Taste can be trained, and to surprising extent. Any person without tasting apparatus injuries may learn to evaluate wine and distinguish good $10 bottle from bad $50 one in a blind tasting.

I enjoy wine, but I also recognize a lot of the snobbiness about it (particularly at the high end) is a mixture of snake oil and rich people looking for a place to buy more status.

I remember some interview on NPR with a wine expert. The host was asking why in all the double blind trials people aren't able to consistently rate wines or even have consistent preferences. The wine expert complained that it's the fault of doing it double blind and 'when they're present with the people' (and likely giving them obvious clues about what's supposed to be good or not) 'they can tell the difference'.

There's good/bad, like/dislike, but there's also true and fraud, high status and low status. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference, sometimes there isn't a difference.

For my part, I’m just glad I grew out of giving a shit what kind of music other people like.

The paradox of choice. Or whatever the term is. The huge range of options available let us whittle ourselves down into a perfect little hole of preference, but I suspect that diminishing returns kick in real quick.

The truth is that you'll probably have nearly as much fun if you just pick up one of six cartridges you've got (like we had to back in the old days) and have at it, than if you spent a week carefully selecting the optimal game from the tens of thousands out there. That is a deceptively attractive misuse of time, for some reason.

As someone who enjoys bad movies more than good movies, this is simply not true. Pick any 6 random games on Steam and see if you find 2+ of them moderately enjoyable.

There really is just a lot of crap out there, and not everything is meant for everybody. Also over time gaming has become more mainstream which means more people interested solely in money, a larger audience for more niche genres, as well as half-assed hobby projects since Steam Greenlight (which is now Steam Direct) have cropped up over time.

I get the gist of your argument and there's something to be said for just trying something new and enjoying it. But your argument is roughly equivalent to "buy a plane ticket anywhere in the world and enjoy your 1 week vacation!" Chances are most people would prefer Paris, France to Paris, Texas. Even if a few people would actually enjoy the different experience equally or more, most certainly wouldn't.

I think this is very different, for example, from eating chinese food in the US and deciding that one doesn't like chinese cuisine (without being aware that most of the chinese food that americans experience is a very poor representation of what mainland chinese food looks like, never mind _good_ chinese food)

The point about being open about video games you don't like seems to reinforce that idea: maybe the game genre itself is not to your liking, but it turns out that the social aspect is worth it. This was the case for me and LAN FPS back in the day: had I dismissed the genre, I would not have experienced the fun of LAN parties.

When I was a kid, I was a pretty picky eater. Then one day I was in a sandwich shop, and someone ordered a type of ham sandwich that I’d never get, but clearly a lot of people do. It made me think, “wow there’s a lot of people who do like it, so maybe there’s something to it. And I should want to like it too, because if I did, then I would have more things to enjoy in life.”

That principal has taken me quite far. If your default view is that you want to like things, it’s amazing how much your previous objections can crumble. Usually it’s not just about exposure (to the “right 10%”), but also your mindset.

I have personally experimented with this, with various products I don’t like. For example, I have repeatedly tested Manchego cheese, expecting to eventually grow to like it (I love a wide variety of cheeses), but somehow I still don’t like it. The same with some forms of music that others may love which I have tried to appreciate, but I just never grow fond of the genre.

That said, perhaps a counter-example: I have found that at my favourite restaurants (more than one cuisine), I can pick anything on the menu, and I will like it even though it may a dish or contain an ingredient I would usually dislike... but maybe that is because a seasoning/sauce matters more to me than the base ingredient? Or I’ve found a chef with similar taste profile to me?

I am now old enough to give up more quickly on things others love but I don’t. I have also learnt that some things/experiences are not worth trying even once, regardless that others recommend them.

Stop.

The idea is that broadly there are eight basic ways that people get enjoyment out of games: challenge, narrative, sensation, fantasy, discovery, fellowship, expression, and submission. They’re basically self-explanatory except the last, which is “turn your brain off and unwind” games candy crush or a slot machine.

Everyone has preferences in these categories to different degrees, and they go a long way to predicting what we’ll enjoy. Into challenge and discovery? You’ve probably already beaten dark souls. Expression and discovery, and can do without narrative? Minecraft. If I was running a game review site, I’d break games down by which categories they hit, and how well.

And for my fellow (former) EVE Online players, this explains why different portions of the player base find each other totally incomprehensible.

Novel art is a fantastic thing to enjoy. But if you're really looking for it, it's a more difficult thing to find by the day.

I'd argue that the japanese anime space is extremely crowded and there's a lot of bad quality stuff and recycling. Upon seeing yet another shounen harem, I'd often joke that episode 7 would surely be a beach episode... and sure enough, it almost always was!

I mean isn't that the point?

I almost gave up on trying to wade through some of the crap on the latest and greatest music subscription services. Sometimes you just gotta let the underground artists take care of things!

The site owner and moderators are good people trying to do great things with some of the most talented DJ's. Check it out every Friday and Saturday. Note: All times are in London time, FYI.

> constant pursuit of optimized personal pleasure

This is really the key point for me. I’m actively working on reframing my perspective. Optimization of this sort massively damages relationships, obviously.