Rick and Morty

Roblox. I played it as a kid around 2007 when it was just a small Lego-like building game with your friends. It's been really weird seeing it become some predatory, monetized app game that kids play on their iPad now.

For reference, I'm almost 30 and haven't played it since I was like 14. My friend's kid was playing Roblox on his tablet and asked if I "heard of this new app game called Roblox" and it hurt my soul.

Serial Experiments Lain. I managed to acquire a bootleg Japanese VHS of the show (sans subtitles) in '99 or '00 and fell in love. I bought the English dub as soon as I could find it. I was totally obsessed, even going as far as carrying a messenger bag like Lain had, and making a custom Windows XP theme based on Navi. I even bought a Palm Pocket to mimic the smartphones shown in the show.

Lain shaped my passion for IT, and I feel it changed my life in profound ways.

I'm confused by the sudden popularity. It went under the radar for so long. Now all of the merch goes for insane amounts of money.

I spent a lot of time on computers (shocker, right?) and that was seen as nerdy and weird when I was at school. Even after I got my first real job, I remember my girlfriend dismissing things I'd say because "nobody cares about your stupid internet". Predictable rest of comment is predictable.

The internet

Here's a controversial one: Target shooting.

It used to be a skill you honed, going to the range to become better every time. Participate in competitions, meet people. It was a great hobby.

And then the idiots who unironically wear Punisher logos ruined it.

Computer games. Anything that can be monetized will turn into shit.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

I have several things that interested me and became popular, but I didn't hate on the new fans. At most I sometimes missed the feeling of having this thing that was a bit obscure and in case of channels on youtube, the intimacy of interacting with the creator and other subscribers was nice. But I can't hate on something I like becoming popular.

As for concrete examples, I do remember subbing to this small gaming channel with 9000 subs called Markiplier back in the day.

I subbed to OKI Weird Stories when he had like 600ish subs.

I subbed to Creepcast before it had any videos on it, but that one is cheating since both meatcanyon and wendigoon were already very popular. Still, it's been a bit nuts seeing the podcast explode in popularity. I even know people irl who listen to it.

Currently I follow a small channel, also podcast format, called The Daydream Arcade that focuses on reading reddit stories, but the hosts are two friends, who bring some warmth and personality to the format which is nice. For me, I stick around becuase I really like their friendship and their personalities. I'm also a older than the both of them and feel a bit big-sister-protective of them. I want them to grow and I believe they will because they already have 4500 subs compared to the 900 they had when I found them, but also don't like the thought of them reaching a point of popularity where the mean assholes come crawling to tear them down.

anime

it's become waay too popular and drowned in a sea of mediocrity

Pogs are cool little disks

Then it became a children’s verb

Roguelikes. I'm not saying some of the modern roguelites aren't fantastic, there are many that are. But the genre boom has all but pushed traditional roguelikes (NetHack, ADoM, Angband, Brogue, etc) out of the conversation.

Battle Royale (2000)