Gamers have especially strong nostalgia for childhood video games and game consoles that they played when they were about 10 years old – at least according to a study of Nintendo Switch players.
“Through playing older games, people can feel connected to who they were and how they were feeling at the time when they played them for the first time,” says at the University of Oxford.
Ballou and his colleagues analysed 12,000 hours of retro gaming data from 660 players’ sessions on the Nintendo Switch, the current flagship console of Japanese games company Nintendo. The device can play retro games from six earlier-generation consoles, including the Nintendo Entertainment System from the 1980s.
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By looking at the most-played retro games, the researchers found that the peak nostalgia period is childhood, around 10 years old. They also discovered that the time gamers spent playing retro games generally doubled between the ages of 20 and 40, when interest seemed to plateau.
The study’s general findings look “approximately correct”, but they could be skewed by the focus on Nintendo, to the exclusion of retro Atari and arcade games, says at the University of South Australia. People included in the study are also limited to those with the money and motivation to buy the latest Nintendo console, as well as an additional subscription to access retro games, and such dedicated gamers may not be representative of all players.
In addition, video game players often buy older consoles and games later, after their height of popularity, when they are significantly cheaper, says Page. This means they may not have played the games that were released when they were children until much later, suggesting peak nostalgia actually occurs around late adolescence for most gamers, he says. That would better match Page’s , which found that people prefer songs released during their adolescence and early adulthood.
Page’s research also suggests that people often enjoy older media despite having no nostalgia for it – his own children like playing older games such as Puyo Puyo or Kirby’s Avalanche, which came out before they were born. “Tetris [Effect] was called Game of the Year in 2018 – despite [the original Tetris] having been released 30 years earlier, because it’s still a good game,” says Page.
Nostalgia patterns will probably be different for other game consoles and gamer populations, says Ballou. He and his colleagues want to evaluate retro gaming’s impact on well-being – their initial study found no statistically significant effect – and to study gaming habits among retired older adults.
“We’re on the precipice of gaming being the most popular activity in the care home – goodbye bingo nights, hello Super Smash Bros tournaments,” says Ballou. “This could have all kinds of effects, both good and bad.”
PsyArXiv
