MrBiffo
patreon
RETRO GAMING: MY PART IN ITS DOWNFALL
🕑 Added 2020-08-25 13:37:12 +0000 UTCGet a load of this: I miss the retro gaming community.
To be more specific, I miss the buzz there was in the community a few years back. It seemed to build from the point at which I launched Digitiser2000, and really peaked around the time of Digitiser The Show. I’m not saying I’m responsible – far from it – but I realise that I might’ve helped foster that excitement into existence. Digitiser The Show felt like a kind of consolidation of retro gaming, but in its wake, all that excitement seemed like it was fading away.
Admittedly, I’m writing this because I don’t know whether that’s just my perception. I’ve been at the centre of it, on the inside looking out, and so I am curious to know whether others have experienced it too. And whether they miss it as much as I do.
I know I’ve taken a step back from retro gaming (still writing my column in Retro Gamer, mind), and Digitiser2000 is on hiatus (I think I miss the Friday Letters Page most of all), and I don’t do much on Twitter other than plug Digi and check my notifications, but it seems like something has changed.
It doesn’t help that there has been a pandemic on, of course. This year has seen no in-person, communal retro events, Digi Live has been postponed, and everyone has seemingly retreated into their own little bubbles. Atop that, there are now so many retro streamers on Twitch and YouTube, and god knows what else, that the community has fragmented. It has lost its focus. Everyone and their uncle is a retro streamer now, and we’re all fighting for the same slice of pie. Audiences have diminished.
Plus, of course, there’s the drama, which I know has driven at least some people away. There has been a lot of it over the past couple of years. Troll accounts, people getting cancelled, dubious copyright claims, people being harassed to the point of breaking etc. etc.
And then, for me, I went through the wringer with Digitiser The Show, which caused me no end of grief, including:
- · One of the Digitiser The Show sponsors threatening me with legal action, because he believed he deserved more than we’d agreed upon with regarded to the branding.
- · One of my Digitiser The Show friends and colleagues deciding to post disparaging remarks about the Digi channel under a false name, as well as accusing me of nepotism, because I dared to feature my wife in videos. Someone who you’d think would know better. Or, at least, know enough to hide their IP address, given that I’d been to their house…
- · Assorted other Digitiser The Show drama that I had to sort out, which I can’t really talk about, even though I’d love to, because not talking about it makes me look like the bad guy (been there before; curse you, sense of honour!).
- · People who were huge Digi and Found Footage fans seemingly no longer being fans, because I did something, though gawd knows what, to upset them.
And then, atop all that, we’ve even had people in the community sadly pass away. I would never have expected it, but I was really affected the untimely, and utterly unexpected, death of Gaming Mill, perhaps because it came on top of losing some people close to me last year.
All of the above is a big part of why I’ve struggled to finish the Digi the Show DVDs. I’ve got such a psychological blockage there, because so much to do with it turned nasty for me. I’m really struggling with it.
Taken together, all of it is why I moved away from retro gaming, even though I know there are lots of good, decent, people in the community even now. And still it goes on, even being one step removed.
This week alone I’ve been informed by a couple of people that there’s more drama in the Digi/retro community, some of it involving people I’d hoped knew better. I mean, we’re all adults, for pity’s sake! Most of us are middle-aged! It makes me feel nauseous to think that there are those who bought tickets to Digi Live who may not want to go, because there are other people there with whom they’ve had online troubles. Haven’t we all got more worthwhile things to do than make life miserable for others? Don’t we want to be better than that?! It baffles me. If somebody annoys you, why can’t you just ignore it? Why let it push your buttons? Why attack them?
And then over the past month or so I’ve been fielding emails from an idiot, who wants to “destroy” the Digi channel. I had to fill out an online police report for malicious communications on Monday, though I’m holding off on filing it in the hope he’s gone away.
One of my favourite song lyrics of all time is “I want to be someone that someone would want to be”. Why would anyone want to be that person? Be better.
Overall… I just don’t need it, y’know. I have enough going on in my real life already that needs dealing with. I wonder whether it’s just me who has been feeling like this, but I do know that I miss when it felt different. I miss the buzz from a few years ago, the excitement around Found Footage, and leading up to Digitiser The Show.
So, I dunno. I guess this year has been weird all round, and I’m trying to work whether what I’m feeling - this sort of drifting, lack of focus - is because of the pandemic, because I’ve changed, or because something has changed for real.
Is it just me?
Paul
Comments
Ste
Everything is aligning.. PODCAST required!
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
Nah, not depressed. Plus, as I say... I don't really do social media as is, other than checking notifications, or any accounts that are fun. It's really literally what I say; I enjoyed the buzz around the retro community a few years back.
Ste
You sound a bit depressed and worn out. I find that turning off my phone helps to free me from the constant pressure of needing to be up-to-date with the continuous stream of information. As an online producer of content, this is may be less of an option for you, but it would be great to have an ‘analogue fortnight’! Bring back the Friday letters page.. but real, posted letters only! Then we can all tune-in the following Friday and see where we all are :-)
Dave Graves
Years ago I worked in a museum. You're absolutely correct in your observation. Once the present generation who crave reliving their childhood, get too old and begin to die...All those retro gaming collections will end up being dispersed or destroyed by relatives or the council. Sell whilst the going is good. I used to see once treasured collections of cigarette cards being filed away or dispersed to the few remaining extant collectors. Old 20s and 30s toys going for disposal because representative examples already existed...you cannot preserve everything. If something could be sold to raise money to preserve the rest of the collection, it was. If it couldn't be sold, it was disposed of via other legal means. Museums can only store so much. People will only care about retro consoles for so long. One generations treasure is the next's tat.
Tyronne Mann
For myself I am getting ever more bored by retro gaming as the years pass. I lived through it, I saw almost all the shenanigans which took place and there are only so many takes on `Outrun` I can handle. There are only so many unique perspectives on retro games and systems I can take before the `seen it all before` mentality comes into play and I move on and it is that moving on which is increasing month by month. It has got to the stage where I am seriously thinking of selling ALL of my retro collection as truth be told it is only my generation who will actually appreciate them aside from a few others but this will be limited number of people. For me it resembles those who like watching silent comedies, they have their audience but that is a very small one and that is where I see the retro scene going - very niche and small. This is not to say the retro scene will totally disappear from my heart, that shape has already been formed and nothing will change the joy it has brought me - it is just that now I have more toys in my playbox to mess around with and it these new shineys which are taking my time up. I love the journey but now there are plenty more destinations to head towards and there are less times for me to come back and make sure I have turned the gas off.
InfamousUK
There is always drama in any medium, it's near impossible to avoid and I think side stepping it only makes it worse so the way you've been handling things whilst I know must be draining and at times depressing you are doing the right thing. That's the take away I get from everything you've been doing .. you are doing what makes YOU happy, what interests you and that's great. I admit I don't watch everything, I don't have enough time in the day with the pandemic and the job that I do just takes up too much of my life atm, I go to sleep listening to cheap show (Eli screaming somehow soothes me .. I am seeking psychological services I promise) and when I get down time I'll watch whatever you last released and I've never been disappointed. So your making at least one of us happy and I hope yourself too .. that's the main thing. Also wow.. didn't realise there was quite so much back biting going on.
Nick
God damn return key. I had more but it doesn’t really matter. Suffice to say it isn’t just you. Everything is a bit weird at the minute and I swing from rampant enthusiasm to absolute despondency in the blink of an eye.
Nick
I’ve always been a little suspect of the word community. It suggests in people the happy pulling together of a bucolic village but that simply isn’t the case. Communities can just as well be places of resentment, anger and fear. I’ve always preferred “scene”, something you can dip in and out of and enjoy without getting bogged down. But that’s just me. Anyhoo.
Jake Laverde
I hear what you’re saying. For me the fun has sort of gone out of it a bit what with the weird drama and the cynical algorithm chasing content put out. But I’m a big believer in the cream rising to the top, the videos put out with genuine enthusiasm and affection deserve a bigger audience and we should champion them.
Hedders
Came in here to say "it isn't just you, 2020 has thrown everyone for a loop" but so many others have already said it so much better, so ... yeah, what they said. Everyone's on edge, everyone's fraught. That's not to say that what you feel isn't valid, or that it's definitely the reason, or the only reason. Just that it's a strange time right now, and people are behaving oddly, so I wouldn't do anything in haste.
Hedders
*nods in recognition*
(Just) Steve
As i've mentioned to you before, I do miss the retro Digi stuff because I firmly believe that you provide a opinion, in your own style, that others can't. A lot of the retro stuff on Youtube is very samey so I generally don't watch much of it. That being said, I wouldn't still be a Patron if I wasn't interested in the other things that you do. I don't see why you shouldn't name and shame people who are arseholes, especially if you look like the bad guy by not talking about it. If anything I think you should provide your side of the story and then others can make an informed decision rather than just having a one-sided narrative from elsewhere. (I have no idea what this is all about though) What you're feeling isn't just you. I think the pandemic has affected people a lot more than they probably realise. I've been relatively good since the initial lockdown (I love "me time") but I have noticed that it's finally caught up to me in the recent weeks. I've got a bunch of projects I should be working on but instead of seeing one through to the end I keep flitting between them, then as a result of that they're all left unfinished. I'll hopefully drag myself out of my funk at some point soon though, and hopefully you will too. :) Now if Tesco can just hurry up and deliver the food I want to cook for dinner before the quiz later today that'd be great!
John Veness
It's not just you, Paul, as I feel similarly. I was wondering if it was just me in fact. Maybe it's just me and just you, if that makes sense! In any case, and for whatever the reason, I miss the "old days", i.e. two or three years ago.
Jason Salisbury
Streaming feels much different from youtube, etc. It seems to foster a more competitive, all eyes on me feeling. I would suppose that's because streaming can make people much more money than just youtube ad money, especially with youtube constantly changing and making it harder for smaller channels to get noticed. Then the pandemic forces a bunch of changes and those changes are felt more by people with less money and existing mental health issues(which seems to be a lot of people into retro gaming for some reason that probably deals with nostalgia for a better,easier time of our lives). So much change all at once that it would definitely feel drastic to most of us. It's become hard to even judge the pandemic against our old normal after so many months. For me, I can't get into streaming much at all. I just prefer doing things on my own time. I might watch a stream recap on video, but I'm not going to make appointments for content. And I come from long enough ago that needing to watch stuff on TV when it was on was still a thing! But now I'm set in my ways and prefer it this way. I also came to Digitiser from Octavius but her stuff changed so much even before the pandemic that I ended up here and not watching her videos. Larry I just never liked at all and the lady who was never involved again I had never heard of. Meanwhile, I hated Gannon on Digitiser the Show(guess it was the over enhanced "antagonist role" he took up? maybe?) but immediately loved the chemistry of the Digi Minis and ended up here. Most of that would have been the same but it still ends with me further away from retro gaming than I started. Not for any particular reason, I guess, but more for the personalities I was interested in following. I will say that so much of the retro stuff was from a community in the UK that ended up not being able to go to events and splitting off into streamers while the few US channels did continue on the paths of retro stuff but I just stopped watching. Maybe it's the pandemic? Maybe I just got bored of US retro channels? Maybe it's all of the above. But my view is definitely FAR less retro game focused than it was this time last year. It's kind of weird but also makes sense with the overall drastic change to life changing our focus somewhat.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
It's not really about that, to be honest (or at least, this post isn't), PR. It's the community really that I'm missing, and I just wondered whether it was something other people felt had fragmented.
Thomas Thacker
I can't say that I've noticed any massive difference myself... But then I'm not so much a part of the retro community as the shy guy who nervously pops his head around the door occasionally, says hello, maybe gets a wave from one or two people, and then buggers off home again... 😅
Craig Hall
Pandemic or not, people are always going to hate. Unfortunately you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't. You've tried new stuff, like the digi shorts, the zoom videos with Gannon & the videos with Sanja and yourself, I've really enjoyed all three but clearly some haven't. I really don't understand why that inspires some to demonstrate their unhappiness in any of the ways mentioned here, personally if I don't like material I just don't digest it, I move on. So yeah, some are going to hate new stuff, but certainly had you not not tried anything new & simply stuck to creating found footage a score of people would have been giving it "Biffo's lost his edge, he can't do new material" etc so as I said, you can't please everyone. It appears to me that you do please the vast majority who watch your videos, your brand of comedy is niche, it's never going to attract the mainstream which I think you should be proud of, however there are so very few content creators out there are willing to try something new, ignore the haters I say and keep doing what makes you smile.
Colin Jones
I don't think it's just you, but this pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in society. Sadly of course, the worst always have a louder voice amplifying what would otherwise be just an annoying itch into something more dicouraging.
