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We've all looked back at things we used to love and realised that we actually had really bad taste in the past and were utterly wrong to ever like them. The usual reaction is to dismiss it and move on, but I thought it might be interesting to think about why we liked things that are so obviously bad. So tell us what you liked, why it's terrible, and what made you so blind to its obvious flaws. I'll start. The thing: The Lone Wolf series by Joe Dever. Why it's terrible: Lone Wolf is a series of game books, or basically single-player Dungeons & Dragons in book form. The stories are really straight-forward, the hero travels around killing a bunch of bad guys and monsters until he reaches whatever the goal was for that book and that's about it. The gameplay mechanics are wildly unbalanced, there are choices you can make that will just outright kill you, and others that will make it practically impossible to win later on. The biggest problem there is that you get advantages from having completed earlier books in the series, but he also tried to make it so that you could pick up any book and just play that one by itself, which meant that it ended up being really difficult to do each book as a stand-alone, but ridiculously easy if you did them all in order. Except for a few times when having played previous books would make it drastically harder. I'm pretty sure the only way to actually beat the entire series is to memorise the ideal path through each book, and even then you probably still have to cheat. Why I loved it: Firstly, I'd heard of Dungeons & Dragons and really wanted to play it, but no one I knew was at all interested in it. Since I didn't have a computer that could run whatever D&D style games were around at the time, gamebooks were as close as I could get. Besides, my parents wouldn't let me play video games all day, but reading books all day was fine. Secondly, I'm a sucker for world building. The fact that each Lone Wolf book told you more about the world and built up the mythology was a major selling point. I could probably still go into detail about the backstory and various creatures and people of Lone Wolf. Thirdly, despite the obvious balance problems it caused (which I was aware of even then), I loved the fact that I could take the same character with the same stats and powers and equipment from one book to the next, getting stronger and better as I went on. It felt like actually achieving something. This was the main reason that I didn't like the far superior Fighting Fantasy series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone because each book in that series stands alone and has a completely different setting and characters.
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Feb 2, 2014 04:17
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a whole bunch of things but mostly ska
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Feb 2, 2014 05:14
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A poo poo-ton of nu metal in the late 90's. Korn and Staind, mostly.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:18
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All Raymond E. Feist books. At the time they were titillating and engrossing. Looking back, they were all very similar and the main characters were beyond powerful, destroying any illusion of danger to them.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:27
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I used to play a lot of free to play Korean games my freshman and sophomore year of high school. The only one I don't really regret playing was GunZ. Yes, with a capital Z. It was a buggy piece of poo poo game, but that was the only reason it was appealing, because the glitches essentially meant most people could literally fly up walls or pull off some anime sword bullshit blocking bullets while zipping along the ground or fire shotguns at over twice their reload speed or a variety of other crazy poo poo that wasn't intended. The downside is that the netcode was similarly lovely so it doubled the effect of ping with no systems in place to compensate, so laggy games became a guessing game of where they would be a split second in the future. My best memories of that game were flying through the sky raining rockets down on people complaining that I was a noob/human being/hacker.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:35
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Op's mom
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Feb 2, 2014 05:37
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Ishmael posted:All Raymond E. Feist books. At the time they were titillating and engrossing. Looking back, they were all very similar and the main characters were beyond powerful, destroying any illusion of danger to them. I started reading them a while back. They were okay but I stopped about 3 books in. Like you said, it seemed like the main dudes had way too much power. Also meant to edit this in with the last post, whoops.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:38
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System of a Down. I was a teenager, all my friends were into it, raging against The Man seemed like a cool thing to do, but then I went to college and grew the gently caress up and all of a sudden their lolrandommonkeycheese lyrics sounded like a fifteen year old trying too hard to get attention to validate themselves.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:43
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1. Hot Pockets. When I was a teen I'd sometimes eat two Hot Pockets (usually Pepperoni, Cheeseburger, or Meatball) for every lunch, for a whole week. The only thing that stopped me was when we ran out. Then my mom started going to Costco, and she'd come back with a giant box of their "Pocket Meals," which are the exact same thing, only Kirkland brand, and about 15% larger. Looking back, I wonder how I survived and never ballooned to like 300 loving pounds. I guess my only saving grace was that I was extremely active in high school, playing two or three sports every year. 2. Vodka. The first hard liquor I drank regularly. I'd throw a few shots of it into Dr. Pepper or Vanilla Coke. Then I woke up and realized it was utter poo poo. Nowadays, other than the very occasional Moscow Mule or White Russian, I never touch the stuff anymore.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:54
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This hairdo.
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Feb 2, 2014 06:26
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Warhammer. I mean, there's nothing wrong with the figures themselves, and the community isn't that bad, but Games Workshop is so hilariously incompetant it's not worth following the hobby any more.
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Feb 2, 2014 06:50
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Star Wars novels. I feel dirty typing that. Not like Luke-has-sex-with-a-computer dirty, but dirty.
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Feb 2, 2014 07:13
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Feb 2, 2014 07:21
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A whole lot of people I used to be friends with. Looking back, the majority of them were shallow, self-centred people who would constantly blame myself and others for their own failings. I miss hanging out with people, but I sure as hell don't miss them.
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Feb 2, 2014 07:46
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I'm surprised I'm the first one to say it, but anime. I'll still defend Satoshi Kon, Naoki Urasawa and Hayao Miyazaki to the grave, but holy loving hell is the bulk of that stuff as terrible as the people who thrive on it. I was into it because I was a teenage animation enthusiast and actually managed to pick up some good cartooning techniques through observation. I'm now a twenty-something animation enthusiast and can't name you a non-Ghibli anime post-2007.
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Feb 2, 2014 09:44
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Das Boo posted:I'm surprised I'm the first one to say it, but anime. I'll still defend Satoshi Kon, Naoki Urasawa and Hayao Miyazaki to the grave, but holy loving hell is the bulk of that stuff as terrible as the people who thrive on it. 'Sup  I guess to be even more specific, there was a late-90s shounen manga called Shaman King. When I was about 10 or 11 I remember thinking it was the coolest poo poo, since I had, and still do have a thing for world mythology and the way the spirit fights worked seemed really cool to me at the time. Then I grew up and tried reading it and it turns out it's the most generic anime in the entire world.
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Feb 2, 2014 17:14
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Atlas Shrugged. Nobody can top that.
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Feb 2, 2014 17:20
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/\ Oh yeah?
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Feb 2, 2014 17:39
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ILL ON PZONES posted:Atlas Shrugged. Nobody can top that.  For about a year, as a high school senior who thought he knew everything until PoliSci 101 beat it out of me. I was also an "I'm a libertarian but not one of THOSE libertarians!" for a while, being a disciple of the Austrian Church of Economics while not having a hard on for Jesus, guns, weed and Ron Paul. Taco Bell. How did I ever think that all those combinations of salt, grease and iceberg lettuce tasted good?
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Feb 2, 2014 17:48
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bringmyfishback posted:Star Wars novels. I feel dirty typing that. Not like Luke-has-sex-with-a-computer dirty, but dirty. Is it bad that I read The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy and decided to keep going for awhile longer? For those of you who went outside as children, BHW features a character who put his brain in a cybernetic baby bjorn so that he could replace his skull with a giant gently caress-off laser. Prior to the events of the series, he was Boba Fett's only friend.
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Feb 2, 2014 22:12
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Tiggum posted:The thing: The Lone Wolf series by Joe Dever. The racism, oh sweet mother Mary the racism! Every cocksucker and his mom is either a swarthy ratty-eyed towelhead or a straight-backed aryan. If you choose to stab the friend of the family go to page "GOOD JOB", otherwise turn to page "DEATH". e: I'll just make a note here that the site Tiggum linked lets you play this poo poo for free online! All of it! All of the swarthy pages! Just bear the simple rules oulined above in mind, and you will prance through this magical adventure without danger to your wholesome person, just like in real life!!!!!! Karate Bastard has a new favorite as of 22:40 on Feb 2, 2014 |
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Feb 2, 2014 22:18
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a nigga who smoke posted:a whole bunch of things but mostly ska ska is not terrible
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Feb 2, 2014 22:21
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a nigga who smoke posted:a whole bunch of things but mostly ska TunaSpleen posted:System of a Down. I was a teenager, all my friends were into it, raging against The Man seemed like a cool thing to do, but then I went to college and grew the gently caress up and all of a sudden their lolrandommonkeycheese lyrics sounded like a fifteen year old trying too hard to get attention to validate themselves. Ishmael posted:All Raymond E. Feist books. At the time they were titillating and engrossing. Looking back, they were all very similar and the main characters were beyond powerful, destroying any illusion of danger to them. I have such fond memories of Magician:Apprentice. Jimmy the Hand was my favorite character in the later books. Das Boo posted:I'm surprised I'm the first one to say it, but anime. I'll still defend Satoshi Kon, Naoki Urasawa and Hayao Miyazaki to the grave, but holy loving hell is the bulk of that stuff as terrible as the people who thrive on it. I really wish I hadn't gotten into it as a kid, because for a while I was that horrible type of weeb. "JAPAN IS GREAT. I ONLY LIKE JAPANESE COMICS." You know the type. I grew out of it pretty quick, but for a while, my room was plastered in anime pictures I'd gotten from Newtype USA and stuff I'd printed off from the internet. Just cutesy things mostly, nothing creepy (I was naive and didn't understand the creep factor of some of that magical girl poo poo- I was also a young girl, soooooo...) I'll admit, it got me into some good things like Cowboy Bebop (which is still really great), which would later get me interested in noir films, and much later, I fell in love with Otomo via SteamBoy (never got into steampunk, though.) and Tezuka by way of Black Jack. I don't like much anime these days, and couldn't tell you what is new past 07, like Das Boo, aside from Space Dandy, which was made by the director of Cowboy Bebop, so it gets a pass. Oh, oh! I need to add this one. It is a part of the general "anime" thing, but Tenchi Muyo. I really, really regret liking that show so much. I bought the VHSs of it and the manga and all sorts of poo poo before I realized just how vapid and empty it was. It is just stupid. I think I was blinded by the little bit of scifi that it dangled in front of you every now and again, and the cute mascot cat-things. E: All Dogs Go to Heaven. I adored that movie as a kid. Went back and watched it... Er... The animation was good? That's all I can say good about it. Also, I still don't feel bad about ska.  It is, however, terrible to most people. I just don't feel bad about it.
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Feb 2, 2014 22:23
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double post
Whorelord has a new favorite as of 22:33 on Feb 2, 2014 |
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Feb 2, 2014 22:27
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Das Boo posted:I'm surprised I'm the first one to say it, but anime. I'll still defend Satoshi Kon, Naoki Urasawa and Hayao Miyazaki to the grave, but holy loving hell is the bulk of that stuff as terrible as the people who thrive on it. I bet I liked shittier anime than you! Oh, to be a annoying 14-year-old weeaboo again. Now I'm just an annoying 24-year-old non-weeaboo. I listened to nu-metal for about 5 minutes when I was 12? 2000-2004 was an absolutely horrible period for music, nearly every [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwkej79U3ek]mainstream[/url] genre was going through some sort of dark period. Most of this stuff I didn't claim to like, but I watched music channels every morning anyway and ended up knowing most of them by heart. Mostly what I considered legitimately "good music" was equally whiny rock music from the 90s. I also liked some awful j-rock as part of my weeaboo phase. I also dressed terribly in school. Avril Lavigne's popularity had started a  punk trend which meant that ugly alternative-looking clothes could be found in ordinary stores, and I loved that poo poo. My only consolation is that everyone else dressed like poo poo as well, just a different kind of poo poo (bright pink tracksuits, blue eyeshadow, too much hair gel, that stuff).I could basically go on forever like this, my early teenage years were not kind to me. The worst thing is that there was no one else like this in my school (except for a single goth who was a few years above me, and some Yu-Gi-Oh obsessive players who kept to themselves) for years. I didn't have any friendgroup of equally annoying weeaboos to encourage me, I just naturally blossomed into gooniness.
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Feb 2, 2014 22:35
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Das Boo posted:I'm surprised I'm the first one to say it, but anime. I'll still defend Satoshi Kon, Naoki Urasawa and Hayao Miyazaki to the grave, but holy loving hell is the bulk of that stuff as terrible as the people who thrive on it. I bet I liked shittier anime than you! Oh, to be a annoying 14-year-old weeaboo again. Now I'm just an annoying 24-year-old non-weeaboo. I listened to nu-metal for about 5 minutes when I was 12? 2000-2004 was an absolutely horrible period for music, nearly every mainstream genre was going through some sort of dark period. Most of this stuff I didn't claim to like, but I watched music channels every morning anyway and ended up knowing most of them by heart. Mostly what I considered legitimately "good music" was equally whiny rock music from the 90s. I also liked some awful j-rock as part of my weeaboo phase. I also dressed terribly in school. Avril Lavigne's popularity had started a punk trend which meant that ugly alternative-looking clothes could be found in ordinary stores, and I loved that poo poo. My only consolation is that everyone else dressed like poo poo as well, just a different kind of poo poo (bright pink tracksuits, blue eyeshadow, too much hair gel, that stuff).I could basically go on forever like this, my early teenage years were not kind to me. The worst thing is that there was no one else like this in my school (except for a single goth who was a few years above me, and some Yu-Gi-Oh obsessive players who kept to themselves) for years. I didn't have any friendgroup of equally annoying weeaboos to encourage me, I just naturally blossomed into gooniness.
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Feb 2, 2014 22:36
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Tiggum posted:We've all looked back at things we used to love and realised that we actually had really bad taste in the past and were utterly wrong to ever like them. The usual reaction is to dismiss it and move on, but I thought it might be interesting to think about why we liked things that are so obviously bad. So tell us what you liked, why it's terrible, and what made you so blind to its obvious flaws. I played the Lone Wolf books as choose-your-own-adventures while skipping over combats (what's a book care if I follow the rules or not?) so I still like them pretty well. Also you're going to call the Lone Wolf series terrible and not bring up the racism? I literally used to think "swarthy" meant roguish, or untrustworthy. TunaSpleen posted:System of a Down. I was a teenager, all my friends were into it, raging against The Man seemed like a cool thing to do, but then I went to college and grew the gently caress up and all of a sudden their lolrandommonkeycheese lyrics sounded like a fifteen year old trying too hard to get attention to validate themselves. I was never big into System of a Down, but one of my exes was, and I liked them well enough. A fun discovery I recently made is that they lifted their entire sound from later Faith No More. There's actually not a whole lot of music I used to love that I'd consider terrible today, but I definitely fell into the trap of "I love this artist, therefore I must love everything by this artist." If Frank Zappa hadn't finally broken me of this, I doubt anyone could have. Edit: Oh yeah. Ayn Rand. I used to love Ayn Rand. 
Rollersnake has a new favorite as of 00:08 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 2, 2014 23:03
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Maple Story. To this day I still wonder why I have devoted so much of my time grinding this poor excuse of a MMO. Back when I played the game at around from '04 to '05 there wasn't any post game, and the grind was also a drag too at the time. Man, gently caress Maple Story and gently caress 14 year old self for playing it for so drat long.
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Feb 2, 2014 23:32
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Dragonlance. I mean, I am thankful I read them, because it helped consolidate in me a love for books, and has left me much more of a reader than 90% of the population but boy is the series embarrassing as an adult.
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Feb 2, 2014 23:57
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Rollersnake posted:Also you're going to call the Lone Wolf series terrible and not bring up the racism? I literally used to think "swarthy" meant roguish, or untrustworthy. The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Post Your Favorite (or Request) > Stuff You Can't Believe You Just Figured Out III: Still Learning New Things 
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Feb 3, 2014 00:12
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They Might Be Giants
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Feb 3, 2014 00:54
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Maddox, and angry people ranting at stuff online in general.
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Feb 3, 2014 01:02
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Myself.
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Feb 3, 2014 01:12
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A CRUNK BIRD posted:They Might Be Giants Oh poo poo, I remember these fuckers. My first boyfriend was so in love with this band, and anyone who didn't think they were awesome was retarded, in his words. Anime like Tenchi Muyo, which was just some poo poo harem garbage, DeathNote, which went crazy. Can I mention deviantart? I remember when that site came out, like a decade ago, and everyone who was An Artist!!!! was on there. Horrible poems, lovely prose, insane Photoshop messes. But it's okay, man, no one appreciated Van Gogh when he was alive, it's the same poo poo for Pikachu77! Working at the zoo. The hours were horrible, the pay was so bad only the sense of 'I don't know how to apply' kept me from going on foodstamps, and my building was falling apart, had limited air conditioning, and I was expected to deal with the eternal plumbing issues of pipes over twenty years old, sealed with CrazyGlue.
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Feb 3, 2014 01:17
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Gaia Online. It's difficult to overstate how much I cared about those goddamn pixels. I quested for months to save up the gold to get a Dark Halo, saving and saving and obsessively checking the market price because you guys it looks so cool. I spent actual cash money to get monthly items when they came out. To what end? To become the coolest dude on a site filled with 12 year olds? I never gave a poo poo about the MMO they put out or any of the onsite games, I just wanted my avatar to be the best avatar. I just logged in for the first time in years; it is still awful and now I am worth a lot more fake money 
Bomrek has a new favorite as of 01:34 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 3, 2014 01:32
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Medieval Medic posted:Dragonlance. I mean, I am thankful I read them, because it helped consolidate in me a love for books, and has left me much more of a reader than 90% of the population but boy is the series embarrassing as an adult. This. And Forgotten Realms. They're a lot like porn. They were much more impressive when you were fourteen and you're kind of embarrassed to talk about them now.
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Feb 3, 2014 01:43
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In high school I decided I was an anglophile, at least as far as music went. If they sang with a thick accent, I loved them. I saved up my babysitting money to buy overpriced import copies of NME and so, so many bad CDs. There were some gems there, but so much mediocre crap. Of course, American radio at the time was mostly Limp Bizkit, so ultimately I think I made the right choice.
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Feb 3, 2014 01:58
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 This goddamn movie. When it first came out, and I was 10 years old, that movie was the coolest thing ever. Rewatched it a few years ago, and I couldn't even make it all the way through (although the robot parts are still rad). Das Boo posted:I'm surprised I'm the first one to say it, but anime. Same here, mid highschool I got really into anime, and that lasted about 3 or 4 years. Now I can't watch any anime TV shows, and can only stomach a couple movies anymore. It's just such trash, I can't understand how grown adults can watch so much of it. Fashionable Jorts has a new favorite as of 02:39 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 3, 2014 02:36
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Bomrek posted:Gaia Online. Guh. I wish you hadn't reminded me about this thing. I'm in the same boat with you.
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Feb 3, 2014 02:46
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Cowslips Warren posted:Can I mention deviantart? I remember when that site came out, like a decade ago, and everyone who was An Artist!!!! was on there. Horrible poems, lovely prose, insane Photoshop messes. But it's okay, man, no one appreciated Van Gogh when he was alive, it's the same poo poo for Pikachu77! I bookmarked it for cool hi-res digital backgrounds soon after it started. It didn't seem like the fanartpocalypse had happened to it yet 
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Feb 3, 2014 03:04
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