On r/gaming today, memory and momentum collided: fans marked birthdays for foundational games and hardware, while debates over pricing, performance, and publisher messaging shaped expectations for the next year. At the same time, a community-built update and a fresh indie reveal reminded everyone why players keep showing up.
Anniversaries, artifacts, and the power of shared memory
Gamers leaned into nostalgia with a post resurfacing Gabe Newell playtesting Half-Life in 1998 as the genre-defining shooter turned 27, and a celebratory thread marking the Wii’s 19th year that instantly summoned launch-day chaos, bowling shoulder aches, and long-lived consoles. The tone was affectionate and communal—less about specs and more about how these touchstones still live rent-free in players’ heads.
"27 years and it's still an absolute gem. One of the rare games I can happily replay every couple years, and still have a blast going through it all again!" - u/HoveringPorridge (874 points)
That remembrance extended into craft and ritual with a hand-built homage—a Hollow Knight memorial for a fallen ladybug—underscoring how this community often turns nostalgia into tangible art. Sentimentality here isn’t just wistful; it’s participatory, looping old emotions back into new creations.
Price, performance, and publisher spin
Hardware and platform economics dominated the day’s most heated thread, spurred by LinusTechTips’ recounting of a Steam Machine pricing chat at Valve that signaled expectations north of “console pricing.” The community’s quick math crystallized anxiety around affordability, value, and who ultimately swallows the subsidy.
"799 or 899...." - u/kamumu (8405 points)
That same calculus carried into Nintendo speculation after reports that Final Fantasy VII Remake will run at 1080p/30 in docked mode on a next-gen Switch, a reminder that performance targets set perception long before any purchase. Players are benchmarking the future against their wallets as much as their TVs.
"We went from 10 year outdated hardware to 5 year outdated hardware." - u/BitingArtist (472 points)
Publishers, meanwhile, tried to steer the narrative: EA’s declaration that Battlefield 6 is the year’s best-selling shooter met classic Reddit side-eye, while Ubisoft’s promise to communicate earnings by November 21 read like a clock-watching exercise. The takeaway: markets talk, but players’ trust still hinges on delivery over declarations.
Community-led grinds and fresh experiments
The day’s purest win for player agency came from Old School RuneScape finally shipping its long-memed Sailing skill—a years-long pitch turned reality with new islands, ships, and quests. It’s a case study in how patient, iterative collaboration can turn a running joke into a flagship feature.
"This was first pitched to players in 2015… It has been a community meme since then, and now it’s a thing." - u/_Didds_ (575 points)
Elsewhere, a viral love-hate carousel—the ‘Toxic Gamer X Game Relationship’ grid—captured the cycle of frustration and return that defines modern live-service and annualized series, even as curiosity drifted toward something new in the first gameplay reveal of Fatekeeper. Together, they trace a familiar arc: players will grind what they know, but they’re always scouting for the next fresh swing.