Things You Sorely Miss In Modern Media

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Let's see...

I miss practical effects in movies, or even a mix of practical and CGI. These days a ton of special effects are done completely with CGI and it always looks fake to me. Even movies that are hailed for having great CGI still look uncanny valley to me.

I miss the days when DVDs and Blu-Rays typically didn't feature trailers. Also, I miss the days when the ones with trailers would actually let you skip them.

I miss the days when media and the hardware to play it weren't bogged down with social media bullshit.

I miss full expansion packs for video games instead of these tiny, over-priced bullshit DLC packs we seem to get these days.

I miss the days when news media wasn't quite so politicized. For that matter, I miss the days when the news media was actually somewhat trustworthy and not so prone to fear mongering.

I miss the days when we had new IP's, rather than constant (often disrespectful) remakes of "established properties."

I miss the days when TV wasn't dominated by garbage "reality" TV.

 

[Plinglebob]

"optimism"...and maybe "light-heartedness", "playfulness", and i guess "the fantastical" like you infer.

stuff like that.

i hate the fact that everything has to seemingly be "gritty"/"grimdark"/"realistic" now.

full of lots of people frowning all the time...

especially when it comes to modern TV sci-fi (with the only real exception being Dr, "actually made for kids", Who).

where the hell's "the A-Team in spaaaaaace" guys ?...

"In 3072 a crack space marine unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the outer rim underground. Today, still wanted by the galactic government, they survive as intergalactic soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team."

eh eh eh...

Definitely this! The biggest one for me is programs seem to be forgetting about the funny. Maybe its more a British TV thing, but I remember when every program used to have a light-hearted side that would show up occasionally whether it was banter between the characters or an episode where they would just take the piss out of themselves. Nowadays it seems everything must be grim and serious with laughter and smiling banned. The worst culprit for me is Game of Thrones. Sure Breaking Bad was grim, but at least the characters were compelling. In Game of Thrones I was a zombie Ned Stark to rise up and butcher everyone as a punishment for being so shit to each other. Not sure when it started, but I definitely blame The Wire for dramas and Battlestar Galactica for Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

 

[Irridium]

Camp

We really need more camp in all forms of modern media.

 

[Quadocky]

I would say I miss the prominence of traditional animation as it seems to invoke a more human element of design and thoughtfulness.

I miss it when computer animation in terms of art focused mostly on the abstract rather than realism. The whole photorealism thing is, while impressive on a technical level, is an artistic dead end in my mind because... once you master it... well? Then what? Whereas with fantastical representation the world is suddenly infinitely interesting.

I do miss it when video games were a bit more simple. The visual and audio clutter in some games quite frankly leave me profoundly unsettled because a sort of uncanny valley of realism combined with the janky unrealistic clumsiness that is inherent to video games makes it unpleasant to experience.

 

[cdemares]

Practical effects. Specifically, physical monsters that are actually scary. Remember the movie Alien? John Carpenter's The Thing? Has any computerized creature scared you more? Of course not. Granted, part of that is good film-making that plays your paranoia like a harp. Another thing I miss.

Remember when The X-Files was brand new? I know that's pretty specific, but man do I miss that.
These days, there's a new 'these guys fight monsters' show every month. X-Files played it straight. It had the trappings and tone of a police procedural. It had some humor, but it wasn't a joke-a-minute show that kept poking fun at itself. It took a crazy premise totally seriously.

Computers being magic. Remember when computers were magic?

Once upon a time, there were no patches or DLC, so if somebody released a game, you played it or you didn't. You were not entitled to nerfing or buffing. If you tried to tell games companies exactly how to run their businesses, you just sounded like a crazy person hollering at the stars. Except people didn't complain. We loved these games or we stopped playing them. We didn't curse the company that made a bad game and harass them, did we? By the same token, a game wasn't released until it was 100% done and possibly certified by somebody's QA. Games had a few bugs, sure, but not something easily fixable by a fan in, like, an hour or two.

 

[2xDouble]

The ability to have an opinion without being browbeaten. Remember, my aging fellows, the days before the internet? when we talked to our friends around an actual water cooler (or company-specific equivalent) and we had lively, friendly discussions about basically nothing? and disagreements were resolved with a simple "well I don't see it that way, but I respect your opinion"?

Yeah, neither do I. "Sharing is caring", my ass.

 

[TheEvilGenius]

I miss the Discovery Channel. The OLD Discovery Channel. Before this Amish Mafia and Megalodon bullshit.
I miss the old Toonami. Hell, I miss the old Cartoon Network.
I miss Steve Irwin.
I miss the Jeff Corwin Experience.
I miss variety in my movies.
I miss actual expansion packs to games.

EDIT: Speaking of games, I miss original IPs.
I miss The Most Extreme.
I miss Seconds from Disaster.

 

[Julius Terrell]

Practical effects. Specifically, physical monsters that are actually scary. Remember the movie Alien? John Carpenter's The Thing? Has any computerized creature scared you more? Of course not. Granted, part of that is good film-making that plays your paranoia like a harp. Another thing I miss.

Remember when The X-Files was brand new? I know that's pretty specific, but man do I miss that.
These days, there's a new 'these guys fight monsters' show every month. X-Files played it straight. It had the trappings and tone of a police procedural. It had some humor, but it wasn't a joke-a-minute show that kept poking fun at itself. It took a crazy premise totally seriously.

Computers being magic. Remember when computers were magic?

Once upon a time, there were no patches or DLC, so if somebody released a game, you played it or you didn't. You were not entitled to nerfing or buffing. If you tried to tell games companies exactly how to run their businesses, you just sounded like a crazy person hollering at the stars. Except people didn't complain. We loved these games or we stopped playing them. We didn't curse the company that made a bad game and harass them, did we? By the same token, a game wasn't released until it was 100% done and possibly certified by somebody's QA. Games had a few bugs, sure, but not something easily fixable by a fan in, like, an hour or two.

You beat me too it! I grew up in the 80s when the Saturday mornings were DOMINATED by traditional animation. I miss getting up to watch all those cartoons that made my childhood great! I even loved the shows where you got compete for prizes, and you got to test your video game knowledge. I mean you even had the incredible mr. wizard on. Promoting science.

I guess I just miss TV shows from the 70s and 80s in general Sure there were sitcoms, but they were actually good and talked about REAL issues. I'll never forget All in the family. I'll never forget that that racist bastard archie Bunker. To contrast him they bought in George Jefferson at one point. They'd spend so many episodes just talking shit to each other.

I think earlier generations of shows had so much variety to them. How many shows now-a-days can do what The Twilight Zone did? Earlier generations of actors and directors were more about creating actual content. It's the same with video games as well.

I know the video game industry is a business, but since when did graphics take precedence over content? I so miss the days when there was so much variety in gaming genres. Now-a-days people only talk about maybe 4 or 5 games, and forget that rest of them exist. It's this type of attitude that will bring another crash to the industry. We need NEW ideas to keep the industry going. It's like developers are being penalized for doing something new, or artistic.

 

[Arslan Aladeen]

Dinosaurs. I mean come on, they're basically monsters that were real. How is that not cool? How can that ever go out of style? And they come in so many flavors, you're bound to find at least one you like.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The "tools" of modern media are SLOWER to start now.

It used to be you pushed a button and the TV was immidiately showing... TV. now, you have to wait a few seconds for everything to load.


Oh yeah.. and HITTING those machines to make them work better (THAT was therapeutic I tell you whhhhat)

I was reminiscing on that as I was setting up my new WiiU (yes I bought one) and having to download an update, then wait for the update to install, then setup my user account, create a Mii, link to my Club Nintendo account (optional); time was you could buy a new games console and be playing on it within 5 minutes of unboxing it.

 

[FPLOON]

I miss traditional animated shows - What do you mean it's not cost-effective? Who said you were making this show just to get [more] money?
I miss the old Adult Swim bumps - I can't explain why... but, it's something I miss to the point that I'm glad there is a website that reminds me why I seem to miss them to an extreme...
I miss other stuff... but, they have probably been mentioned already...

I was going to say I missed the old Toonami... but, that's mostly towards missing the old Toonami format from 2000 or something...
I was going to say I missed the old Nickelodeon... but, then I would have to reject both Avatar's and the new Ninja Turtle's existence... (and I don't want to do that...)
I was going to say I missed the old Disney Channel... but, that I'm not too sure on that beyond Kim Possible and the like... (Gravity Falls is NOT helping that case, sort of...)

I really miss the old Scifi logo... as well as their "little" anime block...
I really miss claymation... it's second to traditional animation, to me...
I really miss the simple complexities of video games... though that one's more subjective than objective...

 

[Squilookle]

Specific to gaming:

I miss crosshairs.
I miss a definite percentage display of a non- regenerating health bar.
I miss sprinting by default.
I miss bots.
I miss the emphasis on gameplay over graphics.
I miss humour.
I miss games that went for their own goal and not the lowest common denominator for sales reasons.
I miss singleplayer and instant action being standard.
I miss multiplayer having a minimum of 15 maps fresh out of the box.

I miss... a lot of things about gaming, I suppose. And hell that's only from one genre.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I miss practical effects in movies, or even a mix of practical and CGI. These days a ton of special effects are done completely with CGI and it always looks fake to me. Even movies that are hailed for having great CGI still look uncanny valley to me.

Strange, I feel the opposite. In nearly all movies with practical effects, pretty much all of them look completely fake to me. Modern CGI looks more real than almost anything I see in older films, especially the creatures.

OT: Well, I do have a fondness for the synth-heavy movie themes of the 80's. Those were great. Also, the posters for Sci-fi and horror films in the 70's and 80's where way cooler than modern posters. Same with book covers. Also, I miss when consoles where just consoles, not crappy computers, when I could just stick a game into the PS2 and play it, instead of sitting through installing the game, installing the patches, and installing the DLC. Ugh.

 

[Siege_TF]

I miss translation/westernization teams that let the occasional bit of fanservice slip through the cracks, as well as some of the humor for grownups in western animation (prime example being Animaniacs of course).

 

[Something Amyss]

I miss when media would try out more ideas. Where it didn't have to be a franchise or a reboot of a franchise or a licensed property for a big theater release.

The "tools" of modern media are SLOWER to start now.

It used to be you pushed a button and the TV was immidiately showing... TV. now, you have to wait a few seconds for everything to load.

Could be worse. Older TVs took ages to warm up and therefore you'd have to wait up to several minutes.

Yeah, neither do I.

Mostly because it's like saying "Remember when the Easter Bunny and Santa used to have friendly debates on channel six after Frosty the Snowman reported on the weather?

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I miss Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network/Disney programs that weren't lowest-common denominator-pandering or useless tween sitcoms. (Not that there aren't good shows on now, I just hate having to slog through all the crap. That, and other good shows on these channels in recent years have been canceled for stupid reasons.)
I miss use of practical effects and real props in movies instead of over reliance on CGI.
I miss Joel/Mike and the 'Bots. (For that matter, I miss the old Sci-Fi channel)
I miss the days when Reality TV wasn't so (generally) overwhelmingly annoying.
I miss the time when the copyright police weren't trying to ruin entertainment.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Strange, I feel the opposite. In nearly all movies with practical effects, pretty much all of them look completely fake to me. Modern CGI looks more real than almost anything I see in older films, especially the creatures.

It's more than just the object itself. When there's a physical effect there's something actually there for actors to react to. Whenever a creature or something is completely CGI you often end up with wonky acting. Like look at the bugs in Starship Troopers. For the year that came out those are some really damn good computer effects... but you end up with battle scenes where, despite everyone firing at a single target, no one's really aiming their rifles at the same spot.

That and there are some things CGI just doesn't seem to ever do well, like fire effects and matching the lighting/shadows of a shot. You end up with objects that just don't quite look like they're actually there. An extreme example would be pretty much any of the creature effects from those crappy Asylum movies, but it's still present even in big-budget films. Because Alien seems to be the big thing right now on the Escapist, it's like trying to compare the Xenomorphs from Alien and Aliens which were done entirely with practical effects to the Xenomorphs from Alien: Resurrection which were largely CGI and look like bad video game graphics (particularly in the underwater scene).

Not to say practical effects are perfect. The Xenomorph in Alien 3 was a practical effect (a rod puppet) that was later inserted into shots. It looked horrible, and is probably among the worst creature effects in anything within the Alien universe. It's certainly the one that aged the worst.

For my money, a mix of practical and CGI is the way to go. You have something actually there for your actors to interact with, and you can use the computer effects to enhance the object. And because you're using two different types of effects, the viewer will have a more difficult time figuring out whether it's practical or CGI because the human eye will take longer to pick up on uncanny valley imperfections. Assuming it's done well. A decent example of this is the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The T-1000 was a blend of practical and computer effects, with most of it being done with practical effects and CGI used to enhance those effects, and for the most part it still holds up twenty-three years later.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

I miss cartridges. CDs are just so much easier to damage, whereas if a cartridge didn?t work back in the pre-DS days, you?d just blow on it, pop it back in, and hopefully it?d work. If you damage a PlayStation disc, it?s fucked.

I miss watching TV and not seeing reality TV infiltrate almost every inch of the good stuff that?s actually worth viewing.

I miss a time when the news wasn?t overshadowed by paranoia about Islamist terrorists, reminding us of 9/11 (no offence to some people, but COME ON, it happened 13 years ago and we?re still acting as if it was the worst thing to ever happen to America or the world), and immigrants apparently being the go-to scapegoats for all the country?s economic problems, rather than, say, the government.

I miss a time when platformers (which I?m good at) were the dominant videogame genre, rather than now with shooters (which I?m shit at).

I miss 80s action movies, blissfully unaware of its ridiculous hyper-masculinity and cheesy one-liners. Heck, I miss the old Schwarzenegger. He?s too old now, and I?m worried his boat may?ve sailed after his stint in office.

I miss the fact that, despite our world being so much different to how it was decades ago and that we are progressing year by year, there don?t seem to be enough people making actual original ideas, instead making remakes upon remakes and not liking to take risks because that won?t make them money.

I miss the old Cartoon Network.