Two Worlds II - Review Controversy, Next Game in 2012

Well, in a way the author is right in some respects.

And here's why … :

So, just give the fans exactly what they want and everything will work out — simple, huh?

Not quite. Generally speaking, the more intensely devoted fans in a fandom are usually outnumbered by the casual fans, but the more devoted a fan becomes, the more active — and louder — they become in the fandom. So while a few million casual fans might enjoy an episode without ever making it widely known, a handful of devoted and occasionally unhinged fans screaming on a web forum about how the show is now Ruined FOREVER can be seen and heard by everyone… including the people making the show. The producers may then start pandering to these voices exclusively, believing them to be the voice of everyone watching — but 'everyone' in this case may in fact consist only of a handful of people, and what this minority wants and what the other, less noisy fans want can differ drastically.

This presents a major problem. The property can end up becoming a private club, accessible only to a select few. Excluding the casual fans means they'll simply drift away to find something else to spend their time on, and raising the entry bar too high means you run the risk of locking out new fans who may have possibly been interested in the property, but now find it too difficult to access. While the Vocal Minority might now be satisfied (and you can't even count on that), they rarely translate to enough ratings and / or sales to justify the property's continued existence — and to make matters worse, even this hardcore minority may begin to drift away for numerous reasons (changing tastes, burnout, lessened interest, etc). This results in diminishing returns ending in eventual cancellation if unchecked.

Furthermore, the overall quality of the property can begin to suffer; just because someone is intensely committed to a particular work of fiction doesn't necessarily mean they know what makes good fiction work.
 
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We could endlessly discuss what 'quality of the property' actually means and whether it is 'better' to be loved by millions or reach the 'quality' (who is better musician, Shakira or J.S. Bach? Shakira, of course, because she generates much more revenues, so Bach's fans need to shut the fuck up about everything), but it doesn't change the fact that Sterling is aggressive dumb troll (ignoring oh-so-many aspect of the problem in the article) and destructoid is site employing at least one aggressive dumb troll, which means everything that comes from the site has to go through careful filter. Not worth it.
 
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I actually thought that article was largely correct. When I say that though I am coming from the perspective that each game stands alone, I don't care what came before. Fallout is a game, a great game. Fallout 3 is a different game, judged on its own.
 
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Fallout is a game, a great game. Fallout 3 is a different game, judged on its own.

Don't be ridiculous, as long as it is presented as a next part in a series, Fallout 3 can never be judged on its own.
And even if it was, it was a objectively bad game, stimulating stupid people's desires for stupid games (controversy. not going to discuss this).

But that was not my point - the article (and the author) failed on different level: he didn't even try to consider the way mainstream games have changed in the past decade.
 
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Don't be ridiculous, as long as it is presented as a next part in a series, Fallout 3 can never be judged on its own.

I understand that you think this way, and a lot of others do. I am just saying I don't and I disagree with it in principle. A good game is a good game no matter what the name on the box is.

Whether Fallout 3 is a good game or not is an opinion, but obviously a ton of people loved it.
 
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If something markets itself as "Fallout", one has all rights to expect a Fallout and be disappointed or even angry when he finds out he was the victim of false advertisement.

Whether Fallout 3 is a good game or not is an opinion, but obviously a ton of people loved it.
That can never be used as an argument in a discussion about quality of anything. Tons of people love hamburgers.

Anyway, I just wanted to say Destructoid and especially angry troll Sterling are not trustworthy sources of information, in my opinion.
Let's not turn this into flame.
 
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(who is better musician, Shakira or J.S. Bach? Shakira, of course, because she generates much more revenues, so Bach's fans need to shut the fuck up about everything)

This is only true if you base the "who is better" on "revenues".

You can base the "better" thing on other things as well ... Quality of composition, length of composition, complexity of composition, years of still playing tze compositions ...

You base the "better" upon rather materialistic assumptons. Which is just ONE among MANY ways to define "who is better".
 
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If something markets itself as "Fallout", one has all rights to expect a Fallout and be disappointed or even angry when he finds out he was the victim of false advertisement.

Video games are unique though in that technology and the market have changed drastically since their inception. For this reason you cannot rely on sequels being exactly the same game, nor should they be.

That can never be used as an argument in a discussion about quality of anything. Tons of people love hamburgers.

Hamburgers are good!

While "tons of people liked it" should never be a persuasive argument for you to like something it can be a persuasive argument for saying "tons of people liked it" which is all I did. You're allowed to not like Fallout 3, just like I didn't like Avatar for example, but that doesn't make it any less true that a lot of people loved the game.
 
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