• Welcome to the Fable Community Forum!

    We're a group of fans who are passionate about the Fable series and video gaming.

    Register Log in

Quality Vs. Popularity

cheezMcNASTY

cheezMcNASTY

Edible in some countries
Premium
Jan 6, 2007
5,321
1,396
315
Underground
www.youtube.com
Quality Vs. Popularity

I've been in this debate with my dad for years. What is the relationship between quality and popularity? many great things have yet to be discovered and may never be. but on the other hand, some popular things are great while others are absolute trash.

it's a hard question to answer, but what do you think?
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

Well in important events for politics, army, etc......... quantity.
In friends, quality.
Sport, quality.
Porn, is seemingly quantity.
Halo? Quantity. lol JK.

I personally think you need the right mix, have some key quality things but also add quantity, to flesh it out, this is from anything to undie brands to artists, to equipment.

Its a good debate, lets get a more interesting person than me to discuss it............

*cues someone else*
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

who'se perspective?
and come on, i'm trying to get a good discussion going here. don't wuss out and take a nondefinitive side.
besides, those twilight books are probably the biggest black plague known to literature and they're outselling bibles. you can do better than that, honestly. :hmm:
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

Firis;410709 said:
Fine:
Define what you mean, and the perimeters.
Click to expand...
specifically, do you feel that things become popular by quality or vice versa?

is there even such a thing as quality and everything is defined purely by mass appeal?

or is it the opposite, is everything as popular as it's quality allows no more no less?
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

With the advent of the Internet many bits of information get consolidated to suit a wider audience. Like how the wallstreet journal is slowly losing business due to a very definitive perspective in politics vs. The associated press and their watered down news that picks no sides (or at least no unpopular sides). Take ideals for instance, they are based on legitimate philosophies but in order to get more people to swallow you have to shrink the pill by cutting out the complicated bits.

Quality is at the mercy of demand and demand is higher than ever thanks to the ease of access. With so much demand companies are forced to sacrifice quality for efficiency.

I would love to say quality should supersede all but I don't believe that, I believe that smeyers is unfortunately a necessity. I believe that the pot of mediocrity is starting to boil over and when the people who know quality start banding together we will experience another great step forward in the field (literature).

Makes my mouth taste yicky thinking I'm defending that twilight stuff...

Edit : I guess that makes my plea 'popularity alone' By reason of mental defect.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

I find myself hating, disliking, or at least ignoring many popular things, so I wouldn't say quality causes popularity, and quality coming about because of popularity is even more ridiculous.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

Necromancer11;410720 said:
I find myself hating, disliking, or at least ignoring many popular things, so I wouldn't say quality causes popularity, and quality coming about because of popularity is even more ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Why is it ridiculous?

Popularity is a great breeding ground for innovation, when you know what the majority want and you add a little creativity you generate wonderful results. Take the iPhone, it changed many things by finding out what was popular, and perfecting it. It single handedly caused a boon in mobile phone technology. It changed many different aspects of the development process of programs and how you get feedback from the consumer. The popularity of the iPhone created companies, changed the gaming industry and altered the way we look at communication.

The beetles were popular and from them came rock music as we know it. HP lovecraft, heralded as the father of horror gave way to Stephen king, the father of modern horror.

Yes, popularity breeds quality because from it comes innovation. And if it starts to fail a new product takes it's place.

Popularity is the sole reason the American government works, because if it isn't popular interest groups crop up and begin making changes to get back to quality.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

I wasn't talking about it in relation to innovation. What you're saying can sometimes be true; I don't doubt that. I'm saying that a singular item's popularity does not automatically mean that it is a quality item.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

Oh, in that regard I totally agree! I don't like plenty of things because they are popular, but I love what they force into being.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

Quality sometimes causes popularity, but popularity rarely causes quality. Usually just the opposite in fact. Popular items usually become crappyer over time because the manufacturers know that they can get away with producing them as cheaply as possible but still get the same price (or even more) for it by slapping the brand name on it that everyone loves. Lets say one was to take a Ferrari, and remove everything that labeled it as a Ferrari, and replace is with KIA. Leaving everything else about the car alone, just change the name. How well would this car sell? What if one was to do the opposite, and take a KIA and label it as Ferrari?

Popularity isn't real, its an illusion. Quality is real. Some things are made well, others are not. If the Nazis happened to develop the fastest, most powerful, most reliable computer in the world, I would want a Nazi computer. F*** popularity.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

Well let's take that exact example. What happened to American cars? In the 50s,60s and 70s American cars reigned supreme. But by the 80s and 90s American cars suddenly became less popular. Well what happened? In the late 70s American car companies changed their mindset and introduced built in obsolescence. They used a cheaper paint that wouldn't last as long, switched to cheaper steel and created parts that wouldn't last more than a couple of years. From this came the influx of imports.

The car companies figured that brand loyalty would keep customers coming back and unfortunately they were wrong. And now due to popularity cars like the Kia have gained a lot of notoriety as being well made cars and from a consumer perspective the imports have actually improved in quality thanks to their popularity causing American cars to have to race to catch up.

So here, quality (or a lack of it) caused a change in popularity and popularity caused a change in quality. It's like the twilight example, at some point readers will realize that they've been reading pretty bad work and from it will hopefully come a renewed interest in reading which will bring about a more quality writer.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

TJ Griffin;410762 said:
Quality sometimes causes popularity, but popularity rarely causes quality. Usually just the opposite in fact. Popular items usually become crappyer over time because the manufacturers know that they can get away with producing them as cheaply as possible but still get the same price (or even more) for it by slapping the brand name on it that everyone loves. Lets say one was to take a Ferrari, and remove everything that labeled it as a Ferrari, and replace is with KIA. Leaving everything else about the car alone, just change the name. How well would this car sell? What if one was to do the opposite, and take a KIA and label it as Ferrari?

Popularity isn't real, its an illusion. Quality is real. Some things are made well, others are not. If the Nazis happened to develop the fastest, most powerful, most reliable computer in the world, I would want a Nazi computer. F*** popularity.
Click to expand...

so, TJ, you're saying that anything that becomes popular is doomed to lose quality over time? in the case of Metallica i completely agree (what little quality they had in the first place). But other musical artists: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd. These bands all earned their titles and kept true to them until the bitter end. so then, would it be safe to say that if something of quality gains popularity it's fame won't be squandered?
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

Quality first, then Popularity. Batman: Arkham Asylum shows it clearly.

No one expected anything of it, It was a Summer game by people no one had ever heard of. Now people seen how good it is, it's one of the most anticipated games of 2011.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

cheezMcNASTY;410857 said:
so, TJ, you're saying that anything that becomes popular is doomed to lose quality over time? in the case of Metallica i completely agree (what little quality they had in the first place). But other musical artists: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd. These bands all earned their titles and kept true to them until the bitter end. so then, would it be safe to say that if something of quality gains popularity it's fame won't be squandered?
Click to expand...

No, I'm saying that something that becomes popular is more likely to lose quality over time. There is no real rule here, but loss of quality is common.
 
Re: Quality Vs. Popularity

TJ Griffin;411012 said:
No, I'm saying that something that becomes popular is more likely to lose quality over time. There is no real rule here, but loss of quality is common.
Click to expand...

Can you provide an example so we understand what you mean?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom