Stuff You Know You Should Like But Don't

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This could also be called the "You might be a heathen outcast if..." thread (with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy).

The idea for this post has been percolating in my head for a couple of weeks now, triggered by a couple of comments in other posts as well as a comment Rabbit made on the podcast week before last (his "shame" at not liking Halo, if I remember correctly). So what things do you feel like you should enjoy but, at the end of the day, just don't do it for you? This is not limited to games only: books, food, music, or whatever else is all fair game. I'll go first with some of mine:

George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice: Almost everyone seems to regard this as being one of the pinnacles of fantasy writing. I find it mostly long and mostly boring with a few high points. I realize that, having not even finished the second book, I am not in a position to offer any sort of criticism of this series. The problem is that I probably never will because I will probably never finish it.

Radiohead: So I bought The Bends when it came out because most of my friends at the time were raving about how awesome it was. To me it was "meh". When OK Computer came out I decided maybe it was me and I'd give them a second chance, so I picked it up. I still don't get it. It's not that I think their music sucks; it's just that I don't see what the big deal is.

Philip K. Dick's Work: He is one of the seminal science fiction authors of all time. I get that. But, I just cannot read his writing, despite procuring a number of his novels and collections of short stories over the years. I try and read something by him every couple of years. I did slog through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. And it was a slog. My inability to read these books is probably my biggest shame. Well, of the sort we are talking about here anyway...

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: I watched this one while it was being developed for what seemed like forever, despairing of it ever being released. Then one day, it actually was. I picked this up on launch day, told my boss that I was "working from home", and fired that mother up. I tried to like it, I really did. But I just couldn't go on after about five-ish hours. Maybe I'll try it again sometime, but I doubt it.

Anyway, these are some of my secret shames. What are yours?

The UFO series. I know it was supposed to be a spiritual successor to X-COM, but I felt like they just didn't quite "get it". I usually hate it when people say that.

Devil May Cry. Started out good, kinda liked it, but just couldn't get into it.

Rygar (PS2 version). I loved the old games, both on the NES and in the Arcade. Thought the update was awesome but it just didn't grab me. Realized it was essentially the old Rygar mixed with Devil May Cry.

Star Wars and Star Trek. Ugh. And I even like science fiction.

Peanut butter. Yuck.

Napoleon Dynamite: There are a few highlights but for the most part I hate it.

WoW: I don't play games to hangout with people. Games are my escapism. MMOs do the opposite of this.

Every Star Trek sans The Next Generation: I don't get it. It's probably because the underbelly appeals to me rather than the giant galactic police system.

The Wii - It's been years since I've "gotten" Nintendo on any meaningful level, but the few times I've played this it's seemed like a nice idea if you don't actually like video games, but inferior to any of my favorite PC, 360 or PS3 games. I know I'm supposed to fawn all over Mario, but seriously.

Puzzle Quest - It's a trick to get you to play a not very good version of Bejewled over and over and over again.

Any webcomic that's not Penny Arcade - I don't get it.

Comedies Starring Will Ferrel - I don't get it.

Anime - Maybe if I was Japanese and I was hearing it in its native tongue, the dialogue on _every anime I've ever seen_ wouldn't make me want to claw my ears off, but even then, I'm pretty sure the subject matter would still seem laughable.

The power of moderation (not on this forum, but a large one nonetheless).

Dragon Fire.

Oh, wait. They rule.

Botswana wrote:

The UFO series. I know it was supposed to be a spiritual successor to X-COM, but I felt like they just didn't quite "get it". I usually hate it when people say that.

I hear you on this one; I could never figure out exactly why I didn't like about the first one of these (Aftermath?), but I didn't like it very much at all. I still play XCOM, but not the sequels: can't stand either of them, either. I guess that shows how hard it is to get this type of game "right".

Switchbreak wrote:

Star Wars and Star Trek. Ugh. And I even like science fiction.

I can see how that might be if you focus on the newer stuff (anything after The Empire Strikes Back pretty much sucked and anything after about season 4 or 5 of TNG is hard to watch, including DS9 or Voyager or [shudder] Enterprise), but the original stuff was awesome. I love the re-done Star Trek original series, where they have more than like two planets and one shot of the Enterprise.

Elysium wrote:

Puzzle Quest - It's a trick to get you to play a not very good version of Bejewled over and over and over again.

Good call. I tried to play it and could not get very far. I got bored very quickly.

Elysium wrote:

Anime - Maybe if I was Japanese and I was hearing it in its native tongue, the dialogue on _every anime I've ever seen_ wouldn't make me want to claw my ears off, but even then, I'm pretty sure the subject matter would still seem laughable.

Overall I'd agree with you, but there are a few, like Grave of the Fireflies, that are are legitimately great films.

Nightmare wrote:

I can see how that might be if you focus on the newer stuff (anything after The Empire Strikes Back pretty much sucked and anything after about season 4 or 5 of TNG is hard to watch, including DS9 or Voyager or [shudder] Enterprise), but the original stuff was awesome. I love the re-done Star Trek original series, where they have more than like two planets and one shot of the Enterprise.

I do seem to remember liking the old Star Wars movies when I was younger, but when I went back and rewatched them to get the taste of the prequels out of my mouth I couldn't get into it at all.

The Nintendo DS. I like my PSP better even though it's sort of pathetic.

Otherwise everything I don't like I have a damned good reason to not like.

I think the more interesting question is: what do you like that you know you shouldn't.

Elysium: Ever watch GHOST IN THE SHELL?

I'll second on movies with Will Ferrel, the UFO series, and to a lesser extent, Star Wars & Star Trek. for Trek, I'm not a fan of anything but STTNG and DS9, all the rest can get tossed out an air lock. Same thing with the first two Star Wars prequels, sans the massive jedi battle in the second one; we'll keep that

Other things I don't like:

PS3: way too expensive. This will single handedly defeat the 'Consoles are cheaper than PCs argument.
Haterade: It's bitter, and not at all tasty.

Switchbreak wrote:

I do seem to remember liking the old Star Wars movies when I was younger, but when I went back and rewatched them to get the taste of the prequels out of my mouth I couldn't get into it at all.

Well, you have to admit, that's a pretty bitter taste to remove :). I also think that knowing how the series would get trashed by its creator makes the first two harder to watch. I mean you know Luke's father was an annoying little sh*t who grew into an even more annoying bigger sh*t before he actually became an evil, kill'em all baddass. Kind of kills the tone.

Vector wrote:

Napoleon Dynamite: There are a few highlights but for the most part I hate it.

WoW: I don't play games to hangout with people. Games are my escapism. MMOs do the opposite of this.

Those are good ones. I forgot about WoW: I really don't get that at all, despite 10 million subscribers (or whatever large number you want to insert).

Cocaine!

psu_13 wrote:

The Nintendo DS. I like my PSP better even though it's sort of pathetic.

Otherwise everything I don't like I have a damned good reason to not like.

I think the more interesting question is: what do you like that you know you shouldn't.

Elysium: Ever watch GHOST IN THE SHELL?

I liked 'GITS'. Not that I would ever acknowledge it in the flesh.
except
if (clothes:Boolean = false;) {
//wow I should stop, I was going to write something dirty.
}

Elysium wrote:

The Wii - It's been years since I've "gotten" Nintendo on any meaningful level, but the few times I've played this it's seemed like a nice idea if you don't actually like video games, but inferior to any of my favorite PC, 360 or PS3 games. I know I'm supposed to fawn all over Mario, but seriously.

Puzzle Quest - It's a trick to get you to play a not very good version of Bejewled over and over and over again.

Any webcomic that's not Penny Arcade - I don't get it.

Comedies Starring Will Ferrel - I don't get it.

Anime - Maybe if I was Japanese and I was hearing it in its native tongue, the dialogue on _every anime I've ever seen_ wouldn't make me want to claw my ears off, but even then, I'm pretty sure the subject matter would still seem laughable.

Man, I agree with all of those (though Puzzle Quest did get its hooks into me for longer than I care to admit).

Oh yeah, and on the comic thing I agree also as long as I get one "Get Out of Jail FREE" card:

http://www.hlcomic.com/archive/

I'm the same on WoW, I even bought it recently to try and get into it to see what I was missing. I just can't play it regularly, it really is just an excuse to hang out. Nothing wrong with that, but I just can't seem to get into it.

Portable gaming: I just can't justify carrying around my DS on the off chance that I'll have an hour to kill in a waiting room somewhere, and I've got my DS charged and a game with it. It's just too much work. I'll stick with cellphone games (iPhone woo!)

Yeah, a few more.

Knocked Up: Made it nine minutes into the movie, the fastest I've ever stopped watching one. Every single character was just utterly despicable and it seemed to lack any sense of humor. At least 1 of those 9 minutes was devoted to hearing Seth Rogan talk about Julianne Moore's crotch hair. May have taken one minute, but felt like an hour while I sat there with my wife. Oddly, this movie was loaned to us by my older son's advanced learning teacher.

Anchorman: Every joke had so much potential, and every set-up turned out to be a comedy abortion.

Evan Almighty: I loved Bruce Almighty, but every trailer for the sequel/spin-off/whatever just screamed "cash in! cash in!" A total waste of Steve Carrell

Anything directed by Judd Apatow: Seriously, gutter humor at its worst. I consider myself fairly easily amused and entertained and I read the bad science fiction to prove it. Yes, I'm completely aware that he directed, wrote, or something with Knocked Up.

EDIT - Just to go off an earlier comment. I don't dislike the Wii, in fact I like it very much. I'm just kind of disappointed with it. I stick to the 360 though because too many Wii games are enamored with the novelty of the system without bothering to ask what they can do with it, or if they even should. Not every game requires "the waggle" to be good!

Alcohol. I've no problem with other people drinking, so long as I don't have to smell it on them. I won't kiss my girlfriend after she's had a drink just to avoid the taste/smell.

Bob Dylan/The Beatles/Rolling Stones/Elvis. I like a couple of their songs, and can appreciate what they did for music, but I wouldn't buy anything of theirs. Hearing them on the radio once in a blue moon is good enough. I'm far more grateful to Ozzy era Black Sabbath.

Apple products. No reason I can name, I just don't like em.

The sun. It burns me to ash! I prefer waking up when it's setting.

Battlestar Galactica (the new series). Snoozefest. Let's slow the story down and show the same plot elements over and over to save money. Yay!
Family Guy. If they cram enough references to other pop culture events into a single half hour as possible it'll be funny. Right? Right?
Planescape: Torment. This sucker needed more dialogue. Lots more dialogue. Pages and pages of dialogue and then maybe they could have ditched all the other stuff and just sold it as a poorly written book. Not.

Lord of the Rings. I enjoyed the movies, really like the mmo, but hated the books. I made myself read them because I figured I had to as a fantasy fan. Ugh.

Anime - Yeah, I don't get it either. Convoluted != Deep.
Will Farrell & Ben Stiller - Haven't liked one movie that starred either of these two.
Spider Man Movies - I found them to be sub-par cheesy action movies.
Transformers (New One) - It had some good action bits and other than that was a laughable two hours of product placement.
Halo - Yahtzee descibes my opinion of it almost exactly.

Coffee: Almost all of it tastes the exact same except if they are on polar opposite ends of the good/bad scale. That being sad, I'll still drink it since it keeps me up at hours that normal people who know how to schedule time are sleeping.

In defense of Radiohead: OK computer remains one of my all time favorites. It completely captured this shell-shocked feeling of being in a world that had become dystopian and depersonalized. I think you had to be receptive to it at the time it came out (kind of the beginning of the whole internet boom). I was feeling kind of morose at the time, so the album was sweet sweet angst. I never cottoned to the albums after OK Computer, though I think In Rainbows is their best since.

Ok, things I should like but dont:

Professional Sports. I feel like a girly-man when people are talking about sports or the game last night, and I have nothing to say, or even have any inkling of who these people are that they talk about. I see people browsing ESPN.com and doing their fantasy leagues, and I think I view them the same way other people must view us browsing Gamers with jobs or playing WoW. I do like college football, but I never get into it to the point where I could really hold an extended conversation about the subject.

Politics. Supposedly there's a record amount of interest in the election this year, and I guess I believe it. But with all the blogging and 24 hour-news and reportage of every minor incident with endless analysis and pundits, I'm already sick of it. It also makes me ill to hear how much money is being raised, with the majority being poured into ads or whatever. A topic for a different thread...

Audiosurf: everything flies by too fast, I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

Lost: never got into it, looks like end-of-run x-files at this point, in terms of loose threads

Game nostalgia: I will forever hold a soft spot in my heart for all those commodore 64 games. I however would never ever want to play Ultima III again. Gametap's great, but I'm not going to be playing anything that came out before 2002 or so.

LOST and the Wii.

Babies. Baby pictures you didn't ask to see but can't say "no thanks" without hurting feelings.

Futurama: I never laugh at anything that happens in this show. I don't get it.
Shopping: I wouldn't be caught dead in a shoe store.
Cheddar Cheese: Why must we as a species put cheddar cheese on everything? Eggs? Hamburgers? Nachos? Where does it end?
Lyrics: I'm sick and tired of perfectly good music being ruin but voices.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Halo - Yahtzee descibes my opinion of it almost exactly.

^^^ Seconded.

It's easier to assemble rather than to write my own.

Elysium wrote:

The Wii - It's been years since I've "gotten" Nintendo on any meaningful level, but the few times I've played this it's seemed like a nice idea if you don't actually like video games, but inferior to any of my favorite PC, 360 or PS3 games. I know I'm supposed to fawn all over Mario, but seriously.

Puzzle Quest - It's a trick to get you to play a not very good version of Bejewled over and over and over again.

Any webcomic that's not Penny Arcade - I don't get it.

Comedies Starring Will Ferrel - I don't get it.

Anime - Maybe if I was Japanese and I was hearing it in its native tongue, the dialogue on _every anime I've ever seen_ wouldn't make me want to claw my ears off, but even then, I'm pretty sure the subject matter would still seem laughable.

magnus wrote:

Peanut butter. Yuck.

Mystic Violet wrote:

Futurama: I never laugh at anything that happens in this show. I don't get it.

Apple:
What Stengah said.

Star Wars:
I don't hate it. I just don't get why everybody loves the franchise that much.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy:
I loved the book(s) but I don't really like the movies.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown:
I think this book is terrible. It ranks right down there with Digital Fortress as Brown's worst work. I loved Deception Point and it is way better in my opinion. Angels & Demons was very good, too.

Professional sports: What indy said.

Halo:
Don't like / get it either.

WoW:
Nothing about this game has me interested and I'm sick and tired of it being mentioned everywhere. I'd rather play EVE online if I suddenly decided to pay a monthly fee for a game.

I know that the point of this thread is to hack at sacred cows, but some of these cut deep. I have a deep and abiding love for Radiohead and Lord of the Rings.

Mine are:

Films:
Will Ferrell (apart from Stranger Than Fiction)
Adam Sandler (I haven't seen Punchdrunk Love, maybe I'd like that)
Steven Spielberg films after Close Encounters that don't involve Indiana Jones
All Tom Cruise films
All Tom Hanks films (at least, all the ones after Bachelor Party)
Kevin Smith

Music:
The band Queen
The guitar skills of Eddie Van Halen
c*ck Rock generally (Jovi, Leppard)
Coldplay (Radiohead wannabes)
Travis (the dullest band on the earth)

Games:
The Final Fantasy Series
Metal Gear Solid

TV:
24
The Office (either the UK or the US versions)
Little Britain
Catherine Tate

Generally:
Musicals
Modern Art

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