Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-30534780-20161118133329/@comment-679780-20161119024712

Rainbowser wrote: The problem with the Sonic fandom aren't necessarily the fans themselves, but the gaps inbetween.

SEGA has done so many different things with Sonic and never stuck with anything for too long, it has pretty much become at least 6 different fandoms in one. Not to mention the idiots who are only "Sonic fans" because of memes, shippings, fanfictions or a single TV show. The only way they could come close to fixing that is if they made multiple different main series of equal importance and fill up the rest with spin-off games that at best star characters other than Sonic and go into different directions in terms of mood and gameplay. The shipping fandoms&co should be ignored when taking that step, the writers(if they hire competent people for once) should be allowed to write without having to meet fanservice/nostalgia standards. It's impossible to appeal at everyone at the same time, so they should try appealing to the biggest fan groups at different times. Give the Classic fans their Sonic Mania series, give the Modern fans their Pontaff/Boom series and give the Adventure fans their serious adventurous series and all without officially mocking any one of the Sonic fan types for what they like. Everything else inbetween is more of an atmospheric thing and could be covered by spin-offs. If that was the case I'd be the first one to ignore Sonic Boom and focus on the stuff I actually like. But no, SEGA is forcing their decisions down the throats of its fans and is officially biased towards certain groups. And that's what sparks most of the conflict.

The Classic fans complain that they never got any games for them since Sonic 3 even though there have been plenty of good 2D Sonic games over the years, however they are getting Sonic Mania which even uses the Classic design now, they usually want Sonic to return to its simpler but fun days. The Post-Colors and Boom fans have their era right here right now, they feel like Sonic shouldn't be taken seriously and is primarily a source for entertainment. The Adventure fans are often a bit, let's call it "jumpy", they want a Sonic game that takes itself seriously with a stable plot and character portrayals. The problem is the imbalance of attention these movements are getting. The Comedy Sonic era is right now and the Classic fans get their Sonic Mania and 2017 Classic Sonic appearance while the Adventure fans are constantly mocked for what they liked about Sonic, sometimes even by SEGA themselves. Just look at Big's Fishing Adventure 3 or Sonic Lego Dimensions. How the hell was that greenlit? Stuff like that gives the Adventure fans the feeling that they have to defend themselves while it basically invites the other movements to mock them even further. There are conflicts in every fandom, but this one here is SEGA's own damn fault. You can't just gather yourself a fandom and then try to get rid of it once it starts criticizing your decisions. Like the Adventure fans, I too would like a "Sonic Adventure 3" with primary gameplay elements and story tones expected from past Adventure games. However I also enjoy most of the modern games such as Unleased, Colours and Generations. Granted I have complained about Sonic Colours dialogue, eitherway these three modern games were good. So one hand of fans want Sonic games to have more serious stories with characters taking situations more seriously, the other more comedy and stories easier and more fun for kids to follow. Personally I believe it should be possible to satisfy both. Sonic is a blue cartoon hedgehog who star in games usually for teens so of course he will be comical but still doesn't mean we can't have games that can give Sonic more deeper stories. I guess thats why you didn't include Sonic Unleashed because it is a game where Sonic turns into a werehog and has a cute little comical sidekick... while he has to restore the world from some eldritch horror. It's lighthearted like post-Colours/Boom but still a good story for Adventure.

And I also believe the "memes" the Sonic Twitter churn are simply to make light-hearted of a fandom that is usually critisize acrossed the internet. Memes are internets community most major form of communication, perhaps because they are widely recognised regardless of ones own languages or culture. And I don't see such memes as Big's Fishing Adventure 3 or Sonic Lego Dimensions as a form of mocking, merely that there is an awareness of what the fandom wants. Think of it like the Half Life 3 confirmed meme, it doesn't mock those who really want Half-Life 3 to come out, it is simply a joke about what the Half-Life fans jhave been waiting over 12 years before.

If it wasn't for Sonic memes bringing awareness of how much Adventure fans want a sequal, then the question would not have been directly asked about in the end. As for other memes like Sanic, well Sanic was made to tease the Sonic fan community so if the fandom can laugh at itself then the internet critics would not see us so haughty.