The idea that what I just purchased is already obsolete kind of irks me, in the gaming industry at least.  Very few games get the privilege of being talked about frequently for some time (e.g. Left 4 Dead, Half-Life 2) and of course those games earn the privilege because they’re great games.  I don’t like knowing that playing games long after their initial release date usually means no one online is talking about it, much less making a post about it and getting many people to talk about it.  Now that it’s out and the public can have it, makes it not quite as interesting as something that hasn’t been released yet.

This happens to most games (that aren’t hugely popular) usually about a month after they’ve been released.  Forums stop chit chatting, news posts slow down to almost nothing unless there’s new content or issues with the game.  Any people you do find still talking about it, unless it’s a problem, there’s not very many willing to chat about it.

This of course only applies to what is called, as coined by Topher Cantler from Retroforce GO!, Retro-Limbo; games that are too old to be new but too old to be retro.  Currently, these Retro-Limbo (R.L.) games fall between the latter years of PS1 - the Xbox, PS2, Gamecube era, with Dreamcast being excluded (because of the game types that were home to the system).  It even seems like early 360, Wii, PS3 games are included in this R.L. category.  There exist an incredible amount of games during these years that are just not talked about anymore, at least online.

What generates this frustration for me is that the gaming industry constantly pushes the “next big thing” always saying it’s better than this or better than the last one.  It makes you feel like if you don’t pick up now you’re “missing out” on something.  Nothing else compares to this game.  Of course these expectations are virtually never real, but everyone falls for it anyway, me included.  So us gamers rush to get all the new games, afraid we’ll miss something.  Then we end up with too many games at one time, with no time to play them all and some games either sit on the shelf for a long time or we get frustrated and stop playing at all for awhile.

Before you can play all the games the industry says you should, holy cow here come more and they’re better than everything you just purchased.  The cycle of never being satisfied starts.  When you’re not satisfied with something it makes it really hard to enjoy the item in question, and the gaming industry wants to make sure you’re never too satisfied so we keep biting the worm on the hook.

I know that this is how it goes with any product-demand situation, but if gamers love gaming in general so much, why are R.L. games just forgotten?  There are many retro minded websites and podcasts out there but the R.L. games are avoided as a subject and sometimes as a rule.

I love playing video games.  Not just new ones, but all of them.  I’m sure there are others out there who share in my frustration, and I hope they can overcome the pressure of the gaming industry.