I have really got to avoid "worst X" threads. Both "best" and "worst" threads are generally fairly pointless, of course. But "best" threads will usually contain a bunch of commonly agreed excellence with a smattering of interesting choices and at worst the occasional thing someone just latched onto due to some quirk of personality that's not fundamentally all that great. This isn't terribly exciting or anything, but it's pretty harmless to the old blood pressure.
"Worst" threads, on the other hand....you'd think that people could stick to things that are actually clearly poorly done. Game-wise, things like "Big Mutha Truckers" and most of those shitty licensed games. Anime-wise, things like...like...well, to be honest, I mostly just watch good anime, or at least ones reputed to be good, whether or not I wind up liking them personally. So I don't have an example off the top. Etc. But it inevitably seems to descend into a forum for people with shitty taste ranting about popular things, or at best, people with generally good taste calling out something they have a personal grudge against.
Case in point, the Anime group's "Worst Anime" thread. I can kinda understand some of the stuff thrown out there (I wasn't a huge fan of what I saw of Hellsing or Inuyasha, for example, and DBZ looks awful.), but people were quite seriously listing things like RahXephon (the single best mecha show I've ever seen. An Evangelion ripoff, sure, but done far better.) and Elfen Lied (which I admit to primarily enjoying on the basis of telekinetic dismemberment and female nudity, but that's not to say that it's not really well done in the way it fuses horror with harem comedy and subtler emotional notes. And the theme song is amazing.). Also, .hack//SIGN - that one I can more understand, as it's really slow-paced and clearly not for everyone, but still. Worst my ass.
Some of you may note that I have unpopular stances on certain popular things, such as not being all that thrilled with Half-Life (the sequel being a favorite, so I'm not *that* weird), and I do tend to point these out...but I'm pretty sure I've never claimed them to be the "worst" anything. Because that's silly. Popular opinion may not be a reliable barometer of quality at all levels, but if something is truly, genuinely awful (which it should be, to go into a "worst" category), that awfulness will make itself known. Not too many people would list "Manos: The Hands of Fate" among their favorite movies, y'know? (MST3K version notwithstanding.)
"Worst" threads, on the other hand....you'd think that people could stick to things that are actually clearly poorly done. Game-wise, things like "Big Mutha Truckers" and most of those shitty licensed games. Anime-wise, things like...like...well, to be honest, I mostly just watch good anime, or at least ones reputed to be good, whether or not I wind up liking them personally. So I don't have an example off the top. Etc. But it inevitably seems to descend into a forum for people with shitty taste ranting about popular things, or at best, people with generally good taste calling out something they have a personal grudge against.
Case in point, the Anime group's "Worst Anime" thread. I can kinda understand some of the stuff thrown out there (I wasn't a huge fan of what I saw of Hellsing or Inuyasha, for example, and DBZ looks awful.), but people were quite seriously listing things like RahXephon (the single best mecha show I've ever seen. An Evangelion ripoff, sure, but done far better.) and Elfen Lied (which I admit to primarily enjoying on the basis of telekinetic dismemberment and female nudity, but that's not to say that it's not really well done in the way it fuses horror with harem comedy and subtler emotional notes. And the theme song is amazing.). Also, .hack//SIGN - that one I can more understand, as it's really slow-paced and clearly not for everyone, but still. Worst my ass.
Some of you may note that I have unpopular stances on certain popular things, such as not being all that thrilled with Half-Life (the sequel being a favorite, so I'm not *that* weird), and I do tend to point these out...but I'm pretty sure I've never claimed them to be the "worst" anything. Because that's silly. Popular opinion may not be a reliable barometer of quality at all levels, but if something is truly, genuinely awful (which it should be, to go into a "worst" category), that awfulness will make itself known. Not too many people would list "Manos: The Hands of Fate" among their favorite movies, y'know? (MST3K version notwithstanding.)
I know this makes me a bad person (and, to be fair, I usually did this in the basement when it was just naturally cold--no AC assistance), I sleep best when it's cold enough for me to cuddle up with blankets. On occasion, I've been known to orchestrate the right conditions for that, if I could.
On rare occasion (I think), but still.