Board 8 > Have the past six years changed your enjoyment/perception of media?

(+) Yeah! (+)

As an example: of zombie movies feel totally different to me. Of course people would act like irrational idiots during an outbreak. In fact, those movies need to add more characters that refuse to take the cure because of potential side effects.

I also find it a bit harder to get into stories that glorify the police, especially loose cannon cops that don't play by the rules and get away with it. It's not that big of a deal as those stories tend to have objectively evil villains, but it can sometimes leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Stories where society at large acts absurd no longer feel like bad writing. Yeah, Lex Luthor would totally be elected President, and people will constantly vote against their own interests and willingly be gaslighted. These plots already worked if they were executed well, but now even the ones where I would go "come on, that's going so far it's comical" seem completely legit.

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I know the question you're asking but the pedantic part of my brain keeps saying "if the flow of time and inevitably changing circumstances didn't change my perception of topics that would make me a hideously incurious person"

but yes, definitely. I can't watch South Park anymore for a whole host of reasons, for instance

Spending more time participating in capitalism, less time enjoying media.

EDIT: Aside from that, a friend and I have a half-joke when we watch old movies by saying the characters "can't do/say that anymore" when it's something that would not be acceptable in 2021.

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Zachnorn posted...

EDIT: Aside from that, a friend and I have a half-joke when we watch old movies by saying the characters "can't do/say that anymore" when it's something that would not be acceptable in 2021.

I feel like almost everyone does that at this point.

And I don't know if it has affected my enjoyment of media itself, more that it's given me a more cynical/realistic view of those who create it or participate in it. I just remind myself that I don't actually know these people and I shouldn't project my wishes of who I hope they are onto them so it's not as devastating when it's revealed they did something reprehensible. There's probably at least one person on any given project who's done something or is doing something vile. I just don't know about it yet.

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There's a zombie novel trilogy called Newsflesh, set in a world where the big outbreak happened years ago- everyone is infected with the dormant virus, and will turn when they die or come into contact with active virus (ie- get bitten by someone who's already turned). But life goes on, and society as a whole has adapted to live relatively normally, just much more carefully.

Thanks to 2020, the part about there being a zombie virus is now the least unbelievable thing about the novels. The part where literally everyone takes all the necessary precautions very seriously and doing anything that might increase the risk of coming into contact with/spreading the active form of the virus is considered utterly unthinkable? Clearly completely unrealistic.
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Paratroopa1 posted...

but yes, definitely. I can't watch South Park anymore for a whole host of reasons, for instance

Yeah South Park is a big one for me

Leonhart4 posted...

And I don't know if it has affected my enjoyment of media itself, more that it's given me a more cynical/realistic view of those who create it or participate in it. I just remind myself that I don't actually know these people and I shouldn't project my wishes of who I hope they are onto them so it's not as devastating when it's revealed they did something reprehensible. There's probably at least one person on any given project who's done something or is doing something vile. I just don't know about it yet.

I wasn't actually referring to the people involved in creating the media, although that's a factor sometimes. I was referring to the actual plots and stories.

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Yeah, I get what you're saying. I'm sure there's stuff I re-watch and go, "Oh, that didn't age well," but there isn't any specific thing I can think of offhand. I stopped being into "edgy" stuff (for lack of a better term) like South Park a long time ago anyway.

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Not really in a negative way. I figure that a lot of this stuff is an extension of decades old issues that is getting refreshed. 9/11 was prob the big thing that taught me that. Everyone felt like the war treadmill started there, and anti-brown racism started there, but it had been there for 40+ years. So what other contemporary issues only feel new because we have personally lived them? Even the pandemic is a repeated event.

But I do find way more enjoyment in media that takes risks and uses the recent sensitivities in a thoughtful way that really enhances their stories. Like the Watchmen show or Death Stranding. What would before feel preachy or "duh" now has more weight behind it. Since it's so easy to get wrong, getting it right is pretty awesome.

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What did South Park do to turn you off? I haven't kept up with it for years.

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agree with everything you said, KP

i now have more dislike for racism and sexism in media as well
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I watch far more documentaries than fiction shows these days because I feel the need to pick apart storylines in my head. I also almost never read novels; just history and social studies books.

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The perception has definitely changed, since lately you get this large group of people that pretend to like things that are objectively terrible, and treat any criticism as "being a h8ter" or some shit.

The worst are probably the people sticking up for the Star Wars sequels, but you see them in every major fandom. Bonus points when they accuse someone of racism/sexism/whateverism for not liking something. Yes, I guess I'm a racist because I thought Black Panther was a boring, middling MCU movie.

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Watching The Purge in 2013: "No way would this happen. Most people wouldn't even participate in the purge even if it were a thing. People are better than this."

Watching the Purge in 2021: "No way would this happen. There'd be WAY more bodies, especially poor people and minorities. People are worse than this."

Captain Planet pre-2016: "The villains are so over the top ridiculous. I guess that's a given for cartoons though."

Captain Planet post 2016: "Yeah, no. These guys would totally get put in charge of the EPA. And they'd probably, sadly, do a better job than Rick Perry."

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I watch a lot of old films [pre-1960], so that's thrown a lot of their issues into stark contrast with current attitudes. Certain moments in those films always felt uncomfortable, but now it's like whoa, we have come a long way.

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Basically the first post. Copaganda is extremely noticeable to me now, especially in American media. Even Blackkklansman struck me as odd with how pro-police it was.

I also no longer find stupidity in media especially unusual or bad writing, Ive accepted that wide swathes of people have no idea what theyre doing.

Oh and I also want to know what turned people off of South Park. It just seemed like a mix of edgy try-hard silliness and enlightened centrism for years, to me anyway.

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why six years specifically?

to answer the question, not really

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Nothing comes to mind so Id say no I guess

No for enjoyment, yes for perception. I'm not really a fiction guy so by media I mean news, memes, and the general cultural milieu surrounding events etc

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Lightning Strikes posted...

Oh and I also want to know what turned people off of South Park. It just seemed like a mix of edgy try-hard silliness and enlightened centrism for years, to me anyway.

Because it's that specific mix, it occasionally (hell, even frequently) makes good points that people go along with, but it misses often enough too. It's just a very easy show to just go along with until you don't. And as the political climate gets more and more serious, the South Park method of mocking it gets more and more outdated to everyone but the most enlightened of centrists. A lot of political humor these days is focused on being brutally sincere, not aloof and above it all. Irony is dead and South Park's style of humor is behind the times.

Plus the writing quality noticably went downhill. Even as someone who enjoyed the games and seasons surrounding those, there were a lot of duds. The last season I watched I can't remember anything about other than they did an episode about how anxiety was fake which was not only a toxic premise but didn't even have funny jokes.

In other words it's just the same thing people are saying about everything. People change, media hasn't changed all that much.

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South Park is largely conservative propaganda masquerading as enlightened centrism

Yeah, most of the show is comedy, but a lot of the episodes it's had 'dunking' on concepts like global warming have had legitimate far-reaching negative impact in culture

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UltimaterializerX posted...

Because 2015 is when a certain moron announced he was running for president, and thats also when radical left morons finally stopped pretending to be nice people.

And the 2016 election was when their minds had broken completely.

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lol this topic took a pathetic turn

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Interesting post from a moderator on this website.

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I liked Game of Thrones six years ago

Now I dunno man, though I have been thinking of rewatching

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KamikazePotato posted...

South Park is largely conservative propaganda masquerading as enlightened centrism

Yeah, most of the show is comedy, but a lot of the episodes it's had 'dunking' on concepts like global warming have had legitimate far-reaching negative impact in culture

South Park is above it all until they randomly decide to go super hard on the worst fucking take you've ever seen

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Lightning Strikes posted...

Interesting post from a moderator on this website.

Stay classy, GameFAQs

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Oh I guess Me Too stuff ruined a lot of movies/shows I used to like

Damn you Louis CK and TJ Miller and others

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Lightning Strikes posted...

Interesting post from a moderator on this website.

KamikazePotato posted...

Stay classy, GameFAQs

I mean if he had said it about the other side nobody would've blinked an eye at it

he's not required to be neutral just because he's a moderator anyway

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The other side lol

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That's interesting. Whoever it is must have me blocked

Paratroopa1 posted...

That's interesting. Whoever it is must have me blocked

it's probably because he quoted Ulti

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oh

I mean it was a dumb post, so you're not missing anything. I don't agree with the sentiment, for the record.

I just also don't agree with the idea that his political views matter more just because he's a moderator. As long as they aren't targeting people who disagree with them, I don't care where moderators are on the spectrum.

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In theory yes if theyre fair arbiters their personal opinions do not matter. If theyre actively expressing unfortunate views such as say, implying that people lost their minds because they protested against rising fascism, thats a different issue. Especially when someone might already have concern about GameFAQss top level for the way they refuse to ban repeat bigots, the slow moves on handling extremism, and actively giving extremists a place to hang out for years. These views are certainly not reflective of the majority of the userbase so it really raises some questions.

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LeonhartFour posted...

I mean if he had said it about the other side nobody would've blinked an eye at it

Weird, I wonder why

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oh man its deleted, what did the mod say
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MoogleKupo141 posted...

oh man its deleted, what did the mod say

Generic MAGA post about the left wing 'losing their minds' after 2016

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The biggest one is taking cartoony villains more seriously. I used to think of them as shallow representations of evil, and to some extent like their motivations are, but the behavior of a megalomanic is as cartoony as it gets irl.

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Which mod was this

wasn't me

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Centurion, I believe

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Not me.
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Leonhart4 posted...

Centurion, I believe

Yup

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Pfffff I was wondering if it was gonna get deleted, that's funny

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Deleted it myself. It was a pretty dumb post on my part, sorry.

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all media has been stupid for a long time

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As much as I disagreed with the post and thought it was a needless derail bait besides, I didn't actually think that was a moderation-worthy post. (Edit: Oh, wasn't moderated. Okay, that makes sense.)

As for the topic question itself. Yeah, a bit. Definitely pandemic-related stuff with how people would behave in such a scenario (which extends to zombie outbreaks, etc. of course). Same with some portrayals of police - though I've always been a bit off-put by how championed some aspects of the justice system have been there even well before that - particularly lawyer/prosecutor centered shows like obviously illegal means to pursue suspects being taken by protagonists and treated as heroic and ignoring that in reality those actions would either get the evidence thrown out and probably get the culprit off or by concealing they acted illegally which is really bad too! And it's clear you're meant to root for them! And despise any character who raises those points as though they're the corrupt ones and obstructing justice! I mean, a lot of times they absolve the protagonists regardless by having the culprit do something in response that would condemn them anyway (and because it's TV the protagonists are always right about the guilt of the perpetrator in the end so it doesn't result in false convictions like these kind of tactics would likely do in real life) but it's always bothered me.

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