Bittersweet Candy Bowl Forums

The amount of quality we expect from different things such as movies, TV, comics, games, etc. Really differs among people, this forum especially. However, since great minds think alike, perhaps there's a general agreement as to what we need from mediums to feel like we didn't waste our time/money.

I'd say I'm generally not that critical. It doesn't take much to get me to laugh, smile, or just feel entertained. As long as there's actual effort in whatever I'm viewing, it's hard for me to feel like I wasted my time with something like a game or a movie. It's most likely because I lack experience in most forms of media (in other words: NO TALENT). Whether that's a curse or a blessing, I'm indecisive, but most likely the former, since thinking the latter makes me look stupid.

This isn't necessarily limited to media, but when I thought of the general question, it was tastes regarding media and art in general.

I can definitely appreciate the lowbrow but I would be at pains to distance myself from it. I find some pleasure in weak things.

Pretty damn picky. Though it's more "I wasn't very fond of this/got bored/lost interest" rather than outright hating things like Souppy does. I do have tolerance to have a lot of shows he hates as background noise, but it doesn't mean I enjoy it very much.

I also had the huge habit of giving things a huge chance prior to judgement, like watching the entire series of a show before passing judgement, whereas Souppy will watch one or two episodes and if it makes two "horrific" jokes, he deems it terrible and won't continue watching.

however there's plenty of dumb shit i enjoy or laugh at, like having a weak spot for puns :-[

Also for as long as I remember, like being a kid and shit, I could not watch a cartoon that had an "ugly" art style. I couldn't stomach Rocket Power, Ahh! Real Monsters, and Wild Thornberries. I just hated them! That went for other shows like Arthur, in which the art just looked boring as hell and I tuned out of it. Felt like a chore to watch.

Tolerance grew, like by the time As Told By Ginger was ending, I kind of regretted not having given it a chance because I couldn't stomach the gross way the lips were drawn.

So yeah I'm picky as fuck, but I can get fangirlishly involved with dumb shit like The Biggest Loser if the people in it are interesting enough.. or if there's a person that made me angry and I want to see them get eliminated and I get strung into the show waiting for the person to get kicked out.

fortunately not awful enough to like big brother though

I'm pretty laid back about TV and Games and shit. I can enjoy most things that might be boring/uninteresting to others.

I once spent four hours listening to snooths tell pokemon jokes and hit drums.

This post has been edited by Toastyjester: 23 August 2012 - 02:24 PM

Toastyjester, on 23 August 2012 - 02:23 PM, said:

well you got to play a game alright i was bored
but still youre a saint for tolerating it

ANYWAY
I like a lot of stuff that I recognize weaknesses in, because they have other things I like enough about them that I am able to look past their flaws.

Example relating to Toasty's comment just because: Silent Hill 1/ 2 (I am not too familiar with the other games because I haven't played them, so I don't want to make judgement calls about the entire series) have some iffy controls, clumsy and boring combat, and an awkward camera. The voice acting isn't too great either and the games puzzles tend to bore or frustrate me.

Despite all this, they are both some of the few "horror" games I can really appreciate because their atmospheres and art direction is able to evoke emotion and unsettle the player without relying on cheap "BOO!" scare tactics. It's so well done in fact, that I am easily able to look past its short-comings and enjoy the games anyway, and even see how its problems might possibly improve the game (I personally think the camera significantly contributes something to the game's atmosphere as it often deliberately shields parts of the world to the player, making them have to move around a bit and explore to see things). Some people might not value those things as much as I do however, and find that the good things about the feelings it's able to invoke in the player don't outweigh the flaws of the gameplay, so they probably won't enjoy it.

In turn, I don't like things that I know are probably good/ have some aspect I do like a bit, just because I haven't yet learned to appreciate them, or something about them turns me off. I try and be open-minded and give those things a chance though!

I also really genuinely like things that are bad just to laugh at them and appreciate their absurdity.

i guess you could say i'm somewhat critical of the media i consume. if i think something is absolutely stupid/unentertaining the first time i see it or if it upsets me the first time i see it, there's a strong chance i won't give it a second look unless prompted to by a friend. afterwards i will keep watching or forever side-eye my friend for suggesting i give it another shot. kinda like what happened with 2 Broke Girls.

other times, if something starts out good but gets progressively worse, i'll keep watching because there are probably already characters i'm still interested in and want to see more development from (Glee, Heroes). i'll most likely never see such development and i'll complain about everything they did wrong until the whatever is finally over and i'm free from it forever.

This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 24 August 2012 - 09:26 PM

When it comes to most media; plot holes and bad endings. I never buy a season to a series until I see the entire series. Same goes for webcomics. Especially webcomics. I've seen that shit head south in a heart beat. For things like video games, either I'll try a demo if it's available or simply pirate the damn thing. It's my personal belief that if someone refuses to let you try their product before buying it, it's of questionable quality. I must be entertained from beginning to end. There'll be some hiccups I could let slide, but if it sours whatever I'm enjoying I usually drop it.

When It comes to media ( Tv, Movies etc) I prefer them to be high quality. I find the shows I normally watch to be well acted and scripted, I don't see the appeal of reality tv. But outside of media and books I am not that picky when it comes to daily entertainment.

This post has been edited by neonrain24: 26 August 2012 - 08:14 PM

I'll err on the side of pretentious when it comes to media as long as it's pretentious in a way I can speculate or daydream on what this and that meant. I have a heavy science fiction and horror bias. I read stupid anime and manga, things I don't even fucking like, because I want to see where they're going with it. Sometimes it's rewarding (Biomega) then sometimes you end up with retarded pseudo-intellectual bullshit.

fucking Biomega and that bear.

I don't think you know what pretentious means.

I don't know. I said "moderate" because if I "turn my brain off" I can enjoy many things, but... If I feel like observing something, I find that there's a lot of crap out there. So that's why I usually opt to just let myself enjoy the experience.

In general, I would say I have pretty easy standards, but sometimes, even if I don't think about it, I still hate it. That one movie Clash of the Titans was so awful because it was just a lot of action with basically no plot. If I want to enjoy mindless fighting, I will do it in a video game.

SuitCase, on 26 August 2012 - 04:09 PM, said:

I give it a liberal interpretation for instances such as whenever the author stops focusing on plot cohesion and starts trying to wax philosophical in ways that have nothing to do with the plot. In that sense, I'd think that fits the "trying to sound more intelligent/meaningful than it really is" criteria for "pretentious."

Hmm... I think I can say I'm pretty easy to entertain. It's hard to keep my attention though, as I keep drifting away even from things I enjoy.

Regarding games, I don't really mind much the latest graphics and all that, just as long as it has a pleasing visual style and fun gameplay. I enjoyed games like Parappa the Rapper and Gitaroo Man, even though the former's graphics were characters being literally flat, and the latter one's not being to par with PS2's graphics. The games were also very short.

Regarding webcomics, I mostly decide on the comic's current art style. So even if the first pages of the comic is a horrible mess, I'll still go through it if I found the last pages to be acceptable. I remember reading a comic that started with a strip drawn on notebook paper, uncolored, and with tons of eraser smudges all over.

On manga, I used to just read them if I found the art style to be cute/cool, which led to me skipping some artists that drew in a more realistic-looking style. One day I decided to give them a try though, and read through a manga called Dragon Head, using the art style I didn't like. I found the story to be good, so I kept going. Didn't like the ending though... but yeah, too late to stop reading then.

For anime, same as for manga, except I'm also picky regarding the anime's topic. I usually enjoy anime where misterious or dark stuff happens, so I found anime such as Hell Girl, Death Note, and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika to be enjoyable. At other times however, I feel like watching something with romance involved, which led to me watching things like Chobits and Toradora. One thing I can't stand though, is flash anime.

Guess I'm more critical regarding anime and manga than at everything else.

I can watch the worst kind of movies and so do my friends. If it's an action film, shittier is best.
The last few movies I've seen in theaters (excluding Dark Knight Rises): Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Daybreakers. All of them were absolute trash, yet bad in this copacetic, I-know-that-it's-bad way rather than being hard to watch.

Books are pretty much the opposite, which makes me a little bit at a loss. I used to be very much so into science fiction, but I haven't been able to even bother at this point. They absolutely bore me to tears now.

I'm all over the place on everything else--just shit and gold mixed together.

This post has been edited by Moosack: 28 August 2012 - 02:19 PM