Sonic the Hedgehog: how fans have subverted a fallen mascot

[Cyrus]

Sonic sucks and its fanbase is wacko. What else is new?

 

Speaking of which, I can't wait for all those Sonic Boom reviews that start with the tired redundant buzz phrase, "Sonic has had a rough run since the beginning of his 3D career."

[Agie]

These days, I tend to think most critics are, apologies for saying this, pathetic jokes.

 

Take a few wild guesses why.

[kadybat]

To see a writer I respect, someone like Leigh Alexander, try to claim that the original games 'aren't good' in retrospect and act like an arguably successful franchise is somehow a 'fallen mascot' really bugs me. The original games are objectively good from whatever angle you're looking at them. They're not perfect - yes, the partner AI is terrible, we get it. But complaining about being 'thrown into traps' is ridiculous, and is another example of someone ripping a Sonic game because they're not good at it (IGN I'm looking at you).

I mean, I think what people aren't seeing in Boom is SEGA finally wising up on merchandising this character. To act like Sonic as a franchise isn't successful is to ignore SEGA's recent successes in mobile and the character's continued visibility with kids. Sonic Dash has been at least in the Top 50 Free Games on iTunes since its debut, Lost World sold nearly a million copies on a fledgling console with just over 3 million users, and licensed products remain successful. Sonic X can be seen on Western TV nearly a decade after its debut, and Sonic clothing can be found in most kids departments - boutique retailers like Hot Topic, but also common retailers like Target and others sell Sonic merchandise. There's also been a toyline for years, and all of this is more then can be said of a lot of video game franchises, especially ones of Sonic's age. The important part about Boom is that SEGA recognizes this and is trying to create a unified brand image for that segment of the demographic, one that evidences synergy across media, with merchandise and toys that reflect a cartoon that reflects a game.

Not bad article. (Especially last part.) Most of gamers(Except Sonic fan) assume Sonic is corpse. I think this article writers know many Sonic related informations Plus, Sonic fans are bad either. They aren't realize Sonic is falling. They aren't know Sega's non-consolidated financial reports and they even think Sonic is mainstream title. In reality, Sonic isn't profitable, Game quality is mediocre to horrible, Sonic < Any pachinko machine, and Sonic is niche now Give up and deal it. Sent from my SHW-M250S using Tapatalk 2 (Incomplete. I'll complete this post at 12:40 jst)

Dude, why do you even post here if all you're going to talk about is how Sonic is unprofitable and terrible?

[WhoWhatMan]

Not bad article. (Especially last part.)

Most of gamers(Except Sonic fan) assume Sonic is corpse. I think this article writers know many Sonic related informations

Plus, Sonic fans are bad either. They aren't realize Sonic is falling. They aren't know Sega's non-consolidated financial reports and they even think Sonic is mainstream title.

In reality, Sonic isn't profitable, Game quality is mediocre to horrible, Sonic < Any pachinko machine, and Sonic is niche now

Give up and deal it.

Sent from my SHW-M250S using Tapatalk 2

(Incomplete. I'll complete this post at 12:40 jst)

Then why the hell are you even on a Sonic fansite if you think Sonic's dead and the fanbase is bad?

[sonfan1984]

I've been checking her twitter and she seem to be getting some angry tweets about her article and retweeting from a couple of people who thinks Sonic is no longer relevant anymore.  

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Again, any dissent- no matter how it is stated- could be seen as butthurt from some ambiguous "outside perspective" due to confirmation bias, that the mere act of disagreeing is proof of the claims being made. This again doesn't say much about the validity of my way or arguing, especially since you've not entertained the notion that other onlookers on the fence could actually agree with me and others in this thread.

That's mainly because I'm less concerned with onlookers on the other side of the fence agreeing with you - which, as a note, I do too - and more with the fact that you're appear to be getting upset over the article that has practically succeeded in its goal. I'm trying to get you to recognize not to let her succeed with it, which people looking outside the fence would see you've failed in doing.

 

 

And frankly, I doubt the author cares less about outside responses- in the sense that she really does hate us and wants to troll the fandom to get her rocks off- than she does actual clicks to the article through the mere use of controversial writing, which is how the site and subsequently she gets paid. The trolling is more likely less a personal expression of hatred than it is a means to an end; copy and paste the article elsewhere and anyone's responses to the second-hand source without linking back to it ultimately become meaningless to her personal bottom line. So I would say my current retorts on SSMB actually don't mean shit to her. I guarantee you she will never see this thread, so no, I nor anyone else who didn't click on it have not really given her what she wants.

 

Okay, then that's all the more reason for you not to dignify it by vocalizing how much it upsets you. Fact of the matter is that whether the trolling is a means to an end or a personal expression of hatred, don't feed them. Because when I read comments like this from you.

 

 

tl;dr: I fucking hate being a Sonic fan sometimes, and this ignorant shit is part of the reason why.

 

Or this.

Who cares if it's a troll article? The content of this clickbait shit isn't created in a vacuum; people genuinely believe these things about the fandom as a whole. Outlets don't talk about the disgusting Pokephilia shit out there or the creepy-ass lolicon, shotacon, and the rest of the fetishistic crap not only in otaku culture but in official anime products, and then further go on to use these things as proof of the waning quality of these respective media. If I were to take media reporting as an accurate barometer of truth, creepy-ass Pokemon shit doesn't actually exist and the sexual crap of anime is plain ol' fun and respectable "fan service" or whatever. It's a raging double standard that really is based on nothing more than two near decade-old games being considered bad at their time of release. It's ridiculous.

 

I'm seeing more of that passion of yours over these claims show how pissed off your are about it, meaning that regardless of the reason she was trolling she won whatever victory she was trying to get even if she never sees it on a forum like this. And while it's for reasons we all understand and are equally annoyed of, at the same time you're still letting it get to you like the trolling article it is.

 

That's why I say don't get reactionary about it. You know it's bullshit, I know it's bullshit, we all know it's bullshit. We know there are people out there who believe in that bullshit, at the same time we know there are people out there that know better (such as the comments in the article). But unless you were aiming to blow off steam over it, getting upset, like we've time and time again, isn't netting us anything differently, is it?

 

 

 

And I've been advocating for people to change the pace! I'm asking for people to think up ideas to find better avenues of debating these kinds of articles in a more prominent public sphere. I've done so like two or three times already, so I don't know why we keep harping on the point that my passion is inherently wrong in all of this. If that's true, then answer my question: What else can we do to fix it?

Well for starters, I'm just going to repeat myself - don't feed the trolling author. Really, there's no justifying this especially if you're aware of it or it's pointed out. And considering that she was making a blatant potshot at the fandom, with details I'm sure even she knows is prevalent in more than just the Sonic fanbase alone and parroting claims that have been made for a decade from article after article, I think it's clear that she was wanting to rile people. And if you are or have something that provokes a choleric temper, they're going to seek to anger you over it - really it's their only tactic, passion be damned. It's a victory in itself not to give them what they want, not to give in to what they're seeking to get from you, and I can only hope it'll make you relax or feel better rolling your eyes and downright laughing about how ridiculous they are on their claims even despite knowing someone somewhere out there is going to take it at face value.

 

Second, as far as finding avenues to make our points on prominent public sphere, we'd need to find someone who is sympathetic to hearing us out or a sphere that is at least analytical enough to hear a different side of the debate. But that's easier said than done considering the media itself. I thought we had a shot when we had Dead3ye of the East of Nowhere came by and I wanted us to have our voices heard, but thanks to outside circumstances where the EoN stopped writing, that's dead in the water (tho I still have our writings in the event, however unlikely, we get another shot like that). We could try Extra Credits, but I'm not sure if they have any intention of dedicating an episode towards our specific fandom (although, maybe we can try their forums? Maybe work ourselves in their community then make a topic addressing it?). Or find some forum where we can join up together in their community and then make our point.

 

There's also creating our own avenue, but that's sketchy in itself if we want to branch out. And there's no guarantee it would allow us to be heard.

 

Beyond that, there are more outlandish ideas that are more of a gamble than anything (and can come off as nonsensical, but you're asking for ideas, so here they are). There's a "subversion" of our own where some of us try and author such articles on these sources and shift the opinion into a better realization of the fandom that, while obviously fragmented, is no different compared to any other fandom out there over the demented stuff they try to demonize us for.

 

And even more outlandish than that, someone try to work their way to a prestige where their influence carries heavier weight than these authors out there. As if they became the next BRB working on a new Sonic Title, or something along those lines. And beyond that someone land a job at Sonic Team and deal with all this nonsense that's led to a lot of this mess in the first place. (yes, I know they're rather fantasy and really far off for some, but it's an idea)

 

Look, we can brainstorm this all day, maybe make another topic to discuss about how to do it. But all in all, this kind of article isn't something new to us. Our fandom's reputation is obvious even to us, and the nonsense both inside and out are as well. Hell, even me point this out is obvious as hell as it is. But my point is that all this ebb and flow of "author insults the fandom" -> "fandom gets upset and reacts" has done for the most part is net us the same result it's been getting us for years. And as far as anything short of debating these things go, I think one way to completely shift that is to recognize that it's trying to upset us and avoid reacting accordingly. Because I think it really goes a long way in itself to subvert the intended reaction they wanted from us, whether they will investigate it or not. While not every fan out there will do so or even read this post advocating it, you at the very least can try.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

im start to understand the article as i need help to understand, but i got it.

 

i have to say about the article........... fuck you. seriously. they complain about Sonic fans making fetishy arts and being weridos? Dont go to Hetalias fanbase. that who fanbase is shippy bait. "awwww two guys be friends let ship them!!1" and they also think shit like the holocause is kawaii desu. Dont do Naruto either and dont go near Naurto/Sasuke fanbrats. They are worse. Oh and dont get into otaku.. Im getting off track but yeah why are they only picking on Sonic when theres worse shit out there. Why just Sonic? why not talk about all the other shit? this makes me angry.

[Milo]

Not bad article. (Especially last part.) Most of gamers(Except Sonic fan) assume Sonic is corpse. I think this article writers know many Sonic related informations Plus, Sonic fans are bad either. They aren't realize Sonic is falling. They aren't know Sega's non-consolidated financial reports and they even think Sonic is mainstream title. In reality, Sonic isn't profitable, Game quality is mediocre to horrible, Sonic < Any pachinko machine, and Sonic is niche now Give up and deal it. Sent from my SHW-M250S using Tapatalk 2 (Incomplete. I'll complete this post at 12:40 jst)

 

 

Dude, why do you even post here if all you're going to talk about is how Sonic is unprofitable and terrible?

 

 

Then why the hell are you even on a Sonic fansite if you think Sonic's dead and the fanbase is bad?

 

Quoting these two responses because it bears repeating.

 

Why are you here on a Sonic forum if you only want to talk about how bad the franchise and it's fans are.

[Blue Swallow]

BREAKING NEWS JOURNALIST DOESN'T LIKE SONIC

This is a for real newspaper article. I know of the guardian but I've never read any of it, but this doesn't make it look very good, and I'm really not saying this just because I'm a SONIC fan, It doesn't matter what there talking about, that's just a bad article.

Also, I've never looked, but I'm guessing there's tons of Lara Croft porn out there, not to mention every other series in the world.

[Harley Quinn]

Sounds like these news journalists just need to

 

Seriously though. Sonic bashing stop being "cool" at least two years ago. It's a slow news day when you're reduced to pedantic and shallow arguments such as what's presented.

[HippyAmy]

Why do gaming journalists love to ignore Sonic Colours, Sonic Generations, or Sonic Lost World ? Just because they can whine and complain about a blue hedgehog that runs fast ?

 

 

Sounds pretty desperate.

[Agie]

Lost World is divisive, but it, but Colors and Generations were well-recieved.

[HippyAmy]

Lost World is divisive, but it, but Colors and Generations were well-recieved.

 

Really ?

 

That sucks ;___;

 

 

But there's still Colours and Generations and Boom looks different but promising, so I still think that they're pushing away good modern Sonic games, just to whinge.

 

 

 

*I keep on spelling Colors the European way, please forgive me, not used to spelling it the other way

[Agie]

Really ?

 

That sucks ;___;

 

 

But there's still Colours and Generations and Boom looks different but promising, so I still think that they're pushing away good modern Sonic games, just to whinge.

 

 

 

*I keep on spelling Colors the European way, please forgive me, not used to spelling it the other way

Don't worry about it. I honestly don't care if you call it Colors or Colours. I'm not gonna force you to use one or the other.

[Darth InVaders]

Although there is a toxic, delusional part of the Sonic fan base (look at all those claiming bad games like Sonic 06 are good, or disagree with canon facts such as Sonic's not anywhere near light speed, supersonic speed or Shadow's requirement for a Chaos Emerald for Chaos Control), this guy is blatantly wrong to tarnish the entire community or to call Sonic's best games bad

[Gabz Girl]

im start to understand the article as i need help to understand, but i got it.

 

i have to say about the article........... fuck you. seriously. they complain about Sonic fans making fetishy arts and being weridos? Dont go to Hetalias fanbase. that who fanbase is shippy bait. "awwww two guys be friends let ship them!!1" and they also think shit like the holocause is kawaii desu. Dont do Naruto either and dont go near Naurto/Sasuke fanbrats. They are worse. Oh and dont get into otaku.. Im getting off track but yeah why are they only picking on Sonic when theres worse shit out there. Why just Sonic? why not talk about all the other shit? this makes me angry.

 

THIS. Why does everyone point out the crappy/weird/creepy fanart in the Sonic fanbase but not the stuff you see in the Hetalia fanbase or elsewhere? Hell I actually think Hetalia is even worse than Sonic and it's partially the reason why I left that fandom to begin with! There is much, much worse stuff out there!

[SenEDDtor Missile]

THIS. Why does everyone point out the crappy/weird/creepy fanart in the Sonic fanbase but not the stuff you see in the Hetalia fanbase or elsewhere? Hell I actually think Hetalia is even worse than Sonic and it's partially the reason why I left that fandom to begin with! There is much, much worse stuff out there!

Remember folks; it's not about what is accurate, but what is easy. Bashing Sonic is considered a badge of honor and superiority to justify their own sad existence or to gloss over the fact that there are far crappier things that exist (especially if it happens to be something they like), or simply because they can't think for themselves and are desperate for easy e-fame/infamy.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Remember folks; it's not about what is accurate, but what is easy. Bashing Sonic is considered a badge of honor and superiority to justify their own sad existence or to gloss over the fact that there are far crappier things that exist (especially if it happens to be something they like), or simply because they can't think for themselves and are desperate for easy e-fame/infamy.

And this after I not too long ago argued with Nepenthe about them doing it mainly to annoy or all around piss us off.

[Sir Spacebar]

That article has made me realize something.

 

Basically, the gaming industry is a metaphor for an industrialized dystopia where everything depends on modern gaming, most of the the classic franchises are already dead, and nintendo is basically a small garden with security forces higher than the white house, which is why nintendo never dies (but is going downhill ever since the wii u came out).

 

But the sonic franchise is that one single tree that is about to be run-down by a bulldozer, but we, us sonic fans, we are the ones protecting that tree, we are the ones chaining ourselves to the trunk, and preventing them. But the constant hate and overall disliking of the entire franchise is the bulldozer nearing it's goal; to get rid of that tree.

 

The sonic franchise has gotten better since the dark ages, the only reason people don't like the games is because:

They're just trolls and haters

They can't accept the fact that they're wrong

They are "modern gamers" and they "don't have time to play kiddy games"

They are just biased with their own favourite franchises.

 

If the gaming community would just give the fucking games a try, instead of judging the games by their "shitty grafiks" and "too many glitches", or just doing it to piss us off, maybe sonic would be as glorious as it was back in the genesis days.

 

 

(Wow do I sound like an overreacting fanboy, no wonder I have no friends)

[_______]

If the gaming community would just give the fucking games a try, instead of judging the games by their "shitty grafiks" and "too many glitches", or just doing it to piss us off, maybe sonic would be as glorious as it was back in the genesis days.

 

 

(Wow do I sound like an overreacting fanboy, no wonder I have no friends)

 

And in return, us Sonic fans should open our eyes too.

 

Sure, the games aren't nearly as bad as critics make them to be. But at the same time they haven't been at a quality that a franchise that is as iconic and was once a former industry leader such as Sonic would expect. We should expect more and stop defending games like 06, Unleashed and SLW.

[Milo]

And in return, us Sonic fans should open our eyes too.

 

Sure, the games aren't nearly as bad as critics make them to be. But at the same time they haven't been at a quality that a franchise that is as iconic and was once a former industry leader such as Sonic would expect. We should expect more and stop defending games like 06, Unleashed and SLW.

 

Aside from the odd man out that show up from time to time. Nobody here defends 06 as an objectively good game. Nobody. Even the people who personally liked/enjoyed the game outright or liked some aspect of the game. Same goes for divisive games like Unleashed and SLW, though more people are willing to state their personal preference/enjoyment for (aspects of) those games.

[ImPantsAtThis]

 We should expect more and stop defending games like 06, Unleashed and SLW.

 

Except Unleashed and SLW are worth defending. Lost World has good ideas to be salvaged, and Unleashed is a solid title. I'm a little shocked that you'd compare them '06; a game which, barring techincal issues like glitches, is still terrible in both concept and execution.

[Harley Quinn]

We should expect more and stop defending games like 06, Unleashed and SLW.

 

In what twisted world do you live in where people try to defend the idea that '06 is an objectively decent game??

[_______]

Except Unleashed and SLW are worth defending. Lost World has good ideas to be salvaged, and Unleashed is a solid title. I'm a little shocked that you'd compare them '06; a game which, barring techincal issues like glitches, is still terrible in both concept and execution.

I'll admit 06 was a bit of a stretch. I understand there is tiny fraction of a minority that actually defends it. But in all fairness, those apologists are the ones every outsider is going to listen to, and assume they represent the entire fanbase.

 

As for SLW and Unleashed, while they are okay, they aren't great. We keep wanting to be mentioned in the same breath as stellar franchises such as Mario, just because the games don't suck as much as they used to. I just think that's not good enough.

[Dizcrybe]

In what twisted world do you live in where people try to defend the idea that '06 is an objectively decent game??

 

Youtube comments? I've seen it happen there.