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Sega is looking to hire a Sonic lore expert. Could it be YOU?


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1 hour ago, Slash said:

Las Vegas isn't that far from Burbank and I JUST got a car.

But do I dare?...

I mean, you're here. I think the better question is: Do you care enough?

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2 minutes ago, Zoomzeta said:

I mean, you're here. I think the better question is: Do you care enough?

I'd try if not for the fact that have absolutely no creditials to my name. Not even so much as a fanfic.

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On 11/7/2022 at 7:31 PM, Ryannumber1gamer said:

It's not that he did anything really horrible to the franchise, per say. He's just a jackass who's not only has a tendency to blame games when he makes mistakes (Not just in Sonic, but in other franchises), but has just a random dislike for the franchise in general, to the degree he's tried to make the games look crappier on purpose at several points (IE - Using the DX port of Adventure and using that to pretend the game was far buggier than it was, later admitting he knew the DX port was buggier, and choosing it for 'entertainment value').

This by itself would be whatever. Just a bit of a jackass that people can ignore. Except Aaron Webber once had a tendency to try and screw around with detractors (IE - Sending James Stephanie Sterling a massive poster of Colours when they posted a negative review of it way back when), and as such, when Arin wanted to make it a point that he was the Sonic hater, Aaron Webber thought it'd be just a great idea to make a meme out of the whole thing and make Arin a brand endorser of the series.

However, the part they kind of forgot was that it just wasn't funny. Instead of the effect of "lol sonic hater has to praise sonic games", it instead meant this person that quite literally hates the franchise, and wants to see it fail and flop on it's face was now instead getting numerous brand endorsements, paid events, and to top it all off - a literal all-expenses paid trip during Team Sonic Racing's media presence, where he just looked absolutely miserable the whole way through and could give less of a shit about the whole thing. It meant when Arin claimed he liked stuff like Mania, you could tell he was lying through his teeth.

If you're a fan of the series, it kind of blows when one of the major creators who have a endorsement deal is not only someone who could care less, but is someone who actively despises the very thing they're supposed to promote. It was utterly imbecilic on SEGA's part, and for all the good things Aaron Webber has done, it still stands as one of his biggest blunders. It meant that games weren't getting great promotion, and fans were forced to deal with someone they probably didn't want to deal with because they were the face of the content creation. 

Leading up to Frontiers' development and promotion, SEGA finally had the sense to sack the brand deal with Arin, which then lead to Arin being a pissy dick about the whole thing, stating he was bullshitting about liking Mania, and when on a whole hissy fit about SEGA cutting ties with him. He came off as pretty damn ungrateful given the amount of free shit he got out of a franchise he made a living out of shitting on. Thankfully, with the likes of SomeCallMeJohnny getting invited to SEGA's new events (IE, Sonic 2's premiere and Frontiers' playtest in Florida), it seems they grasped upon the simple idea of getting someone who actively likes and wants the best for this franchise to be a content creator endorsed by SEGA would actually be a good idea. 

Mostly good summary, but everyone, please remember that "could care less" does not mean the same thing as "could not care less"; it means the exact opposite.

Moving on, this might be a dream job, but it could also be a pretty unpleasant position if getting it means kowtowing to idiotic mandates like "Money doesn't exist", "Team Dark aren't friends", and "Only male hedgehogs can go super", despite that there are multiple games throughout the series that someone could cite to debunk those statements without even qualifying as a lore expert.  And if SEGA is so willing to contradict their past lore for nonsensical reasons, then why are they even wasting  their nonexistent money on hiring someone who actually cares to remember and observe it?

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1 hour ago, Scritch the Cat said:

Mostly good summary, but everyone, please remember that "could care less" does not mean the same thing as "could not care less"; it means the exact opposite.

Moving on, this might be a dream job, but it could also be a pretty unpleasant position if getting it means kowtowing to idiotic mandates like "Money doesn't exist", "Team Dark aren't friends", and "Only male hedgehogs can go super", despite that there are multiple games throughout the series that someone could cite to debunk those statements without even qualifying as a lore expert.  And if SEGA is so willing to contradict their past lore for nonsensical reasons, then why are they even wasting  their nonexistent money on hiring someone who actually cares to remember and observe it?

That's my thing.  If SEGA wants to hire someone to be a lore expert, then would they be willing to listen to the criticisms of their mandates, like how Shadow can't have friends and who's only purpose is to search for bigger opponents or that "only male hedgehogs" should go super?  Anyone who was really invested in the Sonic franchise probably would point out these problems to SEGA.

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1 hour ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

That's my thing.  If SEGA wants to hire someone to be a lore expert, then would they be willing to listen to the criticisms of their mandates, like how Shadow can't have friends and who's only purpose is to search for bigger opponents or that "only male hedgehogs" should go super?  Anyone who was really invested in the Sonic franchise probably would point out these problems to SEGA.

This company at least needs to be willing to explain why they do a lot of what they do before anyone should feel safe trusting or investing in them, and that's not just in terms of lore.  They spent a ridiculous amount of cash to launch their Sonic Boom subseries, which wasn't a surefire hit to begin with, and then they thought they could get away with manhandling its flagship game into a barely functional mess that had to be burnt down and rebuilt from scratch to even run on the Wii-U.  SEGA wasn't at fault for assuming the Wii-U would be a bigger success than it actually was, but even a cursory understanding of how Sonic was regarded among many gamers and the press would have let them know that the stigma of Sonic 06 still hadn't dissipated; people were still scrutinizing each new game that came out, so unlike 06, SBRoL bombed financially, effectively dooming the entire Sonic Boom project.

I wish I could avoid slipping back into discussion of how Japanese corporate SEGA is distant from and indifferent to this brand, but I do get the feeling they are based on simple observations of how Sonic has evolved.  To people operating in a country where Sonic was never much of a hit, he's effectively a relic floated up from an era when SEGA needed a mascot to help sell consoles.  They no longer make consoles so Sonic now is just something they feel they might as well keep making games for because they still own it, but when they're out of earshot of both the people who actually value things about Sonic and the people who are always eager to laugh at its failings, they might get the feeling that they can try and proclaim some of the dumbest shit imaginable. 

That goes to the extreme that they will even contradict themselves with almost every new game.  Indeed, much of the lore that fans have come to love--mostly because it's the subset of fans who care most about lore--was written during that era when SEGA of Japan was attempting a retool of the series to be more anime-like, so I'm really not sure why the same brass in Japan decided to torch so much of what they created.  Maybe because despite their best efforts, it went over better with foreign weebs than with actual Japanese gamers, but still, why was the policy that replaced it just to overhaul the series to cater to western metahumor sensibilities?

It seems like now, that detour may be dead and the Adventure Era's nostalgic fans are the ones SEGA wants to cater to again, and those fans seem to be elated.  But many would also read that as a tacit admission that the meta era, and its associated attempts to burn down much of the lore of the Adventure era, were a mistake.  Or at least, that they have lasted too long and hurt the brand as a result.  And do we even need to mention the flip-flopping on whether characters come from a different time or different dimension, or whether these characters inhabit two planets or just one? 

Take this all together and it seems increasingly clear that this company, at least at the upper administrative levels, has no fucking idea what is actually good for Sonic, and almost all of the most well-received developments in Sonic for the past decade have been due to the input of western fans who value it more than they do.

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I would be fucking great at this job... if it was only about the game lore. As for Fleetway and Archie and IDW and so forth... I know some of it, I've been part of the online Sonic community for nearly 20 years after all and have spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours reading about Sonic, but I'm no expert on most alternative continuities. I think a lot of Sonic fans are in the same boat.

Oh well I live in Sweden so it doesn't matter anyway...

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It could lead to a change for some of those mandates if there's some attempt at consistency these days (something they series has never had before). Consider they've (apparently) undone the "two worlds" thing but I also suspect that wasn't super difficult to do either because the games make no reference to it. It was just a convenient way to explain why they stopped using humans without saying "it's because we made shitty games that happened to have them and we assumed the humans were the problem" like they did when they stopped making other characters playable.

I mean, it's not really guaranteed, and as much as I think the way it's being advertised is as a complete joke, it's probably meant to basically have more control over licensed things like the comics or shows so we don't end up with another Boom or something.

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24 minutes ago, Scritch the Cat said:

This company at least needs to be willing to explain why they do a lot of what they do before anyone should feel safe trusting or investing in them, and that's not just in terms of lore.  They spent a ridiculous amount of cash to launch their Sonic Boom subseries, which wasn't a surefire hit to begin with, and then they thought they could get away with manhandling its flagship game into a barely functional mess that had to be burnt down and rebuilt from scratch to even run on the Wii-U.  SEGA wasn't at fault for assuming the Wii-U would be a bigger success than it actually was, but even a cursory understanding of how Sonic was regarded among many gamers and the press would have let them know that the stigma of Sonic 06 still hadn't dissipated; people were still scrutinizing each new game that came out, so unlike 06, SBRoL bombed financially, effectively dooming the entire Sonic Boom project.

I wish I could avoid slipping back into discussion of how Japanese corporate SEGA is distant from and indifferent to this brand, but I do get the feeling they are based on simple observations of how Sonic has evolved.  To people operating in a country where Sonic was never much of a hit, he's effectively a relic floated up from an era when SEGA needed a mascot to help sell consoles.  They no longer make consoles so Sonic now is just something they feel they might as well keep making games for because they still own it, but when they're out of earshot of both the people who actually value things about Sonic and the people who are always eager to laugh at its failings, they might get the feeling that they can try and proclaim some of the dumbest shit imaginable. 

That goes to the extreme that they will even contradict themselves with almost every new game.  Indeed, much of the lore that fans have come to love--mostly because it's the subset of fans who care most about lore--was written during that era when SEGA of Japan was attempting a retool of the series to be more anime-like, so I'm really not sure why the same brass in Japan decided to torch so much of what they created.  Maybe because despite their best efforts, it went over better with foreign weebs than with actual Japanese gamers, but still, why was the policy that replaced it just to overhaul the series to cater to western metahumor sensibilities?

It seems like now, that detour may be dead and the Adventure Era's nostalgic fans are the ones SEGA wants to cater to again, and those fans seem to be elated.  But many would also read that as a tacit admission that the meta era, and its associated attempts to burn down much of the lore of the Adventure era, were a mistake.  Or at least, that they have lasted too long and hurt the brand as a result.  And do we even need to mention the flip-flopping on whether characters come from a different time or different dimension, or whether these characters inhabit two planets or just one? 

Take this all together and it seems increasingly clear that this company, at least at the upper administrative levels, has no fucking idea what is actually good for Sonic, and almost all of the most well-received developments in Sonic for the past decade have been due to the input of western fans who value it more than they do.

I honestly think that if SEGA wants to have someone to overseer the lore for the franchise, they need to be willing to make some compromises for the franchise in terms of what's working for the franchise and what's not working for the franchise.  If they hire someone for lore consistency, but they still won't listen to the person who is providing the lore, then what's the point of having this position opened in the first place?  I don't know if SEGA is now realizing their mistakes with this franchise or not, but it would probably be in their best interest if they listen to the person who is providing more information about the lore and are willing to change up their mandates if it's hurting the brand.

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1 hour ago, Zaysho said:

It could lead to a change for some of those mandates if there's some attempt at consistency these days (something they series has never had before). Consider they've (apparently) undone the "two worlds" thing but I also suspect that wasn't super difficult to do either because the games make no reference to it. It was just a convenient way to explain why they stopped using humans without saying "it's because we made shitty games that happened to have them and we assumed the humans were the problem" like they did when they stopped making other characters playable.

I mean, it's not really guaranteed, and as much as I think the way it's being advertised is as a complete joke, it's probably meant to basically have more control over licensed things like the comics or shows so we don't end up with another Boom or something.

I actually don't think the two worlds thing is an inherently bad idea, but I think maybe Sonic Team backed away from it because proclaiming that Sonic comes from another world kind of sets them on a slippery slope to tell his origin story.  Based on testimony from Big Red Button, Sonic Team has sometimes actually wanted to do that, but perhaps was hesitant to do so before they found a direction for this series that was consistently well-received.

On that note, in retrospect it is interesting how after the debacle of 06, they never really settled on one way to make the setting look less awkward.  They tried more cartoony humans, they tried setting games on alien planets to make the style clash part of the premise, they tried making all of the other characters antrhos, and if they ever found their "Mission Accomplished" moment they sure never said.  Arguably they still haven't, because Sonic Frontiers is intentionally about Sonic entering a world he doesn't belong in. (Of course, that would be easier to buy if that world wasn't constantly serving him grind rails and dash panels.)

As for my opinion, I'm relatively okay with just accepting a game world where humans and anthros simply coexist, because if sentient hedgehogs and sentient foxes appear together, then logically speaking, what makes humans being in the same world so hard to accept?  But I admit that the Adventure era games would have been a lot less awkward if there wasn't such a species divide based on a character's plot relevance.  In those games, any bystanders unimportant to the story are invariably humans, while only a few characters who matter to the story are allowed to be anthros, which just makes you wonder why those few antrhos are there.

When it comes to making Sonic's background characters all anthros, I think Sonic Boom actually did that quite well, though it probably helps that the main characters also got a redesign that helped them fit in better.  But I think Sonic Forces missed the mark pretty badly because of how comparatively bland and dead inside the background anthros (and the avatar, for that matter) looked.  @Roger_van_der_weidepointed out that there is merit in making important characters look distinct from everyone else because then the main characters stick out more, but in Sonic Forces I think it's the background anthros who stick out, for all the wrong reasons.  They almost look like zombies or semi-conscious plush toys that rolled off an assembly line.

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Would unironically have applied had I not been moving to Australia! A little while ago I had pieced together the entire lore of Sonic after that "everything is canon" tweet and tried explaining it all to my girlfriend. I don't think she understood any of it but damn if I wasn't excited sharing lore info.

And actually, this knowledge got me bullied in high school so, it could be a nice way to spite them >.> lmao

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Maybe I missed it over the past, but this means they have a pre-existing, dedicated "lore team", which in practice appears to be keeping consistency of Sonic in all forms of media and partnerships, with focus on story.

Would not be surprised if the predecessor of this lore team they're referring to were people like Toyoda and Iizuka. Or maybe, one of them has been in the team for a long time? But given the live action movies, show, and other stuff ramping up, maybe this team was formed recently hence needing the help.

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