How Did You Discover or Get Into Something?

[Moonface]

All of us are into a lot of similar and different things here, and I was wondering how everyone got into or discovered particular things, whether it be a certain band, a game, TV show, website, or whatever else.

Feel free to also use this thread to specifically ask someone how they discovered something too.


I'm going to start with games since it's not like we're on a gaming forum or anything.
Most games I got into were through demo's or my parents buying me a game they thought I would like, up until about the PS3 era where I started looking more for myself. Normally I'll pick up a game that looks similar to something else I enjoy, or if it's entirely unrelated to anything I already played it'll probably be through watching gameplay of it. I know that's how I got into GTA V because I liked watching videos of 4's multiplayer and got 5 thinking it'd be the same but better. Alas it wasn't.
There are some games I just can't tell how I got into like Hitman and Binding of Isaac. Chances are I watched them on YouTube but I have no idea what led me to those games on there because I didn't purposely search for them since my interest in them would've been zero.

[ShiraNoMai]

YouTube recommendations back in the day were pretty influential to discovery IMO. I've found new artists that way for sure, and possibly games too? But I know for sure musicians was top on that list. I'm sure you found those games that way as well.

I've found some musicians on Spotify, too. I used to frequently listen to my Discover Weekly generated playlists and have actually found decent artists and songs on there.

[Mr EliteL]

YouTube for music, definitely. I can't remember exactly how I got into Linkin Park and Disturbed as they were the first bands I found myself that wasn't mainstream, although they were probably considered mainstream in their part of the music world and not crap that appears on radio or music shows. Then I started to find more stuff via YouTube with Celldweller, Kamelot, Within Temptation were among the first batch of bands I got into early on. Evanescence my sister owned the albums and I borrowed them from her. Then I found more over the years plus associates that showed up as guests and so I'd look into their stuff too.

Games, whatever my bro and sister were into at the time during PS1 era, don't really know how I got into Bomberman. Demos probably helped, and playing with friends too. I got GBA and GC after playing Super Smash Bros Melee with a friend. After that would be gaming magazines, I remember getting hype looking at Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door in one. Gameplay videos I can't say enticed me to pick up a game or not, perhaps a bit later on? Mainly stuck closer to things I already enjoy or thought looked appealing to my taste. Know I bought Luminous Arc 2 on a whim because I found it on offer at MCM Expo despite not knowing anything about it or that I'd enjoy tactical RPGs.

[Moonface]

YouTube for music, definitely. I can't remember exactly how I got into Linkin Park and Disturbed as they were the first bands I found myself that wasn't mainstream, although they were probably considered mainstream in their part of the music world and not crap that appears on radio or music shows. Then I started to find more stuff via YouTube with Celldweller, Kamelot, Within Temptation were among the first batch of bands I got into early on. Evanescence my sister owned the albums and I borrowed them from her. Then I found more over the years plus associates that showed up as guests and so I'd look into their stuff too.

Besides Celldweller and Kamelot all the other bands you mention in your post I found through Kerrang! TV which was basically all I would have on most days throughout 2006-2008 or so since it was neat discovering so much new music and I lacked the internet connection to do any such thing online until 2009 or 2010. Excluding any music I got into through my parents, a lot of other music I found before decent internet was through games that used licensed music.

[ShiraNoMai]

I used to find music through things like the radio and music videos as well. I used to watch those "top 10 best music videos of the week" shows and it'd show things like Flyleaf, Queens of the Stone Age, 30STM, etc. I also used to listen to the top 20 current hits chart as well, so I was very well versed in what was popular then as well (which, back then, still included rock music!)

I think pop music has finally departed from rock though at this point. It was dwindling away for years and now it's practically non-existent in the top charts.

[Moonface]

Another thing I liked about discovering music through Kerrang! was that at some point they started doing full album nights on Thursdays, where they would play an entire album front to back with zero ads on their radio station, which I switched to from their TV channel after I got bored of it being all the same stuff or limited to songs that have music videos (that channel has convinced me that Guns and Roses only have a video for November Rain since they never played any other song). I would listen to albums by bands I wouldn't touch otherwise, and Spotify doesn't really have anything in comparison to it since picking a full album is entirely on the listener, and it gets hard for me to try and pick an album myself at random through searching. Even if I got given some albums to pick would be better than nothing.

[Kyng]

My way of getting into forums was kind of interesting.

Back when I was 10 years old, I watched Digimon on the CITV channel, and it was suddenly cancelled with 14 episodes to go. I was furious - so much so that I signed up on the CITV forums to complain (under the name "Cross Greymon").

I found that the place actually had quite a nice community; stuck around; and the rest is history.

[Moonface]

My way of getting into forums was kind of interesting.

Back when I was 10 years old, I watched Digimon on the CITV channel, and it was suddenly cancelled with 14 episodes to go. I was furious - so much so that I signed up on the CITV forums to complain (under the name "Cross Greymon").

I found that the place actually had quite a nice community; stuck around; and the rest is history.

Which series of Digimon was it? I'm curious if it was Tamers because that particular series had issues with contracts that affected it being aired fully in the UK if I recall correctly.

[Kyng]

My way of getting into forums was kind of interesting.

Back when I was 10 years old, I watched Digimon on the CITV channel, and it was suddenly cancelled with 14 episodes to go. I was furious - so much so that I signed up on the CITV forums to complain (under the name "Cross Greymon").

I found that the place actually had quite a nice community; stuck around; and the rest is history.

Which series of Digimon was it? I'm curious if it was Tamers because that particular series had issues with contracts that affected it being aired fully in the UK if I recall correctly.

Nah, it was Digimon Adventure (the first series). By the time Tamers came around, I'd pretty much lost interest  .

[Moonface]

My way of getting into forums was kind of interesting.

Back when I was 10 years old, I watched Digimon on the CITV channel, and it was suddenly cancelled with 14 episodes to go. I was furious - so much so that I signed up on the CITV forums to complain (under the name "Cross Greymon").

I found that the place actually had quite a nice community; stuck around; and the rest is history.

Which series of Digimon was it? I'm curious if it was Tamers because that particular series had issues with contracts that affected it being aired fully in the UK if I recall correctly.

Nah, it was Digimon Adventure (the first series). By the time Tamers came around, I'd pretty much lost interest  .

Weird, since I'm sure I saw the entire first series without issue, unless the last few episodes were moved from CITV to another channel and I just caught them on there instead.
I assume that the CITV forums are long since dead? I looked for them on Google but didn't find anything that looked like it would be what you joined.

Since you mentioned originally how you got into forums I guess I'll toss my hat in the ring on it. I got into forums through wrestling, but I didn't seek out a forum to talk about wrestling at all. When I first got into wrestling, I recorded all the PPV events, which meant I needed sleeves for the VHS boxes. I found someone through Google whose work I really liked and would print out their covers to use, but then one day they stopped updating their personal website and it caused me to be without a source for covers again. Shortly after, I eventually found that person posting their work on a forum dedicated to designing wrestling covers, and signed up to be able to see their work and discovered a lot of other designers making cool stuff too. Unfortunately with the transition of WWE to streaming their events, the market for DVD covers became practically non-existent and although the forum is still up, it's been dead for years as the incentive to make covers is no longer there and most of the people who did design stuff went on to get careers in the field instead.

[Mr EliteL]

I got into forums similar to Moony, not exactly looking covers but I joined the forum he speaks of from his suggestion to check it out as I was a fan of WWE back in 2006. It was cool to look at the creativity and such, but then I got suspended for posting in old topic, tried others places which ended up being way too many to follow, so over the years I whittled that number down to 1.

[Moonface]

It was cool to look at the creativity and such, but then I got suspended for posting in old topic...

God, I remember that suspension. It was so stupid because it could've just been dealt with by deleting the post and messaging you not to do it, rather than just suspending a user for bumping a single old thread.


Here's one thing that I know will seem crazy to a lot of people. Growing up, I had basically no clue who or what Mario, Zelda, etc. was because I paid so little attention to Nintendo. I had a PlayStation, everyone I knew had one, and the one time my mum considered getting me a Gameboy for Pokemon she asked other parents about the decision and they all told her their kids just left them to collect dust, so she figured it would be a waste of money for me. I didn't really start learning/discovering anything about Nintendo properly until this forum was first made.
@ShiraNoMai has even tried to jog my memory to see if I did actually know about Nintendo IP's as a kid but I just can't ever recall any memories involving knowledge of them outside of the Gamecube existing but I perceived it as a dead system that no one owned or bought games for because of how much market space the PS2 had everywhere. XD

[Karo]

I can explain for two specific games I got into MapleStory by seeing those damn commercials and looking it up, while I got into DBD by watching someone do a trapper gameplay and than I eventually picked it up. XD

[Moonface]

I can explain for two specific games I got into MapleStory by seeing those damn commercials and looking it up, while I got into DBD by watching someone do a trapper gameplay and than I eventually picked it up. XD

MapleStory had commercials? Like on TV? 

How'd you end up watching that Trapper gameplay?