We hate things because they're popular

[VanityGirl]

Ever notice the more popular something is, the more crap it gets from us as users?

Spanning from anything from the Halo Series to Avatar, we just continue on and on with "Avatar sucks, it shouldn't been the top grossing movie of all time RAWRZ".

Unfortuntaly, we have a bad habit of MAKING things more popular by saying how terrible they are. Like the endless threads of "TWILIGHT BLOWZ" actually made me more curious to watch it to see how bad it actually was.
When people hype up how bad something is, it has a reverse effect. I for one will want to go watch something to see if the thing in question is really that bad, but I digress.


But back to the situation at hand. I for one loved Avatar, people bitched (yes bitched) about the story, "Wahh it's been done before, waaahh", but I don't go to the movies for a good story. I go to the movies to be entertained, and if I walk out of the theature excited and happy, then I consider it a good movie experience. But that's just me, but once again, I digress.


Basically, I will agree that somethings that are popular aren't always super awesome, but surely that aren't all that bad.


Do we hate things that are popular? Is it solely because we're overly critical because the thing is so popular?

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[tomtom94]

The problem is that popular stuff tends to be good rather than amazing.

In the same way that a meal at a five-star restaurant is too rich and exquisite for me to fully enjoy, I suppose the majority of popular stuff is a meal at Burger King. Simplistic and appealing to the target audience.

That and we just hate anything popular.

 

[C-man101]

i think people just want to be different and not like the thing everybody goes crazy for.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

If it's popular, then more people will know about it, allowinng for massive unifcation through a hatred of the same thing. The enemy of my enemy and all that.

People love to hate things, but they really love to hate things other people like, and they really love it when they can group hate something other people like.

The more people know about it, the more people that can join the hate group, as welll as more people to be hated by the group. Simple?

 

[driveBYargument]

Mentioned this before somewhere but not lazy enough to copy paste the argument. People are gonna hate on the success of something simply because it is successful. Jealousy from success, envy, hell even the thought of being more well received from the underground crowd just by disagreeing. I'd say its kinda like the democrat and republican relationship between the mainstream and non-mainstream that mix it up.

 

[Captain Wes]

Supose you're a big fan of something, as an example we'll chose firefly because it's not that much of a strech for most, all the sudden fox starts re airing Firefly and it gets crazy popular. Cool right, but now all the sudden everyone you know is talking about how great firefly is but their always a bit off, they love the way Mal always calls Inara a whore because he's a big tough man. You think to yourself, well thats not really his character but ok it gets more people to watch it so it's cool I guess. Than amazingly Fox gets Joss to make more Firefly, but since everyone likes how Mal is a douche to Inara (which isn't what's really happening) He has to turn into a compleate dick to everyone because that's what will sell.

The masses have a tendancy to simply take everything at face value and like Transformers some shows need to be more than meets the eyes.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Yea too many people like to sound cool and edgy.

Its a pretty well known fact.

 

[Earthmonger]

I believe it's been said time and time again: The person is smart. People are stupid.

When something is liked by the mass, that point is usually well demonstrated. Since I don't consider myself part of the mass, I don't waste my time indulging in the crap they consume. I haven't seen Avatar. I haven't seen Twilight. I haven't even seen "TV" in damn near ten years. I haven't listened to radio in at least seven years.

 

[Phenakist]

If chavs like it it's bad. That simple really.

 

[uncle-ellis]

Yup, that seems about right.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Yea too many people like to sound cool and edgy.

Its a pretty well known fact.

Took the text right outta my keyboard. Honestly I have seen people have the most awful, hypocritical and stupid ways to justify their silly "cool and edgy" opinions

 

[electric_warrior]

No, I hate things that suck. Like twilight, like T-pain and Taio Cruz and Sheryl Cole. They happen to be popular, so what? The Beatles and Elvis Presley are the two highest selling musicians ever, yet I love both of them. radiohead are pretty popular, so were Nirvana, the stones and U2, all of them I love. Avatar is popular but still a pretty good film (but the hurt locker is better), so is the dark knight, the LOTR trilogy and Spiderman 2. Popular doesn't equal bad, but increasingly bad does seem to equal popular (cough, transformers, the blind side and Kesha)

The problem now is that most popular things suck, but they don't suck because they're popular, they suck because they suck.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Suoose you're a big fan of something, as an example we'll chose firefly because it's not that much of a strech for most, all the sudden fox starts re airing Firefly and it gets crazy popular. Cool right, but now all the sudden everyone you know is talking about how great firefly is but their always a bit off, they love the way Mal always calls Inara a whore because he's a big tough man. You think to yourself, well thats not really his chaaracter but ok it gets more people to watch it so it's cool I guess. Than amazingly Fox gets Joss to make more Firefly, but since everyone likes how Mal is a douche to Inara (which is entirly not his character) He has to turn into a compleate dick to everyone because that's what will sell.

The masses have a tendancy to simply take everything at face value and like Transformers some shows need to be more than meets the eyes.

While I do agree with the pandering, I find it funny with that specific example, because in the first (unaired) firefly episode, he was more of a dick to everyone, and they made him more obviously likeable when the networks hated it. It's not going against your point, it's just a little ironic.
FIREFLY NERD TRIVIA, AWAY! *flies*

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

Ever notice the more popular something is, the more crap it gets from us as users?

Spanning from anything from the Halo Series to Avatar, we just continue on and on with "Avatar sucks, it shouldn't been the top grossing movie of all time RAWRZ".

Unfortuntaly, we have a bad habit of MAKING things more popular by saying how terrible they are. Like the endless threads of "TWILIGHT BLOWZ" actually made me more curious to watch it to see how bad it actually was.
When people hype up how bad something is, it has a reverse effect. I for one will want to go watch something to see if the thing in question is really that bad, but I digress.


But back to the situation at hand. I for one loved Avatar, people bitched (yes bitched) about the story, "Wahh it's been done before, waaahh", but I don't go to the movies for a good story. I go to the movies to be entertained, and if I walk out of the theature excited and happy, then I consider it a good movie experience. But that's just me, but once again, I digress.


Basically, I will agree that somethings that are popular aren't always super awesome, but surely that aren't all that bad.


Do we hate things that are popular? Is it solely because we're overly critical because the thing is so popular?

Short answer: yes. I just don't listen to people anymore, because they're arrogant, and self righteous, and stupid.

 

[ribonuge]

Well Mass Effect 2 got plenty of hype around here and I absolutely love it. I believe it deserves the hype it is getting and the good reviews. The case with Avatar for me was that the plot line was quite basic (that can't be said for Mass Effect 2 considering the different courses it can take based on your decisions). Sure I was entertained but it was really quite forgettable for me.

Basically I don't degrade something because of it's popularity, I do it because it deserves criticism. Popularity isn't a factor. The only reason popular things annoy me is because some things that are popular don't deserve it while others that aren't do (ie. Timesplitters and Psychonauts)

 

[Joe Deadman]

Humans just hate that their opinions are wrong so if you get a pre-concieved idea of a game being crap it tends to stick and we tend to be vocal about it (not to mention they get to form a group around hating it) but hey im just as guilty . Personally though I liked Avatar and have no opinion on Halo besides that the demo was kinda fun.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

Things that are popular have a wider appeal which generally means they are good in many respects but not amazing. Things that we tend to like the most are things that appeal specifically to us, they may suck totally in one respect but we can overlook it because it excels in another area. So we like one thing more than another but the thing we like is not as popular. This can be annoying and we often feel that we should encourage people to play OUR favourite game because we know that it's superior, in our opinion that is. The shortcomings of anything popular are widely publicized so it is easy for us to rip on it. That's my two cents anyway, sorry for the wall of text.

 

[xDarc]

Ever notice the more popular something is, the more crap it gets from us as users?

The things you mentioned in your post are just- mediocre trends.

Avatar: Preachy, tired tale propped up with special FX porn.

Twilight: Some spinster has a dream and decides to write a book about sparkling vampires and acquires overnight success and millions of dollars? The writing is abysmal. Some college textbooks are better written. Mind you this is after some poor editor(s) had to stare at those pages trying to make them, at minimum, FUNCTIONAL until his/her/their eyes bled. That woman is the embodiment of a two-bit hack.