The Best of the Last Decade

[Erts]

People have been talking about how bad the last ten years were, and I have to agree with them in some regards.
But, Playgrounders, what do you think were the good parts?

Please, nothing political, this is just out of curiosity and I would hate for that to be put away by something against the rules to say.

[Innis Cabal]

Everyone who is able to post is still alive. That alone makes this a great decade.

[kpenguin]

The internet really came into its own during the Aughts. From memes to blogs to Google to social networking sites to Youtube, the internet as we know it developed in the last decade.

[nyarlathotep]

The Darknight, District 9, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Zombieland were all made in the last ten years.

Dungeons and Dragons recovered from the period of badness that came with the end of TSR.

Order of the Stick started.

[Faulty]

Some amazing movies came out. Old Boy and Inglourious Basterds come to mind immediately, and they're two of my favorite movies.

We also had Firefly and the movie spin-off Serenity come out, as well as the reboot of Battlestar Galactica. Not to mention a number of other good shows; Pushing Daisies, 30 Rock, Black Books, Burn Notice.

A lot of my favorite music is from the Aughts.

Valve had quite a decade. Half-Life 2 and it's little babies, as well as Portal, Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead games.

[Lord of the Helms]

Well, if we include 2000, then three of my four favorite games were released in the Nilties: Baldur's Gate 2, the last great tactical RPG that nothing I've seen since has come close to and pale imitations of which (like Neverwinter Nights 2 and Drakensang) still get me giddy with nostalgia; Deus Ex with its outstanding storyline, multiple gameplay styles and paths and all-around first person RPG perfection; and Vampire: Bloodlines for essentially taking what Deus Ex came up with and bringing it all to the next level that newer technology allowed, while also telling an excellent story along the way. In general, loads and loads of very good games were released; 3D graphics, to me at least, started to come close enough to pretty and reasonably realistic around the time that the Cry, Source, Unreal II and Doom 3 enginges came out that I can look back on games from that time and still say "Y'know, yeah, they do look pretty nice".

There's the huge developments in all things computers and internet. I started playing games before we even had internet at home, I played Counterstrike Beta 3 and countless other Half-Life mods back in the days when we might struggle for hours trying to get our LAN working properly and having to do weird stuff like switching to software rendering to be able to connect to the game. Nowaday I hardly spend a day without browsing the web, skyping /Teamspeaking with my friends local and abroad, gaming over the internet, going on music-search binges etc. I've gotten to know dozens of people via the net that I subsequently got to meet in real life, go to concerts, festivals and parties with and so on.

Otherwise: There's the rise of Wacken Open Air to not merely a large Metal festival but also essentially a huge cultural phenomenon that more or less everyone in Germany knows about (my grandma even mentioned she saw one of the many excellent documentaries on TV). Certainly goes a long way towards providing a great representation of Metal culture to the entire country by being the most peaceful and safest gathering of 80.000 thoroughly drunk and non-stop partying people in the whole world, taking place in a small farming village of 2.000 people who absolutely love it.

[Lord of Rapture]

The internet really came into its own during the Aughts. From memes to blogs to Google to social networking sites to Youtube, the internet as we know it developed in the last decade.

That's.... not exactly a good thing, what with the existence of 4chan.

[Klose_the_Sith]

Aside from 99.9% of everything that was so much as remotely mainstream, I loved all the surges in independent music (of various strains, I'd just never admit to it being anything but metal ... :smalltongue:).

Besides that I really enjoyed a lot of this decade. I spose it's a question of nostalgia really, I grew up in this decade so I loved it and I don't know any better (filthy unwashed scum that I am), but I just didn't have any issues with how it all worked out.

[Solaris]

I'd have to go with the robotics, computers, and prosthesis technologies emerging this decade. We're moving into being able to all but replace soldiers on the battlefield and coming closer and closer to being able to fully replace lost limbs.

[Innis Cabal]

That's.... not exactly a good thing, what with the existence of 4chan.

Because 4chan, a single website, ruins everything good the internet has ever done.

[king.com]

Because 4chan, a single website, ruins everything good the internet has ever done.

It is truly that powerful.

[Lord of Rapture]

Because 4chan, a single website, ruins everything good the internet has ever done.

Considering the general direction the Internet has taken...yes. About 99.9% of it is ruined.

[Optimystik]

Because /b/, a single forum on a website, ruined everything good the internet has ever done.

Fixed for posterity

[darkblade]

Runaways, Planetary, Nextwave, Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel Knights, Birds of Prey, Gotham Central, Captain Britain and MI-13, Blue Beetle, Empowered, Sinstro Corps War, 52, Whatever Happend to the Caped Crusader, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (irony!), Agents of Atlas, Secret Six, Simon Dark, Underworld, Thunderbolts, The Goon, World War Hulk, Planet Hulk, Incredible Hercules, Powers, PS238, and many others.

For every Ultimatium, Ultimates 3, Countdown to Final Crisis, Identity Crisis and so on the comic industry still continues to put out material that has genuine apeal beyond shocking existing fans and confusing new ones.

[toasty]

Alestorm. :smallbiggrin:

Well a lot of things happened in the 00s. I mean, for me, I was 8 when the decade started, so actually I've now spent the majority of my life in this decade.

I discovered DotA this decade. That is amazing. Heck, DotA was invented this decade!

Lots of Good metal bands were founded and lots of other good bands released lots of good CDs.

LotR. The Dark Knight. District 9.