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In honor of Border's bankrupsy and the loss of a book store I've been going to off and on for 15 years... here are some things I miss.

Video stores
Record stores
Dragon Magazine
Wizard Magazine (well more Toy Fare)
Pay phones (not really but they just look so sad now, all vandelized and no one cares)
Blockbuster (actually I liked Hollywood Video more)
Kay Bee Toys

The 2010s are just depressing...

Good list.

I miss West Wood studios. I'm totally wearing rose tinted glasses here, but I loved Tiberium Sun.

...and in 2012 we lose the human race.

Commander Endova wrote:Good list.

I miss West Wood studios. I'm totally wearing rose tinted glasses here, but I loved Tiberium Sun.

That was a quality game. The NOD in that were truly devious.

Pontiac.

They can have my Fiero when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Woolworths

Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine are available as PDFs on the main D&D website. You need to be an insider, but they are probably floating around somewhere.

Things we've lost in the last few years.... Imma go with respect. People don't get their asses kicked no more, coupled with the rise of the internet, they just don't connect their actions with consequences in any reasonable way. People need the gak kicked out of them a few times so they realize they have to treat everyone else okay.

Blockbuster is still going strong in the UK by the way.

I 2nd Wollies.

On the plus side beef Monster Munch and Artic Roll are back in the shops so its pretty balanced for me.

Can I speak like personally?

Shadowbrand wrote:Can I speak like personally?

Only on Fridays.

Don't forget:

The Sharper Image - Not my favorite store, but was good for picking up a Christmas gift for someone whom you had no clue what to get
Wicks Furniture - Never shopped there
Circuit City - Good!
Marshall Field's - A very sad day. They had really quality stuff, much better than the garbage Macy's carries.

How about Perspective?

Businesses come and go. Borders replaced Crown Books, which used to be a major books store. I remember back before Borders, when they were just Waldenbooks, and competed with Crown.

Waldenbooks created the Borders brand (and Barnes and Noble followed suit) and took a new approach to bookstores, making them places to hang out, rather than just places to buy books. Making them multi-media stores, rather than bookstores. Crown books didn't change their business in the face of this new approach, and went under.

Now Borders is in the same boat. They didn't get into eReaders early enough and didn't embrace the web like Amazon did. The paradigm has shifted again, and those who keep up survive, those who do not...

Circuit City failed to keep up, much like Service Merchandise.

Were record stores really that great? You get a much greater variety shopping online. Youtube provides a very convenient way to explore new music. Record stores were either corporate entities themselves with excessive overhead and pushed the schlock of the day, or were very hit&miss private shops that were, in my experience, usually not well cleaned or lit and had iffy stock. I know I found some gems sometimes, but I find more looking online.

Video Stores? Seriously? Whether you're talking about video rental chains like blockbuster, that never had the movie I wanted to see in stock, or video sales shops, which suffered the same problems as the corporate music shops, Netflix is far superior. They've got far more selection than any video rental store I've ever been in, and a decent number of titles that can be seen on demand.

Nostalgia for failed business models is misplaced. They failed because superior alternatives replaced them. I don't know anyone who would rather get in the car and drive to a bookstore, hoping they have a book in stock, than just download it to their eReader, or order it online. I don't know anyone who preferred the trip the video-rental store over just firing up a view-on-demand movie.

No worried Redbeard, I would not for one minute trade my cell phone for a roll of quaters and an address book, or my MP3 player for a box of cassettes and a walkman, or my smart phone for a newspaper or (insert here).

But I can still take a minute to miss them

I'm about to leave the US again for 3 years this time and I wonder what it will look like when I come back?

There's something about interacting in real space that virtual space, no matter how good, just can't equal.

When I return will only stores that sell food and clothes survive? Will there be gaming and comic shops? Magazine and newspapers? Surely something will survive but I think all our lives will just get a bit poorer and we'll all spend a bit more time staring at lighted rectangles.

Sniff

My hair and teeth.

We also lost Saturn as an auto maker.

And Pluto as a planet.

Bromsy wrote:Things we've lost in the last few years.... Imma go with respect. People don't get their asses kicked no more, coupled with the rise of the internet, they just don't connect their actions with consequences in any reasonable way. People need the gak kicked out of them a few times so they realize they have to treat everyone else okay.

Kind of agree.

But hey, at least we kept Ghostbusters, right?

snurl wrote:Pontiac.

Okay its friday now.

I lost a lot of friends because I just couldn't deal with how different I am too them now.

I lost my insanity though. I actually kind of have a idea what I am here on earth for now.

So it's all good!

Since my daughter arrived into this world....

.....my disposable income!

You know what else we lost?

Good cartoons. Now I know someone is going to say "Your just looking through rose tinted glasses", but I am going to Internet Slap anyone who says that Sponge Bob compares to Animaniacs......

Or the awesomeness of Bruce Tim's DC animated universe.

cyborg 009, grandpa, my social life, borders(sad), alot of friends, my atheism, my love of john wayne.
on the other hand, i gained new friends, new interests, a couple of inches and a faith that carried me through alot of hard stuff. i dont abotu you guys but i wouldnt give away anything ive got for what i had, except for granda, the new 'true grit' really brought some memories.

The high-street Woolworths.

snurl wrote:Pontiac.

They can have my Fiero when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Word. The best, most dependable car I EVER owned was a pontiac sunbird. Little 2 door 4 banger that thought it was a sports car. But I swear to god, that thing just wouldnt die, and always started, no matter how bad things were for it, and I could drive until I ran out of gas, which due to being a 4 banger took awhile. When I finally sold it, the stereo literally exploded and started smoking, the fuse panel caught fire and melted a few things (namely the stereo panel lol) the fas were hooked up to a kill switch otherwise wouldnt work, the drivers door panel was broken off, none of the tires matched, all 4 spark plugs were helicoiled in place, the radiator exploded once and I drove it home with the temp gauge pegged, and the brakes were so shot, one of them was stuck in full on clamp, so it took some throttle to get the car moving. But I still drove it like that from Michigan to Indiana and back in 1 day.

Super car. They will be missed

The ability to not hear the line "OMG how can you NOT have Facebook?"

...repeatedly, from pretty much everyone I meet on a night out. Once, literally pronounced "oh em gee". Another time, suffixed with ".. is it because you want to cheat on your girlfriend?".

Pub culture, and friends that actually want to leave their front door every once in a while instead of larding out on WoW/ repeatedly mashing f5 on Facebook.

I liked the internet more before it went mainstream, it's just a pain when idiots post every detail of their private life online by default and expect everyone else to do the same.

We lost the triceratops for a short time, but it's thankfully back now.

Curse those archaeologists.

Cow & Chicken/I am Weasel - The last time I saw that show I was about 13. Then the poopstorm of Political Correctness and fingerpointing>parenting really started in force. Haven't watched a good children's show in a long time (Though Cow and Chicken was really, really provocative for youth programming)

Buck-A-Beer - Remember when a 24 pack of domestic beer -actually- cost $24? Am sad naow.

Dial-A-Beer - Not only was beer only a buck, but if you were too drunk, or too fat and lazy to actually go to the liquor store yourself, you could call dial-a-beer and they would deliver it to you. Haven't seen anyone offer that -anywhere- since about 2005.

Unlimited internet access - Thanks for bending over and taking it from Bell, CRTC. You're really doing a stand-up job of representing the Canadian Government's ability to protect it's citizens from corporate exploitation.

James Cameron not making movies - Remember how Titanic came out, and then he did -nothing- for like 5 years? Then he put out a couple crappy movies and did -nothing- for another 4? Why can't he just keep doing nothing and have a stroke or something?

And +1 to Pontiac. I have a Grand Prix. It is my baby, and it makes those kids with blingy, douched-up Civics feel bad about the car their parents bought them. Noisy fart tube that sounds like a cracked manifold, meet 3.8 Turbo

Slarg232 wrote:You know what else we lost?

Good cartoons. Now I know someone is going to say "Your just looking through rose tinted glasses", but I am going to Internet Slap anyone who says that Sponge Bob compares to Animaniacs......

In all fairness, up until Animaniacs, there was nothing that could compare to it, and after it, there's still nothing that can compare to it. It did so much that you just can't normally do with children's cartoons because it had the balls to do so. It's not a sign of an exceptional generation, it's a sign of an exceptional studio and production team.