video gaming, or even just giving gamers something they remember fondly in a new, more streamlined way.

Games with legacy are important to us because they give depth to gaming. Many of you reading this have probably had parents telling you to get off the games or that kids are too absorbed in video games these days, all while you play Call of Duty or Skyrim, but which one of them didn't play Super Mario Bros, Pong, or Galaga? Game franchises that have strong legacies work to create bridges of understanding between different generations of gamers.

This works between closer generations too, though. Who among you introduced a sibling to first gen Pokemon games after seeing them play a newer generation game? I'm also willing to bet that Skyward Sword was a first Zelda game for many people who were then introduced to earlier games trough an older sibling or older gamers in a community of gaming.

Legacy games are what tie us together as a culture. We can all play less historical games and get full enjoyment out of them, but more often than not we are relating these games to something with a stronger legacy or playing them while not knowing that they were influenced by these games.

Legacy games do not rise above or fall below other games inherently, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm trying to get across here is that they should not be discounted, looked down on, or forgotten, as they are the reason we have such a strong defined culture as gamers.