User blog comment:SuperMarioman11/My Thoughts on Sonic.exe and Criticism in General/@comment-25052433-20140911081126

I suppose the rise and fall of this story is no different than any other media that is loved one minute, and hated the next. Personally, I always thought it was a sub-par story at best, and it's ridiculous fan base should have never been a motivator for it to be treated as a legend or a classic.

Think of it like this, during the 90's, the Spice Girls enjoyed a level of fame and success that was roughly equal to The Beatles. So, by that logic, are we to assume that the Spice Girls were as good as The Beatles?

Of course not! Sudden popularity should never be a judge of quality. Quality lies almost completely in how well something ages. Cars, music, video games, friendships and television shows can all be judged by how well they age.

For example, people still love the music of Elvis. In 50 years, people will likely not remember Miley Cyrus.

People still spend hundreds of thousands of dollars collecting vintage sports cars. However, I doubt the little trendy Fiats will still be sought after 50 years from now.

In video games, people still to this day collect and play the original Nintendo games. Do you think people will be collecting Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto in 30 years? I doubt it.

That is how quality is determined. In my opinion, Sonic.exe and Jeff the Killer were never anything more than fads. They came at the right time and caught on like crazy.

However, look at how they are viewed now. As more quality writing and superior stories have surfaced, people have been able to see Sonic and JtK for what they really are, poorly written stories that, if posted as original work today, would be deleted within the hour.

Time determines quality. Clearly, the people have spoken, and these so called 'classics' are nothing more than classic examples of bad writing.