Experimenting with nostalgia triggers

Back in November I found a clinical psychology study of nostalgia and extracted a list of major triggers:

• Shared memories within social interaction -- "do you remember...?"
• Sensory inputs -- visual, sounds, smells
• Indirect association (e.g. hearing grandad's favourite song)
• Similar events
• Depression

A games designer cannot manipulate all of these; indeed, some of these triggers are highly personalised and unsuitable for manipulating a wide audience.  However, the majority of these triggers can be exploited by reference to common cultural experiences.

Remember the spirit-based "Banda" duplicators used by schools in the 1970s & early '80s?
If you do, you're already probably recalling that "freshly printed" smell as you read this.

Depression is certainly a tough one to address!  Certainly, it could be induced by narrative -- an excellent example being the final scene in David Fincher's movie Se7en -- but it is also something that requires careful handling to get right without alienating the audience.  I feel this would justify an entire MA project in itself, so I'm staying well away from this particular trigger.

At the end of my literature & contextual research phase, I came to the conclusion that there are specific triggers which are very well-suited to game design -- especially within the elements of aesthetics and mechanics.

• Visual triggers (aesthetic) -- sensory input & shared memories; association with time period
• Auditory triggers (aesthetic) -- sensory input, association with time period
• Mechanical triggers (mechanic) -- similar events (emulating an experience or how objects behave)

In the current experimental phase of my research, I begin by verifying the methods I can use to provoke a nostalgic affect.  Forthcoming posts will examine respective (potential) visual, auditory & mechanical triggers and then seek to verify their effectiveness in isolation.  Later stages will consider them in combination and in a game context.

Through the back of the wardrobe...

After visiting the Land of Lost Content I found that collections of historical ephemera were few and far between -- often refuges for stereotyped crackpot enthusiasts, hidden away in backstreets, and focused on wonderfully mundane objects (such as the legendary British Lawnmower Museum or Barometer World).

While researching nostalgic items, one thing that has kept cropping up is the need to find photographic references.  Google Images is all well and good, but a large proportion of photos on the web are post-1990, so finding anything before that period can be difficult.

Then I had a flash of inspiration -- HOME SHOPPING CATALOGUES!

Yes, they're full of clothes & fashion, but they also contain a wealth of period furniture, electronic goods, and toys & games.  A veritable treasure trove of ideas!

As previously established, those grey,
black & red stripes just scream 1980s.

Look at these examples from an old 1977 Argos catalogue -- some cracking nostalgia!  Evel Knievel, Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky & Hutch, an Airfix pontoon bridge and even Super Flight Deck.

However, it was at this stage that I stumbled into a seedy, murky world...

Finding archives of home shopping catalogues is not as straightforward as newspaper or magazines.  I'd expect major libraries to carry historical design journals; the likes of Argos, Littlewoods, Kays, Marshall Ward or Grattan are less likely to grace their shelves.

So I went looking online for individuals who might have odd scans of pages from old catalogues.  What I discovered was a major black market in full catalogue scans.  I kid you not!

Dozens of people scanning catalogues, converting them to PDF and selling them on eBay. A few examples: Freemans 1994, Brian Mills 1997 and even an Argos 1974-1986 compilation.  If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself.  Of course the spurious "public domain" or "copyright permission" claims are all claptrap, but I can't see Home Retail Group wasting their time & money chasing these people with solicitors.

This is not a new concept.  There is a similar huge market for scanned comics, especially those which have never been released digitally by copyright owners.  However, home shopping catalogues are not the kind of thing you can read again-and-again; this is an extremely niche market.

Obtaining paper copies is just as difficult.  A typical paper mid-1990s Kays catalogue goes for around £22.  Wow!  Given that the primary owners of these publications were women, it adds a new irony to the old chestnut "my mum threw out all my old comics and they'd be worth a fortune now".

So, where do I go from here?  Do I spend a fortune obtaining illicit copies of Freemans mail order paperbacks?  Do I join the ranks of uncomfortable-looking men in long coats who furtively pass telephone-directory-sized tomes to each other in back alleys, hoping that nobody is looking?

Thankfully not.

It turns out that there are some official archives of this kind of thing.  Phew!

The Kays Heritage Group has a collection dating from the 1890s to modern day, available for research purposes and housed at the University of Worcester.  Sounds like a good idea for a day trip!

That 1990s Look

Following on from my examinations of background visual indicators of the 1970s and 1980s, this post attempts to find ways of suggesting a 1990s setting without using period iconography (e.g. Acid House smiley face).

The absence of iconography is important.  It's too easy to make something appear to be 1980s by shoving a Rubik's Cube into the scene, or a Space Hopper for the 1970s.  I want the environment to feel right before adding stuff like that into the scene. Hopefully, the cumulative effect will counter any adjustments made to items (where these items might otherwise infringe copyright or trademarks).

The 1990s has been a hard decade to pin down in this manner.  However, with help from classmates, the first aspect to address was identified as the use of colour & patterns.

Dayglo and fluorescent colours were all the rage in fashion, mostly fuelled by the clubbing and rave subculture of the early '90s.  Ultraviolet "black light" causes these colours to glow, and this effect helped create a "modern" spin on retro-1960s psychedelic stylings.

Patterns included animal (leopardskin spots, zebra stripes) and patchwork.

Another innovation of the period which leaked into fashion was fractal mathematics, which had surged in popularity during the late 1980s with advances in home computer technology & graphics.  In line with the aforementioned 1960s retro affectation, Mandelbrot patterns became the new Paisley pattern equivalent.

The 1960s "vibe" was not only a cyclical fashion trend but also served as a symbolic link for rave drug culture, with fractals and dayglo colours fitting neatly into the psychotropic framework.

Room decor changed as well, but in a different way.  Where the 1970s & 1980s had focused on particular colours, the 1990s was a bit of a free-for-all (before returning to 1970s browns in the first decade of the 2000s).  Eclectic mixtures of pattern and colour became acceptable.

Of course, like the preceding 1980s, the whole decade did not follow a single trend.  However, the highlighted visual indicators serve to drop the viewer into a time period quickly.

Fizzy drinks

Nostalgia is a very tricky thing because it is so subjective.  One person's memories are rarely another's, so one of the things I realised early in my research is that I need to concentrate on items which are likely to be ubiquitous in particular periods of recent (British) history.

Like sweets, fizzy drinks can take many of us back to a quixotic childhood.  There are a number of triggers available here so I thought I'd examine a few aspects which can aid the creation of artefacts for games.

First is branding and advertising.  Few of us who lived through the 1970s will have forgotten the "lip-smackin'-thirst-quenchin'" adverts for Pepsi.

Full 1974 advert available on YouTube

Companies like Cresta ("It's frothy, man") Corona built up general brands; specific products like Barr's Tizer and Irn-Bru have also gained a prominence over the years.  Strong advertising campaigns have left a similar legacy for non-fizzy drinks like Kia-Ora ("I'll be your dog") and Um Bongo ("they drink it in the Congo").

Then there's stuff on the periphery, like Soda Stream.  It has never really gone away, but went into decline a couple of decades ago and an attempt at re-launch a quirky, high-end product in the early 2010s has not really caught on in the UK as much as in the rest of Europe.

The drink receptacles themselves are of great interest to me.  In the mid-1980s fizzy drinks cans changed appearance, and it is increasingly difficult to find examples of older can designs.

First was the shape of the can: older cans looked more like baked bean tins, but the introduction of necking made the top and bottom of the can pull inwards to both strengthen the can and reduce metal usage.

Also introduced around the mid-1980s was the stay-push tab.  This replaced the older ring-pull which was associated with litter and many a cut finger.

Ring-pulls are, in themselves, an iconic image of the 1970s, possibly because this decade represented the height of sales of the older style of can.  Certainly a very useful item to add to the ambient period feel of a scene.

I've talked about the appeal of old-style Lucozade bottles before, with the orange cellophane wrap and medically dubious healing powers.  Another iconic item to embed in a scene.

Finally the last thing I want to mention is the wide range of flavours available.  Modern sales analysis techniques have left consumers with a pitiful range of products, and too many companies seeking to grab market share of existing big-selling flavours (e.g. my local Tesco stocks four different brands of Aero rip-off chocolate bars, all available in chocolate, orange or mint only).

The 1960s-1990s saw an explosion of obscure flavours -- strawberryade, pineappleade, limeade & lager, to name a few.  So, not only can I offer old-style can designs & forgotten brands, but there are also fantastic nostalgic flavours to consider:

Fizzy drinks offer an easy way to set period and to trigger nostalgic affect, and they can form a natural set of objects to assist with gameplay (obstacles or platforms).  I anticipate that they will be very useful in my project.

Through The Years

A couple of months ago I'd started exploring the "look" of recent decades in an effort to find ways to enhance period aesthetics in my game designs.

Imagine my surprise when the following story fell into my lap:

Texas Teacher Dale Irby Wears Same Outfit For 40 Years In Dallas
Huffington Post, 3 July 2013

A fun-loving teacher has become an internet sensation after school photos of him wearing the same tank top and shirt for 40 years went viral.

Dale Irby, 63, accidentally wore the same brown v-necked tank top and big-collared disco shirt in two consecutive school photos from 1973. When he realised what he had done, the embarrassed teacher's wife Cathy dared him to repeat it for a third year.The PE teacher managed to keep up the joke and for the past 40 years staff and pupils have eagerly awaited Mr Irby's arrival at school for the annual photo.

The story originated in the Dallas Morning News and spread virally through news outlets worldwide. (Indeed, the fast spread of the images became a news item in itself.)

It offers a unique opportunity to examine images taken in an identical context over a spread of four decades, which can be used to verify (or challenge) the period characteristics identified in my earlier posts.  To start this process I re-arranged the original photos grouped by decade:

Let's start by looking at some 1970s images in more detail:

My "1970s Look" article postulated the following period details:

• Faded colour, with lots of brown & beige
• Sunshine and lens flares
• Patterned wallpaper

These photos clearly exhibit fading (low-contrast too) and lots of brown.  Obviously Irby's joke requires him to continue with the camel tank-top in later years, but it was certainly in fashion at the time of the first photo.  (Similarly, the fashion for thinner rims on glasses is noticeable toward the end of the decade.)

The photos were taken indoors, so no chance for sunshine.  No wallpaper either, but the backgrounds for earlier photos appear to be school murals; 1980s onward use mottled muslin back cloths.  A quick bit of research tells me that muslin use goes back to the early days of photography & cinema, but I don't personally recall seeing many school photos which used it until the 1980s.  This could be useful for extra period decoration, if including portrait photos in a room -- the painted backgrounds definitely look more old-fashioned.

Next we'll examine some of the 1980s photos:

My "1980s Look" post postulated:

• Lots of black / night-time, with under-saturated (but not quite faded) primary colours.
• Stripes
• Glow

These are certainly darker, and the colours are certainly stronger without being vivid.  Stripes & glow are not a style option here, but the images (and light reflections) are definitely sharper.

By the 1990s we're seeing more saturated colour (certainly for the background, which is also lighter) and a fashion change in the glasses which have shrunk a little.

Finally, the 2000s brings another increase in sharpness of images (notice the resolution of the shirt pattern) and even more vivid & crisp colour.  Another noticeable change is more balanced lighting, including some accenting.

Well, Mr Irby -- thank you very much for a small joke that, 40 years later, became a minor worldwide news story.  It has proven useful in many more ways that you could have ever anticipated, and has assisted in the process of applying nostalgia within video game design...