Have you ever avoided something because of its fanbase?

[DrunkOnEstus]

I really wouldn't be able to enjoy anything at all if I based the liking on the fanbase. The reason? Rule 34 and a large chunk of deviantart for virtually everything (by nature of the rule). For all the great things it's done, I'm just not so sure about the Internet. So many people who did their sick stuff in the privacy of their basement hidden from the world are now eager to broadcast it loudly to the planet.

As far as MLP is concerned, I found FiM to be of an obviously higher quality and depth than most of the trite tweeny garbage that gets pandered to children these days, and the flash animation works to great effect and makes a lot of the color and artwork really shine. That said, it still feels very much like an exclusively "little girl" show to me, and despite my appreciation of it teaching more important values and standards without insulting a child's intelligence,it just doesn't speak to me or give me a connection to it. If I had a daughter, it would certainly be tops for relaxing and watching a show with her. To each their own, even though my brother walking in and saying "whoa, ******!" stings a little.

 

[Dandark]

I play League of legends and openly admit it even if the fanbase for that is embarrassing. However I have avoided trying HoN pretty much just because of it's terrible reputation.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I feel the need to have to add a new fanbase I dislike to my list, and that is the P90X fanbase.

That Pyramid scheme type setup they use is essentially what turned me away from Facebook. I remember it being about friends and staying in touch with distant folks back in the day, but once marketing teams got their hands on it and decided to harness the "viral" phenomenon for extremely low cost advertising, I couldn't take it anymore. I would login to see pages and pages of posts from poor souls who agreed to pester everyone they know with blatant advertising, and realized how easily it happened when every damned thing under the sun had a "like" or "share with friends" button on it.

Captcha: "Face the Music", I did, and I walked away. Too late, Mr. Captcha.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well I guess one of the reasons why I never played Team Fortress 2 and League of legends is due to the leets fanbase out there. Yes I know not everyone is like that but I'm pretty sure I will be stepping into a minefield if I had bought those games (I am not in the mood to be called a noob or other swear words).

 

[bobknowsall]

Hmm... I'd say Homestuck and Gunnerkrigg Court. With GC I think it might just be the fans I know personally. The Homestuck fandom is one that I just find rather unsettling.

 

[edgecult]

As a low to midish level anime nerd. I do the cosplay thing at local cons and such... rather poorly but I find fun walking about as my favorite lesser known or cared about characters only to get a high five from another fan who recognizes me ^_^ (Best damn feeling ever. Serously. Just get a little more faith back in your fandom when it happens.) I do get to see some of the more.. irksome sides of the local fandom. Some I associate with by well association than others. ( Too many Yaoi fan girls and Hetalia.. things and Bleach/naruto guys and such in my general friend ring thing)

That said I just shrug it off and go back to what I enjoy and wave away the annoyances from my space. While they're out numbered there are plenty of good various levels of anime fan to keep me from disowning it entirely.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Plenty of things actually. For instance: MLP, Naruto, Bleach, Furries, Mass Effect (beyond 1), Glee, MOBA, StarCraft, Diablo, WoW, Hunger Games, Twilight, Bieber, Avatar (both of them), Family Guy, Touhou, Joss Whedon, etc.

Some of those things I genuinely like and just prefer to disassociate myself away from the (charitably described as) more vocal members of its fanbase. Some things I'm indifferent to and the only source of my ire to it is entirely set upon its fans. Some things I just simply don't like and would prefer to part ways with amiably, but the fans make it increasingly harder to ignore.

 

[Drop_D-Bombshell]

I tend to keep away from Call of Duty and most threads surrounding it, mainly because it's going to turn into an argument about the games or some of the features within it.

 

[Dangit2019]

Insane Clown Posse. Their fans are so freaking smug and annoying that I chose not to get into their music. The fans shouldn't bother me that much (and they usually don't for most bands), but if I started listening to ICP and wanted to go to their concert, I would have to deal with a thousand teenagers my age who have "figured it all out" and now think themselves as badasses for no reason at all.

 

[Dangit2019]

Well I guess one of the reasons why I never played Team Fortress 2 and League of legends is due to the leets fanbase out there. Yes I know not everyone is like that but I'm pretty sure I will be stepping into a minefield if I had bought those games (I am not in the mood to be called a noob or other swear words).

If you keep off the weird elitist servers and just choose the normal criteria modes, you should be just fine. I completely suck at the game and haven't been b****** out at all (even though I'm one of the supposedly hated "F2Players" who have been "plaguing the game" since last year).

 

[GreyJedi]

And I can kind of relate with the Mass Effect stuff. I enjoy the games, I think they're generally well written, but when people start discussing the romances it seems 99% of the time it's people going "I'm actually in love with this character, I wish they were real" and I'm just sitting there thinking wtf.

This. A 1000 times this. I find it to be rather disturbing. Then again, Bioware has done its fair share of effort to placate this part of the fanbase. (I am of course referring to the awkward post-coital hugging/spooning/sitting in ME2.)

 

[Dangit2019]

I'd say I've avoided a movie like Boondock Saints due to its fans.

That's a bit strange to me since the Boondock Saints is one of the least complicated movies out there. It's like the Matrix but without the sci-fi premise or the kung fu. I personally liked it because it was the kind of excessively excessive movie that movies like the Expendables have been trying to copy ever since.

 

[Vivi22]

The entire MOBA genre.

This. I used to play DOTA a bit back when the entire genre was nothing but that custom map in Warcraft 3. One thing I learned was that the entire community was filled with unbearable assholes before it was even being passed off as a serious competitive genre with official ladders and ranking systems. I really don't want to see what depths the community has reached since the genre became serious business. In fact, I'd rather play a COD title on Xbox Live with two dozen prepubescent teenage boys screaming over the mic with their high pitched voice letting everyone know how pwnd they just were everytime they get a kill.

That's how unpleasant I found the DOTA community.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Furries,

Has anyone figured out what causes that arousal? I mean people who like BDSM usually do it because they lack control or have too much of it in their normal lives. Hell even the necro stem from a fear of rejection, but furries. I just don't get where that comes from.

I wish I could just ask one of them to figure it out.

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Anime...

I'm sorry but some of those fans just seem to have screws loose. I once was hanging out with one of them along with my friends. And his asian girl friend kept laughing at my jokes. He went nuts and told me I had to leave. I guess he thought I was hitting on her? I don't know, I really wasn't I'm just a nice to everybody kind of guy.

My wife also had a anime guy going around a lan station asking people if they had henti. Dude, I wont ever judge anyone on what they like whether it be loving FPV porn or poo porn. Still, you don't go around asking random people for it.

 

[sunthaiduc]

Furries,

Has anyone figured out what causes that arousal? I mean people who like BDSM usually do it because they lack control or have too much of it in their normal lives. Hell even the necro stem from a fear of rejection, but furries. I just don't get where that comes from.

I wish I could just ask one of them to figure it out.

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Anime...

I'm sorry but some of those fans just seem to have screws loose. I once was hanging out with one of them along with my friends. And his asian girl friend kept laughing at my jokes. He went nuts and told me I had to leave. I guess he thought I was hitting on her? I don't know, I really wasn't I'm just a nice to everybody kind of guy.

My wife also had a anime guy going around a lan station asking people if they had henti. Dude, I wont ever judge anyone on what they like whether it be loving FPV porn or poo porn. Still, you don't go around asking random people for it.

it wasn't a public lan center it was a lan party. in a house. you know friends? i knew that creepy guy

 

[Shuguard]

Yes!!! I have avoided the rest of the mass effect series(only finished #1), the entire halo series, MLP, MOBA's, Naruto, and Bleach. Though the last two probably weren't about the fanbase so much as the actual show, but they were still a part of it.

why Mass Effect? because of the crazy people obessed with cxharachters?

thats really only on the Bioware forums...

I sound hypocritical now, don't I?

I met a good chunk of the fans in person... the raving fanboy-ness never ended and their ME3 tears were delicious. I thought the characters had a nice bit of diversity among them and decent personalities. But i just wasn't enjoying mass effect though. I pretty much threw up my hands in the first one. Then just finished the main story. I did some of the side quests, but i just got horribly bored and wanted to end it.

 

[Zenn3k]

League of Legends.

I avoid it on purpose because of the horror stories of its community of rampant jerks.

I have no idea how to play, and I don't feel like learning it while some 12 year olds scream at me and rage quit.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Yep, many things. I don't think they've kept me from playing anything I would have wanted to in the first place, but their zealotry has stopped me from trying things I was on the fence about or wasn't interested in to begin with, which in turn makes them scream about what a terrible person I am and of my ignorance and blah blah blah, personal investment into something that has nothing to do with you.

Regardless, I don't associate with fans of anything for this reason. Frankly, they ruin everything, and I reason that anything that can make a human being that obnoxious is something I'm better off interacting with as little as possible.

 

[RaikuFA]

Monster Hunter. Wanted to like it, but whenever I needed help taking down a hunt I got insults that made me wish I got the same level of hate that that Feminist Frequency lady got. Yeah its that bad. And this is coming from a series where teamwork is ENCOURAGED. Though now I play Gods Eater Burst and looking forward to Ragnarok Odyssey.

Also, games where the lead dev is an asshole like Braid.

This as well.

 

[Jorec]

I'd have to say the furry fandom. I do honestly enjoy some of the art and artists that are in that fandom, but god damn most of people are terrible. I have never seen people with such huge egos like those in the furry fandom. So many artists have mediocre or downright terrible art but think they are god on earth. Its fucking ridiculous.

Not to mention all the hate art that comes out of it. Its actually a little sad that people pay money to have their shitty OCs drawn killing(or doing worse) to some character from a show or game they don't like. Or even worse, paying to have their OC drawn killing(OR DOING WORSE) to an actual person.

Granted I have never seen hate art of the later kind but it wouldn't fucking surprise me if there was.

I don't like to associate with hateful people. So I can't really say I like the furry fandom at all. Some of the people are okay, but the fandom in general can go fuck off.