I'm trying to say it's not nostalgia. To me nostalgia means I like Quantum Leap because I watched it as a kid, despite knowing that show actually really sucks. That is nostalgia to me.
Ok, but then you should probably not have started out saying it's part nostalgia.
With games I am simply saying the era you started gaming in and the games you chose to play over the course of your development as a "gamer" heavily influence what games you like today. Someone who was introduced to RPGs 5 years ago will very often have much different perspectives on RPGs than someone who was introduced to them in the mid-80's. Even something as simple as tolerance for Morrowind's attacks not necessary hitting despite looking like the hit can be baffling and insanely off-puting to someone who played Oblivion before that.
Who, in their right mind, would deny that your past is a strong influence on your present?
The point is that because you liked something in the past, it doesn't necessarily translate into liking it in the future. So while the influence is there, it can also be the opposite effect - in that you EVOLVE and genres can do the same.
So we agree there's an influence, but we most certainly don't agree that influence is as simplistic as you make it seem.
There are exceptions of course, you can re-train yourself. I'm trying to train myself to enjoy FPP dungeon crawlers like Lands of Lore. In general though when I see comments like "OMG RPGs ARE DEAD" I tend to immediately classify the person saying that as someone with one idea of what an RPG is that was probably decided a long time ago.
I find myself disagreeing that it has do with willful "training" - as much as it has to do with naturally or randomly evolving or changing.
These things are not static or as simple as you seem to believe. That's my opinion, though.
It's also about mood or "where you are" at the point of playing. You can start enjoying something you used to hate simply by being in the correct mood - or because you've been inspired recently. In that way, I think our past is much less a chain around our angles than you seem to think.
I can't "train" myself to enjoy things like you seem to be able to do. I can only hope to enjoy that which I'm playing - and I find it changes all the time.
But there are certain core features that I will always love - like exploration and strong immersion. Those things have less to do with "gaming conditioning" and more to do with my basic personality.
In fact, I think most of these "core markers of fascination" are pretty universal. As such, I think all people are fascinated by it - when presented in the right way, at the right time. So sometimes our past can make us rigid and prevent us from trying new things. In that way, I suppose we agree - partially.
And then I rambled on and brought greater sociology into it… that your personality is largely decided by societal interaction in my opinion, and that includes why you play games and what games you like. That's really a much grander and more abstract point though.
Indeed.
Anyway, I've rambled a lot. I enjoy thinking about this kind of stuff and talking about it. I find the idea that someone decides which games they like based purely on objective quality to be quite silly. There is no objective quality in games. Every game you like someone hates. Every game you hate someone loves.
We can agree on that, but unlike you - I don't really think anyone here is that deluded. There is no such thing as quantifiable objective quality when it comes to entertainment.