I fell out of gaming pretty much concurrently with the decline of adventure games, and then got back in as I got access to emulation and the internet (ca. y2k). There’s a lot in this article that’s been on my mind as I’ve put this blog together, as kind of
a passive-aggressive way of relating to something I couldn’t relate to anymore (I heard mic.com is bad, but what isn’t?)
There were no rules. All that mattered was seeing what the newly invented home computer could do.[…]
The modern concept of “gamer” identity and culture didn’t exist yet. “Very few of these software companies imagined themselves as in a ‘game industry,’”[…]
The modern hostile, exclusionary, hyper-masculine game culture started to emerge in the mid-’90s.[…]
“I lost interest, totally, I didn’t want to kill orcs.”