Comments on: Late to the Party: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/12/15/late-to-the-party-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-1998/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Myles McNutt http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/12/15/late-to-the-party-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-1998/comment-page-1/#comment-52392 Thu, 16 Dec 2010 06:47:12 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=7624#comment-52392 Related to this, it is largely expected that Nintendo’s 3D remake of the game will be a launch title for the 3DS this Spring, so we’ll see if a new generation responds to the title in an “exciting” new context.

]]> By: Amber Watts http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/12/15/late-to-the-party-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-1998/comment-page-1/#comment-52342 Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:46:53 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=7624#comment-52342 This is so interesting–OoT is, hands down, my favorite game of all time, but my own love of Ocarina really is largely rooted in the experience of playing it for the first time. I’d skipped the 16-bit era, this was the first game I’d even looked at in a decade, and the first play was, as ridiculous as it sounds, magical. We literally spent the first hour just looking around and the next few months beating (and re-beating) the game. I’ve replayed it since, and, for me, it “holds up,” but I really do wonder now how much of that is rooted in how much I loved it the first time around?

]]> By: Nina Huntemann http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/12/15/late-to-the-party-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-1998/comment-page-1/#comment-52337 Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:22:55 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=7624#comment-52337 Thanks for the comment Jason. I am hopping that Zelda players will chime in to answer exactly the question you pose about nostalgia and context. In preparation for playing Ocarina and writing this post, I read comments from plenty of gamers (designer and players) who claim the game “still holds up” though I didn’t get a sense of what that meant for most.

I had a similar experience when I tried to replay the King’s Quest games. For me the series’ pleasure is rooted in its initial context of play and so I get very little pleasure in replay. But its value and importance to the development of the medium persists; it is an historical artifact of gaming in its time.

As you said, a good story is still a good story, and Zelda has a good story and great characters. But I would absolutely describe my experience as one of appreciation vs. enjoyment. I wanted to enjoy Ocarina. I did not want to discover that my gaming pleasure is tied to contemporary forms, which is why I mention arcade-style games. What is it about those games that do “hold up” after nearly three decades? In terms of game play mechanics, arcade games are very rudimentary. Is it because they DON’T have much of a story?

]]> By: Jason Mittell http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/12/15/late-to-the-party-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-1998/comment-page-1/#comment-52330 Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:29:16 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=7624#comment-52330 Nina,

Your post raises a huge question for considering games as a cultural phenomenon: how much is a game’s value, importance & pleasure rooted in its initial context? It seems that you could only appreciate rather than truly enjoy Ocarina’s innovations (and I’ll admit I’ve not played it either, as my Nintendo experience skipped the N64/GameCube eras), and the gameplay that once felt exciting didn’t age well. While this may be similar to other media, as innovative silent or even sound films might be hard to appreciate today, a good story is still a good story. But gameplay seems so much about offering new possibilities of experience – when those “new” experiences are commonplace, can the innovators still be fun? Are people who still love Ocarina today seeing it through the lens of nostalgia or are they seeing something that you missed?

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