Have you ever made a point of not revealing that you like something because its fanbase has such a bad reputation (whether or not this reputation is actually deserved)?
I almost never talk about video games in real life for this very reason. Very few of my friends have any idea that I play games.
Then there's Community on NBC. It's a pretty decent show, if over-hyped by its zealots, but its fans have a rep for being on the nutty side, to put it mildly, and I'd rather not be associated with that.
I never admit to liking any anime series, since people love to jump to the conclusion that anyone who enjoys a single show that was animated in Japan must think all anime is great, even though the ones I actually like are the exception rather than the norm.
None that I'm ashamed of admitting (like, I probably wouldn't mention Pokemon in casual conversation, but if it comes up I'd admit to playing the games still), let alone because of the fanbase.
Nope, nothing. Although I *am* slightly ashamed to admit that Screeching Weasel remains my favorite band, despite everything I've learned in recent years about what an awful, terrible person Ben Weasel really is. But **** it, he's an ******* but the music is still good.
It's kinda like Michael Richards. He seems pretty bad and he definitely made a huge ass of himself, but damn if Kramer isn't hilarious.
-- SuperNiceDog didn't have to reconcile his name... But Dauntless Hunter is now MrGreenonion
If I am supposed to be ashamed that I like something just because some (or even most) other people who like it are jackasses, then that means I should be ashamed of all of my interests.
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Agent Triple Zero at your service! The artist formerly known as greatone10.
Wow, these responses are... surprising. Personally, I find myself feeling this way all the time, especially about gaming and the like. If you care about your reputation (and not everyone will to equal degrees), then some things simply must be kept to oneself; "insecurity" has nothing to do with it.
And here's a clear example I don't think anyone will disagree with: MLP.
-- Fire Emblem: Awakening music http://www.youtube.com/user/Westbrick8
From: Westbrick | #008 Wow, these responses are... surprising. Personally, I find myself feeling this way all the time, especially about gaming and the like. If you care about your reputation (and not everyone will to equal degrees), then some things simply must be kept to oneself; "insecurity" has nothing to do with it.
And here's a clear example I don't think anyone will disagree with: MLP.
Insecurity has everything to do with it. I know there are plenty of people here who have admitted they would not play a Pokemon game in public because they're afraid of what people will think of them. Seriously guys, if can't explain to someone why you like something because it would hurt your "reputation" you got some work to do. It's not that big a deal.
-- Menji+ What Will Never Be the Greatest. http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/8184/ffxiii.gif
Insecurity has everything to do with it. I know there are plenty of people here who have admitted they would not play a Pokemon game in public because they're afraid of what people will think of them. Seriously guys, if can't explain to someone why you like something because it would hurt your "reputation" you got some work to do. It's not that big a deal.
No, it doesn't. People are going to view you a certain way based on the things you choose to publicly associate with, whether it's football and UFC or Pokemon and My Little Pony. Whether or not you happen to let these impressions bother you is a separate matter altogether from how these things affect your image. And in many situations, preserving some aspect of your social condition- keeping a certain girlfriend, staying cool with a certain clique- demands that you monitor what you're openly attaching yourself to.
In other words: I can be perfectly secure about watching MLP, but choose not to talk about it for pragmatic social reasons.
-- Fire Emblem: Awakening music http://www.youtube.com/user/Westbrick8
I love Mass Effect, but I really hate most of their fans.
If I start to talk about Mass Effect with someone, their first question always seems to be: "Which chick did you bang?". Seriously that game is awesome and there are many more important choices to make than to choose if you want to have a relationship with another character.
And I don't understand why so many whine over the ending in Mass Effect 3. I thought it was great.
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Ngamer64: Zylo, you're making less sense every day. SuperNiceDog > Me
I'm not ashamed of any fanbase I belong to (which is very numerous). Here is the one I'm most active in though: Homestuck. Sadly only a few people at my school like it and one person couldn't get through Act 1.
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I bring order and chaos, I am life and death, creator and destroyer, just like the rest of humanity. My bunnyslug: http://img.imgcake.com/nio/catapngzu.png
Probably Portal, it was an alright game that I liked but I find the fanbase so insufferable. Smash bros is another one. "Ashamed" is a bit strong and...ridiculous although I assume you're being OTT, more accurate is they're fanbases I wouldn't like to be considered a part of.
Mentioned already but I would be too insecure to admit I play or play Pokemon in public. There's too much of a public stigma about it being a tv show for 10 year olds to be worth the hassle.
Westbrick posted... Wow, these responses are... surprising. Personally, I find myself feeling this way all the time, especially about gaming and the like. If you care about your reputation (and not everyone will to equal degrees), then some things simply must be kept to oneself; "insecurity" has nothing to do with it.
And here's a clear example I don't think anyone will disagree with: MLP.
If you like MLP, your problem is that you like MLP, not so much that the fanbase is awful.
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Blitzball fan? Try Captain Tsubasa II (in English) for NES! Game reviews/articles by me: http://betweenlifeandgames.com
If you like MLP, your problem is that you like MLP, not so much that the fanbase is awful.
Well-animated (works wonders with Flash technology), well-written, endearing characters, and simple yet compelling plotlines. Good show, and it's hardly the first time a cartoon targeted primarily towards children has found more mature appeal.
This, incidentally, is an example of unnecessary insecurity.
-- Fire Emblem: Awakening music http://www.youtube.com/user/Westbrick8
Westbrick posted... If you like MLP, your problem is that you like MLP, not so much that the fanbase is awful.
Well-animated (works wonders with Flash technology), well-written, endearing characters, and simple yet compelling plotlines. Good show, and it's hardly the first time a cartoon targeted primarily towards children has found more mature appeal.
This, incidentally, is an example of unnecessary insecurity.
I think you've got the basics wrong - it's not insecurity to point out that something you don't like sucks. It's insecurity to like something and be ashamed to admit it.
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Blitzball fan? Try Captain Tsubasa II (in English) for NES! Game reviews/articles by me: http://betweenlifeandgames.com
I think you've got the basics wrong - it's not insecurity to point out that something you don't like sucks. It's insecurity to like something and be ashamed to admit it.
Except that MLP doesn't even come close to "sucking." Might not be your cup of tea, but there are certain things it does that are objectively pretty excellent.
-- Fire Emblem: Awakening music http://www.youtube.com/user/Westbrick8
Vlado posted... I think you've got the basics wrong - it's not insecurity to point out that something you don't like sucks. It's insecurity to like something and be ashamed to admit it.
Things don't suck just because you don't like them though. >_>
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http://img.imgcake.com/AlecTrevylan006/darkyounglinkshieldpngyg.png Sleep? F*** sleep, Toonami is on!!- GenesisSaga
I think of this topic less about being ashamed and more about "things you like that have terrible fanbases". I love Zelda. Many Zelda fans are great. Many are just godawful. I rarely enjoy talking about Zelda with people on the internet because you almost immediately run into the awful sort.
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Donny: Are they gonna hurt us, Walter? Walter: No, Donny. These men are cowards.
I don't give a f*** whether a fanbase is good or not if I like something. I'm not going to pretend not to like Earthbound just because there are some insufferable fans (which seems to especially be the case on B8).
It does have the opposite effect, though. If a fanbase has an exceedingly bad reputation, I'm a lot less likely to give something a chance than I would have otherwise. All it really takes is one person whose opinion I trust or someone otherwise giving me a logical explanation of why I should give something a chance. But it definitely kept me from giving a lot of anime a chance for a very long time (and I still don't watch that much).
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"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land." -Toad, SMB3
No, there are not. A show can't be "objectively excellent."
So a show can't have great animation, good writing, etc. unless I happen to personally like it? We're all just slaves to our sentiments, unable to look at the quality of something more or less independently of how we personally feel?
I mean, I hate the word "objective" in certain contexts, but here it's shorthand for "less debatable." You can think the MLP phenomenon is silly, but that doesn't mean you have to ignore the show's obvious strong qualities.
-- Fire Emblem: Awakening music http://www.youtube.com/user/Westbrick8
Tribes. There are like 10 different variations of the game, all with people proclaiming it the one and true real Tribes game, and they just call them "Tribes" or "Tribes 2". Knowing that there are people in the world that do this with Tribes Ascend makes me regret my decision to ever have played Tribes in the first place.
Mr Lasastryke posted... I already said I like MLP, but it's not "objectively good." People who think MLP's writing is horrible are not "objectively wrong."
Did I not just clarify this? Opinions aren't right or wrong, but that doesn't mean that all opinions are somehow equal. MLP has excellent animation and good writing, and the contrary views (weak animation / bad writing) would be significantly harder to argue, would be based on less evidence, and consequently would be much weaker.
-- Fire Emblem: Awakening music http://www.youtube.com/user/Westbrick8
MLP has excellent animation and good writing, and the contrary views (weak animation / bad writing) would be significantly harder to argue, would be based on less evidence, and consequently would be much weaker.
How is "bad writing" harder to argue than "good writing"?
Let's say I have the opinion that the "this is dumb fabric" line in MLP is horrible and not funny in the least. Why is this opinion "weaker" and "less based in evidence" than the opinion "the 'this is dumb fabric' line is fantastic and hilarious"?
How is "bad writing" harder to argue than "good writing"?
Let's say I have the opinion that the "this is dumb fabric" line in MLP is horrible and not funny in the least. Why is this opinion "weaker" and "less based in evidence" than the opinion "the 'this is dumb fabric' line is fantastic and hilarious"?
You've convinced me. Now that we have this settled, we can return to the world of opinion anarchy, where there are no standards for quality, where "good" and "bad" are entirely individualized and relativistic, and where Michelangelo is no better or worse than a preschooler's scribble.
Alternatively, of course, you could conceive of opinions as lying within a realm of intersubjectivity, where standards of quality, while not "objective" (i.e. lying out there in nature somewhere for us to discover), are nevertheless established and agreed upon by general intelligent taste. Is even pacing an "objective" characteristic of quality? No; it's an intersubjective one. How about if fluid, colorful, and consistent are qualities of good animation? Again, no objectivity; just intersubjectivity. You're free to reject these things if you like, but then you have a radically different taste than the intelligent majority.
I'd need to understand why you feel "dumb fabric" is a particularly bad line (or even a noteworthy one) to analyze it more.
-- Fire Emblem: Awakening music http://www.youtube.com/user/Westbrick8
Alternatively, of course, you could conceive of opinions as lying within a realm of intersubjectivity, where standards of quality, while not "objective" (i.e. lying out there in nature somewhere for us to discover), are nevertheless established and agreed upon by general intelligent taste.
You're switching the argument to something I wasn't arguing against. Vlado said MLP sucks, you replied that certain things in the show (namely the animation and writing) are "objectively pretty excellent." That's what I was arguing against. I have no problem with the stance "if Vlado thinks MLP sucks, he doesn't agree with the intersubjective opinion that MLP lives up to established standards of quality."
I'd need to understand why you feel "dumb fabric" is a particularly bad line (or even a noteworthy one) to analyze it more.
I'm apathetic to that line myself, but I was just using it as an example of something that isn't objectively good or bad.
You're switching the argument to something I wasn't arguing against. Vlado said MLP sucks, you replied that certain things in the show (namely the animation and writing) are "objectively pretty excellent." That's what I was arguing against.I have no problem with the stance "if Vlado thinks MLP sucks, he doesn't agree with the intersubjective opinion that MLP lives up to established standards of quality."
Ah, right. I clarified after the fact that I was using "objective," for lack of a better term, as shorthand for a "less debatable" point (something that wouldn't conform to accepted norms by general intelligent taste, in other words). If all you're getting at is that MLP's writing cannot be objectively good or bad in the strict sense, then we're on the exact same page.
-- Fire Emblem: Awakening music http://www.youtube.com/user/Westbrick8
Lost fans and Song of Ice and Fire (not the show, just the books) fans are some of the worst fans in the world. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a fan of these things, but if it comes up, I quickly divorce myself of the fanbases because they're so horrendous. Basically I just hate fanbases that turn on the people who created that which they love for no good reason.
But no, not ashamed to admit at all. Just irritated that I get to be lumped together with the other idiots that enjoy those two franchises.