2014 is The Year Of Sonic "& Sports tape" *see post 1*

[Tara]

Just want to say real quick that I don't much like the condescending attitude being displayed by a few members here.  If you're going to express disagreement, then you can do so without being a jerk about it.  Although I'm not going to strike anyone for it now, the staff reserve the right to carry out disciplinary actions to anyone who we feel are not expressing their opinions in a respectful manner.

[PSI Wind]

RIP Sonic the Hedgehog 

1991 - 2003 2006 2008 2014

You missed 2004, 2005, 2009, and 2013 :V

[Cyrus]

Although I don't agree with every point here, I do believe there is more to be a tad anxious (albeit, not worth losing any sleep over) about than just the character designs.  Some people don't like the direction the series is going, and while I wholeheartedly disagree with that mindset, I think it's legitimate.

 

Ah, so I'm the one being blind and hostile. I apologize.

 

Sorry.

[MegasonicZX]

Oh for goodness sake. Please, please PLEASE can we stop with this attitude? People complaining about the silhouettes is perfect valid. They're there to give an indication of what to expect. And so we're rightly going to react to them. I bet the best surprise that any of us nay-sayers could get is that the designs and Boom itself turn out to be something we like.

 

We don't want to dislike anything. We're cautious and pessimistic with good reason. If SEGA can prove us wrong, everyone's going to be very happy.

Yeah, but he does have a point though, I mean sure the shape of the silhouettes may not scream "excitement" to everyone, they are still just silhouettes and you won't really truly know if they're good or bad without actually seeing them.

[KHCast]

Expressing concern or distaste for what has been shown of the new designs is not equal to being a butthurt classic fanboy that gets offended by the slightest modification. Comparing the two is just unfair and ridiculous. We don't want to hate new things. I'm sure all of us are open minded to change. It's just, what has been shown so far just has us optimistic.

[Soniman]

You missed 2004, 2005, 2009, and 2013 :V

RIP Sonic the Hedgehog

1991 - 20??

[Celestia]

Indigo, just go ahead and edit in every single year after 1994 while you're at it and save everyone the trouble. XP

 

The one thing that confuses me about this, and makes me skeptical of the whole "reboot the games" thing, is that SEGA have spent some time being a bit more strict about consistency in the franchise (see: their involvement with Archie the past few years). Why go through that trouble and then do, well, this?? I guess it wouldn't be the first time SEGA did something ridiculously stupid, mind you...

 

Eh. I guess we'll see soon enough.

[Diogenes]

Expressing concern or distaste for what has been shown of the new designs is not equal to being a butthurt classic fanboy that gets offended by the slightest modification.

Well, butthurt classic fanboys at least know what modern Sonic is...

[Mauro Fonseca]

Mega, Blue Blood's point is that sillhouettes are a cartooning principle. You can tell, although not exactly, with a good amount of certainty where a design is going to go and what it's going to be portraying, how it feels, I'm afraid I don't know quite specific words for this other than vague things like "sillhouettes show how a final design will look and feel like".

 

They're not the only part of a cartoon design, but they're one of the major ones. And these ones are done so specifically that there's really nothing else that the elements left (shapes, details, colours) can really change what the sillhouettes indicate already too much.

[Sami]

edit - My interest has waned for years now anyway, just bring whatever it is and get it over with. 

[KHCast]

Well, butthurt classic fanboys at least know what modern Sonic is...

I didn't know being optimistic or concerned about the Sonic Boom designs was seen as worse than mindlessly hating anything different.

[Nepenthe]

Well, butthurt classic fanboys at least know what modern Sonic is...

 

Sega gave us a teaser image of the new designs and information about the show in order for us to form opinions about it. Those opinions happened to skew negative. This doesn't mean we can't change our opinions in the future nor even that we're unwilling to change them, especially on this silly-ass strawman basis of "You guys don't like change." Literally all it means is that we don't like what little information we've been given as of now.

[Diogenes]

Mega, Blue Blood's point is that sillhouettes are a cartooning principle. You can tell, although not exactly, with a good amount of certainty where a design is going to go and what it's going to be portraying, how it feels, I'm afraid I don't know quite specific words for this other than vague things like "sillhouettes show how a final design will look and feel like".

 

They're not the only part of a cartoon design, but they're one of the major ones. And these ones are done so specifically that there's really nothing else that the elements left (shapes, details, colours) can really change what the sillhouettes indicate already too much.

While there is an element of truth to this it is also important to remember that fanbases are notoriously bad at dealing with anything new so I am really not inclined to give full credence to opinions that aren't even based on the actual full design.

[Mauro Fonseca]

While there is an element of truth to this it is also important to remember that fanbases are notoriously bad at dealing with anything new so I am really not inclined to give full credence to opinions that aren't even based on the actual full design.

 

Oh for... fine.

I'm not aiming to change your despaired need for any change at all here. I'm just aiming to explain being aprehensive over sillhouettes of cartoons is not as silly as it seems. If a Popeye movie came out and was teased with this...

 

 

It'd be the same exact thing. I'd be wary of it, even if we've only seen the sillhouettes.

[Diogenes]

Fine. Be wary. Never said you couldn't be.

[VGamer]

While there is an element of truth to this it is also important to remember that fanbases are notoriously bad at dealing with anything new so I am really not inclined to give full credence to opinions that aren't even based on the actual full design.

 

I don't have to see what Knuckles or Amy look like exactly to judge what's been given to me now. I know that I dislike Knuckles' design, and same goes for Amy. I don't have to wait and see what they fully look like in detail to be able to think to myself "I don't like what they did with Knuckles right there". So what if it's just a silhouette, in this particular case it's enough to make appropriate judgements on.

 

Sure fanbases don't like change, I don't know any fanbase that does take in change easily. That being said, there's such a thing as too much change. This might be a bit off-topic here, but how much change has Sonic gone through over the past years? It's been an inconsistent ride in my opinion, and the fact that this might leak into the games only adds to the disliking of this that we have. There's change, then there's just altering everything you know about characters (design-wise at least).

[Nepenthe]

The Sonic fanbase doesn't dislike change. It dislikes change it feels is detrimental or stupid. There are plenty of things we've been excited about through this franchise's 3D history: The Adventure games, Sonic Heroes, Modern gameplay, Secret Rings, Wisps, Parkour, new voice actors and story directions, some new characters, new lighting engines and art directions. It really is a disservice to discredit people's negative reactions towards some changes on the silly stereotype that we in general don't like anything interesting and thus this reaction is par for the course or indicative that we're all nostalgic prudes like Richard Kuta. Talk about looking down your nose at others.

[Diogenes]

The Sonic fanbase doesn't dislike change.

It's a fanbase, of course it does.

This isn't really an arguable point, this is every fanbase, this is every sufficiently large group of people. Change is scary. I'm not even saying I'm immune to it. It is part of the human condition. It has always been and it always will be.

[Tara]

It's a fanbase, of course it does.

This isn't really an arguable point, this is every fanbase, this is every sufficiently large group of people. Change is scary. I'm not even saying I'm immune to it. It is part of the human condition. It has always been and it always will be.

But when you simplify it down to that without taking into account the changes that have actually gathered a positive reception, you're degrading the legitimacy of the anxieties people feel as a result of a radical, and thus far poorly-received, change.  Sure, people fear change, but that doesn't make anyone's opinion any less valid.

[CrashRatchetFan]

I'm just saying, what if they announce a remastered version of Sonic 3 & Knuckles along with the announcements? After all, the game turned 20 years old on Feb. 2nd.

With the guy who was in charge of remastering Sonic 1, 2 and CD, surly he'll remaster the one where the franchise reached it's pinnacle.

[azoo]

I can assure you that if it was proven to me that the characters wouldn't lose their main look or the style they've been in to some massive extent, I wouldn't be against so much change. 

 

I just saw this little fanart bit right here

And was absolutely okay with that because while it does bring change, it keeps what was good about it to begin with. There wasn't a need to redesign these characters the way its looking like it's gonna be (which going by their silhouettes looks like something either from Rayman or the Nick TMNT show).

[Tara]

I'm just saying, what if they announce a remastered version of Sonic 3 & Knuckles along with the announcements? After all, the game turned 20 years old on Feb. 2nd.

With the guy who was in charge of remastering Sonic 1, 2 and CD, surly he'll remaster the one where the franchise reached it's pinnacle.

While it's still more than possible, I highly doubt that under the grounds that they probably wouldn't have a huge press conference over something as simple remaster of a classic that's been released several times in the past.

[Nepenthe]

It's a fanbase, of course it does.

This isn't really an arguable point, this is every fanbase, this is every sufficiently large group of people. Change is scary. I'm not even saying I'm immune to it. It is part of the human condition. It has always been and it always will be.

 

Treating change as a nebulous concept or thing people either like or don't and then using those broad strokes to comment on states of affairs is the wrong way to go about things because, as Akito said, it downplays any legitimate arguments people might have against something. Honestly, the whole "You don't like this? Well, you're afraid of change" is a strawman, plain and simple. People are not inherently afraid of anything and everything changing. They are more concerned with the quality of those changes.

[Diogenes]

A fear of change makes people incredibly poor judges of the quality of the changes.

I'm not saying this applies to literally every aspect of every complaint. But I think it'd be naive to ignore it as a significant factor.

[Nepenthe]

Overwhelming acceptance towards change can also be just as blinding; yae for the Lost World review fallout. Either way, I feel it doesn't do much for the conversation on a specific change to be dismissive towards people's complaints as a whole on the basis of how you believe they are supposedly reacting towards change as a concept. No situation is going to be the same every time, so it's more helpful to consider nuance.