The "Top 10 Everythings for the last Decade" Thread

from Elemental Forums

With the decade known as the naughties behind us, alot of good times and bad times have also past on.  From good movies, games, events, people; the 2000-2010 was a pretty turbulent time.  Now that the decade is really over, I thought it would be good to look back and say: "Hey, these 10 things really made the last ten years something special".  It doesn't matter what it is, and you don't have to rank them - hell, it didn't even have to be made in the last 10 years - what were the 10 "things" that made the last decade special for you?

1.  Avatar.

The King of the World came back - and how!  Brining the biggest and best special effects ever to grace the screen, James Cameron brought 3D out of the 'gimmick' books and into the mainstream.  It also proved that Titanic could be unseated as the highest grossing film of all time... it just took the same guy to do it.  It brought people back to the cinema in droves.  Experiencing this on the big screen, in 3D, is something I'll never forget.

2. Xbox 360.

The Reign of the PC finally ended; Consoles offically became the main market for game makers.  With titles like Gears of War, Halo 3 and Mass Effect, not to mention the invention of "Achievements", Xbox Live Arcade and the incredibly awesome Xbox Live Indie Games, Xbox 360 really stepped up what a home console was all about.  It has since slowed down the graphical advances and extended the generation for consoles by some years.  Playing Oblivion on this bad boy made the price tag all worth while.

3. September 11, 2001.

Before September 11, I didn't care about Politics, I didn't know about the Middle East, and Terrorists were simply the bad guys in 'True Lies'.  After September 11, not only was I changed but the world with it.  Future generations will look and ask "Where were you on September 11, 2001?".

4. Indie Games.

There are simply too many to list, but the revival of the Indie Games scene is something that has effect myself and many people I know.  New games, new concepts and entirely new ways of thinking have emerged thanks to Indie Games.  With Companies like Activision Blizzard and EA Games fighting against innovation, Indie Games - like Braid - show that creativity still exists.

5. SPORE.

The biggest disappointment of the decade.  The ability to make life, travel the galaxy and do whatever you wanted was promised.  What was delivered was a shell of a game, all the fun stripped out to make room for Expansion Packs.  A terrible game built on amazing technology.  I'll never forget the wait for SPORE; I wanted it more than anything.  Exactly the game Will Wright demonstrated.  When I finished my twentith hour, I wanted blood.

6. Half-Life 2/DirectX 9

Like Doom 3 months before it, Half-life 2 ushered in a graphical golden age that we're currently still enjoying.  New effects, mind-blowing in some cases, changed the face of gaming forever.  Gone was the need to inject imagination to complete a scene; now every ripple of the ocean, every leaf on a tree would be rendered and animated with near-perfect results.  It's aged a little since it's release, but it's impace upon the gaming landscape is still being felt.  I play through it once a year.  Flawless.

7.  Finishing School/Leaving Home

A big one for me personally, I graduated High School and moved out of home a week later.  The freedom!  The parties!  Then the crushing responsibility of the 9-to-5 grind.  Oh how I long for the carefree days!  At least my house is cleaner, though that may just be because of my girlfriend.

8. Music.

From MP3 players to streaming live radio channels to your phone, Music has changed; the way we listen to it now is so much more personal.  Everyone has a phone with MP3s, everyone has their playlists and their favourites a few swirls of the finger away.  Purchasing music in a store is old-hat; now we download away whatever we like whenever we want.  In fact, I'm listening to my music right now on my iPod, and I have some 55,000 songs to chose from.

9. Political Correctness taken to extremes.


Maybe it's a "post 9/11" world, maybe it's because I'm still young, but in my time I've seen political correctness explode.  Certain topics have their time in the lime light, but from dat to day, you have to becareful of what you think these days.  We weren't allowed to put up Christmas Decorations at work this year.  Not because someone employed there had an issue, no no, because some woman complained to the Shire Council's office about a business on the other side of town wishing her a Merry Christmas... and she didn't celebrate Christmas.  Then she sued them.  And won.

10. Getting Older.

I'm not an old man, but I'm older than I used to be.  As I've gotten older, new social fads have come and gone.  I learnt new words like "emo" and "freestyle rap battles".  Things like Gangsta rap exploded across all media, and has started to fizzle out now.  When I was a kid, it was all about ripped jeans and grunge rock.  Now it's baggy pants and DADA Jackets, and it looks like skinny jeans and "Scene Hair" will replace it.  Experiencing the roller coaster of life is something we all go through, but this Decade I sat back and realised that young kids of the day look at me and call me an "old guy".  I realised that I sometimes begin stories with "when I was a kid".  I'm growing up.

What are your 10 things for the decade?

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Hm, some of mine will be similar to yours. In no particular order:

1. College - Of everything on my list, I'd say this is by far the most important. Sure, I haven't been there for very long yet, but moving out (mostly, except for holidays:P ) and everything that comes with it is huge. Having to really think about what my plans for the future are. When you're younger, you don't really think about all the hard work it takes to get to your dream job, but eventually, it hits you.

2. 9/11 - I was too young to fully comprehend what it meant at the time, but I do now, and I do remember where I was. I was still in elementary school. My parents were watching the news that morning, and I saw something about it, but my parents turned it off. It wasn't until I got to school, where everyone whose parents told them about it where talking about, and that was when I found out what really happened (or close to it, we were elementary schoolers after all). It was much later when I fully realized what 9/11 was and what it meant.

3. Nintendo - The decade might have started out a bit rocky for Nintendo with the rather lackluster Gamecube, but personally, I found it to be loads of fun, even Super Mario Sunshine. Nintendo was what got me into video games back when I got a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Yellow for Christmas, and to this day Nintendo has a special place in my heart. I might have got an Xbox 360, and this last decade might have been when I really started playing PC games, but there is nothing I have spent more time on than my DS, and I'll still take Super Mario Galaxy over pretty much everything. The Wii was the first (and so far only) thing I have ever camped out to get the instant it came out. I spend 9 (give or take) hours at a Wal-Mart with and friend, and got the last Wii they had. The 3DS is looking to be my second:grin: (Related: Holy crap, only 2 months (hopefully) until it comes out!)

4. Running - For nine or so years, I played soccer. I enjoyed it, but was never very good at it. Sophomore year of high school I decided to drop it and try cross country instead. Best decision ever. Finally a sport that I was halfway decent at, and I could actually see my improvement over the years reflected in my times. Cross country led to track, and now I'm running in college.

5. Pokemon - Yeah, I still like it, and yeah, it's very related to #3:P I stopped watching the show and collecting the cards and whatnot years ago, but I still play the games. They might have their flaws, but there is no series or game that I have dedicated more time to than Pokemon. I've got thousands of hours logged on those games.

6. Books - I read quite a bit. Some where for school, but plenty were just for fun. I first read the Lord of the Rings this decade, which, along with Harry Potter, occupies the top spot of my favorite books list. In my high school english classes we read a lot of the "classics" and while I might not have enjoyed all of them, they certainly helped push my thinking into new places.

7. Personal Technology - This covers a lot of areas, but what stands out to me is cell phones. In elementary school it was completely unheard of for a student to have one. In middle school, a couple people got them, but they were still the minority. Even freshman year of high school maybe half the students had one. But by the time I graduated, every person in the school, their mothers, their grandmothers, and their 10 year old sisters had a cell phone. The same goes for a lot of technology. Pretty much everyone has an MP3 player, and everyone in college has a laptop. Technology has just taken off.

8. Hawaii - Last year (as of a little over an hour ago:P ) my family took a trip to Kauai, Hawaii. It is the most amazing place ever. Granted, I haven't travelled the world a lot, but Kauai set a pretty damn high bar. Kauai is relatively untouched by the whole tourism industry compared to the other islands, and it was absolutely gorgeous. White beachs, snorkeling, sea turtles, plesantly warm even in the rain. We even almost saw them filming Pirates of the Caribbean 4; we literally missed it by a day.

Well, that's eight things. I can't think of anything else to add at the moment, so I will leave it at that.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

1. 9/11 (a.k.a Pearl Harbour II). Opened my eyes and really made me aware of the dangers of this grazing pasture we call Earth.

2. Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Granted I didn't like the introduced character development, the breaking of Gandalf's staff in the extended edition (has a strong meaning that doesn't apply), the introduced scene where Frodo loses almost all of his cred by turning Sam away (he had little else going for him as a protagonist but for his strong principles, morals and loyalty), but otherwise - WOW.

3. Merimbula. A great family vacation spot in N.S.W where my family and the families of my three brothers-in-law meet up and spend a fun week together every summer since 2004. (Will be going again in 6 days!)

4. My two marriages and subsequent divorces all in the same year. Almost turned me into a misogynist.

5. Walking. Going alone or with a friend/family member, it can be very relaxing. We have lakes in our area, so the scenery is pretty nice.

6. Anxiety over The Hobbit movie. Still can't wait.

7. Neverwinter Nights (the first one). I spent so many hours on this game over the years, but so few of them actually playing it. I just love making character concepts, optimising them, creating custom gear, and taking snapshot portraits. I also made and scripted a custom mod for testing out my characters and pitting them against each other, whilst tweaking the AI to work with their strengths.

8. Getting back into Piano and composing after a long hiatus.

9. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert, Media Watch, The Chaser's War on Everything, and Viewpoint with James Zogby. These shows really helped me get through some times where I thought the world was going mad. It's a relief to know that there are people out there questioning and thinking. For me it was like pouring some cool water over a hot angry fire.

10. Labeling. From Anti-Semite, Zionist and Terrorist, to Extremist/Fundamentalist/Radical Islamist/Muslim. It is probably one of the most effective smearing tools used by media all over the planet, and in my view, one of the most disgusting practices in the modern world, being responsible for influencing racism, prejudice, division, discrimination, hate and fear on a global scale.

There's my list. 60% positive at least. Not bad for a decade.

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