Found my ideological nemesis in the retro gaming sphere

[atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org]

Found my ideological nemesis in the retro gaming sphere.

I can't stand Clayton Morris.

It's not just his Patriot hat. It's not just his "Don't Tread on Me" patch. It's not just that his whole video is just regurgitated conspiracy theories, including the notion that COVID was a "fake" pandemic.

It's that he doesn't actually back anything up with actual data.

He claims we're entering a "golden age" where physical media of retro consoles will soon go up in price.

Well, looking at pricecharting.com shows that CIB media peaked in 2021, and has been falling ever since. For example, Castlevania for NES peaked at $292.77 in 2021. It is now $198.82.

What about for Metroid Prime on GameCube? Supposedly, we're seeing greater demand than ever for GC titles. Yet that too peaked at $39.53 in 2021. It's now $24.83.

Morris claims there is sudden demand for Nintendo Wii games. Super Mario Galaxy peaked at $18.61 in 2020. It is now $15.98.

Periodically, YouTube influencers bang the drum on how demand for retro gaming is greater than ever, and if you don't get in now, you'll be missing out. Which is exactly what Morris is claiming, but the conceit is that he's calling retro gaming stores as a data point.

How many stores has he called? Which stores has he called? Why are we only hearing from one particular retailer?

I am hearing a different story from retro gaming stores in my area. The lone Play N' Save closed down. Press Start tells me it's a tough business. Gamedeals is doing all right, but it's not a gold rush.

Who's right? Morris or me? Either way, we're just sharing anecdotes—I just happen to admit my anecdotes are indeed anecdotes.

The other leaps in logic are, of course, ridiculous. Parents are buying consoles because China could destroy America's Internet infrastructure? Sure, and they can initiate a ground invasion too—hunting down all your precious game cartridges to burn them in a giant pyre.

You don't own your Steam games; you're just paying for a license? Yeah, that's also true for physical media as well. Your cartridges are just a license.

But most of all, the idea that everyone's buying a GameCube because the price of RAM is skyrocketing is a wild take. If what I want is to play PC games, why would I opt for a 25-year-old console when a 10-year-old PC can still play new releases—and for drastically cheaper too?

For example, Thysisatery was released today. It runs on 4GB of RAM and any i3 CPU. The current price is $9.09. Which makes it cheaper than Metroid Prime on GameCube.

"But you don't own a physical copy!!!"

Yeah, PC gamers don't care for physical media the way console gamers do. And I know this because I buy physical media for PC. Last week, I bought StarCraft on CD for $3.50.

Now why don't PC gamers care about physical media? Because unlike consoles, physical media has historically had a terrible reputation. It's had issues with DRM, requiring an Internet connection, sometimes including rootkits.

Which, funny enough, is why I'm a big fan of GOG. I get the offline installer. No DRM. No surprises.

And this is where I really call shenanigans. If I wanted to, I can create a physical copy of my entire GOG library, which now numbers 561 games, many of them acquired for free.

But this doesn't serve grifters like Morris because GOG games are not "investments". Physical game collectors don't like them. They are immune to flipping.

Retro gaming is not in a new golden age. It's just the same old cycle of grifters trying to turn nostalgia into an asset class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kAVbXplHWA