Coincidentally, two pieces I’ve done relating to nostalgia and childhood memory have come online at about the same time. You might know I do a column in Edge magazine, and then a couple months after those hit newsstands the columns come online. Wasn’t that long ago that my last one, about how the way we cover and examine games needs to grow up, was generating some discussion on Twitter, which, by the way, I very much appreciated following!

I guess it makes sense to follow a discussion on looking ahead with one about looking back. Here, I discuss the important role nostalgia plays in both writing about and creating games. At the same time, today’s column at Gamasutra takes the idea a step further: While ultimately languishing in terminal adolescence and obsessing on the memory of what little boys used to like is one of the greatest forces holding games back, there exist some clear examples of how a selective and insightful relationship with our childhood memories can actually create more timeless and universal games.

It’s the idea of “intelligent nostalgia” — what to keep from our valuable past and what to let go of.