Halo 2 Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo 2 is overrated.
  • Subject: Halo 2 is overrated.
Subject: Halo 2 is overrated.

Damn I get tired of the word nostalgia being used as a negative. Everyone on the planet has some form of nostalgia and it's always considered a good thing, except in this forum.

If you truly like a game it's not nostalgia drives you to say it was the best, you like it the best because it was the best to you.

I played CE first and I like H2 better and there's a lot of people who played CE first and like H2 better. Where's the nostalgia theory on that?

  • 05.12.2011 1:18 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(

Nostalgia is a neutral word that can be used positively or negatively. For those of us that wish for the Halo franchise to move in a different direction, Halo 2 nostalgia would be considered negative. It is usually used to describe a defined memory. If one plays Halo 2 before CE they would have a defined memory that would change their opinion of Halo CE. If you played them in order then you can have a more informed opinion. Many of the people here who have posted have made it seem as if they started playing Halo with Halo 2 which would create a nostalgic bias.

  • 05.12.2011 1:38 PM PDT

Posted by: HiredN00bs
Arrogant hyperbolic exclamations of woe? Seems like a normal day for Halo/Bungie.net.

Posted by: NOBLE SlX
Nostalgia is a neutral word that can be used positively or negatively. For those of us that wish for the Halo franchise to move in a different direction, Halo 2 nostalgia would be considered negative. It is usually used to describe a defined memory. If one plays Halo 2 before CE they would have a defined memory that would change their opinion of Halo CE. If you played them in order then you can have a more informed opinion. Many of the people here who have posted have made it seem as if they started playing Halo with Halo 2 which would create a nostalgic bias.


The funny thing is, that many of the people here actually started with Halo 3 and had no H2 Service Record activity (if they have one) prior to 2008/2009.

[Edited on 05.12.2011 1:47 PM PDT]

  • 05.12.2011 1:46 PM PDT

Down, down to hell and say that I sent you there...

I came into the world with my legs forward and a woman cried "he was born with teeth!"

"I had no father I am like my father...I had no brother I am like my brother...And this word, "love" which old farts call divine be resident in men like you -blam!-. But not in me, I am my mother-blam!- self, alone."

You Are an Idiot

As someone who played close to 10,000 games in Halo 2, and could barely muster enough care to play around 3,000 in Halo 3, the series has taken a direction that has turned it to -blam!-. Reach is certainly better than Halo 3 in every aspect possible, but that's not really saying a lot. Halo 2 was the pinnacle of the series and it has gone downhill from there.

  • 05.12.2011 1:53 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(

Posted by: Method Man NYC
Posted by: NOBLE SlX
Nostalgia is a neutral word that can be used positively or negatively. For those of us that wish for the Halo franchise to move in a different direction, Halo 2 nostalgia would be considered negative. It is usually used to describe a defined memory. If one plays Halo 2 before CE they would have a defined memory that would change their opinion of Halo CE. If you played them in order then you can have a more informed opinion. Many of the people here who have posted have made it seem as if they started playing Halo with Halo 2 which would create a nostalgic bias.


The funny thing is, that many of the people here actually started with Halo 3 and had no H2 Service Record activity (if they have one) prior to 2008/2009.

Many people lost their gamertags from Xbox v1 to 360 because they couldn't remember the email/password, so I'm not sure you can prove that. The gamertags may have even been deleted by now so they wouldn't be able to find their stats.

Evidence A
Evidence B

[Edited on 05.12.2011 2:09 PM PDT]

  • 05.12.2011 2:02 PM PDT

Posted by: NOBLE SlX
Nostalgia is a neutral word that can be used positively or negatively. For those of us that wish for the Halo franchise to move in a different direction, Halo 2 nostalgia would be considered negative. It is usually used to describe a defined memory. If one plays Halo 2 before CE they would have a defined memory that would change their opinion of Halo CE. If you played them in order then you can have a more informed opinion. Many of the people here who have posted have made it seem as if they started playing Halo with Halo 2 which would create a nostalgic bias.
Nostalgia;
noun
1 a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days.
2 something that elicits or displays nostalgia.


1 a yearning for the return of past circumstances, events, etc
2 the evocation of this emotion, as in a book, film, etc
3 longing for home or family; homesickness

I don't see anything negative in the definition, only positive. People try to use it in this forum in a negative connotation but that is not in the meaning of the word as defined.

I strongly disagree with your last sentence, too many assumptions for me. Maybe those 'many' people did play H2 first and it really is the best game to them, rather than just nostalgia misguiding their judgement.

Halo 2 is good enough to be the best game, imo, with or without positive or negative connotations assigned to it.

Again, just my opinion.


[Edited on 05.12.2011 2:19 PM PDT]

  • 05.12.2011 2:16 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(

Posted by: Master Fox
As someone who played close to 10,000 games in Halo 2, and could barely muster enough care to play around 3,000 in Halo 3, the series has taken a direction that has turned it to -blam!-. Reach is certainly better than Halo 3 in every aspect possible, but that's not really saying a lot. Halo 2 was the pinnacle of the series and it has gone downhill from there.

Opinions are opinions. I like Reach a lot, but I would never put it over Halo 3. Halo 2 was the only speedbump in the series for me and I only played it because it was "the next Halo game" and at the time I enjoyed it (but not even close to any of the others). You didn't mention Halo CE, so I guess you didn't play it enough to mention it. I was skeptical with Halo 3 at first, but it turned out to have the best weapon balance and the maps were much more detailed and involving. It seems obvious to me that you represent one who has started with Halo 2. A lot of people started their xbox with Halo 2 because of the hype that Halo CE brought.

[Edited on 05.12.2011 2:28 PM PDT]

  • 05.12.2011 2:25 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(


Posted by: Grumpy1
Posted by: NOBLE SlX
Nostalgia is a neutral word that can be used positively or negatively. For those of us that wish for the Halo franchise to move in a different direction, Halo 2 nostalgia would be considered negative. It is usually used to describe a defined memory. If one plays Halo 2 before CE they would have a defined memory that would change their opinion of Halo CE. If you played them in order then you can have a more informed opinion. Many of the people here who have posted have made it seem as if they started playing Halo with Halo 2 which would create a nostalgic bias.
Nostalgia;
noun
1 a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days.
2 something that elicits or displays nostalgia.


1 a yearning for the return of past circumstances, events, etc
2 the evocation of this emotion, as in a book, film, etc
3 longing for home or family; homesickness

I don't see anything negative in the definition, only positive. People try to use it in this forum in a negative connotation but that is not in the meaning of the word as defined.

I strongly disagree with your last sentence, too many assumptions for me. Maybe those 'many' people did play H2 first and it really is the best game to them, rather than just nostalgia misguiding their judgement.

Halo 2 is good enough to be the best game, imo, with or without positive or negative connotations assigned to it.

Again, just my opinion.


No, no it's a neutral word. It does not relate to positive or negative. It's a noun relating to a state of mind. What one makes of it depends on how it is used. Using it in negatively does not contradict its meaning.

[Edited on 05.12.2011 2:32 PM PDT]

  • 05.12.2011 2:29 PM PDT

Posted by: NOBLE SlX
No, no it's a neutral word. It does not relate to positive or negative. It's a noun relating to a state of mind. What one makes of it depends on how it is used.
It defines a positive state of mind, things that were good that are longed for, an association of positive things. It's the whole meaning of the word as far as I'm concerned, definitely not neutral.

Nostalgia is used on this forum to suggest that someone who likes H2 the best can only be guided by misplaced nostalgia, I see it misused here constantly. In some cases, yes, that can be said but nostalgia is born from positive thoughts/deeds and it does not mean that those thoughts are somehow misplaced.

  • 05.12.2011 2:45 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(

Posted by: Grumpy1
Posted by: NOBLE SlX
No, no it's a neutral word. It does not relate to positive or negative. It's a noun relating to a state of mind. What one makes of it depends on how it is used.
It defines a positive state of mind, things that were good that are longed for, an association of positive things. It's the whole meaning of the word as far as I'm concerned, definitely not neutral.

Nostalgia is used on this forum to suggest that someone who likes H2 the best can only be guided by misplaced nostalgia, I see it misused here constantly. In some cases, yes, that can be said but nostalgia is born from positive thoughts/deeds and it does not mean that those thoughts are somehow misplaced.

Nope, you copy and pasted the definition, but apparently didn't read it. It's a neutral word that can be used positively and negatively. It might be about a positive feeling one has, but it does not mean that the feeling is merited. Also, this feeling can prevent one from moving forward and creates a resist for change. It's based on personal experience that could be misguided. More info on Nostalgia and here's an example of negative nostalgia.

  • 05.12.2011 3:07 PM PDT

i agree halo 2 was the best by far it was the corner stone for online gaming. if they stopped making halos after halo 2 i would have been thrilled. it was simple, and it was a load of fun spending hours getting your ranks up. now we have halo reach. there are grea things about this game, but there are several things that make this game not even close to halo 2. first the ranking system sucks so much. instead of the way it is now. now you are pretty much ranked by how much time you spend playing. there is no way to have competetive maches. they should have kept the rankings for each different game type then added the system now like you can e a commander but have a lvl 30 slayer score and a lvl 10 sniper score. this way you would play with people of the same skill level. its really frustrating loseing game after game because your teem sucks because your opponent is really gould and you get stuck with a teem that is terrible. all i play is slayer, and im fairly decent at it and i have no desire to play a whole game get 20+ kills and lose because i get stuck with the people who can play, so i quit out why am i going to waste my time on a game i cant win because my teem sucks. that leads me to getting banned for 10 minutes. that is the dumbest thing in the world.

  • 05.12.2011 3:11 PM PDT

Posted by: NOBLE SlX
Posted by: Grumpy1
Posted by: NOBLE SlX
No, no it's a neutral word. It does not relate to positive or negative. It's a noun relating to a state of mind. What one makes of it depends on how it is used.
It defines a positive state of mind, things that were good that are longed for, an association of positive things. It's the whole meaning of the word as far as I'm concerned, definitely not neutral.

Nostalgia is used on this forum to suggest that someone who likes H2 the best can only be guided by misplaced nostalgia, I see it misused here constantly. In some cases, yes, that can be said but nostalgia is born from positive thoughts/deeds and it does not mean that those thoughts are somehow misplaced.

Nope, you copy and pasted the definition, but apparently didn't read it. It's a neutral word that can be used positively and negatively. It might be about a positive feeling one has, but it does not mean that the feeling is merited. Also, this feeling can prevent one from moving forward and creates a resist for change. It's based on personal experience that could be misguided. More info on Nostalgia and here's an example of negative nostalgia.
Negative equality nostalgia is a term that merely means someone can take a negative attitude to someone else's positive nostalgia. If one guy is nostalgic that he did not die in a car wreck, that is positive nostalgia and if someone else is pissed about that it just means they are pissed that you are happy about your nostalgia. NEN is a term, not a word.

The same wiki on nostalgia says basically the same thing the dictionary said. Nostalgia is a positive mindset in my opinion.

Lol, maybe the next time someone trumpets the nostalgia thing I'll just tell them they have Negative Equality Nostalgia, it's not nostalgia but it is negative.





[Edited on 05.12.2011 3:27 PM PDT]

  • 05.12.2011 3:22 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(

"While nostalgia in reasonable doses can provide a sense of comfort for stressed-out adults, too much nostalgia can have a negative effect. It is very common to believe that an earlier decade was preferable to present day conditions, but that viewpoint can be misleading. People who grew up in the 1950s may remember hula hoops, Elvis Presley and penny candies, but they usually don't indulge memories of McCarthyism, repressive roles for women and a lack of racial equality. Every decade has its positive and negative aspects, so an unrealistic sense of nostalgia may create an unhealthy distortion of reality. Some people can get caught up in feelings of nostalgia that make their current lives seem mundane or unfulfilling by comparison."

  • 05.12.2011 3:26 PM PDT

I will BOoM You ALL!!!!

youre overrated. turd nugget.

  • 05.12.2011 3:28 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(


Posted by: big slash RCK
i agree halo 2 was the best by far it was the corner stone for online gaming. if they stopped making halos after halo 2 i would have been thrilled. it was simple, and it was a load of fun spending hours getting your ranks up. now we have halo reach. there are grea things about this game, but there are several things that make this game not even close to halo 2. first the ranking system sucks so much. instead of the way it is now. now you are pretty much ranked by how much time you spend playing. there is no way to have competetive maches. they should have kept the rankings for each different game type then added the system now like you can e a commander but have a lvl 30 slayer score and a lvl 10 sniper score. this way you would play with people of the same skill level. its really frustrating loseing game after game because your teem sucks because your opponent is really gould and you get stuck with a teem that is terrible. all i play is slayer, and im fairly decent at it and i have no desire to play a whole game get 20+ kills and lose because i get stuck with the people who can play, so i quit out why am i going to waste my time on a game i cant win because my teem sucks. that leads me to getting banned for 10 minutes. that is the dumbest thing in the world.


Welcome to the forums. But from your limited post history I have some suspicions regarding your identity. I noticed you claim to have played close to 7000 matches in Halo 2 and are traversing the Reach and Halo 2 forums creating threads using a copy of what you posted here. This fits the mold of one user of these forums, but that doesn't matter. I suggest you don't try to start flame wars on the Reach forums because that was the main reason I created this OP.

  • 05.12.2011 3:38 PM PDT

Posted by: NOBLE SlX
"While nostalgia in reasonable doses can provide a sense of comfort for stressed-out adults, too much nostalgia can have a negative effect. It is very common to believe that an earlier decade was preferable to present day conditions, but that viewpoint can be misleading. People who grew up in the 1950s may remember hula hoops, Elvis Presley and penny candies, but they usually don't indulge memories of McCarthyism, repressive roles for women and a lack of racial equality. Every decade has its positive and negative aspects, so an unrealistic sense of nostalgia may create an unhealthy distortion of reality. Some people can get caught up in feelings of nostalgia that make their current lives seem mundane or unfulfilling by comparison."
Yup, some people but not all, maybe even not most. It's the people here who yell nostalgia every time someone says they like H2 the best is what I'm talking about.

I shall use the term Negative Equality Nostalgia (NEN) on people who are pissed about us liking H2.

Nostalgia is positive, however, the results of too much nostalgia can be negative but the definition remains the same.

[Edited on 05.12.2011 3:40 PM PDT]

  • 05.12.2011 3:39 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(


Posted by: Grumpy1
Posted by: NOBLE SlX
"While nostalgia in reasonable doses can provide a sense of comfort for stressed-out adults, too much nostalgia can have a negative effect. It is very common to believe that an earlier decade was preferable to present day conditions, but that viewpoint can be misleading. People who grew up in the 1950s may remember hula hoops, Elvis Presley and penny candies, but they usually don't indulge memories of McCarthyism, repressive roles for women and a lack of racial equality. Every decade has its positive and negative aspects, so an unrealistic sense of nostalgia may create an unhealthy distortion of reality. Some people can get caught up in feelings of nostalgia that make their current lives seem mundane or unfulfilling by comparison."
Yup, some people but not all, maybe even not most. It's the people here who yell nostalgia every time someone says they like H2 the best is what I'm talking about.

I shall use the term Negative Equality Nostalgia (NEN) on people who are pissed about us liking H2.

Nostalgia is positive, however, the results of too much nostalgia can be negative but the definition remains the same.


If it is both negative and positive that would make it neutral which is what I said. How you use it is not wrong simply because it is used to put someone down. As long as it references the definition or the urban meaning then it is ok to use.

  • 05.12.2011 3:42 PM PDT

Posted by: NOBLE SlX
If it is both negative and positive that would make it neutral which is what I said. How you use it is not wrong simply because it is used to put someone down. As long as it references the definition or the urban meaning then it is ok to use.
The word nostalgia itself means a positive thought, never negative. It's what the nostalgia becomes that can be negative, not nostalgia itself. In the definition there is nothing close to negative, it refers to better positive times.

If someone is so nostalgic over missing the good times that they kill themselves, the nostalgia itself was and stays positive. It's the negative thoughts of present reality that cannot live up to the nostalgia that pulls the trigger, not the nostalgia itself. I see that as another Negative Equality Nostalgia that the person plays on themselves. The nostalgia is positive but the person could not handle present day troubles.

  • 05.12.2011 4:46 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(


Posted by: Grumpy1
Posted by: NOBLE SlX
If it is both negative and positive that would make it neutral which is what I said. How you use it is not wrong simply because it is used to put someone down. As long as it references the definition or the urban meaning then it is ok to use.
The word nostalgia itself means a positive thought, never negative. It's what the nostalgia becomes that can be negative, not nostalgia itself. In the definition there is nothing close to negative, it refers to better positive times.

If someone is so nostalgic over missing the good times that they kill themselves, the nostalgia itself was and stays positive. It's the negative thoughts of present reality that cannot live up to the nostalgia that pulls the trigger, not the nostalgia itself. I see that as another Negative Equality Nostalgia that the person plays on themselves. The nostalgia is positive but the person could not handle present day troubles.



I see what you are saying, but that doesn't mean you can't use nostalgia as a negative. Nostalgia is a personal reflection and is not fact. It can be used negative in the way that you can say that they are misguided by a distorted past and view of the present. Therefore it's a neutral word that can be used negatively. It also has to do with a personal experience which is very limited to the grand scheme of reality.

[Edited on 05.12.2011 5:44 PM PDT]

  • 05.12.2011 5:42 PM PDT

Posted by: NOBLE SlX
I see what you are saying, but that doesn't mean you can't use nostalgia as a negative. Nostalgia is a personal reflection and is not fact. It can be used negative in the way that you can say that they are misguided by a distorted past and view of the present. Therefore it's a neutral word that can be used negatively. It also has to do with a personal experience which is very limited to the grand scheme of reality.
You can say they are misguided by a distorted but positive (nostalgic) past but their view of the present has nothing to do with the nostalgia except they maybe hate themselves for having it so good back then.

I think that's why psychologists came up with NEN, for people who hate their present lives based on the positive past life. I still don't see nostalgia itself being anything other than positive, it's only the reactions to it that can be positive or negative.

I'll give you last rebuttal, I'm redundant at this point but it's an interesting subject.


  • 05.12.2011 7:18 PM PDT

This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.

Account Status: Silver :(


Posted by: Grumpy1
Posted by: NOBLE SlX
I see what you are saying, but that doesn't mean you can't use nostalgia as a negative. Nostalgia is a personal reflection and is not fact. It can be used negative in the way that you can say that they are misguided by a distorted past and view of the present. Therefore it's a neutral word that can be used negatively. It also has to do with a personal experience which is very limited to the grand scheme of reality.
You can say they are misguided by a distorted but positive (nostalgic) past but their view of the present has nothing to do with the nostalgia except they maybe hate themselves for having it so good back then.

I think that's why psychologists came up with NEN, for people who hate their present lives based on the positive past life. I still don't see nostalgia itself being anything other than positive, it's only the reactions to it that can be positive or negative.

I'll give you last rebuttal, I'm redundant at this point but it's an interesting subject.



That long quote I put a few posts back sums up everything. I can't really add anything, but perhaps it's not worded to where you can see it the way I can. Anyways, it's amazing how much this thread has digressed. Even though it represents a positive feeling, my opinion is that Nostalgia could be used positively or negatively because it's all based on personal experience and doesn't fill the whole picture. That is all. The amount of posts we wasted on this is ridiculous because it feels like we are both repeating ourselves.

  • 05.12.2011 7:46 PM PDT

Posted by: NOBLE SlX
That long quote I put a few posts back sums up everything. I can't really add anything, but perhaps it's not worded to where you can see it the way I can. Anyways, it's amazing how much this thread has digressed. Even though it represents a positive feeling, my opinion is that Nostalgia could be used positively or negatively because it's all based on personal experience and doesn't fill the whole picture. That is all. The amount of posts we wasted on this is ridiculous because it feels like we are both repeating ourselves.
Debating is not a waste, it is ofttimes redundant but in order to probe you have to see what the other person is made of. Your counterpoints were well constructed and we both had to think and that's never bad imo.

Probably, if I were scoring this, I would call it a draw.

  • 05.12.2011 9:03 PM PDT

Halo 2 is definitely a flawed game and the evidence is obvious.

Despite these flaws it still remains as my most play online game of all time with up to 20,000 games on multiple accounts. Let me put this into perspective

halo 2 -20,000 ish
Halo 3 -5000 ish
Reach - 500

So I may be a bit biased but despite how flawed it was, halo 2 is still the best of the three online because it was just straight up fun.

  • 05.13.2011 2:15 AM PDT

This is the average H2 Fanboy.
Xfire: JacobGRocks.
50 in H2/H3? Great, but you still fail at this.

This is the definition of Nostalgia Goggles:
There is a tendency for adults to see newer material in a medium (be it music, film, animation, or comic books) as inferior to the older 'classics' that they knew in their youth.
There are three levels of this. The first involves a person enjoying modern material, but preferring older classics instead. People subject to the first level are perfectly willing to accept newer material, even admitting certain material to be better than a classic. The second level involves a person believing that most material produced during modern times is greatly inferior, however, they are willing to admit that there are exceptions. The third level is a full-on despising of all modern works (which may or may not be limited to a single medium) and the absolute refusal to believe that anything could be even close to the level of the classics they used to enjoy.
There are many causes for this. First, people's tastes are generally based on the art they knew as they grew up and they continue to inform themselves on this basis. Second, tastes refine as one matures; what may have seemed brilliant to a child or teen would seem crude or laughable to most adults, but the memories of how great something from one's youth seemed linger long afterward, making the familiar examples seem better than more or less equivalent modern ones in comparison. Third, change in most art forms comes in waves, rather than developing continuously, and the transition from one wave to another can be jarring and unfamiliar - while the periods between waves tend to be uninspired across the board.
However, it is likely that the most important cause of this nostalgia is a consequence of Sturgeon's Law combined with the passage of time: As new material is released, the vast majority will be of mediocre or worse quality, but over time, a powerful selection pressure causes all but the best material (and in some infamous cases, the worst) to be rapidly forgotten, leaving an increasingly inaccurate impression of the overall quality of the genre over time. This is known as "the nostalgia filter", and can be easily demonstrated by a careful review of the period works that are not remembered today.
The distance of time also compresses the memories of past eras, causing the best work to seem more continuous than it was, whereas "new" is a continually moving frontier: between this memory compression and the selective memories of "the good stuff", the past of the genre is remembered as a time when "it all was good"
One final possible reason: most developers/authors/artists/musicians/etc. create whatever is popular at that day and age. This means that what was popular last year isn't being produced in the same density. If a person's preference is for something that is out of fashion right now, they may have little choice besides 'hang onto the older version' or 'give up on it completely'.
Of course, just because a person prefers an older work to more modern things doesn't mean they only like it because of nostalgia. Sometimes the older work is better, or at least has it's own appeal that the present things don't - even beyond "Charm", which is often thrown around to describe stuff mostly to just mean "It's nostalgic".
Sam Viviano, art director of MAD Magazine, has a saying which defines the Nostalgia Filter: "Mad was at its best whenever you first started reading it." A corollary to that is that, if you didn't like Mad, it was at its best shortly before you started reading it.
You'll notice that this trope sometimes overlaps with the Periphery Hatedom - Almost all the time people trashing about how the new stuff sucks brings up stuff that was marketed towards the youth of our generation, and the stuff that's considered a "classic" and is an example of "good" works? The stuff they enjoyed when they were younger. Never mind that 20 years ago, when it was being marketed towards them, the 14-30 year olds of that generation were saying the exact same thing we are today. It's a neverending cycle.


Source: TVTropes

  • 05.13.2011 6:06 AM PDT

Load of crap.

  • 05.13.2011 7:09 AM PDT