Do you guys miss the sense of wonder we had without the inte

[Dr Kain]

Does anyone else here miss the sense of wonder we got back in the days without the internet? For example, let's look at E3. Years ago every game revealed for the first time at E3 was amazing because we did not have internet leaks and rumors to tell us about the game ahead of time. The same goes for movies with casting choices and scenes being filmed on a movie's set, etc. Not to mention there were stories you heard that there was no way to just go out and find out if they were true or not, you just took it with a grain of salt and came up with your own conclusion.

[klen7]

Yep. I completely stopped visiting portions of this forum to keep from finding out anything more about G'14.. in fact when people complained that they had seen 80% of the monster action already, i still wasn't sure what MUTOs looked like or how many there were when i walked into the theater... and most of what i new about the Godzilla design was from the Toy section of the forum.

[DannyBeane]

I miss stupid debates. Like debating who was in a movie. Now a days you just Google it and that kills the conversation.

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

I have a somewhat romantic notion of the pre-internet age for nerds: it was harder, and the more effort you put in to see your shows and movies, to acquire your latest books and comics, to find out any scant behind-the-scenese info and news about the stuff you loved... well, surely that effort made the reward that much more satisfying, right?

But I understand that that is purely a romantic notion, and things are better now that practically everything is available and all the information is at out fingertips.

[Dr Kain]

Oh, things are definitely better now (well, except that people have gotten really rude by being on their phones at the dinner table/restaurant), but it sucks that nothing can ever get away without being leaked anymore.

[lhb412]

^Spoilers don't bother me much. When I think per-internet I think the lack of availability of media and information. For instance: trying to collect a full set of, say, some book series could have been a multi-year quest. Even figuring out how many installments there were could have been an ordeal. Now you're just a few clicks and a few withdraws from your account away from having your collection delivered to your doorstep in a few days, and there's no doubt you're very read up on the author and tons of reviews in that time.

[jellydonut25]

Yes AND no.

Yes in that I hate seeing behind the scenes pics and stuff shoved into my face and people saying "It's just a costume on a set, so it's not a spoiler." A) It kinda is, and B) it's not the final version. Behind-the-scenes stuff isn't color-corrected and other post-production stuff, so that photo won't actually represent what the thing looks like in the movie itself and especially not in-motion.

No in that I still have SPIRITED debates about who was in this, who was in that, what does this mean, etc...but after the few minutes we'd spend debating and then pre-internet shrug and say "Guess we'll never know" we now go to the internet and find the answer and someone can be proven right.

My biggest "hate" thing with the internet is how it's become a by-the-second play-by-play for people. "Eating! Selfie!" "Running! Selfie!" "Food! Pic!" "Watching the game! Selfie!" I legitimately don't care if people wanna take all those pics and share them and everything, but I hate seeing 47 status updates when it should just be one at the end of the day, "Here are the 40 pics I took of my day out today." People spend more time tweeting/posting what they're doing than doing it. I was at a concert a few weeks ago and the dude in front of me recorded a SOLID chunk of it on his phone. Dude, it's gonna sound like CRAP and if you literally tilted your head up 3 inches, you'd see it in real-life instead of through that tiny-ass screen. And the girl next to him posted the set list as they were playing each song and then discussed the songs in a thread on Facebook. She literally spent probably 2/3 of the show with her face buried in her phone, talking to people about the concert she was at.

It goes with movies too...at least (thank GOD) people haven't started busting out their phones in theaters yet, but I don't wanna see you post 25 status updates while you're watching a movie...just watch the damned movie and then make your few jokes afterward.


and selfies...my GOD...I honestly don't mind the occasional selfie, but whatever happened to actually talking to other human beings and saying, "Excuse me, would you mind taking a quick picture for me? Thanks!" and maybe having a conversation? And this is coming from someone born and raised in the northeast, which is about the most emotionally and socially closed-off portion of the country there is.

[klen7]

It sounds like you just hate Facebook. I'm on Tumblr, LinkedIn and forums, and I rarely see selfies and status updates.

[Dr Kain]

Actually Jelly, there was someone in a movie at the theater once that was updating his status of the movie every 10 minutes. I don't care if you think the movie is crap or not, it is NOT okay to do that in the theater. And then he got mad when we complained about him and start swearing at us.

[Henry88]

[Quakerzilla]

I don't think it's gone because of the internet... Ithink it's gone because we are getting older, and we are simply becoming more and more aware. Talk about video games, I was six when Super Nintendo came out. Even though it's limitations were made clear in the commercials, six year old me thought it could do anything. Six year old Logic.

And just the same, it appeared that way. Everything the system did was magical.

As an adult, when I unboxed my PS4, I was excited, but I understood where I stood with the PS4 versus the Xbox One, Nintendo Wii U, and the PS 3. Still a lot of fun, but I never pick up a new game expecting more than the console can handle. Because, after all, I'm an adult.


For the last year (until recently), I've worked at a movie theater, and I've observed something similar. The kids who come in look at the crappy fake film reels on the wall, the stills from classic movies, and everything about the place is stimulating their imaginations. It's a fantastic experience for them, whether they are going to see a masterpiece or just Penguins of Madagascar. The awe and wonder is still there for them. For the adults, it's all procedure. Get tickets. Get popcorn. Watch Horrible Bosses 2. Pretend it was funnier than it is so you don't feel bad that you paid so much for a piece of crap.

Of course, the internet reveals a lot of information, but did we forget that we often had trailers that spoiled plot twists? Or how we saw bits of every single action scene? We have more stuff being released, yes, but it's more targeted half the time. We don't live in a day and age where The Enterprise being destroyed is put in the promotional material.

[O.Supreme]

Wonderful Topic!

Like most fans its a mixed bag. Sure the geek in me enjoys finding out legitimate information about upcoming movies, cartoons, comics etc.. (Not the click-bait garbage on Yahoo etc...). Pictures, trailers and the like do not spoil the excitement for me. However I do remember when it took a lot more "effort" to be a fan of something.

I remember in 1989, I was watching Entertainment Tonight, probably sometime February, when I first heard a Batman Movie was even coming out. They had the full trailer and everything. This was all kids at my school could talk about the next day. The film had been in development for years, but most ordinary folks didn't know until a few months before the films release. Perhaps some fanzines probably had information as much as a year in advance, but many people were not tuned into them.

Additionally I remember the summer of 1990. having moved 100 miles away from family/friends, I was only allowed to talk to friends on the phone once a week because of long-distance charges. So I spent a lot time hand writing letters to friends. Additionally I spent a lot of time scanning TV Guide for movies & TV shows I was interested in, and writing to TV stations, corporations etc... Trying to find out as much information about the potential of certain films airing on local stations, or being released on Video. Man I don't think I ever wrote in High school so much as I did that one summer prior to it. Still I got some pretty cool stuff.

Celebrity Home Entertainment (The people who released the Sandy Frank versions of Gamera films on VHS) sent me their catalogue along with some cool promotional pictures. WEP sent me some cool Voltron promotional pics, artwork, and even a complete episode list, long before one ever appeared on the Internet. Also I found out that they had 3 Vehicle Voltron VHS volumes for sale. Why they were not promoting this was beyond me, but I purchased those by mail right away. For Years I was "The Guy" in my circle of Friends who had some "lost" episodes of Vehicle Voltron.

[eabaker]

Very much on the same page as a few of you guys.

I love having a forum in which I can regularly communicate with other fans, exchange ideas and analyses, and learn about things I otherwise might never have explored. And it's certainly great to be have such an easy way to obtain products that I want.

At the same time, mostly when it comes to the collecting angle, there was a real thrill of the hunt aspect in the olden days. Spending a Saturday hitting every toy and comic book shop in the area looking for something, rifling through the adds in Cult Movies and Scarlet Street, calling up vendors, and then those glorious convention days when the world of collecting opened up like a flower in bloom... that's a rush that I just don't get from, say, finding a new bootleg movie vendor online.

And there was something so exciting about getting fanzines in the mail. I stopped bothering to update my G-Fan subscription back around 2003. (Though it had already lost some of its charm by going to glossy covers; that made it all feel so much less underground.)

Would I trade it? No. The opportunities and joys that come from being able to communicate with other fans are too numerous. But I do miss those adventures.

[O.Supreme]

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

[kiryugoji04]

[kidnicky]

The only "spoilers" I see are the odd picture or sentence online. So I have a vague idea of ,say,who Kylo Ren is,but I'll still be surprised during the movie.

[XvGojira]