Whats more interesting to play, a old game or a new game for the first time?

What excites you more, popping in an old (Eg SNES, Turbo Grafix) game and trying it for the first time. Or popping in a recent release game (EG Far Cry 3) for the first time.

This is kind of dumb if you don't define old and new. Is a 3 year old game an old game?

I gave an example..

@gamefreak9 said:

This is kind of dumb if you don't define old and new. Is a 3 year old game an old game

This...this isn't even a conversation, is it? Is it?!

I've never been in a place where I could go back and play a 10-15 year old game for the first time and enjoy it as much as brand new games. I dunno if it's just because I don't have nostalgia for earlier eras of games - modern games that are heavily retro in style don't appeal to me either - but old games are historic curiosities, not games that I would sit down and spend any amount of time playing.

This may be too much of an individual thing, but I'm 23 years old and I've never enjoyed playing games as much as I've enjoyed it over the past five years or so. I know I'm probably in a minority, but my "golden age" began at 18 and is ongoing, not when I was a kid. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the game that kickstarted my golden age, not any game I played as a kid. I have a huge amount of fondness for the Nintendo 64 games I grew up with, but I don't want to play those games today as much as I want to play modern games. Why go back and replay Majora's Mask when I still haven't beaten Witcher 2? Why play Grim Fandango for the first time when I could be playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the first time?

@Atlas said:

This...this isn't even a conversation, is it? Is it?!

I've never been in a place where I could go back and play a 10-15 year old game for the first time and enjoy it as much as brand new games. I dunno if it's just because I don't have nostalgia for earlier eras of games - modern games that are heavily retro in style don't appeal to me either - but old games are historic curiosities, not games that I would sit down and spend any amount of time playing.

This may be too much of an individual thing, but I'm 23 years old and I've never enjoyed playing games as much as I've enjoyed it over the past five years or so. I know I'm probably in a minority, but my "golden age" began at 18 and is ongoing, not when I was a kid. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the game that kickstarted my golden age, not any game I played as a kid. I have a huge amount of fondness for the Nintendo 64 games I grew up with, but I don't want to play those games today as much as I want to play modern games. Why go back and replay Majora's Mask when I still haven't beaten Witcher 2? Why play Grim Fandango for the first time when I could be playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the first time?

Of course it is, I recently played Theme Hospital for the first time, I put off playing loads of games just so I could play that.

I get excited for the first time I pop in a good game, it doesn't matter how old or new it may be. I was excited when I started Dishonored the day it came out today, I was excited when I started Deus Ex a couple years after it first came out, I will be excited the first time I start System Shock 2. The year a game comes out really doesn't mean anything to me.

Well, I find there is a difference between "interesting" and "exciting". If I was to answer "interesting" it's certainly older games. A game with some history has expectations and debate. I am usually curious to see how the opinions of critics and people on the internet compare with my own impressions. I'm also curious to see if a game holds up over time. Older games are more interesting to explore.

On the other hand, newer games are more exciting because they're still free of the baggage attached to older games. No solid opinions have been formed when a game is new and so it's like exploring new world. Everything is fresh and unknown.

I've never played a Metal Gear game but if I was to go back and play MGS1, I'd be looking for all the quirks I know are in the game; however should I choose to play the next Metal Gear game, I will be discovering at the same time everyone else is. I find that pretty "exciting".

Both, as long as the game has some hook to my curiosity & is fun as well as interesting I'll play it regardless if it's something on the genesis/ps2 or current gen. Always diving back into old pc games like the original X-com, Shadow Warrior or Shadow of the comet that I never got too far into ages ago (or just don't remember what happened) when I played them to see what's there to discover.

Depends entirely on what game it is doesn't it?

Maybe gamers of today take downloadable and re-releases for granted , but back even ten years ago, once a game was no longer published it was often just gone from the world

Back then it definitely was more exciting to get to play a great older game you had missed, because in many cases it felt like such an amazing opportunity to even find it. That added a premium level of excitement to those

In Today's world I would say new games, since old games are so much easier to reacquire.

It's really subjective and dependant on the game, but in general i'd say newer games. They're much more built around allowing new players to learn the mechanics in quick, relatively simple ways. Games like FTL, Journey, Portal and Skyrim allow me to learn the basic mechanics with a relative simplicity before progressively forcing me to learn more or use what I know with finesse and style. On the flip-side, I sometimes have a lot of trouble with older games just dumping you into a world without helping you properly understand what's up; the early Fallout games and Morrowind come to mind. Again, there are exceptions, but this is usually how it feels to me.

Isn't playing an old game for the first time the same as playing a new game ?

They are both new to me so... they are equally interesting, I guess?