brainbaking-com-zoehew.txt (7860B)
1 [1]skip to main content 2 [2] [logo] 3 4 • [3] Archives 5 • [4] Works 6 • [5] About 7 • [6] More... 8 9 My Enjoyment From Engagement With Media Deepens As I Grow Older 10 11 15 June 2026 12 13 I am not yet done thinking about nostalgia. In [7]Nostalgia Always Includes a 14 Temporal Context, I claim that we can never fully relive a nostalgic moment 15 from the past precisely because of its temporal context—the past. In this 16 article, I claim that my enjoyment from engaging with media, that in ten or 17 twenty years yields the juicy fruits of nostalgia, deepens as I grow older. 18 This idea can work as a remedy for an acute case of midlife crisis or nostalgic 19 depression. 20 21 The problem with my nostalgia for games from yesteryear is that it can 22 sometimes be asphyxiating up to the point that I think I won’t enjoy anything 23 else. Even worse, if I do decide to replay said game, because of the shift in 24 temporal context, I can’t recreate the same moment and will feel disappointed. 25 You shouldn’t try to “restore” that nostalgic moment: instead, you should 26 “reflect” on it and enjoy your happy moments. Engagement with new material 27 might result in more disappointments precisely because of that obsession with 28 past media. 29 30 Yet I think the present has kept one huge joker close to its chest: the older 31 you get, the deeper your engagement with media. Or at least that is my personal 32 experience. Time becomes much more valuable thanks to other obligations. The 33 more games you play, the more you know what you like and what you don’t, and 34 the better you can fillet its gameplay mechanics and storytelling. The more I 35 write about games, the more I look into its background and creation process. 36 For me, writing a few thoughts after I’m done with it is an extension of the 37 gameplay, prolonging my engagement (and thus fun) with that game. 38 39 When I was younger, I just played whatever I was gifted or could afford. I 40 cared less and could stomach endless grinding because it felt like I had 41 endless amounts of time on my hands anyway. I didn’t explicitly add context by 42 looking into its development process. I didn’t read reviews or game experience 43 reports of others besides the “official” ones from PC Gameplay et al. 44 45 In short, I don’t think I appreciated media as a piece of art [8]like I do now. 46 I didn’t yet nurture that skill. Yet you could argue that with growing older 47 comes being more critical which could easily hamper the enjoyment, but I say 48 that having well-placed critique means being able to contextualise precisely 49 because of that deeper engagement. Also, playing mediocre games doesn’t have to 50 mean you’re not enjoying yourself. 51 52 In Daniel J. Levitin’s [9]Successful Aging book, a case for complex cognitive 53 activities is made as a cure for the negative aspects of ageing. I think that 54 happens almost naturally provided you keep on learning and exploring new things 55 (such as games?). In Levitin’s own words (my translation from the Dutch version 56 I read): 57 58 One of the most protective things you can do against the negative 59 consequences of ageing is learning a craft when you are young and keep on 60 practising it. The second best thing you can do is learning something new 61 when you are older. 62 63 In the case of engagement with media, playing a new game, exploring a new 64 genre, looking up the history of one of your favourite games, or investigating 65 other ways to play older games such as fiddling with [10]randomizers could 66 qualify as “learning something new”. This is also a wake-up call for the 67 hopeless nostalgic who keeps on replaying the same old games but finds less and 68 less satisfaction at the credits screen. 69 70 As I write and think about nostalgia and video games, my pattern matching brain 71 yields new connections and ideas. That’s the essence of Brain Baking! But 72 that’s also the essence of what I’m trying to say here: you will more deeply 73 engage and enjoy things if you fully dive into it and you can only do that if 74 you’ve been diving for years and years. 75 76 To me, that message is reassuring. It means it’s okay to get older. I will 77 still enjoy things. No, I will enjoy things even more—I will just not be able 78 to enjoy as much. And that’s probably also a good thing. It reminds me that my 79 grandfather who still enjoyed Lego and the odd video game when he was still 80 with us in the early nineties probably enjoyed it more than the little kid he 81 was playing with (that would be me). 82 83 Does my taste for media change? Of course, but not just my preference, also my 84 ability to complete them. I have no idea how I managed to finish Hollow Knight 85 and I’m scared to start Silksong even though I want to: my reflexes might not 86 be what they used to be and my patience to backtrack to retrieve my dead body 87 might have diminished. I’ve been wanting to start a Dragon Quest game for so 88 long now, but the grinding is off-putting given my limited ability to only play 89 a good hour a day. 90 91 The fact that a game can be viewed as a piece of art is for me a relatively 92 recent development. In narrative-heavy games such as Morrowind, I never really 93 took the time to flip through the various books that add lore to the game 94 world. Now I do. I never really gave the environment my playable character 95 lives in a thorough look. Now I do. That reminds me, I should put Morrowind 96 back on the backlog—it somehow failed to keep my attention back in the day. 97 98 It’s also easier to place these games in their historical context. I play old 99 games for old video game systems, new games for old video game systems, and new 100 games for new video game systems. As my older self, I can trace their 101 influence, compare their different aspects, and form an opinion based on that. 102 My younger self just wanted to get lost in the virtual game world to not have 103 to cope with the real world. 104 105 Perhaps, in a way, I might even like getting older. 106 107 [11]learning [12]nostalgia 108 109 You Might Also Like... 110 111 • [13]Nostalgia Always Includes a Temporal Context 27 Apr 2026 112 • [14]Why I Play Games (And So Should You) 23 Jan 2022 113 114 Bio and Support 115 116 [avatar2024] 117 118 I'm [15]Wouter Groeneveld, a Brain Baker, and I love the smell of freshly baked 119 thoughts (and bread) in the morning. I sometimes convince others to bake their 120 brain (and bread) too. 121 122 If you found this article amusing and/or helpful, you can support me via [16] 123 PayPal or [17]Ko-Fi. I also like to hear your feedback via [18]Mastodon or 124 email. Thanks! 125 126 JavaScript is disabled. 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[23] 131 [brainbakin] 132 133 134 References: 135 136 [1] https://brainbaking.com/post/2026/06/my-enjoyment-from-media-deepens-as-i-grow-older/#top 137 [2] https://brainbaking.com/ 138 [3] https://brainbaking.com/archives/ 139 [4] https://brainbaking.com/works/ 140 [5] https://brainbaking.com/about 141 [6] https://brainbaking.com/more 142 [7] https://brainbaking.com/post/2026/04/nostalgia-always-includes-a-temporal-context/ 143 [8] https://brainbaking.com/post/2022/01/why-i-play-games/ 144 [9] https://www.daniellevitin.com/successful-aging 145 [10] https://randomizers.debigare.com/ 146 [11] https://brainbaking.com/categories/learning 147 [12] https://brainbaking.com/tags/nostalgia 148 [13] https://brainbaking.com/post/2026/04/nostalgia-always-includes-a-temporal-context/ 149 [14] https://brainbaking.com/post/2022/01/why-i-play-games/ 150 [15] https://brainbaking.com/about 151 [16] https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=R2WTKY7G9V2KQ 152 [17] https://ko-fi.com/woutergroeneveld 153 [18] https://dosgame.club/@jefklak 154 [19] https://brainbaking.com/post/2026/06/my-enjoyment-from-media-deepens-as-i-grow-older/#top 155 [20] https://brainbaking.com/archives 156 [21] https://brainbaking.com/index.xml 157 [22] https://brainbaking.com/copyright-and-tracking-policy 158 [23] https://brainbaking.com/links