How is Old School not at least related to nostalgia?

I play D&D *at all* partly out of nostalgia. The way I prefer to play -- my style -- is partly based on nostalgia for how I played the game in the early 80s (my personal Golden Age).

Bullgrit
 

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The Golden Age of 12 makes sense to me.

The unfortunate thing is I didn't play RPGs when I was 12. But I think I already had build Startrek ship models by then, played a lot with Legos and so on. I don't do most of what I did then now, but I still remember it fondly and sometimes there is an itch saying me that wants me to do it again. Mostly ship models, to tell the truth. But it seems as if they aren't available as much as they used to. I'd really love to build the new Battlestar Galactica.
And of course I loved when the new Knight Rider appeared. It didn't matter that it was mediocre then and mediocre now. It's a freaking :):):):)ing car, you can't get much better than that for me. ;)

For roleplaying, I might not have a Golden Age of 12, but I might have a Golden Age of 20 or so, because I really want to run or better play Shadowrun again... (but the edition is less relevant to me...)
 

I think 12 fits for Comic Book fans, maybe "16" for RPGers.

Re: Tom Wham--I don't count him under the "art objectivity" because he's a cartoonist, not an "artist". ;-) (Tom's real nice. I played a boardgame with him, Gary and Ernie Gygax, and a few others, the November of 2007.)
 

How is the love for 4e not at least partially related to the ephemeral draw of the new and shiny?
Ah, but we can get away with it because there isn't a word for that. Or if there is, it's not commonly known.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with liking things just because they're new and shiny. Me saying that someone likes 4e only because it's the new, hot thing is in no way pejorative. Why should anyone be offended?
I'm not offended. I fully admit that part of my liking for 4e is because it's new. I'm already looking forward to 5e.
 

For players of older games, nostalgia can be a big lure towards wanting to play a game associated with great memories. To keep playing older games on a regular basis may not be as related to nostalgia as some might think. If a player is daydreaming about the cool Classic D&D adventure that he/she just played during the past week is that really nostalgia?

The old school movement I think, is a blend of nostalgia and curiosity. Newer gamers who never had the chance to play these older games are checking them out for the first time. Some might quickly discover that the play experience is not to thier liking and move to modern games and others may keep playing the older versions because it clicks for them.
 

Nostalgia doesn't really work for me, I always feel like I missed the good stuff, first time around! Maybe it comes from being born right after the last man left the moon...
 


I feel a strong positive emotional response when I look at comics and books and TV shows and the like from when I was a kid in the 70s, and from the pop music of the 80s. I don't feel that way for the old roleplaying games, strangely, perhaps because the real pleasure was in the playing, not the reading. Well, maybe for RuneQuest 2nd edition and Gamma World, but otoh those games are just plain good, aren't they? I don't feel anything like that looking at old D&D books, except for the Erol Otus art (but I don't think that's nostalgia, I like his new stuff just as much). For me the 1e DMG is just a historical artefact.

My first rpg experience was playing Basic D&D and I freaking *loved* it. (I was 12 years old.) But I feel zero nostalgia for the game. It's kind of weird, that.
 
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My personal definition.

"Old School" (for anything, not just RPG) is whatever was there when I first started getting into it. "New School" is everything that comes out 5/8/10 years after I started doing it.
 

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