156 replies to this topic

[ChaosSupremeSonîc]

Yo, I'm going to be providing an update today, so for those of you reading this I want you to be ready for my annoucement.

...I was planning on doing this last week, but I gotta tell ya college can definitely delay your plans you intended, especially if you're in engineering like me.

[ChaosSupremeSonîc]

And Update time.

So far, I have 17 out of the 30 people who have chosen their respective topics. Not including the leaders, those are:

• Indigo Rush
• Semjax
• DC111
• The Boosting Reinhog
• Candied Sugar Plum1984
• Sega Dog Tagz
• Jus-Dan
• Enigma2Me
• Komodin
• Inferno
• SuperStingray
• Azukara
• Dark Qiviut

A few things have changed. Verte has decided to reliquish her position as a leader of the fandom topic, and Scar has joined us to lead the Future topic point. As a result, I've taken up her position on the fandom topic. Me, Dissident, and Marco have already begun work on our leading topics and made drafts. (I on the other hand have a lot more work since I'm leading two topics)

Scheduling will likely be tough. I know a number of you have more important things to take care of beyond this forum. In the meantime, I would like you all to make you contributions to the section you decided to participate in.

We will be posting the drafts sometime this week so that you can get a glimpse of what we're going to say.

[Sega DogTagz]

Could you clarify a bit on what will happen after the leader's post up the drafts.

Are we (the contributors) here to edit, tweak and suggest ways to make the drafts better, or are we to write our own proposals that are meant to co-exist with the drafts?

[ChaosSupremeSonîc]

Could you clarify a bit on what will happen after the leader's post up the drafts.

Are we (the contributors) here to edit, tweak and suggest ways to make the drafts better, or are we to write our own proposals that are meant to co-exist with the drafts?

You are to write your own proposals that will co-exist with the drafts. It's basically everyone putting their own voice on what they think regarding the aspects of the series that have been mentioned. It's pretty much your own thoughts about the topic being discussed.

[743-E.D. Missile]

ChaosSupremeSonic, is this thing getting close to finished, or at least has a date of completion? This thing needs to get out and be shoved in SEGA's faces to show that a genuinely intelligent, very dedicated, and not foaming at the mouth fan forum (Us, of course :3) is getting sick of them pandering to the foaming at the mouth people whose minds are permanently stuck in whatever era they don't foam in the mouth about...

If that made sense.

[Soniman]

Yeah, I really don't want something like this to fizzle out and die, to much work has gone into it already.

[ChaosSupremeSonîc]

Oh trust me, this hasn't died out.

But I'll admit, things have gotten slow. when it comes to everyday life, it can be pretty troubling to schedule. You try working on a project for fun, then two college projects in Computer Science at once while trying you're damnedest to maintain you great GPA and see how taxing that gets. And don't even get me started on the "College diet" you live off of.

I'll see how the others are doing.

[Burnt Ash]

I think you've probably done this already, but have you been updating Deadeye about the status of the editorial?

[ChaosSupremeSonîc]

I think you've probably done this already, but have you been updating Deadeye about the status of the editorial?

Things have hit a major snag at the moment. I'd give you an update on that part specifically, but now's not a good time for that.

[Marco]

A little update from myself: I've been busy with college, but now I have a huge block of time to revise my paper. It was already done, but I'm unsatisfied with it and will be revising it to my liking. All I really need to do is... well, start.

I'm not going to be speaking for everyone else but I will say mine will be complete this week.

[ChaosSupremeSonîc]

Hmm...let's see.
*Dusts off thread*

Yo everyone. Check this out!

Characters: Classic vs. Modern

[SSMB fan responses over characters]

Within the fandom, one thing that definitely stands out are the Sonic characters. They’ve always sparked controversy among those in and out of the fandom, and without a doubt a major aspect of this franchise that has lead to the fandom being an “unpleaseable fanbase” while those in major gaming circles outside of the fandom refer to them as “Sonic’s Shitty Friends”. Characters like Shadow especially cause such a divide that he’s become known as a “Marmite Character” – that is to say, you either love him or you hate him.

However, what is the real issue regarding the characters that causes such a schism among people? The obvious case would be personal preference; not everyone likes the more edgier characters like Shadow or non-action characters like Big. Although sometimes it’s by association, as barely any of the Post-Adventure characters are liked by the more hardcore Classic fans while the fans on the Modern spectrum of the fandom are loathed to return to the Pre-Adventure cast and character designs. Generations seems to have brought to everyone’s attention that Sonic Team are more than aware of this schism and don’t intend to leave either side out, although not everyone seems to believe that message.

Contrary to many media outlet’s claims about the franchise’s characters, it isn’t true that nobody likes them as many of them have a fairly large group of fans who love them. Shadow alone is popular enough that he rivals that of the classic characters Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, while Blaze has a fairly decent crowd of fans in support of her, and even Big the Cat has a noticeable amount of fans. Many outside of these groups wonder why people love these characters when they feel they’re terrible, but that comes off as a bit self-centered when you don’t actually bother to understand the appeal that draws people to them and place your likings onto them believing that you know better. Understandably, the dislike of the characters comes from their association Sonic’s previous string of bad games such as ShTH and Sonic 06. However, while their criticism of these characters is understandable, the demonization of them is not when critics make little attempt to see ways to improve them from such bad reception (that DOESN’T involve killing them all off). Nowadays the dislike of the characters ends up becoming so hyperbolic that it has become somewhat of a fad to bash them on sight.

Taking a trip on or off the internet and you’ll find varied opinions over many of “Sonic’s Shitty Friends.” Believe it or not, many happen to be major fans of Shadow the Hedgehog as a character, but that doesn’t always imply that such fans are obsessive over him. His game for example brought a number of inappropriate material that have made fans and non-fans alike critical. Typical responses are “Shadow should have stayed dead” for the non-fans while his more supportive fans feel “Shadow is awesome” towards the character, however these responses usually distract from those on both sides who feel they could give a more critical response in their dislike, indifference, or support of the character.

[SSMB responses over the character]

Ever since his debut in SA2, his role in manipulating the events leading to the Space Colony ARK falling towards the Earth opened up some interesting characterization and tone that this series never went through at the time. And while many believed he was dead before coming back in Heroes, I happened to enjoy seeing my favorite character be revived. But with that said, I absolutely hated his game Shadow the Hedgehog and wish it never existed; I still want to keep the character around without that game ruining everything I liked before its development.

But one fan such as myself cannot speak for the fandom at large. I’m not exactly a m
Many fans here at the SSMB hold onto many similar standards.

Edited by ChaosSupremeSonic, 03 June 2012 - 08:29 AM.

[Shirou Emiya]

... How the hell did I not notice this topic before? Maybe because I don't check this sub-forum very often...

Is there still room for people to join in? I'd like to pick Gamplay as my primary and Story as my secondary.

Edited by Masaru Daimon, 03 June 2012 - 09:56 AM.

[ChaosSupremeSonîc]

... How the hell did I not notice this topic before? Maybe because I don't check this sub-forum very often...

Is there still room for people to join in? I'd like to pick Gamplay as my primary and Story as my secondary.

Some people haven't made their claims in topics, so it's very much open.

Be mindful that we're going very slower that we initially thought.

[Shirou Emiya]

Some people haven't made their claims in topics, so it's very much open.

Be mindful that we're going very slower that we initially thought.

Eh, that's fine. I want in, in any case.

[Discoid]

Time to show off my brilliant cynicism~

“Hey Sonic! Enjoy your future! It's gonna be great!”

It shouldn't come off as a surprise that Sonic’s little farewell to his past self in Sonic Generations has become the butt of many jokes both in and out of the fandom. For over half of these twenty long years, Sonic was on top of the world; his games were system sellers and revolutionized the platforming genre with their clever use of speed and momentum-based platforming, he had a total of three different cartoons in that decade alone (with the first two being very popular with kids), and his image was thrown on everything from breakfast cereal to canned soup. SEGA had taken a risk and were rewarded with overwhelming success. So… what happened?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question isn’t a simple one, but it does have an answer. Before we can begin exploring it though, a little bit of SEGA history needs to be taken into account: By the mid-nineties, SEGA had already started to lose their stride started in the late 80’s. The SEGA CD was a flop and the 32X failed miserably; driving them to begin work on their next big console, the SEGA Saturn. For whatever reason, Sonic Team never attempted to make a new Sonic game on the system. SEGA of America failed to get Sonic X-Treme out the door and Traveler’s Tales was recruited to work on spin-off titles Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast (or 3D Flickies’ Island in Europe). It wasn’t until 1995 (5 years after Sonic & Knuckles) that the next main series Sonic game was announced. After missing out on some of the most revolutionary years in gaming history, Sonic Team needed to impress. With six playable characters, more realistic environments, an RPG esque-plot (at least compared to other games at the time), and a fully voice-acted script, Sonic Team made a move that had the potential to seal the series’ fate right then and there: they jumped the shark. Riding on its massive amount of hype, revolutionary graphics, and insanely fast gameplay, Sonic Adventure ran straight into the hearts of gamers everywhere. And this, ladies and gentleman, was where it all started.

[SSMB responses over the influence of Sonic Adventure]

After the massive success of Sonic Adventure, Sonic Team began work on their next big game; a sequel simply titled Sonic Adventure 2. Taking everything that people seemed to love in Sonic Adventure and pumping it up to 120%, they seemed to be proudly striding the road to success. I mean, if it worked with the first one, what could go wrong? Well, in terms of objective game mechanics… nothing, really. There’s nothing particularly wrong about a more serious story, nor is it an inherently terrible idea to put Tails in a mech for the sake of variety. The problem stems from the fact that Sonic Adventure 2 was a celebration of Sonic’s 10th anniversary. Over the course of those 10 years, the series had established an identity of its own in almost all aspects of game design. The gameplay of Sonic 1-3&K were instantly recognizable as “Sonic” thanks to their unique take on momentum-based platforming, interesting way of telling a story without a single line of dialogue, and expansive, multi-tiered level design. With the Adventure series, this identity was practically thrown out the window completely in favor of a newer, more “hip and cool” one. This, my friends, was what caused the series to suffer one of the biggest drops in quality the industry has ever seen. After Sonic Adventure 2, the series just didn’t know what it wanted to be anymore.

[SSMB responses over the influence of Sonic Adventure 2]

Of course, there’s more to it than that alone; the actual gameplay itself also took a massive hit in quality. However, I believe this may have to do with the mass amount of experimentation Sonic Team was doing with the series around the time rather than completely incompetent game design alone. Think of it this way; if Sonic Team hadn’t been so bent on emphasizing the teamwork aspect of Sonic Heroes, the level design may not have been as linear and segregated as it was. If Shadow’s newfound love of firearms and vehicles wasn’t such a major part of the game’s focus, we might have actually gotten a competent story and some interestingly designed levels. If Sonic 06 wasn’t so ambitious with its over-the-top story and myriad of useless features, we might have actually gotten a complete product for Sonic’s 15th Anniversary.

[SSMB responses over the cause of Heroes-06's fantastic shittiness]

Since 2010, it’s become clear we’re in a sort of “Sonic Renaissance” period; the games have finally gotten their identity back (lighthearted, happy-go-lucky games that place all attention on the gameplay; just like the classics), and Sonic Team finally seems to know what they want to do with the series. Unleashed showed us in 2008 that Sonic Team might finally have learned what we wanted; but was ultimately held back by its insistence on sticking to the traditions of the Adventure games. Despite that, it smoothly led us to Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations; two games loved by both fans and critics.

Has Sonic gone back to the level of greatness he had in his glory days? No. But is it a feasible possibility at this point? I can proudly say that I believe so. Gone are the days that Sonic was good for nothing but being the butt of has-been jokes, now replaced with one of the biggest revivals in quality I’ve ever seen.

Welcome back, Sonic. We missed you.

[Ezeek]

i'm new to the site but a HUGE sonic fan... i may not like all of the characters, but i do like many of them... so i would love to contribute too... i have alot of things to say to sonic haters out there. In a non agressive and articulate way of course lol

Edited by Ezeek, 13 August 2012 - 08:53 PM.

[ChaosSupremeSonîc]

Yeah, no sense in dragging this out any longer.

So things are gonna be on hold until I can reorganize things. Marco's been quite absent, and while I still have every intention of making this a reality, it's getting a bit difficult to plan. I blame that on my inexperience.

We're also might be considering looking for another place to host the article. Bad news is that the East of Nowhere has stopped in it's writing, and so that just make the situation harder. I've been looking for other potential places, but I would find it much harder considering how the franchise and the fandom still has a bit of a bad image, so looking for one that would actually be less hostile would be a challenge in itself.

You guys are more than welcome to help out on the ideas if you're able to, but I figured I'd get this news out and stop beating around the bush with it.