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We hate zombie long running sequeled to death franchises.... do we?


MetalSkulkBane

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Hey, you heard Spongebob go two spin-offs? God, what a cheap money grab. Not like 4 Ninja Turtles shows or 10+ Transformers or 3,5 Ben 10.

Video games like Far Cry or Assassin Creed milk their sequels to death. Not like IDK, whole Nintendo. Heck, Mega Man stopped after 10 and people DEMANDED another one.

Or IDK, Naruto and Dragon Ball sequels Vs One Piece is still going after all these years.

You get the picture. Now, I'm sure that in specific cases there are good explanations, like "main creator is still on board" or "quality remained good" etc. But broadly speaking, sometimes I feel like young franchises (21the century) are more harshily judged on that metric, while 80s cartoons, DC/Marvel comics, James Bond movies, those things we just accepted they will go for ever and so they get a free pass.

IDK, what you guys think?

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Depends on the circumstance. A new continuity is a clean break, so whenever TNMT geta a new iteration I know it wont be a chance to catch up with the turtles I love, so I probably won't care. 

 

Far Cry is a new story every time so it comes with rhe implication that it's the mechanics with a different context. Some people stayed on far cry for the mechanics but I know plenty of others that that stopped caring after 3 changed the tone and they never found their way back. 

Nintendo just stayed good. They never lost sight of the core, a lot of the same creatives worked on the same franchise for 20 years etc. Mario and Zelda are reliable, so there's zero reason to dread another release. 

Sonic? Constantly marketed at the exact same fucking group of people despite the fact that everything has changed dramatically, from creatives to intent. Maybe this is why they created the classic branch, I dunno. 

My point is that most of the sequels that get complaints either are Sonics or have the potential to become Sonics, so people get concerned. 

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The longer a series goes, the more likely this will happen, especially if the original creative team are long gone yet they still market the series as if it's the same.

 

Some franchises like Jojo, and Final Fantasy avoid this by having each entry be drastically different from the last. It keeps things fresh and allows creators much more freedom rather than bringing in a bunch of new people to maintain a status quo that they're not even aware of.

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2 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Some franchises like Jojo, and Final Fantasy avoid this by having each entry be drastically different from the last. It keeps things fresh and allows creators much more freedom rather than bringing in a bunch of new people to maintain a status quo that they're not even aware of.

Successful Western franchises do this too. Brosnan 007 =/= Craig 007, and that's exactly how Eon markets it. Franchises that don't or can't do this (looking at you, Xenomorph) aren't nearly as fondly remembered.

Which is Sonic? Well, Sega apparently still thinks that the franchise can be hyped up through memes and fucking word of mouth, despite being drastically different as the years go on (not always for the better, either). So I dunno... you tell me.

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I mean whether we like it or not, Sonic is still relevant. Maybe not as much as it COULD be if the people in charge actually gave a damn, but the brand has consistently sold well regardless of the garbage it puts out.

 

So what does it say about franchises that are "zombies" yet still make bank.

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Nothing marks the popular culture of the 21st century as much a crippling lack of originality compared to the popular culture of the 20th century. Think of all the iconic franchises that began in any given 20 year period during the 20th century. Like, say, between 1950 and 1970, or between 1980 and 2000. Now think of iconic NEW franchises that have appeared between 2001 and now. It's an absolute wasteland in comparasion. And let's not even begin talking about the develpment of entire styles of genres. Just think about mainstream music for instance and, again, think of what happened between 1950 and 1970 or between 1980 and 2000, and again compare it with 2001 to 2021. It's embarassing. But granted, this lack of innovation didn't get absolutely depressing untill around 2010. The 2000's was a slouch compared to the decades directly preceeding it, but also miles better than the 2010's and, so far, 2020's.

However, the problem obvisouly isn't that people can no longer come up with original ideas. That's a ridiculous notion. No, the problem is that the vast majority of people no longer wants to comsume original content, thus new things get ignored in favor of the regurgitated. It would take a very insightfull sociologist to explain why, but at some point during the past quarter century we as a society became cripplingly nostalgic. We all just want to go back to the 20th century. We just want more Star Wars, more James Bond, more Ghostbusters.

Interestingly though, one medium that doesn't seem to be as affected by this as most others is video games, as new franchises and even genres (or at the very least sub-genres) that actually manage to hit it big pops up much more frequently in this medium than almost any other. Perhapes this has something to do with the fact that the development of video games is so closely tied to the development of technology, and that new advaces in technology practically begs for new video game concepts to arise.

But nevertheless, on the whole, the popular culture landscape of the current millenium can be summarized with "wishing it was still the last millenium". I really hope we will at some point pull ourselves out of this slump. I will close of this rant with this surprisngly poignant clip of a recent Family Guy episode:

 

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Those are good points.

Personally, even though I know it's wrong, I'm just drawn to franchises.

I like large words that I can immerse myself. Even bad additions to franchise can be fascinating to look at. In a way, real life story f the franchise becomes a new story to consume.

(With that said, I never Forces & Mania were only Sonic game I bought Day One. If something is bad, I'm content with just checking constructive review on youtube or buying on sale few years later).

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Is it that society is cripplingly nostalgic, or is it that corporations have done their damnedest to make sure that society is kept nostalgic in order to perpetuate the value of the brands and IPs they already have ownership of, or is it a feedback loop that involves both parts.

I do wonder about the idea of modern nostalgia being a reflection of the big media push that went on from, like, the 80s. It seems many of the brands in perpetuity now are from that era onwards, with very scattered exceptions that are probably as such due to having been active in that era in one way or another. Not that the idea was never present prior (just look at Disneyworld, or a lot of Hanna-Barbera's 70s output), but the modern concept stems from there, I think.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I somewhat agree with @batson's assessment of how we need new IPs, and I think more often than not, big media companies tend to stifle said new IP in favor of franchises because franchises are the safer, and thus more profitable option. Every new IP comes with an element of risk, but relying on the same old stuff doesn't work. The OP mentioned Ben 10, and the reboot got stale pretty quick, because it didn't really iterate on the series that much, at least not early enough in the series' run to captivate audiences. Omniverse felt like a better logical conclusion, despite being a bit of a tonal and artstyle shift from Ultimate Alien.

At the same time, I think some franchises deserve to be kept up if the concept can be iterated upon. Some franchises lend naturally to a long running series, I mean look at Doctor Who or Star Trek. Old game franchises like F-Zero have people clamoring for new releases, because fans realize its potential and want more - the IP hasn't reached its logical or creative conclusion.

I think in the clouded media landscape we now inhabit, it's easy to enjoy these older series, and they always rake in money for a reason (heck, look at Star Wars) - and that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as you're keeping it fresh and interesting, generating new ideas. The issue a lot of the time is that studios will keep beating the same dead horse with no changes to the creative team to the point where audiences have grown tired of it (I think this is beginning to happen to the MCU and has already started with Star Wars).

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19 hours ago, Mr. Ion said:

 F-Zero have people clamoring for new releases, because fans realize its potential and want more - the IP hasn't reached its logical or creative conclusion.

Eeeeeh, I'm not sure I agree with that. Can you name video game franchise that did reached it's "creative conclusion"?

Because I feel that any popular game franchise on hiatus will have fans begging for more. Unless it was story driven.

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