gekiganwing wrote:Caveat Lector wrote:Have you ever come across an anime that you thought was the best thing ever for a while, but as time went on you discovered better titles and then realized you didn't actually love it as much as you thought you did? Or that it wasn't as good as you thought it was?
Stories and games don't often have an appeal that survives many years and multiple viewings. That's life. Reasons include...
* Your experience with other creative works. If you start to delve into the works created by people who influenced your favorite artists, that can sometimes lead to disillusionment. To borrow a metaphor from Understanding Comics, the old master's creation is unpolished but substantial, while the new guy's creation looks great but ends up being hollow.
So true. Though it can work in reverse as well. My first fantasy novel was the Hobbit, which I loved, but then I went on to read all the popular fantasy novels being published. It wasn't until I'd been reading popular modern fantasy for years (and dozens and dozens of books later), that I finally went back and read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And I found it boring and uncompelling, because while the newer authors may not have written better than Tolkien (though yes, quite a few did), they had stolen and adopted and reused so many of his original ideas that they were trite and uninteresting to me by the time I read the books they were based off of. Tolkien's work had been turned into tropes, played straight and subverted, so many times for me, that my response was basically to yawn and exclaim, "Look, I've seen and done this before, and I'm wearing the T-shirt!"
Tolkien didn't help things by started a major fantasy trilogy with a chapter on the history of tobacco farming....
gekiganwing wrote:
* You grow as a person. The story which seems amazing when you're 21 might not seem as resonant ten years later. You might start to dislike its themes, presentation, pacing, art style, etc. I think it's generally good to try new things and let your tastes change. Sometimes it can lead to humbling or depressing results.
This, to me, is the big one. A character that looks awesome and cool and deep when you are a teenager is suddenly apparent as a ridiculous moron when seen by your adult self.
It's the reason I can't stand high school stories anymore that are slice of life dramas. As a grown man I just want to grab the characters by the shoulders and shake them while shouting, "None of what you are doing right now matters! You won't see hardly any of these people ever again, except those that are your REALLY good friends, and you'll see THEM maybe twice a year for a lunch date or something. That rumor doesn't matter, who hooks up doesn't matter, none of it matters! In 4 short years (and yes, that is a tiny amount of time!) a big fat RESET button will hit your life and change everything, and almost nothing from the social life you are living right now will carry over. Now stop these ridiculous melodramatic story lines!" Ahem, and ... soap box dismount.
It's also the reason, I'm sure, that "protect your child" stories and goals now appeal to me more than "save your girlfriend / the princess" stories and goals. Finding your missing daughter in
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories or getting your daughter her medication on time in
Dead Rising 2 are way more compelling drivers for me now than the implied promise of a booty-call for being a hero in other games. Or games like the
Walking Dead by Telltale, where I don't find it bothersome to be saddled with a child shadowing my every move, which probably would have bugged the crap out of me as a teen.
It's almost like there is this generation of male gamers that have grown up and become fathers and are suddenly being catered to ... hmmm.
). But I can't quite say I like it as much as I did a year or two ago.
