Do fandoms ruin series for you?

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
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Jul 15, 2013
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Music seems to have more offputting fandoms than gaming (and the tv crowd), I find. But that may be down to wallowing in one more than the other. Plus games don't usually congregate their fans under one roof (or sky) for a live show, though perhaps some game fandoms could do with meeting their targets in person in the writhing madness of the mosh-maw.

Hmm, going back a bit, the Friends series had vocal fandom everywhere. But the series was terrible. Although the fans were also terrible. I may never know what initiated the hate first; the fans or the series, the chickens or the eggs. Luckily, I will never care.
 

Beliyal

Big Stupid Jellyfish
Jun 7, 2010
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DoPo said:
"Oh no, I want to enjoy X but I am not able to because of what random other people on the Internet think of it."
-- Me, never.
Pretty much this.

I'm also on Tumblr and follow several fandoms, but I just distance myself from annoying toxic people. At least on Tumblr it's easy to unfollow and be done with it. If someone annoys me, I just ignore them. No need to stop liking a thing just because some people on this planet are idiots about it. It's not my concern at all.

Also, I don't think anything has a uniformed rabid fanbase. What you see is probably just the annoying vocal minority, but I find them easy to filter out, especially on sites like Tumblr where you, the user, have absolute control over what you see on your dashboard.
 

Verrik

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Sep 28, 2012
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Do fandoms make me angry at times? Yes. Do they ever make me not want to play a game, watch a movie, or read a book? Absolutely not and I don't see why it would affect others in such a way either. Fandoms can easily be ignored, at least for me. I don't see why I should let other people's behavior determine what I personally, will or will not enjoy, especially since the series, game, whatever, in question and the fandom are two completely different things.

If I like a game, because of the story, gameplay, characters, etc., I'll play it, regardless of how annoying its fanbase is. If I don't like a game, it has nothing to do with the fanbase and everything to do with the game itself. Same rules apply to other forms of entertainment.
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
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Cowabungaa said:
It's fantastically easy to ignore the fanbase and simply only enjoy the show.
I think this is just slightly incorrect. It's not "fantastically easy to ignore the fanbase", it's pretty much the default. I mean, come on, in order to interact with the fanbase, you have to actually actively go and seek it out. Sure, yeah, that boils down to typing few letters in an search engine and few clicks away you'll find it, but it's still more effort than...not doing any of that.
 

Evonisia

Your sinner, in secret
Jun 24, 2013
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Imre Csete said:
Thankfully it died off, but the Souls fandom was pretty annoying a few years back, always talking about how that series put hair on their chests, and how they got into the Salty Spittoon thanks to those games, and everyone else is just an unworthy scrub. I haven't played any of those games because the franchise seems so hyped, but I doubt they are that big of a deal. There are tons of guides and youtube videos to help you out nowdays, it's not like playing X-COM on DOS with only your monthly game mags helping you out.
[image width=300]http://41.media.tumblr.com/7d194fde8c09aef285e2422816ce8009/tumblr_mtw92u3f951shhncpo1_1280.jpg[/IMG]

OT: No but some fanbases (especially if they're incredibly elitist like the Souls fanbase) really do make me go in to some games of a franchise with a sour face on. It's a miracle I ended up loving Bloodborne as much as I did when I am probably on the opposite end of the spectrum to the general attitude. I hate the boss fights in these games. I can't be bothered sorting out these amazing builds. I take absolutely no shame in summoning.

In other words, the worst thing a fanbase can do is make me a contrarian. Iron Man 3 is the best Iron Man film.
 

EyeReaper

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Aug 17, 2011
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I wouldn't say "ruin" the series. I can still say, enjoy the first two seasons of Friendship is Magic even though bronies are pretty much just Sonic fans 2.0

It's really more of "I would never call myself a fan of (insert thing with bad fandom) due to fear of guilt by association" than "A bunch of idiots on the internet have made me hate Danganronpa"

I do think fans can deprive me of enjoyment on series I haven't gotten into yet, though. Like when something like FNAF is constantly lauded as "literally and objectively the most scariest thing." Putting it up on a pedestal that it can't possibly surmount.
 

OldNewNewOld

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Mar 2, 2011
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They haven't ruined a series that I've already liked, but there are some series that I've postponed consuming because of the fanbase, sometimes even completely dropped.
I know that Breaking Bad is good, some for GoT. But the fans annoy me so much that I've started hating them even thought I didn't even watch them. I know it's irrational, but that's just how I feel.

Or the Dark Souls fans. If I didn't play the game before the "THE HARDEST GAME EVAH!" shitposting started, I probably wouldn't have even played the game. I like the game, I knew I would like it the moment I saw the gameplay. But despite that the fans are so annoying to listen to and all the praise it gets even when it doesn't deserve it kills a part in me that would love to play it, so I wouldn't have picked it up. Thankfully I picked it up before the shitposting started.
 

BoredRolePlayer

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Dreiko said:
I will sooner discard a fandom than I will a loved series.


There's thankfully not many cases I had to do this. The big one was the final fantasy one. I used to frequent boards back before ffxiii was released in America and I had imported it from japan because the US version would not have the original voices. I loved the game thoroughly and as one of the importers I participated and exchanged info with a lot of eager people interested in the game. When the USA version hit though, a lot of annoying negative people who didn't understand that you had to read the novels (which were up online for free) for the story to fully make sense and that the battles were easy cause the goal actually was to 5star them and not just survive, which spawned the annoying cult of drones repeating "you can beat the game by mashing X". It had just become a negative environment and instead of having to explain these things for 30 times in a day, instead of being convinced that a game I absolutely loved, one which made me actually cry 3 times and which I finished in 5 days (50 hour long game) somehow sucked cause people who played it with dub voices and didn't do anything correctly thought so, I just decided to stop being part of the community and retain my happiness.
Can I be honest, I don't think it's fair to say "You have to read the novels to understand the game" is a point in the games favor. Even more so with a series that was standalone for so long, and this is the first time I heard FFXIII had novels at all. And to be honest I would have assumed like with the Mass Effect 2 comics it was stuff to pepper the universe to make it more alive, not explain the story. If the game itself can't explain what's going on, then in my book it failed to tell a story. I will agree the game has more depth then "Push X to win" (though not much beyond that compared to other Final Fantasy games) and that's just nitwits.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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BoredRolePlayer said:
Dreiko said:
I will sooner discard a fandom than I will a loved series.


There's thankfully not many cases I had to do this. The big one was the final fantasy one. I used to frequent boards back before ffxiii was released in America and I had imported it from japan because the US version would not have the original voices. I loved the game thoroughly and as one of the importers I participated and exchanged info with a lot of eager people interested in the game. When the USA version hit though, a lot of annoying negative people who didn't understand that you had to read the novels (which were up online for free) for the story to fully make sense and that the battles were easy cause the goal actually was to 5star them and not just survive, which spawned the annoying cult of drones repeating "you can beat the game by mashing X". It had just become a negative environment and instead of having to explain these things for 30 times in a day, instead of being convinced that a game I absolutely loved, one which made me actually cry 3 times and which I finished in 5 days (50 hour long game) somehow sucked cause people who played it with dub voices and didn't do anything correctly thought so, I just decided to stop being part of the community and retain my happiness.
Can I be honest, I don't think it's fair to say "You have to read the novels to understand the game" is a point in the games favor. Even more so with a series that was standalone for so long, and this is the first time I heard FFXIII had novels at all. And to be honest I would have assumed like with the Mass Effect 2 comics it was stuff to pepper the universe to make it more alive, not explain the story. If the game itself can't explain what's going on, then in my book it failed to tell a story. I will agree the game has more depth then "Push X to win" (though not much beyond that compared to other Final Fantasy games) and that's just nitwits.

Here's the thing though, if you followed the game, the novels were being released before the actual game was as a way of building hype, they were on the official SE website. If you know that this is the way to best enjoy the game and if you know the game is made in this way which presupposes you have read these novels with the purpose of delivering a narrative-rich experience than a single game alone can't really deliver without becoming a visual novel, why would you not read them. It's not like the game's out yet so you don't have it to play it yet so might as well read the novels.

In japan they eventually even released collector's editions with printed versions of the novels. It's just something to do with america and people not reading or something, I don't know. It worked fine there though.


Also, FF hasn't been standalone for that long. There's novels about FFVII which explain what happened after the end and how the meteor was stopped and all that. Where do you think Advent Children came from.
 

09philj

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Hmm, how to put this...

I love RWBY. It's immensely good fun. I love the art, I love the characters, and I love the humour. I started watching it near the end of the time the second volume was being released. I watched every episode almost back to back. With this in mind, I am permanently confused by how seriously all the fans on the forums take it and how they can consider it anywhere near perfect. RWBY is a total mess. A magnificent, brilliant, mess made with love and enthusiasm by talented people which I love to death but still a mess, especially where the plot is concerned, but there are a lot of people who don't see that.
 

Elvis Starburst

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Aug 9, 2011
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Well, I'll probably never touch Doctor who cause of the fandom. The last thing I need is to watch it, enjoy it, then have people ask me if I liked it. If I say no, I'm lying. If I say yes, god save me if I say yes to someone who's way too into it. Not like the show really interests me to begin with, but... I don't wanna deal with it
 

The Bucket

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May 4, 2010
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Dreiko said:
BoredRolePlayer said:
Dreiko said:
I will sooner discard a fandom than I will a loved series.


There's thankfully not many cases I had to do this. The big one was the final fantasy one. I used to frequent boards back before ffxiii was released in America and I had imported it from japan because the US version would not have the original voices. I loved the game thoroughly and as one of the importers I participated and exchanged info with a lot of eager people interested in the game. When the USA version hit though, a lot of annoying negative people who didn't understand that you had to read the novels (which were up online for free) for the story to fully make sense and that the battles were easy cause the goal actually was to 5star them and not just survive, which spawned the annoying cult of drones repeating "you can beat the game by mashing X". It had just become a negative environment and instead of having to explain these things for 30 times in a day, instead of being convinced that a game I absolutely loved, one which made me actually cry 3 times and which I finished in 5 days (50 hour long game) somehow sucked cause people who played it with dub voices and didn't do anything correctly thought so, I just decided to stop being part of the community and retain my happiness.
Can I be honest, I don't think it's fair to say "You have to read the novels to understand the game" is a point in the games favor. Even more so with a series that was standalone for so long, and this is the first time I heard FFXIII had novels at all. And to be honest I would have assumed like with the Mass Effect 2 comics it was stuff to pepper the universe to make it more alive, not explain the story. If the game itself can't explain what's going on, then in my book it failed to tell a story. I will agree the game has more depth then "Push X to win" (though not much beyond that compared to other Final Fantasy games) and that's just nitwits.

Here's the thing though, if you followed the game, the novels were being released before the actual game was as a way of building hype, they were on the official SE website. If you know that this is the way to best enjoy the game and if you know the game is made in this way which presupposes you have read these novels with the purpose of delivering a narrative-rich experience than a single game alone can't really deliver without becoming a visual novel, why would you not read them. It's not like the game's out yet so you don't have it to play it yet so might as well read the novels.

In japan they eventually even released collector's editions with printed versions of the novels. It's just something to do with america and people not reading or something, I don't know. It worked fine there though.


Also, FF hasn't been standalone for that long. There's novels about FFVII which explain what happened after the end and how the meteor was stopped and all that. Where do you think Advent Children came from.
Why would you have to follow the development of a game to enjoy it? It's the assumed thing that if you pick up the complete retail set of a piece of media, by consuming all the media within you'll be able to understand what's going on. If they were making the game with the assumption that you'd already read the novels, they should have included the novels in all editions of the game (an eventual collectors edition doesn't help all the early adopters) and included a disclaimer to read them first.

You were obviously extremely hyped for the game, and satisfied with the finished product, which is great, but you can't write away peoples criticisms because they didn't follow development as closely as you and didnt do enough homework before playing the game. And the FFVII novels are a different thing, I haven't even heard of them before today but I never felt I needed ancilliary material to understand the game.
 

FPLOON

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Jul 10, 2013
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I think I have two quotes that can sum up how I feel about this particular subject... Take it away, FPLOONs of 2014!
FPLOON post="18.841383.20690437" said:
What? Can't someone watch/do something without being associated with it's represented fandom? No?? ...Too bad, it seems... But, then again, it harder to like a show that has references that just out-right does that "for the fans", instead of it just being within the context of the show... Also, when you think about it, EVERYTHING has a fandom of some kind associated with its original content, so it's just a matter of ignoring their existence... no matter how much it seems like it's everywhere you go...
FPLOON post="18.843756.20775982" said:
Let me give this to you straight: I have to be REMINDED that a fandom exist most of the time... otherwise I would not know that they even existed in the first place... (It's still awkward telling people that I was watching MLP:FiM around the time of the "4chan involvement" during Season 1... without realizing what was going on online at the time...)

Other than that, fandoms do not sway my judgement of the show itself... Sure, they can explain certain creative decisions that happens during certain seasons of a particular show (i.e. Fionna and Cake in Adventure Time or, more prominently, Derpy in MLP:FiM), but for the most part, they do not bother me as much as most people would believe, especially when I tell them if I am part of a particular fandom...

Oh! And, from a non-show-related side of fandoms... I got nothing... Like I said, I have to be reminded that a fandom exist most of the time... (Even then, they still will not sway my opinion [or lack of one] one way or another on what it is they're interest in overall...)
Can you believe they're about a month apart from each other? Spoooooooky~...

Uh... Other than that, all I can see a fandom ruining is someone's first impression of said fandom, crossovers notwithstanding, but to translate said first impression into ruining a series in general sounds more irrational than being afraid of lemon meringue pie or Realtors to me...
 

Timeless Lavender

Lord of Chinchilla
Feb 2, 2015
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Advice-Pretend those people do not exist.

I like many shows / games that have fanatics as part of the fandom. Then again I am sot a social person to begin with so I do not care about them.
 

Smoketrail

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May 15, 2015
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It sometimes seems like watching/playing something as a fan must be an entirely different experience than doing so outside a fandom.

That said the only way I've had an experience worsened by fans is when they cause a property to be massively over exposed/hyped. But this is mainly due to the wider media not just the fans (here's looking at you Escapist) the most prominent example was doctor who in the run up to the anniversary where it was getting mentions in the papers and on the news as well it just felt frustrating being unable to go a day without someone bringing it up.

This is also the reason I've usually see Marvel movies when and if my dad gets them on DVD/ blue ray half a year down the line. and why when I know a lot of people getting the camping gear ready for star wars midnight releases my plans to see it are "probably... in a few weeks once the crowds die down"

that said outside of the worst instances of the media frenzy, it's the internet: fandoms, like most everything on it (yes indeed, including this post), are better off ignored.
 

BoredRolePlayer

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Nov 9, 2010
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Dreiko said:
BoredRolePlayer said:
Dreiko said:
I will sooner discard a fandom than I will a loved series.


There's thankfully not many cases I had to do this. The big one was the final fantasy one. I used to frequent boards back before ffxiii was released in America and I had imported it from japan because the US version would not have the original voices. I loved the game thoroughly and as one of the importers I participated and exchanged info with a lot of eager people interested in the game. When the USA version hit though, a lot of annoying negative people who didn't understand that you had to read the novels (which were up online for free) for the story to fully make sense and that the battles were easy cause the goal actually was to 5star them and not just survive, which spawned the annoying cult of drones repeating "you can beat the game by mashing X". It had just become a negative environment and instead of having to explain these things for 30 times in a day, instead of being convinced that a game I absolutely loved, one which made me actually cry 3 times and which I finished in 5 days (50 hour long game) somehow sucked cause people who played it with dub voices and didn't do anything correctly thought so, I just decided to stop being part of the community and retain my happiness.
Can I be honest, I don't think it's fair to say "You have to read the novels to understand the game" is a point in the games favor. Even more so with a series that was standalone for so long, and this is the first time I heard FFXIII had novels at all. And to be honest I would have assumed like with the Mass Effect 2 comics it was stuff to pepper the universe to make it more alive, not explain the story. If the game itself can't explain what's going on, then in my book it failed to tell a story. I will agree the game has more depth then "Push X to win" (though not much beyond that compared to other Final Fantasy games) and that's just nitwits.

Here's the thing though, if you followed the game, the novels were being released before the actual game was as a way of building hype, they were on the official SE website. If you know that this is the way to best enjoy the game and if you know the game is made in this way which presupposes you have read these novels with the purpose of delivering a narrative-rich experience than a single game alone can't really deliver without becoming a visual novel, why would you not read them. It's not like the game's out yet so you don't have it to play it yet so might as well read the novels.

In japan they eventually even released collector's editions with printed versions of the novels. It's just something to do with america and people not reading or something, I don't know. It worked fine there though.


Also, FF hasn't been standalone for that long. There's novels about FFVII which explain what happened after the end and how the meteor was stopped and all that. Where do you think Advent Children came from.
By stand alone I meant you don't need extra reading outside of the game to know/enjoy what's going on. For example I don't need a novel/movie to enjoy playing/understanding Final Fantasy VII (Hell Final Fantasy 2 has a novel which explains the Emperors reasons for war but it adds flavor to FF2 not explain it). And that is a horrible way to tell a story. What if say someone like me who doesn't do the prerelease hype stuff cause he know's he is going to get it missed out on it. That means I missed out on vital info because I don't do the prehype stuff.

I had no idea this was a thing and that ruined the game for me, and why is that? Because I didn't want to be spoiled by anything (which media tends to do). This is would be a horrible way to do say a comic book movie, oh you gotta watch read all this comics leading up to Ultron and his first fight to understand the movie (most of the comic book nerd stuff is peppered to add more). You clearly love the game and that's fine, but I'm gonna be honest and say that is a awful way to present a story. And learning this makes the game worse in my opinion because the story is such a mess it needs a novel to explain it. And to present why I think this is so stupid look at the steam page for FFXIII, it mentions nothing about a website or extra reading for the story.

DO YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO FACE YOUR DESTINY?

As a deepening crisis threatens to plunge the floating world of Cocoon into chaos, a band of unsuspecting strangers find themselves branded enemies of the state. With the panicking population baying for their blood, and the military all too happy to oblige, they have no choice but to run for their lives. Join them on a desperate quest to challenge the forces controlling their fate, and prevent untold destruction.

Featuring an unforgettable storyline, a battle system blending action and strategy, cutting-edge visuals and awe-inspiring cinematic sequences, FINAL FANTASY® XIII delivers the next step in the evolution of gaming.

Final Fantasy XIII has been optimised for PC, featuring full screen support and running at 60FPS.
Both English and Japanese voice over will be available.
source (http://store.steampowered.com/app/292120/)

Where does it say you have to read a novel to understand the plot? This was the most recent port and now this important information might be gone for good. I'm not trying to start a fight, and I can point out good things about FFXIII. But learning about this makes the story even worse then before for me.
 

Sniper Team 4

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Apr 28, 2010
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I've only been part of one fandom in my life. I'm a brony. I wasn't at first. I was just having fun watching the show. But I slowly got sucked in to the point where I write stories about colorful cartoon horses and take pictures, something I thought I'd never, ever do. I did this because it was fun, and the part of the fandom that I stick with is always nice and encouraging to me. I have my own little group of followers and I talk with a few of the blog owners and everyone is very nice.
That being said, I have seen the ugly side of the fandom, usually in the comment sections of articles on EQD or on tumblr in some cases. And I keep wondering, "What's wrong with you? This is supposed to be fun. Relax!" And so, I have quickly learned to not read too far into the comment sections and just always tell people that I appreciate the art/story/craft/whatever it is they are doing, because I've found that that attitude makes me smile and be happy that I'm still part of the fandom.


On the flip side, I HAVE had a really bad experience with a fandom before. As others have pointed out, the Souls fandom was...not helpful, to say the least. I picked the game up because a friend of mine would not shut up about it. Gave it a shot, got stuck, asked him for help and he just laughed, saying, "Figure it out on your own." So I went to the internet--here even--and asked for help. And I was mocked. I remember one time I said I couldn't figure out how to get spells to work--turns out I was using a tailsman instead of a staff--and one person told me, "Shit. Did you never figure out how to attack either? It's basically the same thing, dumbass." So yeah, I quit the game because of people like that. No one was willing to help me. It wasn't until Dark Souls II came out, where the game explained things a bit better, that I went back and finally stomped Dark Souls into the ground.
So now, I make it a point to offer whatever help I can with any of those games, because I do think they're great and I don't want people to be chased away from them by losers like the ones I ran in to.