This.

I know people want to think this is the problem, but people paid for cable, which was all of this. High prices, ads, and lower quality experience as they started cutting and/or speeding up shows to fit extra ads in. And on top of that, people then paid for premium channels like HBO just to access some sort of quality. And cancelling could be a nightmare.

What’s really killed the TV experience is shorter episode counts and less seasons. TV works as long form story telling, and a popular show gets everyone talking and speculating about it, but this can’t occur with short episode counts and cancelling things within one-two seasons before they can build up their audience.

Then there’s cancelling shows without giving them a proper finale, which leads to not wanting to get invested in TV in the first place, and is effectively worthless for a streaming platform because few people want to watch something without a proper finale. To be fair, this has been a problem since time immemorial for TV, but is far more noticeable when it’s easy to rewatch and binge.

Add on top of that decreasing attention spans, and social media like TikTok and Youtube inevitably bleeds away your audience.

Sure, people whine and complain about price hikes. But do they actually cancel? I’ve rarely seen people actually care enough to do something. Obviously a place like this is biased towards dropping these services, but the average consumer doesn’t care. And sadly, these price hikes are generally based around the idea that they’ll lose some people, but the price hike for the shumcks that will continue to use it at higher prices will ultimately make them more money than trying to retain the customers who weren’t paying. When that no longer becomes the case, you’ll see them offer some ‘buy a year’ deal for cheaper price nonsense or something. Eventually, they’ll create a ‘value’ bundle for all streaming services in one. And when that’s too expensive, don’t worry, they’ve got your back because they’ll shave a few dollars a month off your bill if you sign a two year contract.

Surprising no one, another show is cancelled, lol. At least it made it to a ‘season 3.’ Hopefully it has a proper finale, and the change in showrunner doesn’t shoot it in the foot.

Unfortunate for fans of the show. Honestly, it felt more like a Kingpin epilogue than anything else to me.

But aside from that episode, the continuation did nothing for me personally.

Sometimes I can’t tell if these decisions are greed, or just rich people trying to make the world a more miserable place.

There’s going to be massive ‘attempts’ to crack down on piracy soon, because in this economy, a lot of people are going to just stop putting up with this (and when I say a lot, I don’t even mean close to the majority,but even optimistically 5% of people dropping this stuff would be huge).

Because generative AI has been built off the backs of everyone, whether they consented or not. Because AI companies (Nvidia, Facebook, pick a company) have pirated enough material to keep any individual in jail for life, and yet they have no consequences and can profit off everything.

If generative AI can not be used for commercial purposes, it also cripples the ability to replace artists, writers, etc., with an AI that stole all their work in the first place and is regurgitating it. Generative AI isn’t the issue, and it won’t go away (I wish it would, but the world doesn’t work that way). It’s the way it’s being used. Take the profit out of it, and we can all (to some degree) benefit from it. Take the profit out of it, and stop them from hoarding and destroying books/knowledge, destroying the environment, destroying your economy.

I’m sure people more well-read into generative AI can give a better example than a layman who is tired of billionaires and trillionaires doing whatever they like with no consequence, destroying our environment, our jobs, our economy, and now our souls along the way.

2026 is so depressing, lol. I’ve noticed this with some (non-gaming) Korean media, where the writing feels very AI (and I’m kind of suspecting a lot of it is considering East Asia’s quick embrasure of it).

All of this is easy to legislate (not necessarily fix because people will just lie and face no consequence if they’re rich). Ban generative AI for commercial purposes.

Anything with art, being that games, illustration, even writing feels tainted these days. Those of us who don’t want gen AI are going to have to find ways to form our own communities (and hope we can trust the majority of people in them).

On the bright side, I’m suddenly feeling okay with not getting to play a lot of the Switch 2 games.

I wish I could watch Pluribus for the first time again.

Apple seems to be on fire lately.

Been watching and/or trying a lot of stuff:

Young Justice - Just starting the 4th and final season. The 1st was okay, I somehow came to like the characters by the end. Fast forwarded most of the 2nd season after the timeskip. It was still good when it actually focused on its original characters.

The 3rd season was by far the best so far, but had the issues of the 2nd where it focused on too many characters. The tighter focus in the beginning on Violet, Brion, and Forager, as well as more focus on the main cast, worked well. Also, the twist on the Judas Contract was actually satisfying, even though they really should have taken the time to build up Tara’s character more rather than focus on Outsiders nonsense.

Orphan is the stupidest name of all time. As a Cassandra fan, I just can’t, lol. I hate it so much. I do wish we’d gotten more of that Bat team in S3, it would have been more effective than focusing on most of the Outsiders characters, and their stories would have probably been more interesting tbh.

I want to see more Cassie, so inevitably I’m sure S4 will focus on more random, meaningless side heroes I don’t care about. Kori and Raven are the only two missing Titans here. But I know better than to think they’d ever let Kori appear, because god forbid in a show with Dick and Barbara together she be allowed to exist, lol. Maybe I’ve missed a cameo of the two along the way though.

Lanterns - It’s been fun so far. Glad to see John Stewart getting some screen time. Still irrationally hoping Jessica Cruz would show up, lol.

Helluva Boss - Not crazy about it so far, though it occasionally has its moments. I mostly just like Moxie and Millie.

Patlabor Early Days - Only watched one episode, but it was excruciating to get through. Not sure if I’ll bother with any more.

Futurama - Just getting into season 5. I watch this one occasionally. It’s a bit mixed overall, but some episodes have been great, and there’s usually something at least mildly amusing. Just reached the alternate dimension in a box episode the other day.

Outside of one community I use to track sales for a niche hobby, my main use of reddit is looking up old threads. There’s nothing new on there that’s helpful anymore. I like looking up old episode discussion threads for TV shows that I’m watching for the first time, for instance.

I wish Lemmy was a good alternative. But without enough people using it, it can’t really come close to a replacement. All my interests are more niche too, and I hate Discord, so it leaves me out here touching grass.

Reddit’s always been toxic, it’s just worse the more MAGA and AI came to prominence (also a lot of what appears to be Russian astrotufing, but that might just be the subs I used).

Unfortunately, Lemmy’s not always better. I’ve been trying to figure out which instances to avoid, because I am really tired of certain people harping on about certain things.

Yeah, if you’re a Scrubs fan, it’s good. It feels like classic Scrubs, and the new characters all work for the most part. It’s nothing like the spin-off/season 9 if that’s what you’re afraid of.

Congratulations on getting a regular exercise routine down! Took me longer than it should have myself.

On PC, yes. That’s basically what an expansion pack was. But Sims 2 DLC was absolutely ridiculous in comparison. I realize I put ‘Sims’ in my original post, but I had been talking about Sims 2. It’s actually mild compared to some games now.

Gamecube was the best. I wasted so many hours playing Super Smash Bros Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash. I had only gotten to play Ocarina of Time on a friend’s N64, so I finally got to play that one too. I went through a ton of games. X-Men Legends, Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion, there’s too many to name. One of my favorite consoles of all time.

Of course it didn’t. I don’t think some people understand how completely irrelevant the individual is when it comes to corporate decision making. They don’t care if you’re upset. They’re either going to do something extreme, then dial it back (on purpose) to something worse but not as bad, or they’re going to ignore you. If they keep at it long enough, newer generations just grow up thinking this is all normal.

Look at DLC. Younger people on here probably think that’s normal or good. But older people can remember a time where when a game was released, it was expected to run out the box or you’d immediately refund it because they sold you a broken product. And the game was whole, not locked behind paywalls. Even when PC games got DLC, The Sims still looked absolutely crazy for the sheer cost of all those expansions. To probably well over half of the users here, though, this is the new normal.

My best advice is to support and enjoy indie games that do things right (and can probably run on your PC without costing you a fortune), or start learning to enjoy older games (there’s tons of great ones out there!), most of which can be found easily and played on just about any modern computer. SNES, Sega Genesis, Gamecube, PS2, 3DS, etc. There’s so many good games out there.

And of course, don’t be afraid to find other hobbies. If you really want to make a difference, stop giving any money to these corporations. Video games aren’t a necessity. You can choose not to support Sony gaming, simple as that. Not temporarily, but until their business practices change whennever.

That makes it tougher, as the nine and ten spots become less sure. But I think for the sake of simplicity I’ll keep it as is.

Not sure if this is still going, and I’ve always been told I have terrible taste. Anyway, my list (I assumed only English shows not made specifically for children applied):

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Scrubs
3. Sense8
4. Pushing Daises
5. Harley Quinn
6. Star Trek: Lower Decks
7. Looney Tunes (the OG cartoons)
8. Orphan Black
9. Pluribus
10. The Addam’s Family

I would love a Spider-Gwen anything. But only if it was based off her OG story (or the Spiderverse movies) and not whatever this garbage in the comics is right now. The likelihood of a female spider getting a show is basically zilch, though. Much less getting a second season.

Unfortunately so :(

I remember when people used to get so angry that TV shows had 20+ episodes, and were very insistent everything needs to be 13 or less, no fIlLeR! Now we’re lucky if we get 10 episodes and 5 seasons. That’s basically the equivalent of a long running show (11+ seasons) like Mash or the Big Bang Theory these days.

I don’t entirely miss the days of old TV. But outside of what Apple’s been putting out (so far they seem to be sticking with their shows; Pluribus and Severance would already be dead in the water on Netflix), it’s become impossible to actually enjoy anything now. I loved Star Trek Lower Decks. People who love and hate Star Trek have told me how much they love it. It’s a crime it doesn’t have more seasons. And that’s a long running show by today’s standards! There’s way too many shows like that now.

I love that one! I’d probably be miserable and broke if I actually had the money to buy one of those houses, but it’s fun to see what’s out there.