Although I’ve probably talked about elements of this before, I wanted to talk briefly about how literally every age is a “heyday” in some way or another. And I apologise if this article is shorter or a bit abrupt, I eventually ended up editing it a day or two before publication because I worried that the original version was “too political” or “too depressing”. Sorry about this.
Anyway, if you grew up during the early-mid 2000s, it’s very easy to look back on it and – ignoring all of the bad parts – feel proud that you remember the “pre-smartphone days”.
To remember the 1996-2004 heyday of survival horror videogames, how “J-Horror” movies used to be a fixture at the cinema in the way superhero movies are today, how “popular music” actually included genres like punk and metal, to remember when you could play finished games on offline games consoles, to remember when every film and TV show got a DVD release, to remember when “social media” consisted of instant messenger/forums/MySpace etc…
I could go on, but it can be very easy to see two decades ago as being a rose-tinted paradise where everything was just… better. Seriously, I was genuinely shocked the very first time I actually got nostalgic about the early-mid 2000s at some point during the mid-late 2010s. Before that, I remembered it as being a dreadful time – it was dull and limiting, there was lots of post-9/11 fear and angst in the media, “Section 28” was still a thing in England until 2003, I had to go to *ugh* secondary school etc… Nostalgia has given it a significant upgrade!
Yet, I still found myself making these comparisons. But then I looked at the modern world. Yes, it certainly isn’t perfect. And, even though news media always focuses very heavily on bad stuff – presenting a distorted view of the world as a whole – these professional pessimists journalists have no shortage of source material to write about these days!
The modern world certainly isn’t perfect yet, but some elements of it are better than they used to be. This age, today, is a “heyday” for at least some things if you know where to look.
To give just one small example, there are indie games! Like there are new games being made in “old” genres which the “AAA” games companies have completely overlooked – Fixed camera survival horror games! 1990s-style FPS games! 2D Platformer games! – Seriously, this is amazing. Like, game genres aren’t just ignored, forgotten or neglected any more. WOW 🙂
And, yes, some of these things do depend on perspective and on your opinions. For example, whilst I might be wary about the development/popularity of A.I. technology reaching dystopian levels, there are probably a lot of A.I. enthusiasts who currently feel like they are living in a golden age right now.
Every age is a mixture of good and bad. Every age – even this one – is a “heyday” when seen in a particular way.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
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