Release order on first experience is the only way guaranteed to not create unnecessary confusion. Works in a continuity that are released after each other tend rely upon prior knowledge of the work to accentuate the experience. Inventing a new angle to experience them through may be valuable as an artistic exercise, but it is very clearly a bad idea to recommend that angle to newcomers. Release order is specifically reliable because it tracks either the creative process/development of ideas in cases of straightforward serialization, or in case of intentionality in release order follows author intent.
The only time a bespoke work order is even debatable is in cases of an adaptation of a work that is not adapted in release order of the original work. Even then, that adaptation may work around that in a way where it makes it, too, confusing to experience outside of its own release order.
Sometimes later works are written with explicit goal to be accessible to a new audience.
Like with StarWars for example you can start with any of the trilogies, watch them in any order as long as you watch the works within the trilogies in order. You can watch just the latest trilogy and ignore the earlier films. Or you can skip StarWars entirely and watch something worthwhile.
Hmm, yeah fair. I can also see it working for say, franchise comics, it gets messy when work count goes into high-double/triple digits.
I think my pet peeve is specifically when people take like, Metal Gear, JoJo’s, or as I first experienced this ick when I was 15, Monogatari, and twist it into a bespoke maze to follow chronology or some other thing, and then it catches on and people start recommending it to new people. It just gives me the ick.
I get some mad at people who started with mgs3 cause its chronologically first. It’s a prequel that assumes you’ve played the previous games. Thats why there is a 3 in the name. For Star Wars, people watching the prequels first has for sure contributed to the modern prequel apologia which I cant at all get behind.
For Trek i generally do recommend starting with TNG and not TOS cause the original is 60s as fuck
Star Trek, you have to start with Lower Decks and work yourself up the ranks.
Absolutely seconded. It’s the best entry point into Trek.
Erm sweaty the best metal gear to start with is portable ops and then swiftly move onto the sequel syphon filter. Thank you kojima for metal gear gabe
The best metal gear is rising and then just not playing any of the others
STANDING HERE I REALISE
TOS (including TAS) is the best trek, all the others are star wars wearing a better show’s skin
Weird take
TOS has a chill, relaxed, weird vibe. TNG is space opera with less fantasy. It is to trek what the jackson trilogies are to the books
That said i do realise this is far from the consensus (“weird” as you put it)
I can sorta see what youre talking about but think its still around for most of tng
A great example of this is the newly released Pathologic 3, which despite technically being the third one is the perfect entry point as its from the perspective of a total outsider and is the best gameplay wise. Although its still hilariously obfuscated at times, half the time one of your dialogue options will just be quoting full Latin sentences at peasantry.
Isn’t it just a third of Pathology 1?
It would be more accurate to say its based on one of the three storylines from Pathologic. Its very much its own game like 2 was before it.
watching the prequels first ruins the introduction on dagobah
another reason to like the combined trilogy order of 4-5-2-3-6. if showing someone the series and they want to include the prequels this is my go to order