Ask Lemmy

Part of it is that there's aqlways low quality and high quality content being made, but time acts as a filter. The stuff you'll still be able to find to watch from the past is more likely to be the higher quality things from that previous era.

I personally think there is still a slight difference in quality as well, but it's easy to forget all the shit TV that doesn't make it into history books or to any online services.

Hollywood is legit dying. COVID+strikes+inflation+higher interest rates+LA fires have pretty much decimated the industry. There is cost cutting across the board. No one wants to take risks.

Not really, no. But I am noticing a lack of quality in, like, everything else. I swear to God, every time I turn around lately, something is poorly designed, or produced, be it some web service, or the fuckin ice trays I bought that shattered the first time I tried twisting the ice out.

On the other hand, we're currently in a very good period of music, which I assume is "content".

Have you played Disco Elysium?

Stories put together by larger studios are made to suck every penny out of it they can. They make formulaic stories, distilled down to an average denominator of the population. Predictable, mediocre, and bland have become the norm, in order to mass market one thing after another. We are being inundated with heartless, soulless content.

Look for more indie or low budget things. Those are put together by people who want to do it. By people who want to tell their story, show their art, and make something great. Great stories are still being told, you just have to find them.

*Edit: spelling

It's not just since then, that's just when you noticed it.

It's the pursuit of mass appeal, as studios consolidate there's less competition for different demographics or preferences. Everything aims for a global phenoma that could kick off decades long franchises.

So we end up with "safe". If any significant demographic wouldn't like something, it's cut. If any significant demo needs something to draw their views, it's added.

So we get an occasional show that feels ok.

But it'll never ever hit as hard as something that was dialed into your specific demo like what used to be the norm. No one wants to make the best "sci fi" or "vampire" show, they want to make the best "show" period. Something that everyone will watch and no one will hate.

It can easily be fixed by breaking out the corporations so they have to compete and don't have the resources to go for global blockbusters like Star Wars or Harry Potter.

People would just make the best movie/show they could to tell the story they wanted. And hope enough people identify with it to make something else next.

As the barrier to entry has lowered with easier tools the quality naturally falls.

It feels like there has been some dropoff, particularly in higher-budget areas. Big studios seem to be taking fewer risks, and small creators have less money (and time by extention) to spend on art.

That said, it also feels like discoverability has gotten far worse. Social media has become increasingly insular, more personalized, more algorighmic, and ultimately harder to explore. Its not like the old days, where you could find a new thing, even from a random person's forum signature.

@BetaSoldier It's probably gonna be a bit of both. If you grew up in the 00s/10s, then you would've been watching a lot of that stuff during a more influential point in your life, and one where you have far less to compare it to, so it feels a lot better. Plus when rewatching unless there's some stuff that really doesn't hold up you'll be leaning on the nostalgia a lot.

I've run into a lot of stuff from the past 6 years that's hit me like a truck, a lot of it in the indie space.

No one is spending any money on making stuff. The local theater has like 12 screens, and half are playing movies like caddy shack. There's just not the willingness from the studios. They won't risk losing money, theyll take the small consistent profits of existing ip and minimal production cost.

Indie games are still good. There are some YouTube channels that produce quality exclusive content on other platforms. But for sure the good stuff is harder to find, and there aren't blockbusters like the 80s and 90s.

They dont take enough time to make GREAT games or series because they want to keep chugging out more and more instead of better.

The other day I was reading a news that said that streamings are losing eyes to fucking youtube... Imagine is Indies are making better stuff that the biggest companies.

Sad days indeed.

It started slowly around 1980s. Everything, education, news, research, tv series, food, clothing, fashion, manners..... Also, compare growth of wealth of global top 1 percent since 1980s. There seems a spurious correlation.

Now the descent of quality and ascent of wealth concentration has speeded up. I don't know, I m just a goon.

I don't know, sounds like all of that is subjective to me.

If this was applied to YouTube, then yes, quite noticeable.

It’s also perception and nostalgia.

Not with TV, no. There is plenty of high quality TV in the late 2010s and 2020s.

You should have seen the degradation of content when the eternal September started back in my days...

I will say I used to get quite emotional more often playing good story driven games compared to now. Whether that's because of the inferred change, or I've become more cynical and dead inside....who knows (I suspect the latter).

yeah I talk about it all the time and see other people talking about it. The last thing I was blown away with was I think american gods season 1 and boy did season 2 disapoint.

degradation according to you.

to the average non tech person, this is the internet they want. they like crap content.