I read the subject line "Lonely Dad... Retro Game Collecting," and thought, oh, this must surely be about me! Except I haven't found the community part. Would love to know which Discord channel you're on if you don't mind sharing. Is it mainly U.K.-based? Or are there people from other countries too? I'm in the U.S., more specifically an aging, sparsely populated county in the aging, sparsely populated state of Maine, so it's definitely been a challenge to find community locally. I did actually meet a dad twice who is clearly a big retro game collector, and I texted him twice a long time ago, but nothing ever happened. Perhaps I should try again. As someone who also works from home, I have found the rural environment to be more isolating than it would be for someone who can at least work with other people in a physical space. It's one of the big reasons why I'm hoping to move to Maine's biggest metro area later this year, as I know there is definitely a lot more community potential down there.
The discord is based on a youtuber called Retro Ghetto. It is mostly UK as he is a UK based youtuber but we Def have at least one member who is stateside. We also have someone from Oz as well.
I feel the pain of rural living. Growing up in a rural area absolutely taught me to keep my hobbies quiet if they were out of the ordinary.
I hope you find what you are searching for if you do make your move.
Love this! I feel so awkward talking about my fascination of games, collecting, and modding efforts at work and around family and friends. It’s great to find little corners of the internet where everyone is just as excited as you!
This is a dangerously tempting path for me to go down as I’ve recently gotten into retro games and emulation as a way of checking out the titles I could never play as a kid.
I’m very lucky to have friends that are interested in gaming in general but the retro space feels both niche and, somehow, special to me, someone who never played a handheld game as a kid that wasn’t Pokemon or Harry Potter lol.
I also feel like there’s less pressure with older games to be aware of the larger landscape of the industry, of what’s popular and what’s in The Conversation, because it’s inherently not of the present. Sure, maybe you HAVE to try X title if you just got a GameBoy Advance SP, but it just feels like a hobby where the vibe is, “hey, go at your own pace.” Which I think vibes with the attitude of the community the author has found in this Discord server. To back up his point further, Discord can be such a good home for those kinds of conversations because it lends itself so well to a kind of “drop in when you’re free” flow of engagement.
I’d also highly recommend Retro Game Corps on YouTube as a great resource for people who are interested in retro games, emulation and more specifically the hardware market around emulation which is a wild market right now. Just gird yourself, if you’re prone to fomo or collecting, because there is a LOT of different stuff to get enticed by.
Good on you OP, I feel for your craving community, especially since the pandemic where we’ve all retrenched a little, and I’m happy both for you finding that and that you’re having so much fun with such a cool hobby!
I read the subject line "Lonely Dad... Retro Game Collecting," and thought, oh, this must surely be about me! Except I haven't found the community part. Would love to know which Discord channel you're on if you don't mind sharing. Is it mainly U.K.-based? Or are there people from other countries too? I'm in the U.S., more specifically an aging, sparsely populated county in the aging, sparsely populated state of Maine, so it's definitely been a challenge to find community locally. I did actually meet a dad twice who is clearly a big retro game collector, and I texted him twice a long time ago, but nothing ever happened. Perhaps I should try again. As someone who also works from home, I have found the rural environment to be more isolating than it would be for someone who can at least work with other people in a physical space. It's one of the big reasons why I'm hoping to move to Maine's biggest metro area later this year, as I know there is definitely a lot more community potential down there.
Hey!
The discord is based on a youtuber called Retro Ghetto. It is mostly UK as he is a UK based youtuber but we Def have at least one member who is stateside. We also have someone from Oz as well.
I feel the pain of rural living. Growing up in a rural area absolutely taught me to keep my hobbies quiet if they were out of the ordinary.
I hope you find what you are searching for if you do make your move.
Love this! I feel so awkward talking about my fascination of games, collecting, and modding efforts at work and around family and friends. It’s great to find little corners of the internet where everyone is just as excited as you!
This is a dangerously tempting path for me to go down as I’ve recently gotten into retro games and emulation as a way of checking out the titles I could never play as a kid.
I’m very lucky to have friends that are interested in gaming in general but the retro space feels both niche and, somehow, special to me, someone who never played a handheld game as a kid that wasn’t Pokemon or Harry Potter lol.
I also feel like there’s less pressure with older games to be aware of the larger landscape of the industry, of what’s popular and what’s in The Conversation, because it’s inherently not of the present. Sure, maybe you HAVE to try X title if you just got a GameBoy Advance SP, but it just feels like a hobby where the vibe is, “hey, go at your own pace.” Which I think vibes with the attitude of the community the author has found in this Discord server. To back up his point further, Discord can be such a good home for those kinds of conversations because it lends itself so well to a kind of “drop in when you’re free” flow of engagement.
I’d also highly recommend Retro Game Corps on YouTube as a great resource for people who are interested in retro games, emulation and more specifically the hardware market around emulation which is a wild market right now. Just gird yourself, if you’re prone to fomo or collecting, because there is a LOT of different stuff to get enticed by.
Good on you OP, I feel for your craving community, especially since the pandemic where we’ve all retrenched a little, and I’m happy both for you finding that and that you’re having so much fun with such a cool hobby!
Also low key “I’m sure there must be a word in German for it” is the line of the article lol