Can fans really ever be pleased?

[Pink Gregory]

I felt touched by madness earlier, and decided to read metacritic out of curiosity and catharsis.

I started with an obvious prickly item: Civilization V.

For the record, I love Civ V, a lot of people don't (understatement).

But here's the thing, yeah, I read the 0/100 'review' of Civ V, the reviewer making all sorts of allusions to selling out and 'insulting true fans'.

Then I decided to take a look at the negative reviews for Civ IV and...well...would you believe it? Quite similar sentiments.

This got me thinking; can 'true fans' ever be pleased? Do they even want to be?

 

[skywolfblue]

No True Scotsman Fallacy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman]

Replace "Scotsman" with "fan" and you have the same situation.

People try to apply their views to other people who may not share their views. It's impossible to please everyone, even if you please 99.9% of the population, you'll still get one guy going "All true fans should hate it".

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I liked Civ V. I think some of the arguments for why it was a step backward from Civ IV are cogent, but then I also really hated stacks of doom, so for me it was a step sideways.

There are no "true fans" of anything, because there is no metric for determining the purity of a fan. There are, however, picky-ass fans, and no...it is not possible to satisfy them, because it runs against their nature.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well one thing is for sure, no pair of pants fit all the asses you can only make sure to tell people what size you made.

And that is the usual disconnect, devs/publishers/"pro-reviewers" love to claim the new game has it all and then some because they want to make bank on the good name, but the actual state of that shit you get in the box is anyones guess.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

First you must define what a "true fan" even is.

Is it somebody who merely purchases the game and enjoys it, or is it something more? You have to understand, there will always be people in the world who are never happy with anything they are given, and get their jollies out of spewing shit such as the review you mentioned.

I highly doubt that was a serious review, as no game really deserves a 0, no matter how bad.

To answer you question, yes, it is possible to please the consumer with a product. If the consumer is looking to purchase the product than obviously they are looking to get at least some enjoyment out of it, otherwise they wouldn't waste their money. All it takes is a little research to make sure you don't walk away unhappy.

 

[Glover09]

My opinion, never. "True fans" of anything believe themselves to be gods gift to the world in my experiences, and no one can ever equal them, especially the lowly game designers who decide not to do what these high-and-mighty "fans" believe should be done.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/284-Silent-Hill-Homecoming
Watch 4:30-4:45, that esentially sums it up.

 

[Aris Khandr]

This got me thinking; can 'true fans' ever be pleased? Do they even want to be?

Some group of fans will always be unhappy about something. Please the group of fans who wanted gay relationships in Mass Effect, and you piss off another group who thinks "Bioware is trying to make my Shepard gay". Prevent unit stacking in Civ V so cities can actually fall, and you upset a group who thinks that you're "dumbing down" the game. Developers can't win, because no matter who they try to make happy, another group will be unhappy, and those people will yell about it all over the internet.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Despite the origin of the word "fan" being in "fanatic," I can't help but feel there is a difference between the two. A fan will be pleased by progress and effort. They'll see where concessions may have to be made and where creator's license supercedes fan opinion. They'll accept that they may not always like the choices a developer makes but that doesn't necessarily mean the game is terrible, the developers are suddenly incompetent or that people who like it are stupid crazy idiots.

Fanatics, on the other hand, simply believe their way is the only way and, quite likely, will never be pleased.

 

[StylinBones]

They better be pleased. Games are played for fun (unless ur pro, which is probably .00001% of humans). So, to you whiny fans: stop whining. Think about how lucky you are to have so many amazing games to play. Imagine growing up before television or radio. Imagine not having an iPhone in your pocket all of the time or an XBox/PS3/PC (not Wii, I'd be fine w/o Wii) to play in the comfort of your own home. It sucks. Thank Jebus the game developers haven't all quit making games because of dickhead "reviewers" giving them 0/100 scores on the internet. Play the good ones, don't play games you don't enjoy and don't waste your life complaining about them. /rant

 

[Valis7]

I wouldn't take metacritic seriously. Way too many people make accounts on the site simply to write troll reviews and give games 0/10 scores out of spite.

But to answer your question TC, no I don't think its possible to please 100% of any given fanbase. People in general are just more vocal & motivated about expressing displeasure for something rather than praise. Which is why almost everything these days gets trashed online.

 

[OpticalJunction]

They better be pleased. Games are played for fun (unless ur pro, which is probably .00001% of humans). So, to you whiny fans: stop whining. Think about how lucky you are to have so many amazing games to play. Imagine growing up before television or radio. Imagine not having an iPhone in your pocket all of the time or an XBox/PS3/PC (not Wii, I'd be fine w/o Wii) to play in the comfort of your own home. It sucks. Thank Jebus the game developers haven't all quit making games because of dickhead "reviewers" giving them 0/100 scores on the internet. Play the good ones, don't play games you don't enjoy and don't waste your life complaining about them. /rant

I agree, but I think some complaints are legit and the developers would do well to consider them. It's the "OMG THIS GAME SUCKS *GAME DEVELOPER* IS DEAD RAAARRR* reviews that should be ignored. By the way, as far as giving up game development because of the negativity, I'd wager it is worse to get no reaction at all. How crap would it be if you spent 3 years designing a game that no one cared enough about to even complain about?

 

[BreakfastMan]

All fans can only ever be pleased by the first game in a series. Beyond that, all bets are off.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

The way I see it, if you're a fan of anything its because you've been pleased by it. Star Wars fans didn't just wake up one day and say "Gosh, I sure do like Star Wars all of a sudden!" only to then turn around and ***** about everything. As for 'true fans' who then go on to give 0/100 scores for the objects of their fandom...that just doesn't make sense to me. Yahtzee is a Silent Hill fan who has crucified Silent Hill games and yet it all seemed well justified so it would seem logical to at least find any little reason to avoid the number zero.

Then again, I would consider myself a Star Wars Fan and I avoid coming to terms with Force Unleashed 2 being a thing that exists...in canon...and isn't a DLC campaign. It had an alright demo though (which is the 0.5 out of 5 stars I would have given it if I acknowledge its existence)

This got me thinking; can 'true fans' ever be pleased? Do they even want to be?

Google: "They changed it, now it sucks"

Same with Facebook.
...
and the Xbox 360 dashboard (I miss the tab-like folders from 06)

 

[Kekkonen1]

I think the problem is that you are looking at "true fans" as an unified object that thinks and acts as one, needless to say they don't. The body of "true fans" doesn't exist, only individuals that think and act in different ways.

So to answer your question, can fans ever be pleased? Sure they can. Can you please everyone? Nope, someone will always be upset.

Actually I think that looking at fans this way is one of the huge problems in the gaming industry, people look at the complaints about one game, then when they fix those faults some people still complain about the fixes. People then call fans entitled without realising that the fans that complained about the first game may very well be satisfied and happy with the game now that it has been fixed.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

You're going to have people complaining when a game changes, and you're going to have people complain when it doesn't change, so no, you can't please everybody. I'm not sure that everyone wants to be pleased.

 

[00slash00]

youre asking if a game can please everyone? absolutely not. take metal gear solid. the primary complaint about that series has always been the cutscenes. if they cut back on the amount and length of cutscenes it would make lots of people happy. but i guarantee there would also be a decent amount of people complaining that now there arent enough

 

[Eddie the head]

All fans can only ever be pleased by the first game in a series. Beyond that, all bets are off.

Not even then I didn't like the first Mass Effect. But I liked 2 and 3. In fact why did I pick up 2?

 

[Nazulu]

You can't please everyone unfortunately. There is always people with that certain thing they wanted in the original, or just have unreasonable demands altogether.

Since I'm guessing this is a game series that started awhile ago, I'm guessing it had that beautiful niche detail that we hardly see in AAA games any more, well any game really.

I can't play any MMO's after Lineage 2 because of the freedom that game let me have and how choatic the world was. I just can't find those certain games any more that I saw every where in the 90's.

Most people (including critics) can't explain what upsets them very well at all, so try to find the people who can make it clear and get a proper understanding instead of just complaining about peoples complaints. Really, understanding is the only way to actually stop complaints. People always feel the need to validated, everyone does so don't bother defending yourself.

 

[BreakfastMan]

All fans can only ever be pleased by the first game in a series. Beyond that, all bets are off.

Not even then I didn't like the first Mass Effect. But I liked 2 and 3. In fact why did I pick up 2?

Probably for the same reason I did: you heard it was much improved from the first one. In fact, are you sure you aren't me? Your thoughts on Mass Effect and your love of Iron Maiden make me suspect that you are.