Have you ever witnessed the downfall of a fanbase you belong to firsthand?
- Thread starter User 73706
- Start date
Zoramon089
Banned
I can't believe there are still people who believe this
Ugh...I forgot about this one. I pretty much picked up every Silent Hill game at release through 4 and then...never again. Once Team Silent truly went silent, I couldn't play them anymore. I tried Origins and just couldn't get into it. The first movie, for me, was more a nostalgia trip than anything else.
Sonic 3D Blast. Never forget.
I was deep into Halo since CE. I was one of those guys that got ridiculously good at the game. Just loved all things Halo in general. Reach is absolutely where I dropped off. I own Halo 4, but I've only played the multiplayer a handful of times. BF3 is where I spend all of my time now.
Fighting games. I used to visit the Shoryuken forums before Street Fighter IV which revived the fighting game scene. I remember that first EGM screenshot that made everyone go crazy. Suikoden is another one. I used to visit Suikox and Suikosource forums quite a bit and the excitement and list impressions for Suikoden V was great. The Suikoden series has a lot or lore, but with no sign of Suikoden 6 discussions just dies down.
weirdingway
Banned
Diablo
I went from creating mega threads giving out beta keys for D3 and huge lore and hype threads, friends all getting mega rigs (totally unnecessary given its requirements), and just lots of attention anytime anything was mentioned about the game. Now, no one talks about it positively (except the few who just can't let go because they have an "e-rep" with the fanbase), or at all.
More specifically a console that is completely unrelated to the consoles it was on before. Huge difference. Not a whole lot of complaining would happen if it was coming out for PS4 or NextBox. But personally I blame Sega. I blame them for many things now.
I went from creating mega threads giving out beta keys for D3 and huge lore and hype threads, friends all getting mega rigs (totally unnecessary given its requirements), and just lots of attention anytime anything was mentioned about the game. Now, no one talks about it positively (except the few who just can't let go because they have an "e-rep" with the fanbase), or at all.
More specifically a console that is completely unrelated to the consoles it was on before. Huge difference. Not a whole lot of complaining would happen if it was coming out for PS4 or NextBox. But personally I blame Sega. I blame them for many things now.
Melchiah
Member
Yep. I can definitely sympathize with them, eventhough I'm not interested in Bayonetta. It's REmake all over again.
SOCOM.
SOCOM 1 & 2 were legendary experiences. The franchise started falling off with 3 and Combined Assault, and then never really made the transition to PS3 (it did, but, *shutter*). I suppose most of the blame lies with Sony, Zipper, and Slant Six, but console gamers also seemed to grow tired of the "one life" style of play; opting for CoD and all its clones.
I almost bought a PS2 on eBay last weekend to play some SOCOM II, but discovered they took down the servers just last year. :*(
SOCOM 1 & 2 were legendary experiences. The franchise started falling off with 3 and Combined Assault, and then never really made the transition to PS3 (it did, but, *shutter*). I suppose most of the blame lies with Sony, Zipper, and Slant Six, but console gamers also seemed to grow tired of the "one life" style of play; opting for CoD and all its clones.
I almost bought a PS2 on eBay last weekend to play some SOCOM II, but discovered they took down the servers just last year. :*(
I was away from the net when XIII first hit, but lemme tell you, the Final Fantasy fanbase has become infinitely worse in the years since compared to the years prior.
Topics on GameFAQs have always been subject to fad of the day, but pre-XIII we could actually talk about games. Post XIII you had frequent yammering about armpits. It was horrifying.
More to the point though, there's this irritating bunch on the internet who feel the need to defend XIII's honor and so they derail thread after thread about FF to be about them and XIII and how misunderstood it is and how Lightning is a goddess and you only don't like it because of illegitimate reason x.
I cannot understate how tired I am of people on the internet thinking they know what's going on in my head or telling me my line of thinking is motivated by x, or that I'm inconsistent with y.
Topics on GameFAQs have always been subject to fad of the day, but pre-XIII we could actually talk about games. Post XIII you had frequent yammering about armpits. It was horrifying.
More to the point though, there's this irritating bunch on the internet who feel the need to defend XIII's honor and so they derail thread after thread about FF to be about them and XIII and how misunderstood it is and how Lightning is a goddess and you only don't like it because of illegitimate reason x.
I cannot understate how tired I am of people on the internet thinking they know what's going on in my head or telling me my line of thinking is motivated by x, or that I'm inconsistent with y.
I'm a lefty and love Halo. I play it for the great singleplayer and co-op. Rarely touch multiplayer. Halogaf is alright.
Nights into Dreams fans are pretty quirky and dedicated. They were rewarded with the HD update, so thank you the Nights community. There's not much happening with Nights.
Nights into Dreams fans are pretty quirky and dedicated. They were rewarded with the HD update, so thank you the Nights community. There's not much happening with Nights.
This started with FFX.
People complained about Auron having no pit hair and this somehow ruined everything.
And that makes it better? You pretty much listed the very reason why I found the Bayonetta 2 meltdown pathetic.
This is extremely optimistic. While Other M is seen as an outlier, it's not the only problem. Every game after Prime is a point of contention (and even Prime itself is a point of contention to some), but more importantly, the sales themselves don't appear to have grown after Prime, which is what would have helped maintain a healthy franchise. Other M was the final straw, so to speak, a flop in both sales and general opinion. And while every major Nintendo franchise has a new game announced or recently released (see Zelda, Mario, Smash Bros., Pikmin, and even Luigi's Mansion and Kid Icarus!), but Metroid? Not even a whisper. Nary a mention during its 25th anniversary. Nada. It could be Retro's game for E3, but I wouldn't bet on it.
SillyEskimo
Member
EverQuest and WoW. MMORPG players will turn on games like rabid wolves when they eventually stop playing. The more dedicated and hardcore the player, the worse the venom. It's a rather predictable cycle really.
Snapshot King
Member
Homecoming would never be brought up unless it had a Silent Hill name on it because it's a terrible, awful game. It has 2 good enemy designs and a few decent moments but that's it. Gun Survivor and such for Resident Evil is a different case, because Resident Evil revels in its goofyness and has a totally gonzo backstory. Everything that Homecoming (and Downpour) add just chips away at making the original greats worse by mucking up all sorts of details.
Test Drive Unlimited had some pretty nice community down here in Poland. Oahu was basically just a hangout place - there were people who organized meetings through forums, then we just met up at established hour and place and... just drove somewhere else. During that we discussed some various topics, made up some little challanges, listened to our own music or just drove to some specific location in-game. I've never been into more interesting and fun community ever since or before. Later TDU2 came out and since then it all started to slowly die. People were leaving, servers became more unstable, TDU2 turned out to be a much worse game. Even before server shutdown there were practically no organized groups left and most popular TDU forum just died. I think TDU2 will be closed soon too, just judging by the state of the main website, official forums not working for months and EDEN Games beeing shut down completely. And it's just such a shame, there's really nothing like those games on the market right now, hopefully next gen will bring us something similiar, or even better then this series.
Speaking of old communities - I recently bought 120hz monitor, and at this moment I'm installing UT and UT2004, to find out how much they gain from that refresh rate. I wonder if there's still some significant userbase. Last time I checked UT3, it was pretty much dead, hope it's much better with the older games...
Speaking of old communities - I recently bought 120hz monitor, and at this moment I'm installing UT and UT2004, to find out how much they gain from that refresh rate. I wonder if there's still some significant userbase. Last time I checked UT3, it was pretty much dead, hope it's much better with the older games...
j_k_redtail
Member
ITT: FreeAllegiance. :/
bigboss370
Member
I'd say Splinter Cell fanbase has been diluted.
The community I stuck longest with was Dota ( 5.84c represent! ) and quite frankly the dominance of chinese in that game was the recipe for racist mudslinging tirade from both sides. As if the 'Moba' community couldn't get any worst.
Hilarious.
Hilarious.
OrlanisWorks
Banned
Tom Clancy games in general, in my opinion. Rainbow Six was the first to fall after the Lockdown bomb. Has never returned to the communal glory it had with Raven Shield.
BoosterDuck
Banned
In the earlier years the Pokemon fanbase from my experience were a lot more kinder, things were a lot less petty and it was nice because people were mainly just talking about what they love and it wasn't taboo to like a specific thing of it.
Now it's just awful, discussions on which 14 year old character they are attracted to, people bickering all the time, and no one really enjoying it when discussions are had as discussions are nothing but immaturity.
It's in honesty one of the worst out there that I've seen.
Now it's just awful, discussions on which 14 year old character they are attracted to, people bickering all the time, and no one really enjoying it when discussions are had as discussions are nothing but immaturity.
It's in honesty one of the worst out there that I've seen.
old manatee
Banned
Left 4 Dead. Playing vs. mode when it first came out with random players was one of the best multiplayer experiences I ever had. Every once in a while I will reinstall l4d 1 or 2 and try to get some games going. It takes about 30 minutes of watching people joining and leaving a lobby, and then when the game finally starts there is about 10 minutes of nerds raging at eachother and everybody except me quits.
That perfectly encapsulate my experience with some fans of Silent Hill fans both online and offline. :lol
Oh god yes they did. They were totally complaining about this shit on Gamefaqs. I remember this clearly.
famousmortimer
Banned
Yep.
The socom games definitely went downhill but the fans went from supportive and good natured to complete animals threatening the developers and just going fucking nuts.
A random game of Socom 2 pretty much guaranteed a game with nice people who talked and worked together.
By time confrontation came out it was just a bunch assholes yelling at each other. When socom 4 came out it was just... quiet.
Most of the fanbases I've been a part of that have run into trouble did so because their series ended, rather than any serious demographic shift. Happened to Advance Wars, for sure - that was my first big gaming fandom I was active it, and it was sad to see it fade away.
Ace Attorney was a little touch-and-go for a while there, but with AA5 confirmed to be coming out in the West, things are picking up again.
Only one that really comes to mind where I was an active member of the fandom is Fire Emblem. It's probably just a side-effect of Awakening's focus, but I get the impression the fanbase is sliding away from hard analysis and friendly memes towards, for lack of a better term, waifu wars. It's not a complete shift, of course, but I feel like it's there.
Ace Attorney was a little touch-and-go for a while there, but with AA5 confirmed to be coming out in the West, things are picking up again.
Only one that really comes to mind where I was an active member of the fandom is Fire Emblem. It's probably just a side-effect of Awakening's focus, but I get the impression the fanbase is sliding away from hard analysis and friendly memes towards, for lack of a better term, waifu wars. It's not a complete shift, of course, but I feel like it's there.
VGChampion
Member
I'd agree with you on Halo. Visiting HBO just feels different these days. Plus there were all the different groups. I remember hanging out on Halomods trying to figure out how to move rocks with a hex editor when the spark edit creator (I'm think Ironforge?) sent me an early copy of Spark Edit to help me out. I sometimes wonder what happened to them all. MonoxideC, Nitrousoxide and the Halo PC -> Halo 2 conversion team, the Gearbox people. Never see there usernames around anymore.
I wouldn't say that the Pokemon fanbase has really had a downfall. It's really improved over the years, but the one thing that I could really do without is the bickering about which generation is the best.
GameFreak created so many similar purposed Pokemon and characters that it just leads into these conflicts about which is better.
GameFreak created so many similar purposed Pokemon and characters that it just leads into these conflicts about which is better.
EscapingJail
Member
I fucking love you dice.
For me it was Halo. It seemed like an ok community intil it devolved into the mtndew xp fest we have today. Maybe its not the community but sometimes the games itself.
We have all grown up, but to say I outgrew Halo is wrong.
I love Halo, yet the franchise left me behind. I loved Halo 1, 2, even 3 (with its faults) but with Reach and 4 the franchise is trying to bring in people who never really cared for the franchise to begin with, and in the process has lost sight of what made it tick for many (myself included). If the developers want to lose me as a fan, then they have done an excellent job, however I never wanted to leave.
I love Halo, yet the franchise left me behind. I loved Halo 1, 2, even 3 (with its faults) but with Reach and 4 the franchise is trying to bring in people who never really cared for the franchise to begin with, and in the process has lost sight of what made it tick for many (myself included). If the developers want to lose me as a fan, then they have done an excellent job, however I never wanted to leave.
Quite a few actually.
Suikoden fanbase is the best fanbase ever: knowledgeable, intelligent for the most part, nice and dedicated. It's mostly dead, for obvious reasons. Still love you people, if you are out there!
My relations with FF fans are strange ones. I used to frequent FF boards for many years, but I never like intolerance of it. Sure, games are very different, so, it has to attract very different people. But oh boy, heated discussions after every new FF game as "a worst game ever". I lived trough FF7 betrayal, FF8 hate. Didn't like FF9 that much myself, but still couldn't stand attitude of fans, well, some very vocal fans, not all. FFX was adored almost unanimously, I thought finally, peace and quiet and we can discuss the games intelligently. How wrong I was... FFX-2 came, and it all got on another level on unbearable. But all that didn't killed fanbase, even FF11 didn't. FF12 did, and it's unmendable. It split fanbase in 2 opposite camps that can't really live together with each other. Because the understanding what FF has to be was opposite in opposing camps. The FF12 faction was smaller, but it got bigger with years, what's understandable, still kinda painful. FF12 killed not only FF but even FF fanbase. That's how I see it. FF13 already was dancing on the corpse.
Then the was nice LO fanbase, dead now too, for obvious reasons.
RS fans are another funny story, funny in sense how bad it all went.
Then there was Fallout fanbase, Troika fans and so on.
I have hard time remembering living fanbase, CS maybe?
Even UT one is dead.
Suikoden fanbase is the best fanbase ever: knowledgeable, intelligent for the most part, nice and dedicated. It's mostly dead, for obvious reasons. Still love you people, if you are out there!
My relations with FF fans are strange ones. I used to frequent FF boards for many years, but I never like intolerance of it. Sure, games are very different, so, it has to attract very different people. But oh boy, heated discussions after every new FF game as "a worst game ever". I lived trough FF7 betrayal, FF8 hate. Didn't like FF9 that much myself, but still couldn't stand attitude of fans, well, some very vocal fans, not all. FFX was adored almost unanimously, I thought finally, peace and quiet and we can discuss the games intelligently. How wrong I was... FFX-2 came, and it all got on another level on unbearable. But all that didn't killed fanbase, even FF11 didn't. FF12 did, and it's unmendable. It split fanbase in 2 opposite camps that can't really live together with each other. Because the understanding what FF has to be was opposite in opposing camps. The FF12 faction was smaller, but it got bigger with years, what's understandable, still kinda painful. FF12 killed not only FF but even FF fanbase. That's how I see it. FF13 already was dancing on the corpse.
Then the was nice LO fanbase, dead now too, for obvious reasons.
RS fans are another funny story, funny in sense how bad it all went.
Then there was Fallout fanbase, Troika fans and so on.
I have hard time remembering living fanbase, CS maybe?
Even UT one is dead.
Monocle
Member
I stopped participating in Halo's fan community after ODST (which is still brilliant no matter what anyone else says) so I could never tell if it was just me, but ever since Halo 3 people's enthusiasm for the series seemed to be draining away. Reach kind of felt like Bungie's belated acknowledgment of Halo's shark jump. And Halo 4 sealed it with those motherfucking Prometheans. Barely feels like the same franchise anymore.
Despite everything I cling to the hope that it will be salvaged. All 343 has to do is reverse almost every change they made to the core design, lol.
Oh, also it was sad to see the Devil May Cry series die a second death. I guess it's nice that the whole Ninja Theory debacle sparked an uproar in the fan community before everyone moved on.
Despite everything I cling to the hope that it will be salvaged. All 343 has to do is reverse almost every change they made to the core design, lol.
Oh, also it was sad to see the Devil May Cry series die a second death. I guess it's nice that the whole Ninja Theory debacle sparked an uproar in the fan community before everyone moved on.
Falcs
Banned
I know that feel more than you can imagine, bro.
Hm, really? I thought that the Playstation community was always bigger.
Monocle
Member
Yeah, COD slapped Halo silly. The exodus was immense. Too bad 343's solution to that problem was to make Halo more like the competition, instead of the opposite thing, which was what attracted fans like me in the first place.
Something really rubs me here.
Am I old? How can one classify a series of games that don't even span 2 generations as.... I don't know.
Its just odd. 4 games on one gen? Try being an f-zero fan...
WrenchNinja
Member
Mass Effect fanbase turned into creepers
Kingdom Hearts fanbase turned into yaoi fangirls and people who think Nomura is the greatest story teller ever
Pokemon fanbase devolved into creepy obsessive freaks in love with little girls and now make stupid arguments about which generation is better or worse or annoying fans who need to shit on the older games because they cant tolerate other people liking older titles
The megaman fanbase has its own divisions with each series, some of them hate each other, but seeing zero fans constantly shit on zx and battle network fans shit on star force is annoying as hell
Zelda fanbase cant go one discussion without talking about what the best Zelda game is or getting ultra defensive about fans liking older titles and then spouting the stupid Zelda cycle crap
Fire Emblem fans going from talking about stats and challenge and character stories to stupid waifu wars with awakening.
Kingdom Hearts fanbase turned into yaoi fangirls and people who think Nomura is the greatest story teller ever
Pokemon fanbase devolved into creepy obsessive freaks in love with little girls and now make stupid arguments about which generation is better or worse or annoying fans who need to shit on the older games because they cant tolerate other people liking older titles
The megaman fanbase has its own divisions with each series, some of them hate each other, but seeing zero fans constantly shit on zx and battle network fans shit on star force is annoying as hell
Zelda fanbase cant go one discussion without talking about what the best Zelda game is or getting ultra defensive about fans liking older titles and then spouting the stupid Zelda cycle crap
Fire Emblem fans going from talking about stats and challenge and character stories to stupid waifu wars with awakening.
No.
I used to think so, but one day I realized it was me who changed over time (i.e. I grew up, lulz), while the crazy fanboys of </insert fanbase here> are still just as zealous and irrational as ever. Today I don't recognize myself with any singular fanbase of anything, tbqh. I honestly now think it's pathetic and extremely childish when people blindly leap to the defense of a company or game series like you see here or on other gaming boards.
But that's just me.
I used to think so, but one day I realized it was me who changed over time (i.e. I grew up, lulz), while the crazy fanboys of </insert fanbase here> are still just as zealous and irrational as ever. Today I don't recognize myself with any singular fanbase of anything, tbqh. I honestly now think it's pathetic and extremely childish when people blindly leap to the defense of a company or game series like you see here or on other gaming boards.
But that's just me.
the community dying for it cut me deep. ;_; nothing worse than a favorite server dying.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Around launch I remember GameFAQS reader reviews (LOL) being quite middiling for the game suggesting quite a few people didn't like it. It might have been an initial shock of "its tell me where to, this isn't the Metroid 1 I know, its more linear fusion gunk" but before all the sequence breaks were found (and there were quite a lot of intentional ones too).
I know about the Advance Wars murder thing but what else happened?
As for F-Zero. I thought there were some who didn't like GX but I thought everyone was still hapilly time trialing their favourite F-Zero title while hoping for a new title some time.
I wonder if its better or worse than trolling or trolling by proxy of teir lsits thrown about like a bible on how to play the game that thou must not refute, even the bits that make no sense
like character you'll never use (or have rerason to) is better than character with poor starting stats, massive growths and utility to enable 100% critical rate (that characters placement is mainly trolling purpose which became running joke though might be to rebel agianst the other extreme of "OMG best in game"). The two characters I'm talking about are some archer whose name I've forgotten and Est.
In any case lengthy debates are nothing new for the Fire Emblem fanbase. I wonder if nowerdays it is infested with the "older games were better" vibe that most other Nintendo fanbases have. I know I saw a few Gamefaqs posts (LOL) with people saying you have to go back to the SNES for a hard FE game which is the same sort of thing really and I know back in the day FE6 got slammed pretty badly for dropping a lot of mechanics in FE5.
Probably kingdom hearts. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't be on forums or even have this name. It went through some very awkward phases...they started announcing all these handheld games...the story....things just used to be so simple. Remember spending all my time on KHInsider back in like '03 or '04...there were better times.
It saddens me with what happened with UT3, I still like the game but from everything I hear the game is quite dead
. Epic just aren't what they used to be, Everything from gears 1 just ended up going downhill, to the point where most people don't even know Judgment is out.
It saddens me with what happened with UT3, I still like the game but from everything I hear the game is quite dead
. Epic just aren't what they used to be, Everything from gears 1 just ended up going downhill, to the point where most people don't even know Judgment is out.