The Popularity Curse (PopuCurse)

[Zenode]

In any media form today, there seems to be something that is there no matter what happens. If something becomes enormously popular it begins to turn into a hate icon.

You know what i mean, Halo , Avatar, CoD and World of Warcraft are hugely popular yet, quite hated amongst people and are subject to the Popularity Curse. Where it becomes popular to hate them. This Popucurse affects everything and anything.

Is there anything that can stop it, or will the Popucurse always be "cool" to be different and hate whatever is popular at the time.

Another Question, have you hated anything popular just because its popular?

[sub]yes i do understand that people can genuinely hate something that is popular for a different reason other than its popular[/sub]

 

[Talvrae]

In any media form today, there seems to be something that is there no matter what happens. If something becomes enormously popular it begins to turn into a hate icon.

You know what i mean, Halo , Avatar, CoD and World of Warcraft are hugely popular yet, quite hated amongst people and are subject to the Popularity Curse. Where it becomes popular to hate them. This Popucurse affects everything and anything.

Is there anything that can stop it, or will the Popucurse always be "cool" to be different and hate whatever is popular at the time.

Another Question, have you hated anything popular just because its popular?

[sub]yes i do understand that people can genuinely hate something that is popular for a different reason other than its popular[/sub]

Well it's really life everything that is very loved by a lot of poeple, will be hated by as much many poeples... It's how human work

edit have to add... And now with the media we have, the internet, it's so much easier to bend togetheer in our hate or love

 

[Supernovajake]

I've hated things that are popular because they are so popular people won't shut up about them!

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Tragically, I see Mass Effect 2 going this way. Which is a shame because it is one of the few rare games that actually deserves all the hype and attention. Sad face...

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

I'm just gonna quote something I wrote in a similar thread. It's mainly about Avatar, but applies to anything that's popular.

While it's undoubtedly true that some people hate popular things, I think it's unfair (and to be honest, ignorant) to assume that if people dislike something that's popular, they hate it because it's popular. That's like assuming anything that's popular must be good, which is just plain stupid.

Popular things just get a lot more attention, which includes negative attention. If Avatar was an obscure arthouse movie it would've gotten both positive and negative attention as well, but both in much smaller quantities. In fact, most of the people who'd go see it would be people who'd like that kinda stuff in the first place (otherwise they would either not know it or not care about it), so there would be significantly less negative attention.

The way it is now, Avatar is practically shoved into every moviegoer's face (and non-moviegoers as well through boards like this one), so a lot of people who would normally ignore an unoriginal Hollywood sci-fi-spectacle movie with a heavy-handed morality lesson stamped all over it are either persuaded to give it a try anyway to see what all the hype is about, or are getting annoyed by the constant references to something they wouldn't like in the first place, so it gets more negative attention than it perhaps deserves.

So while popularity is indirectly the reason for at least a part of the criticism, it's not like that's the main reason people don't like it. Different people just have different tastes (I know for a fact that there are plenty of people who enjoyed Transformers 2, after all), and if something gets a lot of attention it's just more likely to also get the attention of the people who don't like it.

 

[EeveeElectro]

It's not 'cool' to follow the crowd. Everyone wants to be unique and different, therefore conforming to everyone else who is unique and different.
I don't follow the media and what other people say, so not really. Everyone decided to hate a few bands like My Chemical Romance because they got popular and if some magazine says, "their new album is shit" everyone will believe that.
My friend is very guilty of this; it's actually laughable.
I hate things like Big Brother, Skins and Twilight, not because they are popular but because they are shit, poorly written and God-awful. It's funny to see everyone on my Facebook wet themselves when a new episode or book is out.

 

[soapyshooter]

People wont shut up about them, the only reason the Popcurse makes me hate popular things. Like Avatar, I saw it, thought it was a decent movie with out of this world visuals, but then people wouldnt stop talking about it 24/7. How i hate everything about it. Its like aversion therapy.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Hm? I do like Halo, and CoD, and I've never watched Avatar because I don't think it looks good, not because everyone liked it.

WoW is the only game I can't understand the popularity of. I've played it a few times at a friend's - it just bores me.

But yes, I do see the PopuCurse stamped on them, but I ignored other peoples' opinion on games and films a while ago. If I like, then I like it, and bollocks to anyone else.

 

[Davrel]

Tragically, I see Mass Effect 2 going this way. Which is a shame because it is one of the few rare games that actually deserves all the hype and attention. Sad face...

I disagree. I enjoyed the game a great deal but in no way is it deserving of all of the sycophantic hype that it gets.

OT: I think people just get sick of hearing about how great *insert popular thing's name* is; as generally whilst it may be good, its rarely deserving of the hype.

 

[zen5887]

Sometimes people go out of their way to hate things because they are popular, perhaps its because they want to appear less mainstream.

However, other times people generally dislike things. I was accused of hating Fallout Boy because they popular, in reality I dislike them because they ain't very good.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

It's not 'cool' to follow the crowd. Everyone wants to be unique and different, therefore conforming to everyone else who is unique and different.
I don't follow the media and what other people say, so not really. Everyone decided to hate a few bands like My Chemical Romance because they got popular and if some magazine says, "their new album is shit" everyone will believe that.
My friend is very guilty of this; it's actually laughable.
I hate things like Big Brother, Skins and Twilight, not because they are popular but because they are shit, poorly written and God-awful. It's funny to see everyone on my Facebook wet themselves when a new episode or book is out.

So, if other people dislike something popular it's only because they're trying to be different and they're just doing what the magazines told them (which is a contradiction to begin with, but whatever), but if you dislike something popular it's because it actually sucks?

Hypocrisy, much?

 

[Keepitclean]

It's cool and edgy to hate popular things.

Ok, I'll give you a real explaination. When things get popular they begin to make these things appeal to a larger market, generally watering down what the people who liked that particular thing in the first liked about it. Hence, fuelling the hate. Eventually more and more people get onside with the "haters" (for lack of a better word) and there you go, it's common to hate a popular thing.

Also, my views in the popular things you mentioned;
- Halo, I loved Halo. I still love Halo 1 and I like the Halo 2 multiplayer. I do however, think that Halo 3 was rushed and uninspired drivel.

- Avatar; I thought Avatar was a good movie, in the sense that it filled its criteria. The point was to show the audience an imaginative world. The plot wasn't the main point of the movie.

- Call of Duty; I like Call of Duty, I just don't really like the CoD purists. They shit me. It's fun playing locally with friends but the online play is a nightmare.

- World of Warcraft; I don't like World of Warcraft because it's boring. That's all I can say. I have played it for a short period of time, I got bored so I don't play it.

 

[SmartIdiot]

It's just the way things are. It's cool to hate something that's popular. You gotta wonder how these things last with so many people hating them, but they do. Funny thing about it, though, is that in choosing 'not to follow the crowd' a lot of people are doing just that by jumping on the hate wagon. It's fine to not like something but I see and hear so many people going on about how they hate Halo or WoW and actually thinking that gives them a right to put other people down or believe that they are above everyone else with their almighty intelligence when in fact they have so little control over their mind they're unwittingly following another crowd.

I don't care for Halo, it's just not my kind of shooter, you wanna play it? Enjoy, that's what it was developed for.

WoW? I've never played it, don't really want to play it and likely will never be able to afford to anyway. You want to spend 16 hours a day on it? Go ahead if it makes you happy.

CoD makes me want to throw up in my own shirt, but so does just about every army based shooter. If you fancy playing it to death, to the point where the start-up screen is burned into your retinas, be my guest.

It doesn't have to turn into a slagging match, see?

People obviously have their own opinions and some people will genuinely dislike something popular for a personal reason but when it becomes a case of hating something because you think it makes you superior you're just as stupid as what you claim to hate.

The guilty parties know who they are but because of their planet-sized egos will never admit it.

 

[EeveeElectro]

So, if other people dislike something popular it's only because they're trying to be different and they're just doing what the magazines told them (which is a contradiction to begin with, but whatever), but if you dislike something popular it's because it actually sucks?

Hypocrisy, much?

What? Either my drama work is turning my brain to mush or that made little sense.
I didn't mean all people are like that, but I know know many people who just follow whatever their friends are media say because they don't have their own opinion. I know plenty of people who dislike something that's popular and they back it up with a damn good reason, but I was talking about the people who suddenly dislike them something that is popular and when I ask for a reason they say, "oh, I just do."

 

[CK76]

I'm not bothered, like what I like, others feelings are inconsequential. The only thing that gets annoying is when finding stuff I like becomes hard because majority keeps pushing their type. Thank goodness for the internet, it's too big for there ever to not be places for niche interests.

 

[Fiskmasen]

I think this "curse" is worse from the other end: When you say you like something popular and people assume you like it simply because it's popular, to follow the norm. I don't give a shit if someone dislikes something popular that I happen to like (it's all a moot point anyway seeing as how taste is so different from person to person), but when I get accused for "hopping on the bandwagon" just for saying I enjoyed Avatar, or I play Modern Warfare 2 regularly, it pisses me off. Not simply because they say I just want to be like all the others, but because they question my personal feelings for a movie/game/whatever.

 

[Zenode]

le snip snip

Total agreeance, but to me personally it's the opposite, i see popular things getting more hate than love.