Unpleasable Fanbase - Television Tropes & Idioms

Let's pause to consider the Naruto fanbase. After 85 solid weeks of bitching about the endless filler, they are now dissecting every facet of Shippuden with a passion. For example, people that dislike Sasuke don't just claim it's a case of author favoritism but actually say he has a Perverse Sexual Lust for his own character.
- Writing Sasuke in a way that pleases everyone is impossible: he's so wildly divisive among the fandom that he is both the most popular and most hated character.
- And there's plenty members of the show's Estrogen Brigade that hate any female except Tsunade and Temari because "they're not "strong" enough" and accuse Kishimoto of being biased against women... while they act even worse.
- And let's not get started on complaints concerning Naruto's portrayal and how main characters have to be awesome.
- Hinata. Just... Hinata. Some fans love her and want her to take a bigger role in the series and be paired with the main character, Others hate her and bash her incessently.
  - The events of chapter 437 didn't help things much.
- There's also people that have a liking for some of the Loads And Loads Of Characters and thus hate anything involving the main cast. Really, way to many people fall into the trap of judging the quality of stories as bad the second they find out it's about a character they don't like.
  - To be fair, Kishimito really does seem to have a problem with women in Naruto, which he admits in interviews. The majority of the important frequently occurring characters are male, with Sakura and Tsunade being rare exceptions. Furthermore, Kishimoto does have an unfortunate tendency to introduce characters that are interesting and never do anything with them, Anko being the prime offender here. Similar in personality to the main character, apprentice to Season one Big Bad Orochimaru, and quite attractive, she's managed to assemble quite a fanbase, and yet she hasn't done anything in cannon to advance the plot since the Chuunin exams.
  - But still, even when he does things right with the female characters, he gets bitched at. I.e.: Sakura developing her own abilities *and* getting Character Development apparently means nothing to female fans, it makes her a Canon Sue who should still be killed for ever having loved Sasuke and is automatically inferior since her area of expertise is combat medicine. And these misogynist fangirls claim later to be FEMINISTS...
- Chapter 449 is a primary offender. Most people were upset that Kakashi, Fukasaku, and even Shizune had died. When Nagato used a Deus Ex Machina jutsu to revive them, people were still upset that the characters couldn't "evolve" from these characters' deaths. Unpleasable fanbase indeed.
Anime Dubbing and translation in general. Especially the debates surrounding which dubs are Woolseyism, Macekred, or a Pragmatic Adaptation.
- For one good example, a thread discussing the announcement trailer for the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann dub devolved into this before any actual dubbing had taken place. No actual voice acting was featured in the trailer (being a humorous overview of the series with fast-talking narrator), so the commenters immediately started criticizing the announcer, and theorizing that the dub was so bad they didn't want to show any of it. A second trailer was eventually made with Simon and Kamina.
  - On at related note, there are a ridiculous number of people condemning the dub based entirely on Kamina's voice.
- Despite the fact that DVD rendered the majority of the dub vs. sub wars moot, there are still people that insist that dubs cease to exist or that people who want subs are elitists that should just learn Japanese if they don't want to watch a dub. I repeat - this is despite the fact that both sets of fans are catered to and nobody has to watch anything they don't like.
  - ...except now that the industry is experiencing a downturn, a growing number of series perceived as a risky sell are not receiving a dub track. The companies do this because while a dub track will always increase sales by some amount, many niche series have actually gone down as flops because they didn't make enough money back in sales to justify the cost of commissioning a dub. But for some people, you'd think they were deliberately doing it to spite the dub-only viewing audience.
- There will always be a group who completely hate any dub despite the quality. This includes the nominally respected dubs like Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo and the Disney produced dubs of Studio Ghibli films. For them, having Chihiro in Spirited Away say "It's a bath house?" in a scene that originally had no dialogue is unforgivable. They will ignore any defense that western audiences wouldn't recognize a bath house without that comment. Never mind that Hayao Miyazaki approved the dubs.
- And Gundam 00 fans have already started to whine about the dub. Specially over Haro's voice. HARO'S VOICE! Oh, and how dares Alex Zahara say "Stratos" as "Stratus".
The Code Geass fanbase is approaching this status at light speed. It doesn't look like the end of the series has stopped them either.
- Of course, you have your usual shipping wars...
- Furthermore, many people, particularly the Estrogen Brigade who normally watch mecha and CLAMP shows expecting some sort of romantic subplot, got turned off because the show is more steeped in politics and mind-gaming (much like Death Note)
- As R2 progressed, nearly every character was being hated on by some subsection of the fanbase (sometimes for logical reasons, sometimes not so much), even those whom they were firmly behind in the first season. Crapsack World? Bad Writing? Who cares! In their eyes the characters sucked and they didn't like them anymore.
- As the show began to wrap up, the fans complained that it was too dark and they didn't want a Kill Em All, Downer Ending. After the last episode aired, they complained the ending of the series was far too idealistic and a cop out to the Downer Ending it "should have had."
- There's also a sub-U.P. about a dub's fidelity. Since Japanese is a highly nuanced and poetic language, a high-fidelity dub will sound a lot like Purple Prose in English, and fans will still rip into you for missing a lot of the "subtleties" of the Japanese version. Go the other way, making it idiomatic English, and you get torn apart for not being as close to the original Japanese as possible. Heaven help you if you try to split the difference.
Samurai Champloo is frequently criticized either for being too much like Cowboy Bebop, or not enough like Cowboy Bebop.
Several Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fans have criticized Gainax for giving Kinon Character Development, stating that they would rather have her old stereotypical Moe Moe personality (where the only difference between the three sisters were their breast sizes), rather than her new personality as Rossiu's most loyal supporter and the only person who truly understands him.
- To be perfectly honest, Rossiu is The Scrappy, and Simon dropped a few notches in many fans' books when he decided to keep Rossiu from killing himself. It's more the fact that she's the number-one fan and supporter of The Scrappy than the fact that she got character development.
- And speaking of Rossiu, that sentence should be a good indicator of how utterly unforgiving the fanbase has been to him. Even though he was doing what he *truly* thought was right (albeit not in the most constructive manner), eventually realized he was wrong, entirely regretted it, nearly killed himself over it, and got The Return Of The Kaminaslap fans still think of him as a complete bastard who did everything for the hell of it. They seriously think Simon should have let him kill himself.
The anime community has become this about free streaming videos. Basically companies like Toei, and Funimation allow you to watch entire episodes for free on the internet and then people complain about how they don't allow free downloadable anime (in other words legalize fansubs), or the selection isn't gigantic (only 10+ episodes of Gintama and not the entire series). This is somewhat justified when those complaining do not live in North America, as the streams are region-locked and thus a stream only open to one region may as well not exist to those outside of that region.
Pokemon gets this a lot. So much that even people unfamiliar with the show hate it already and apparently always have. When the new seasons offered to introduce new characters, people kept complaining that their favorite characters were done, despite the fact that one of the biggest complaints was that it didn't have more themes from the game in the first place. Oddly enough, the more recent movies (according to the IM Db) are actually getting better scores.
Sometimes it seems like certain people in the Bleach fandom complain every single time any character wins or loses.
Then there is the fan treatment of certain characters. While the hatred towards Momo Hinamori has cooled slightly since her last appearance, poor Orihime Inoue is bashed at every corner. Take, for example, her recent nervous breakdown and the amount of people bashing her for it, despite the fact that the poor girl had been through an entire arc of Break The Cutie topped off by coming to help Ichigo only to find Ulquiorra waiting for her to arrive so that he could blast a freaking hole through his chest right before her eyes. Add that to the fact that even while she was screaming she managed to get Ichigo's body down without any more damage, as well as how she didn't start crying until after she'd started healing him, and you'll be left shaking your head incredulously too.

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DC Comics reportedly has a hard time getting writers to work on Legion Of Super Heroes because many writers feel that "you're doomed no matter what you do". It doesn't help that each iteration of the Legion has its own fanbase that considers all other versions "fake".
Fans constantly clamor for more new characters, but no matter how well they are written, fans would still buy yet another comic with Wolverine or Batman, dooming most new books to barely 25 issues before being canceled.
If you don't want to be annoyed by a flame war, don't visit the Supergirl board at DC Comics, become half of the people that post there think that the latest Supergirl, a.k.a Kara Zor-El, is entering a Dork Age, while the other members think that Supergirl is exiting a Dork Age.
Virtually anyone who has the audacity to be the head writer of any major comics event at any company. It doesn't matter how good they are, Fan Dumb will attack them like a school of angry Piranha, complaining and nitpicking about anything sometimes real and sometimes imagined. Then they will reevaluate the writers work before he signed on to the event and proclaim it unreadable garbage, followed by painting the writer as an utter hack whose only purpose in life is to spread pain and misery wherever he or she goes. It doesn't help that about half the time you have to wonder who is Running The Asylum...
- Especially the case with Quesada after One More Day. First, Mary Jane hate. Then Mary Jane goes away, and everyone rips Quesada a new one.
- Although it was more how stupid he did it. Plus a lot of fans seem to think they don't mind anymore if Spider Man stay married, if it will avoid any more utter stupidity like that.
- Many pro-marriage Spider-Man fans now even argue the time has come to depend entirely on Bendis' Ultimate Spider Man title, and to regard Spider Girl as the "true" continuity. Inevitably, people raised in the 1990s will also take over the company and might ensure that everything since early 1999 didn't happen (No Mackie, no OOC separation, no Spider-Totem, no OMD, no BND etc), dooming Spider-Man to an inevitable "Legion"-esque chronological tug-o-war between fans of each distinct era with each passing of the editorial torch.
Controversial example: Whenever a gay character and/or couple is introduced. Usually, in addition to the part of the fanbase that does not want gay characters, the other part of the fanbase does not want a long running character to have Suddenly Sexuality, but will claim any new characters as a Captain Ethnic or a Pet Homosexual. When a gay couple is established, the criticisms continue that characters are underdeveloped, too realistic, not realistic enough, get too much attention, or not enough attention. After a while there's a question of whether or not the criticisms are valid opinions on bad writing or a symptom of Unpleasable Fanbase inspired Creator Breakdown.
- Small example: When a kiss was announced to finally be shown in The Authority between two gay characters, it was criticized that it was a gimmick and violated the idea that these were two-superheroes-who-happened-to-be-gay instead of two gay superheroes. Once the kiss turned out to be entirely unnoticeable (casual and in the background of a party), the book was criticized for not making the kiss out to be a big deal and disappointed a lot of fans.
  - Though that's more a case of overhyping. If you hype the kiss like it's going to be huge and THE thing about that issue, well you've got only yourself to blame when people see it's only a minor background thing.
DC Comics fans keep protesting about the whole "continuous crossover" idea (where one Crisis Crossover leads into another) for years- that they're too long, that their quality sucks, that they're poorly edited, that they make them waste money on unnecessary tie-ins, etc. While they do have a point, the fact is they still buy them. If they would stop, DC would have no choice but to drop the idea.
- The fact comics sales are not what they used to be before the Age of the Crossover Abuse seems to point to there being more about it than merely an Unpleasable Fanbase.
Peter David wrote a book called Mascot To the Rescue! that lampshades the tendency for comic fans to do nothing but complain. It also deconstructs the fans' requests to kill off Jason Todd.

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Star Wars fans have taken Hype Backlash to a ridiculous level by hating on the man who made the franchise in the first place, George Lucas.
Looking through the Bond entries, most of them are all declared "hated by Bond fans." Except Casino Royale, for some reason.
- If by "Bond fans" you mean fans of the novels, it's because Daniel Craig's Bond is regarded as being much nearer in character to the books' Bond than any other movie portrayals.
- Of the complaints leveled against Casino Royale was that it had too much talking. Quantum Of Solace significantly upped the action quotent, and has been widely criticized for being too much like The Bourne Series.
- Not to mention people criticizing the old movies for getting too silly, then criticizing the Re Boot for being too serious. One commenter split the difference by calling it an "unrealistic [and] silly" movie that thinks it's serious. Considering that a similar incident actually happened...
The Lord Of The Rings movies by Peter Jackson. For every fan that likes (or doesn't mind, or understands the rationale behind) a certain change/cut, there's a fan that's in a frothing rage over the exact some change/cut.
This happens with a lot of film adaptations of popular (and not-so-popular) works. For example, the Narnia films and many adaptions of comics.
Critics are split half and half on the film adaptation of Watchmen. Some praise the film for staying faithful to the comic, breaking the cycle of bad adaptations based on Alan Moore's works. On the other hand, others criticize it for being too faithful to the source material, and that director Zack Snyder didn't do enough to insert his own interpretations and creative vision into the film.
- That's just a Broken Base. What makes that an unpleasable fanbase is that a lot of those critics were concerned that the adaptation wouldn't be faithful enough.
  - Some of these critics also seem to have symptoms of the dreaded Lickspittle. Moore's preemptive loathing of adaptations of his works has birthed a sizable hive of loyal fans who hate the new movie because of Word of God. The few small changes are cause of much grief to these people.
The new Star Trek movie. You know, the one the old school fans called a whole assortment of nasty names and pretty much disowned from the series? Before it was even out no less. Well,it turns out that the new film contains everything they had been bitching had been lacking from Star Trek for a loooong time (let's face it the movie is one long Crowning Moment Of Awesome for the series). Unfortunately, it "sold out" by being a genuinely entertaining standalone film that requires no knowledge of the series. Proving once again you just can't win with some people.
- This video by The Onion perfectly spoofs said mentality.
- There's also a subcomplaint about the portrayal of Orion women, the original Green Skinned Space Babe. Some people were upset about all Orion women being slave girls who were in great demand as "consorts" and dancers. Enterprise attempted to retcon this by saying that the women were really in charge and using their pheromones to seduce men. People complained that it was making women out to be manipulative harpies who you just couldn't trust. The new film introduces Gaila, an independent Orion (confirmed by Word Of God to have made her way out of the system by means of an underground railroad) who still likes having lots of sex. Matter settled with honor to both sides, right? People complained about a line by Kirk; "How many men have you slept with?" Including a crowd scene, Gaila appears in the movie for less than ten minutes.
  - And remember sex is the Orion's hat
The Terminator fanbase. The recently-released Terminator Salvation was more action-heavy than its predecessors (and had no time travel), and explained some things which were hinted at during the first two films (i.e. how John Connor received his battle scar). The release of the film has caused a Broken Base, and many fans have decried Salvation for being either too action-packed, boring, not having enough Arnie, or not having enough time travel.
- With the current status of ''T3'' it looks like Salvation is either a Contested Sequel, a continuation of Ruined Forever, or some strange combination of the two. Of course Christian Bale's outburst may have had something to do with fans being even more upset.

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Harry Potter may be the largest existing fanbase in the world. The books have sold better than any books other than The Bible. It may not actually be possible to get that many human beings to agree on the same thing... ever. (Which readers of, among other books, The Bible have known for years.) So naturally, there are numerous examples of this trope in play, including:
- The fandom exploding into a prime example with the revelation that Dumbledore was gay. More specifically, one side was proud of Rowling for outing a character, while the other thought she was a wuss for not putting it in a book. With a tiny minority who hated that she puts "fags" in children's books.
- Shipping. Oh god, anything involving shipping.
- Anything involving the movies. Any change is bad, but so is anything that's incredibly boring when actually seen. And the fandom is so fractured that any scene that's cut will almost certainly have a sizeable portion out for blood. But the news that the seventh film would finally be split in two, so nothing would be left out, was received with universal acclaim...except for the folks upset that it appeared to be a ploy to get more money out of them.
- There was no way JK Rowling could end the series so that everyone would be happy, so "fans" continue to whine endlessly about how she screwed it all up. Particularly unpleasable are Slytherfen, Snape fangirls, and bitter shippers. Here are the most mindboggling examples.
There are silly amounts of people out there who insist that anything from the last five books of The Wheel Of Time to everything Robert Jordan ever did is crap, yet keep on religiously reading all of it. This for a series that consists of currently eleven Door Stoppers, or somewhere around nine thousand (WHAT? NINE THOUSAND?!?) pages.
- And that's not even including characters. Pick a Wheel character, any character. Got your character? Good. Anywhere from 30 to 90 percent of the fans (at least the vocal ones) hate that character.
  - It's the same with A Song Of Ice And Fire, except for Darkstar. Everyone hates Darkstar
  - What are you talking about? All Wheel Of Time fans are vocal.
Terry Pratchett lampshaded this somewhat in an interview by saying "Of course I listen to my readers! So the next book will be: Set in Ankh-Morpork/not set in Ankh-Morpork. With lots of the good old characters/with a whole cast of new characters. Written like the old books, which were better/written like the later books, which were better. With lots of character development/none of that dull character development stuff, which gets in the way of the jokes. Short/long. You want fries with that?"
The Warrior Cats fandom... just... the Warrior Cats fandom. They complained about the crappiness of The New Propechy, but then it suddenly became almost as good as their precious Original Series when they started to hate on Power of Three. They reach another level of annoyingness when every time a new book comes out, people begin praising it, and saying they finally "brought Warriors back", and then about a week later, they start insulting the very same book that they said was awesome. Yeah.
- And of course, how they keep whining about all the forbidden loves. Admittedly, this plot device does have more of an impact the first time around than the seventh, but they think if it's forbidden, it instantly sucks, or is "overused". Pretty much the entire fandom thinks like this, and threatens to stop reading the books if there is another forbidden romance. No matter how well written, or how great the pairing is. This even includes people who ship other forbidden pairings. Ironically, depending on what you would consider a forbidden love, their precious first series actually has more forbidden love than the second and third series combined.
- These fans have a tendency to make up normally legitimate excuses for hating the series, most of which either make no sense, have nothing to do with anything, or also apply to their precious first series. They of course use the traditional "The author is just in it for the money now!" (It's actually the opposite. In the beginning, the publisher forced Vicky to start writing a series about cats, and now she seems to enjoy the series), complaining about too many day-to-day life chapters (Sometimes this is legitimate, sometimes this is just them misunderstanding the concept of "internal conflicts". On top of that, there still was a lot of day-to-day life filler in the Original Series), saying that the author has run out of ideas (even though she has a very good idea of what she's doing and what is happening in the plot, she just moves the story along at a slower pace, especially in the early third series, which was mostly character development), and saying that things such as forbidden love and Tigerstar are overused (Which contradicts the fact that the rest of their argument is based around They Changed It Now It Sucks.).
- About ninety percent of the fandoms seems to hate the influx of outsiders into ThunderClan, somehow not realizing how disgustingly racist this is, and fangirl over ShadowClan. Both ShadowClan's leader and deputy used to be rogues, Tawnypelt and her kits are all halfClan, and Rowanclaw went through a freaking gender change. ShadowClan claims that ThunderClan is breaking the warrior code by allowing outsiders into their Clan, while they themselves broke the warrior code by watching one of those non-Clan kits bleed almost to death, just on the other side of the border. Does it just not cross the fans' mind that ShadowClan are complete hypocrites? If you can actually get it through their skulls that ShadowClan has done something wrong, they just love them more for it. But StarClan forbid ThunderClan and Firestar (who are constantly bashed for being peace-loving, kind, and "too perfect") make a single mistake.
  - They actually have forum banners that say "No more kittypets, no more outsiders. I support WARRIOR BLOOD."
  - The most frustrating example of their flagrant racism is their reaction to Purdy in Sunrise: Everybody loves Purdy, but they all got pissed off when Brambleclaw invited him to join ThunderClan. Apparantly because being able to see your favourite comic relief character on a regular basis is absolutely terrible if it means ThunderClan is accepting another refugee.
  - And of course, let's not forget how they hate Onestar for hating Firestar for the exact same reasons that they hate Firestar. Seriously.
- On the subject of Mary Sues and perfect characters, every main character ever except for Jayfeather and Crowfeather has been accused of lacking flaws. When asked to explain why they dislike a character, however, the fan proceeds to list those very same flaws.
- They also complained about the lack of death in Power of Three (even though there were only two or three opportunities for the author to kill off any characters), but then when the author finally killed Honeyfern, they all complained that it was "overdone" and "pointless" (even though the majority claimed to have cried during that scene). They also complain about how predictable the series has become. This is mostly their own fault, because with all of them scrutinizing the books, posting their findings on the internet, and discussing them, it would be pretty hard not to find all the clues the author leaves us (some people have acknowledged that if they hadn't read about it on the internet, they probably wouldn't have guessed that Leafpool and Crowfeather were the Three's real parents any earlier than the end of Long Shadows). Even though they complain about the predictability, they did not say a single thing about how the author was able confuse them about who murdered Ashfur, or how no one guessed that Hollyleaf was a red herring.
- They complained because the first three books of Power of Three had mostly independant plotlines and didn't have very much of an overarching storyline. Then they complained about the last three books because each book lead directly into the next and didn't have unique plotlines other than following the overarching plot that leads into the fourth series. Translation: They hate some books for having what other books they hate lack.
- The more recent books have mostly avoided meeting the fan's complaints about less battles, less death, and too much forbidden love, leaving them almost nothing concrete to complain about. From the looks of it, their only complaints about Sunrise were the lack of closure (they of all people should know that the fourth series is a six book continuation of the third series), and the fact that the climax didn't start until the end of the book (No, really).
- The lesson behind this wall of text is: There are two kinds of people who read Warriors: People who like Warriors, and Warriors fans. If you happen to be the former, stay the hell away from the Warriors Wish forums for the sake of your health.

Close Literature

If you're hoping to be one of the writers/producers of 24, know this...you will NEVER please the whole fandom. Don't try because no matter what plotline or character, somebody will complain, loudly. Seriously, Jack Bauer has a better chance of stopping an invading horde of vampires in 24 hours with nothing more than a toothbrush.
- ...is it a wooden toothbrush?
  - One would hope so.
- Misaimed analogy, right there. Jack Bauer can stop any invasion in 24 hours.
Pick a Soap Opera, any Soap Opera. Way too many soap fans want to die for their ship. And then when they get it, they complain it's too boring.
Doctor Who fandom, constantly. Too many examples to count, but especially in the conflict between fans of the old series and fans of the new.
- Russell T Davies, producer of the new Doctor Who, commented in an interview that he isn't interested in hearing the opinions of the fans, probably because of this kind of fan reaction. Naturally, the fans did not like this. He may also have remembered that John Nathan-Turner was criticized for being too aware of the fanbase.
- In a recent memoir of his time on the show, "The Writer's Tale", he included how stressed out the writing staff would get over the more vicious fans floating around Outpost Gallifrey.
  - Hopefully the newly-cast Matt Smith has been advised to stay well away from that site. Or has a very secure ego.
  - David Tennant has mentioned having gone, just once, after his casting was announced, and never returning.
- Some of this turns up every time a new Doctor is announced- the latest being "Too young"; no doubt, if Patrick Stewart had been picked (not that I'm aware of the possiblility, just an example), they'd've said he was too old...
Absolutely anything to do with the last two seasons of Stargate SG 1. For that matter, the splits started around the time of THE Jonas Quinn, were not as...vocal, shall we say...as they became after season 9.
- Stargate Atlantis has entered this territory in the past couple of seasons, due to back-to-back cast changes, as well as the persistent apparent bastardry — and not the magnificent kind — of the cast. Gate World Forum battles still blaze between "Carter vs. Elizabeth vs. Woolsey as leader" and "Carson vs. Keller as chief medical officer."
Star Trek: This is largely a result of the sheer length of the saga. The fanbase was already winding down at the end of Voyager, but Paramount wanted another series. Addressing many of the complaints about Voyager (and some about Deep Space Nine), the producers decided to create a prequel series in Enterprise. This was to try and make "strange new worlds" seem exciting again. Unfortunately, too many of the debates were on whether the theme song was appropriate for Trek and The Aesthetics Of Technology and Zee Rust that clashed with the 35 year old Star Trek The Original Series.
- This Onion News Network video pretty accurately reflects the attitudes of longtime Trek fans towards the new movie. It's worth noting that these same fans were complaing about the series being cancelled with Enterprise.
Battlestar Galactica has this in spades with two distinct fandoms (TOaSters and GINOs), a massive amount of (competing) shipping in the new series, and very vocal elements regarding the finale and what it means to the rest of the series.
For two seasons, Lost fans complained that there were some 30 other survivors of Flight 815 whom we never got to meet. So the writers introduced Paolo and Nikki, only to have the fans complain about being expected to believe they were there all along.
- Lampshaded in a Take That episode in the very first season, when one of the other survivors— a schoolteacher— berated the main cast by pointing out that they weren't the only survivors here, darn it, so why was everything revolving around THEM? Said character got blown up by a stick of decomposing dynamite within the next thirty minutes—- in mid-lecture, no less.
- Arguable whether this is an Unpleasable Fanbase, or the writers just misunderstanding what the fanbase was actually asking for. As someone who had this complaint, the issue wasn't that we wanted more characters who happened to have more minor roles— it was that we had been seeing all these existing people in the background, with nothing said about them. Adding two additional minor characters who had never been seen even in passing in a group of only 40-ish people was actually rather jarring, and not at all a response to what we were really complaining about.
On Supernatural, this comes up nearly every time a female cast member is introduced to the show. Season 2 was attacked for the character "Jo" being an unrealistic goody goody female hunter, so for Season 3 the writers created two female antagonists, thinking that Evil Is Sexy. The Season 3 characters were loathed so much that many viewers actually started saying they missed Jo. And now that Ruby has been Nth Doctored, some people are actually saying they miss the old one. Whether or not the show's issues with these characters is due to an Unpleasable Fanbase, Executive Meddling, or a case of Writer On Board is up for debate, but the first seems very likely. Some fans seem to hate anyone either brother expresses any romantic interest in. This extends to real life.
- They can't win when it comes to the boys, either. Dean acts like a jerk and the Dean!Girls think the writers are Mean To Dean and only care about Sam. Sam acts like a jerk and the Sam!Girls think the writers to Mean To Sam and only care about Dean. Dean acts nicely and the Sam!Girls think they're making him out to be a saint at the expense of Sam's character. Sam acts nicely and the Dean!Girls immediately hate him for being Saint!Sam. Seriously, unless they both act like good little choir boys, nobody is going to be happy.
  - This was recently acknowledged in an episode dealing with a prophet of God who wrote a series of novels entitled "Supernatural", which detailed the boys' adventures. While reading fan comments about the books online, Sam says "Boy, these people sure complain a lot." And people complained about that, saying that Eric Kripke is "having too much fun playing." Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Most Triumphant Example.
- It's also been noticed that they complain about any women on the show, then complain there aren't enough women on the show.
Heroes. Oh Heroes, you just can't win. New powers? They're ridiculous. Old powers? Not original enough, make some new ones. Too much time travel/not enough time travel. Character X is too powerful/Character X needs to become more powerful, he's boring. Also, people too damn stupid to listen to stuff, and thusly declare everything as plot holes.
- This even happens in the professional media. An Entertainment Weekly cover story accused the show of both not having enough new powers and having too many, and when Elle was killed off shortly after TV Guide decried the show's reluctance to kill characters off, their response was basically "We didn't mean her!"
- What makes this further annoying is that there are so many other perfectly good plot holes and poor writing to mock. Yet people keep picking on the few things that actually make sense.
Saturday Night Live was better three years ago. Saturday Night Live has always been better three years ago. Saturday Night Live was better three years ago during its first season.
- Lampshaded in an interview with one of the original writers, who pointed out that people have ALWAYS complained that the show used to be better. "I think it started with episode two of our first season."
Fans of America's Next Top Model always complain when a talented, quiet, high-fashion contestant loses over a more commercial, outgoing girl that made for better television. So, what happens every time the quiet, high-fashion girl actually does take home the prize? They all complain that she was too boring and high-fashion and the commercial, outgoing girl should have won instead because she made for better television. Then again, Top Model fandom has always been more of a Hatedom anyway.
Power Rangers fans. More so when it comes to continuity than anything else. We'll claim the show doesn't have enough ties to its past, but when a tie comes up, we'll complain it doesn't make any sense.

Close Live Action TV

Zero Punctuation by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw is a series of video reviews which always Accentuate The Negative, with precisely two exceptions in the 40-odd videos so far, (both of which people bitched about). Fans badgered him incessantly to do a review of Super Smash Bros Brawl, which he did. Many fans were then surprised that he accentuated the negative. Their response was so large and loud that he created a response to their emails. However, a good majority heaped excessive praise on him for ripping into the game they hated (and also bug him to review certain games just so he'll give it a bad review), and plenty of the people sending him e-mails are probably trolls just trying to piss him off. These were probably most of the people that complained about him giving Psychonauts and Portal good reviews. It's more of a Broken Base than anything else.
- Recently, Yahtzee replaced the Suspiciously Apropos Music characteristic of his intro and outro to a more generic-sounding guitar riff (with more polished graphics) to skirt copyright issues. He claimed in the credits that people would begin to claim this as his Jumping The Shark moment. As if proving his point, within minutes the Escapist boards were barraged with both complaints and compliments on the new intro.
  - ... what "point" was this that got proved? Snarkily mocking a criticism does not negate that criticism.
  - ...that people would start calling it his Jump The Shark moment. Try to keep up.
- Amazingly there was fairly little backlash when he gave a largely positive review of inFAMOUS.
Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series hung a lampshade on this. In Cr@psule Monsters: Episode 2, Joey gets attacked by birdlike monsters that are essentially LittleKuriboh's unpleasable fanbase. Any of Joey's (and by extension, LittleKuriboh's) reasoning gets drowned out by constant squawks of "Where's the new episode?" and he eventually gets attacked.
- "UPDATE!"
Facebook. Oh, dear heavens, Facebook. Every - and I mean every - single solitary change to the website will be followed up with five million different groups cropping up saying "I hate this new change!" It happened with the Mini-Feed, it happened with Applications, it's happening with New Facebook...
- DeviantART and LiveJournal are even worse. Every time the former makes a change to the site design or the category system, people complain. Every time the latter makes any change at all, people complain. Then again, the latter has over a million active users, so both are probably an example of Broken Base.
YTMND. Anytime a new fad catches on in this site, it's instantaneously spammed endlessly by angry trolls and members who think it's unfunny, with the random person yelling "cry more".
One particular furry art website changes its banner every month to reflect that time of the month. It's usually followed by people crying over how horrible the banner looks and this happens every single month, which could basically mean every year.
- For Thanksgiving 08, they changed it to show two massively overfed fatfurs and the remains of their Thanksgiving dinner. For just one day. Oy, the kvetching.
With complaints of "He's being too horrible", "He's being too nice", "He's being too sane" or just the usual He Panned It Now He Sucks, The Nostalgia Critic's fandom has a reputation for being this. But hey, what do you expect from a group of people that sent him death threats for leaving out Optimus Prime's death in the Top 11 Saddest Moments review?

Close New Media

Smart Marks degenerate into this from time to time. For example, when smark favorite CM Punk beat Edge for the World Heavyweight Title, smart marks - rather than celebrate that one of their poster boys had won one of WWE's top titles - instead bitched about the fact that Punk won it by pinning Edge after he had been beaten up by other wrestlers, supposedly making Punk look "weak" and "cowardly". Never mind that Edge had previously won the title in that exact same way months ago, and Punk defeating him in that fashion was (from a storyline perspective) karmic backlash for the heel Edge.
WWE fans often accuse anyone who doesn't like the WWE product of being an Unpleasable Fanbase.

Close Professional Wrestling

The complaining that ensues from many new editions of RPGs.
The Yu-Gi-Oh card game fandom will often complain that "they don't have enough support for X theme", or "they don't have X anime card, yet". On the rare occasion that Konami actually listens to these complaints, they're met with further complaints that the cards they've given are either too broken or too restrictive to the point of uselessness.
Regarding the 4th edition of Dungeons And Dragons. The fanbase is divided between the "old school" and the "new school," the "roleplayers" and the "roll-players." The phrase "I don't want your anime in my Dungeons and Dragons" was repeatedly seen in the WotC messageboards. You have to wonder about the "you" they are talking about.
- For additional irony, the "I don't want your anime in my D&D" line was also extended to the Book of Nine Swords which was intended to help even out the Linear Warriors Quadratic Wizards equation for physical fighters. Opponents of use of that book often decried it as too much anime... and many of the same people who hailed the Bo9S for giving some parity to melee combatants decried the changes of Fourth in the exact same manner as their predecessors.
- Before 4th Edition, the most common complaint was that the different classes were too unbalanced in terms of power levels (with the Cleric and Druid ranking at the top). Then Fourth Edition comes out... and many of those same people cry that the classes are too evenly matched and similiar to each other.Wizards just can't win, it seems.
Warhammer 40,000 is subject to this, especially by several communities on the net. People cry that 4th/5th Edition rules suck, and long for the good old days, others who (rightly) claim that 2nd Edition was a shoddily-constructed Wall Banger, and others who are just waiting for the Dark Eldar update. Complaints regarding minor points of background also seem to be popular, especially concerning non-tabletop adaptations.
- Anytime a new codex is introduced, fans instantly pounce with the rage of the entire Warp. Necrons? The ultimate Wesley. Tau? Animu wannabes. Daemons? TOO MUCH CHEDDER! Of all the new codexes, the Chaos Space Marine codex caught the greatest amount of flak for their omission of lesser Daemons and units dedicated to each of the Chaos gods. The fans complained so much that Games Workshop is actually rumored to be releasing individual Chaos God codexes. Or maybe they planned it this way all along...
Magic The Gathering has this every three months when a new set comes out, and also between when sets come out, and on days that end in "-day". It has been said that Wizards of the Coast could put $100 bills in the booster packs, and there'd be threads in the message boards that they were folded wrong.

Close Tabletop Games

Transformers is another good example of the "fractured fanbase" variety, and Hasbro and whoever works with them tend to wind up in a bit of a balancing act. Everyone wants something different. The movie figures are too stylized, I hate these gimmicks, the new Animated figures look too cartoony, when are we gonna get realistic animal modes again it's been ten years, Trukk Not Munky, etc. Of course, when we do get die-cast toys, they can't hold their arms up, etc. And this is just the toys... Don't start people on either movie, any cartoon, the comics, or... anything, really... Some of us are laid-back about the whole thing, while others are... erm... not. To be fair, the fanbase knows this more than anyone, and are generally quick to voice what they like to drown out the chorus of hate when it doesn't need to be heard. Of course, Transformers fandom being Transformers fandom, they've actually managed to turn this very trope into a meme, known as "RUINED FOREVER!"
- One user on a Transformers forum leveled complaints about the Transformers in the movie not looking enough like their G1 counterparts. Then, when Animated was coming out, the same fan was complaining that the theme song was too similar to the G1 cartoon, even when it was clear that referencing the old 'toon was half the point of Animated.

Close Toys

Many MMORPGs.
- Final Fantasy XI: See Square Enix section.
- City Of Heroes: After the release of the standalone Expansion Pack City Of Villains, the developers spent a content update on it, only to have the City Of Heroes players complain about being neglected. The next content update focused on City Of Heroes, promptly leading the City Of Villains players to complain about being neglected. Subsequent updates have tried to bring equal focus on both halves of the game, which predictably resulted in both sides complaining that they were being neglected...
  - Anything, and I mean anything, the devs work on will be complained about as focusing on the "wrong" aspect of the game. Bugfixes are criticized for not being new content, new content are criticized for not being bugfixes. Both are criticized for not sufficiently advertising the game, and when an advertisement is released, it is criticized for being neither a bugfix nor new content.
  - This is tragic given that the developers of City of Heroes are about the best developers of any MMO ever when it comes to interacting with and listening to the fanbase, including implementing many suggested features and giving lots of feedback as to what's coming. The game punches hugely above it's weight in terms of novel MMO features, originating sidekicking, complex custom costumes and leveling pacts. Some people just love to whine.
  - The Issue 14 update introduces Mission Architect, which allows players to design and post their own story arcs, with any enemy group that has ever appeared in the game, or entire factions of player designed enemies. These missions, once posted, provide experience, influence/infamy (the games currency), and a ticket reward system that allows them to purchase almost any reward or enhancement in the game. The forums have exploded into flames and chaos over how it is the worst thing ever, the Dev's are showing clear favoritism in selecting missions for the Dev's Choice gallery, and people wanting the Dev's choice badge shouldn't have to learn to 'write better', because that's not fair.
- World Of Warcraft forums are full of people complaining about a class being too weak or too strong, especially after the latest efforts of Blizzard to balance things. And don't think more than two people will be able to appreciate added content. For the rest, it will either be repetitive or out of their focus.
  - That's not even getting into the massive arguments that Blizzard is "obviously" biased towards one of the two factions. Interestingly (but unsurprisingly) enough, the Alliance players think that Blizzard favors the Horde, and Horde players think Blizzard favors the Alliance.
  - Before the release of the second expansion pack, the developers made little to no attempt to balance the Paladin or Shaman classes so that they would be able to serve any function that the other can in a Pv E or Pv P situation. But in Pv E, they ultimately wound up to be treated as healers when they were in fact supposed to do whatever, as were Druids, who were most specced towards healing since for a little while, that was the only feasible build. Everyone who played the Druid, Paladin, and shaman classes screamed loud and hard because they were advertised as a jack-of-all-master-of-none class in theory when in practice they were little more than a healing and support character, while the priests, who were dedicated healers, were often allowed to spec Shadow for an offensive build.
  - When Burning Crusade was released and the Horde got their paladins and the Alliance got their shamans, more people were complaining that they took the lazy way out instead of balancing the classes.
  - When Druids and paladins were finally fixed so they would function as back-up tanks, healers, or Damage-dealing, they wound up becoming too powerful and then the tanks, damage-dealers and healers complained that they were never even needed.
  - Then there are the complaints about the playable characters appearences. The Tauren and Troll females, as well as the Blood Elf male, were all altered before the release of the game (or, in Blood Elf male's case, the Burning Crusade expansion). Apparently The Troll and Tauren females did not look attractive enough and the Blood Elf male looked too waifish. Of course, there are those who bemoan the changes and complain that the Troll and Tauren now look too human and not enough like their male counterparts, and that the Blood Elves, being ~~drug~~ magic addicts, are more realistic as thin.
  - The next round began with the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, going into the beta stage. The developers are changing their design towards more uniform classes that don't require as many different kinds of equipment and are viable in any situation, but of course everyone who plays one of the popular classes in raids or Pv P is up in arms about that.
  - Speaking of raids, the minority that raids the big stuff is outraged at the notion of having 10 man versions for every raid, even though Blizzard was quick to assure that the 25 man versions are still going to have better and more loot. And the tanks are upset about the idea of another tank class even though most servers have a severe lack of tanks...
  - One of the telltale signs of Unpleasable Fanbase are forum threads about someone threatening to quit the game... considering the game recently hit eleven million subscribers, the number of those that actually acted on that thread can't be that high.
  - Hell, even the storyline is subject to this. For instance, since Warcraft III, the Horde has been Chaotic Neutral by nature instead of being totally evil, with some individuals who actually have a good sense of morality such as Thrall, Saurfang, and Cairne as some of their leaders. One of their major objectives is to not invoke any further conflicts with The Alliance. This was likely done because the Horde in the first two games weren't generally that interesting save for the hilarious gaglines most of the units had. Since then, there has been a small group of individuals who complain about how because the Horde is now a bit Lighter And Softer... they aren't "awesome" anymore, when really they made the Horde into something a bit more complex than the stereotypical Ugly Savage Guys = Evil archetype that's already too common in modern fiction. And that's just one of the more tame complaints, leaving out the story from the recent Wrath of the Lich King expansion and the numerous examples of retconning.
  - You know an MMORPG is balanced when every character class is screaming that every other character class needs to be nerfed.
EVE Online is another serial offender for people complaining about changes. Every patch contains a 'nerf', even the patch touted by the developers as 'the boost patch' (though naturally, one man's boost is another man's nerf). Recently an even more extreme example occured during the graphical overhaul where all the ships were given updated models, the colour of which for the Gallente races ships was deemed 'offensive' by a significant portion of players and eventually caused enough uproar that the colour was changed shortly after.
JRPGs have turned into this. Either they complain that the games in a franchise or the genre as a whole are too similar, or they complain when someone tries to genuinely create innovation in the genre that it is not true to the "spirit" or they're not a real RPG. See Final Fantasy in the Square Enix section above.
Possibly the ultimate Unpleasable Fanbase might be the exceedingly loud and vocal No Mutants Allowed forum inhabitants. These fans have become infamous throughout the game industry not only for their immense whininess, but for their tendency to whine about every little thing. It has been said that "All of the normal people are no longer a part of the 'Fallout Community,' they're just fans of the games. The people who are a part of the 'Fallout Community' have been refined and distilled over time into glittering gems of hatred." It's gotten to the point where, somehow, someone who enjoys the original Fallout games is instantly branded as one of these just by how loud the NMA forumgoers are. (In the interest of fairness, the Fallout series has had a very rough history.)
- There is also the "And the sound is like a hundred thousand bats shrieking as they swirl around a jutting spire of obsidian" comment by Holkins of Penny Arcade, concerning the opening of the Fallout 3 forums.
  - Furthermore, any forum that houses both Elder Scrolls fans and Fallout fans quickly degenerates into a bitter Jets Vs Sharks style feud, only with less singing and dancing (probably).
- The fact that they all act in a superior manner that is the epitome of Elitist as they bitch makes a trip there seem like (as a forumer said) "pouring Tabasco sauce down your penis" .
  - I remember reading a thread on NMA before Fallout 3 came out where a poster was explaining how he'd hit his girlfriend who had finally snapped and suggested he, you know, waited until he'd played the game rather than just whinge about it before it came out. Rather than express the requisite level of "WTF" this short story really should generate, the rest of the forumites congratulated him, and suggested he "drop the bitch". Awesome eh?
  - Do we have a trope for horrifying things seen on the internet?
Speaking of The Elder Scrolls, the most recent and commercially successful instalment of the series, Oblivion, fits this trope to a T. While the game was well received by both critics and those new to The Elder Scrolls games, long time fans almost unanimously regard it as the worst of the series. However, this isn't anything new. The previous game, Morrowind, underwent similar scrutiny for "dumbing the series down" (Though many fans agree that the well developed lore, back story and game world made up for much of it's faults). Ironically, some of the complaints that were acknowledged by Bethesda studios, such as the poor combat and ugly graphics, were rectified in Oblivion. In exchange, however, much of what made Morrowind so endearing despite it's "dumbed down" status was removed, seemingly in exchange for these improvements. Whether this is an inherent problem or simply an unappeasable fan base at work is open to interpretation.
Much of the Mortal Kombat fandom is like this. An example: when Khameleon (the female, as opposed to the male Chameleon) wasn't a playable character in the X-Box and PlayStation 2 versions of Armageddon, fan demand eventually forced Midway to include her in the Wii version. Then those same fans argued that Khameleon looked and played ugly and generically. Further, when it was revealed no character bios were in Armageddon, fans petitioned to have them made...which about a third of them were, before being cancelled. The ones that were made, though, were more or less panned by those fans for being terribly written.
- And then there's then there's the ever-present backlash when the series went 3D which of course, doesn't seem to make much sense either since digitized actors is very outdated.
The particularly vocal elements of the Halo fanbase had such a violently negative reaction to the inclusion of bosses in Halo 2 that there were no boss-like enemies in Halo 3. Naturally, Halo fans then complained about the lack of a decisive confrontation with the Gravemind.
Since There Is No Such Thing As Notability... Gaia Online. To an absurd level. In fact, it seems like some people think hating everything make you cool. Brilliantly parodied in this thread, which has become a sort of meme on the forums. Though, some people seem to like emulating the comic...
- Mother of God, you have no idea. The Site Feedback (and the Gaia Community Discussion, to a lesser extent) forum is one pure, concentrated mass of Unpleasable Fanbase. As soon as an announcement is released, there are ten threads complaining about it's content, it's wording, it's images... the admins could give every Gaian a pie with a side salad of $20 bills, and people would be complaining about the flavor of pie, about how nationalist it is to give out American dollars... Ugh!
  - Hehe, Mc Sourface...
Sonic The Hedgehog fans are no exception to this trope, if anything a textbook example. There seems to be no way to please them all, despite numerous attempts to do so after the series entered into the 3D era.
The Xenosaga trilogy falls under this. Players complained of "too much story" in the first game, as well as a few other things. Granted, there was a half-hour cutscene in the first few hours, but still... Cut to Episode II. For the most part, the creators listened to the US players (who had bought the highest percentage) about flaws in Episode I. This one game alone sparked the most controversy, from people complaining that "I can't get the battle system! I want something simpler!" despite it already being simple and less complicated than say, certain MM Os, to say, the change in the animation style (granted, those who played the games consecutively did have bit of a shock), hell, even the reduced story focused on the "other" main character. The players begged for the game to be like this. Cut to Episode III, the last due to the previous failure as well as certain issues in Namco. Again, they listened to the fans, and again they tried to fix the problems. Cue the weakest battle system, a return to the main character (and more plot, obviously), etc. and people still complained about this. Again, keep in mind that most of the decisions were made due to loud voice from the US market.
There's a good chance that Star Control II will never get an official sequel because of the intra-fanbase dissent about what could possibly improve on the predecessor. If one ever does get released, expect reactions similar to the ones the second Star Wars trilogy produced (i.e., the wait will have been too long for the product to meet the fans' expectations).
- Well it DID get an official sequel... we just don't like to talk about.
The worst part about the Silent Hill fandom is that Konami and this American company making Silent Hill 5 are dealing with two vocal minorities of an unpleasible fanbase. One is outraged whenever pyramid head is in anything other than Silent Hill2, and the other is outraged that he isn't in more games.
Never go on the Rock Band forums and check out the DLC request/discussion section. People get very, very angry when certain songs/bands don't show up. Regardless of genre. Tool fans have been known to be very, very vocal, but many people get over-excited and often assume that the announcement of "something big" is Beatles and Led Zeppelin finally. It starts with one person saying "is it Beatles and Zeppelin?", and then people begin to think it is. Then they get ticked off when it isn't.
- There's either too much metal or not enough. Then there's the definition of metal, the various types of metal, among other things.
- Don't mention Rock Band Japan to the otakus in the crowd. You'll never hear the end of how it's being neglected for the main stuff.
- The sheer numbers of unpleasable fans for Rock Band seem to grow with each DLC release. Some gems from 4th quarter of '08 include the lack of key Nirvana songs in their downloadable pack, the offering of songs from Nickelodeon TV programs, and the especially bile-tastic response to, *GASP* Country!
- And don't forget the 20 songs they released for free as DLC for buying Rock Band 2. That's right, 20 extra songs for free, and people complained.
The Team Fortress 2 fanbase is the closest one can get to NMA in terms of bitching about everything. The official forum is constantly besieged by players deciding they know better than Valve how the game should be designed and what each class should receive as new weapons (which aren't supposed to be upgrades, just alternatives, anyway). This also includes suggesting new classes. Possibly a case of They Changed It Now It Sucks, except that it would suck more if any of those suggestions made it into the game.
- Dear god, the Scout update. The instant the update came out the fandom was split into people who that the Sandman was overpowered and the people who thought the Sandman was an excellent, well-balanced weapon. The argument eventually fell overwhelmingly to the former side, and Valve released an update that nerfed the Sandman, which split the fandom three ways - those who think the new Sandman is perfect, those who think the new Sandman is stupid and should be scrapped entirely, and those who think the game has been Ruined FOREVER by removing such a perfect weapon.
  - Don't forget the pyro: since Team Fortress Classic it was the cherry-tapper class: pre-pyro update you almost never saw one on a server. Post update... well.
- With each new (free) update, truckloads of topics about how much the update sucks get posted every day for weeks, and for each complaint topic, there's 2 topics telling everyone to stop complaining.
- The system about how new weapons are doled out was based on players getting X amount of Achievements for Y item. This resulted in people creating servers so they could basically Level Grind for the items. As of the Spy/Sniper update, the new items are more or less random. Combined with Valve being maddeningly vague, and fans complained that they wanted to earn their new stuff.
Resident Evil. People complained the series was getting stale, because all of the previous "main" games occurred within the same few weeks with basically the same gameplay. In comes RE4 with real-time graphics, drastically revamped gameplay, and no zombies. People complained that it wasn't a Survival Horror game anymore. RE5 seems to be well on it's way, what with people complaining it's even farther from the series survival horror roots, and some critics decrying it for not "innovating".
- The runup to the release of Resident Evil: Outbreak was like this. Previews accentuated the idea that voice chat should be left out, because it would "ruin the experience". The game comes out, and what does every single person bitch about? "Why isn't there voice chat?"
Guilty Gear. Oh my God, Guilty Gear. The first Guilty Gear was quirky, but generally accepted as bad since the Instant Kill moves could be done without much risk. X got a lot of the inside community interested, but it broke down to how quickly Millia could kill you with her fast rushing moves and high-low games. Then XX came out, which got everyone crazy... until they figured out Eddie's ability to parallel attack easily was the bee's knees. XX has had three revisions - #Reload, Slash and Accent Core, with the fanbase divided down the line about all three. As it turns out, some people will argue that Eddie being broken was a GOOD thing and balance is actually bad. It doesn't make sense to me, either.
Metal Gear Online. "The M14 is overpowered! No, wait, SMGs are! Survival sucks! Bwaaaa!"
- As long as we're on that series, there's the people who liked Raiden and want to see more of him, and the people who hated even his non-playable appearance in MGS4. Kojima Productions has announced he's getting his own game. Reactions were about as expected.
- Hideo Kojima is best known for the Metal Gear series. Some people think he should move on to a new IP. Since the start of MGS, he's released two Boktai and Zone Of The Enders games, completely original IPs, which caused people to complain he should be working on the next Metal Gear game.
Semi-averted in Urban Dead... which actually lost a huge chunk of its fanbase when a massively unpopular (at least, for the humans) zombie buff actually increased zombie morale (Not really - there was a HUGE siege going on, involving almost every major group, and the creator, Kevan, made an update that allowed zombies to block attempts at securing a building with objects. Within a week, the attacks doubled.) Whole groups actually dropped out of the game, and still are - one of the most famous zombie groups just recently disbanded. However... checking most of the group's forums, and you see bitching about zombie accuracy, or bitching about zombie buffs more than human buffs.
The video game industry in general is frequently criticized for it's portrayal of women; see Stripperiffic and its subtropes, Most Common Superpower, etc. Along comes Mirrors Edge with it's protagonist Faith, who has a slim, athletic build suitable for her job, and clothing and appearance even more so. Shortly before the game's release, some people took a piece of publicity art and edited it so she looked younger, and-of course-gave her bigger boobs with the nipples poking through her top, to wide acclaim. Among the cheers was the claim that the previous version was ugly and "looked like Lucy Liu". Yes. that Lucy Liu.
Ponder "Killzone2 ", why don't we? After the E3 video a few years back was admitted to be bullshot, Sony promised the game would look and play like the video. Fast forward a few years, and from the review scores, Sony seems to have delivered, serving out a solid, if not particularly original, game. The Sony fanboys have been, naturally, crowing about all the positive reviews and flaming anything less than 9.0. One outlier took issue with XPlay's 5 out of 5 score(vid NSFW). Specifically, he said that the voiceover sounded "reluctant" to admit the game was worthy of full marks. You may boggle now.
- Edge Magazine gave Killzone 2 a 7 in their latest issue. That'll end well. Read the full text here.
Surprised that the Grand Theft Auto fanbase hasn't been mentioned yet. Go to GTA Forums, and you'll find a fanbase that is not only unpleaseable, but almost broken. One side feels that Rockstar shouldn't have abandoned the canon established in GTA III; the other argues that the GTA III canon was already wrapped up, and that it was a smart move to reboot the franchise with GTA IV. One side argues that the Darker And Edgier tone of GTA IV hurt it, and that it should go back to the lighter feel of past games; the other thinks that it did the game wonders. One side wants more character customization, sometimes to the point of being able to create your own character; the other feels that customization should be left alone. And nearly everybody complains that, multiplayer aside, GTA IV has less replay value than past games. The argument even goes beyond reactions to official announcements from Rockstar - on the "GTA Next" board, where the as-yet-unannounced next full-length entry in the series is discussed, people argue over where the next game should be set (should it follow the pattern of Liberty City, then Vice City, then San Andreas? Should it be in London? Detroit? Tokyo? Serbia?), what features it should have, and everything else you can think of. Talk about an unpleaseable fanbase.
So, everyone was really upset with Bio Ware for only releasing one small DLC pack in for Mass Effect in 2007 and then ignoring it, complaining that Bio Ware wasn't supporting their game. So Bio Ware finally announces new DLC (which in the past they had promised would be bridging the first game and its sequel) in the same announcement of the sequel's release timeframe...and the new complaint is that Mass Effect is no longer relevant and they're wasting time when they should be programming the sequel. Even though announcements on other Bio Ware games before that one were met with still more complaints begging for more DLC.
Find any extended gameplay video for any highly- or moderately-anticipated upcoming game on a website like Joystiq, Kotaku, or Gametrailers. Watch the video, then check the comments. If the person playing did well, then the game looks too easy. If they did poorly, then they're a terrible player. Either way, the people commenting are judging gameplay of something they won't get their hands on for months or more.
Left 4 Dead has an unpleaseable fanbase as well. First, people wanted more maps/campaigns, new modes, more maps for VS mode, and new guns. When a recent update gave survival mode (plus a new map just for that mode), people then complained Valve was lazy by using the crescendo events in each level for survival mode. Then they also complained how some of the new maps in VS mode have invisible walls on rooftops, preventing Hunters from doing great damage from a big pounce, and people are still whining about no new weapons. The fanbase completely ignores the problems that new guns could create for the entire game.
- Valve recently announced a sequel to Left 4 Dead. It was announced to have more weapons, a different setting, and a more fleshed out story with new characters. Some people were happy, but most of the fanbase was not pleased. At least 36,000 of 'em, in fact. The biggest complaints being that the original Left 4 Dead is not even a year old when the sequel was announced and the price for the new game is (supposedly) $60 instead of a lower price (the fans feel the sequel is more of an expansion pack). Not to mention that they're forgetting the notoriously long time Valve usually takes between sequels.
  - Whether done as a joke to mock the angry fans or to show Valve support, there are also several Steam groups boycotting the boycotters of Left 4 Dead 2.
  - Speaking of which, the new Special Infected, the Charger got their attention too. Interesting to note that the Charger concept seems to be drawn from a forum post started by one user. New ideas and concepts were meshed in by the forum community, until the sequel was announced. There was an inkling of rejoice that said idea got into the game, before a Face Heel Turn occurred and the one user wanted credit for the idea - this turned into displease over the sequel. The thread now serves as debating ground for Charger lovers and haters.
Nippon Ichi has had problems with this recently. Listening to those clamoring for faster releases, they've attempted to cut down on the translation time, resulting in scattered spelling errors and some very unfortunate Game Breaking Bugs. The recent announcement that Phantom Brave's Updated Rerelease will only have an English voice track instead of including both tracks has drawn plenty of scorn and accusations of them cutting corners and 'selling out', to say nothing of the firestorm over Sakura Taisen, long before the game's even released...
Ubisoft has earned plenty of gamer ire for releasing shovelware on the DS and Wii. This makes everything they do screwed. The early previews for Splinter Cell Conviction had Sam, on the run, looking like a hobo. People complained. A recent trailer has shown him clean-shaven, with shorter hair. People complained they wanted him looking like a hobo.
There are normally two reactions to Star Wars The Old Republic, an MMORPG being made by BioWare [who made also made Kot OR 1].
- #1- SWEET! Bio Ware is making a Star Wars MMO that will not suck for once! Bio Ware is going to do a good job
- #2- What? An MMO?! WHERE THE FUCK IS KOTOR III! IT CAN'T END WITH THAT SHITTY ENDING THAT WE GOT FROM LUCASARTS FUCKING WITH OBSIDIAN! BIOWARE HAS BETRAYED US!!!!!
  - Some people also think that it looks like a good game, but they would rather have Kot OR III [like myself].
Fans spent the better part of a decade crying to Blizzard to make Diablo 3. It's announced, video and screenshots are shown, and fans complain that it looks too colorful. Some went as far as photoshopping the screenshots back to brown. Some compared it to "World Of Warcraft gayness". Blizzard's response was entertaining.

Close Video Games

The Mario fanbase is no better either. During the days of Super Mario 64, the base was divided up by people who loved the new 3D gameplay and people who hated it and insisted 2D was better. Super Mario Sunshine was bashed for not living up to the standards of Super Mario 64, complained about the "gimmicky" water pack, and whined that some parts of the game were simply too hard. Speed up to Super Mario Galaxy and the fanbase now complains that it's way too easy to get to the final boss after collecting 60 stars, despite the fact that the game has several challenges that can almost be considered Nintendo Hard. Oh, and when New Super Mario Bros was released to appeal to the old school 2D fans, they thought the game was too easy and the new power-ups were useless or gimmicky. Some of the Mario fans even go so far as to loathe the spin offs like Mario Kart for being a milking machine, even though most reviews agree that the spin offs are pretty good. Poor Mario simply can't please everyone.
- Bowser's "Koopaling" children have gotten their own Unpleasable Fanbase. In Nintendo's early days, they only appeared twice; once each in Super Mario Bros 3 and once each in Super Mario World. They pulled a Metroid and simply disappeared for several years, leaving fans confused. When Super Mario Sunshine revealed Bowser Jr. as Bowser's new kid, fans cried foul and wanted their precious Koopa children back. There was an attempt to placate this part of the base when Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga brought the Koopalings back as bosses with no lines or role in the game, but it still wasn't enough as fans to this day want Bowser Jr. axed and the Koopalings brought back.
- Speaking of Mario Kart, don't even mention Snaking to Mario Kart Fans ever. Some say it's the only true test of skill, and others say it's just a cheap Game Breaker.
- Then there are fans that insist that Mario games should have actual stories and voice acting. They tried both in Super Mario Sunshine, and many fans and critics hated that direction, though the Narm-tastic lines do have supporters. Super Mario Galaxy did have Rosalina's backstory as well, which the fans seem to ignore.
Zelda fans often suffers from this trope, it's really quite funny to see fans' hatred of the last Zelda game (currently Wind Waker) be replaced by their hatred of the newest game (now Twilight Princess). So it goes on, when the next Zelda game comes out a load of people will be "disappointed" and suddenly Twilight Princess wasn't bad at all...and then it will have to deal with Ocarina of Time. Tough Act To Follow.
- This editor saw articles after Wind Waker was released, suggesting that all the playing with the formula was bad and that Nintendo shouldn't muck about with three-day time limits or oceans - most articles requesting a game like Ocarina of Time. When that game did come in the form of Twilight Princess, the same people asserted that the Zelda formula was "played out" and that Nintendo ought to try new things with the franchise instead of sticking to the old stuff.
- A recent trend/fad has surfaced for people to decry Ocarina of Time as "bland, overrated, and generally not good" now that Twilight Princess is released, while singing the never-ending praises of Majora's Mask. This from the same groups who lauded Ocarina as perfect and untarnishable during The Wind Waker-era, stating that Majora's Mask was "too different; to short; hard to play" etc. The flip-flopping is headache inducing.
  - When Twilight Princess was in development, Nintendo was inundated by complaints about an apparent lack of Ganon. Interviews constantly asked for his presence, and the fans decried that the serious tone of Twilight Princess deserved to have Ganon appear in the game and that leaving him out would make for an empty experiences. Nintendo only mentioned that he would be in the game, but never released any screens featuring him, leading many to accuse them of lying about his presence. When the game came out and Ganon was The Man Behind The Man...the complaints changed to accusing Nintendo of being too cliche and complaining that they should have left Ganon out and focused a new villain instead, declaring the plot having been Hijacked By Ganon in their rage.
The Virtual Console service from Nintendo's Wii has also sparked an Unpleasable Fanbase, mostly within GameFAQs. Every week when the games are announced, the fans are divided into the following:
- "Oh wow, I loved that game!"
- "OMG THIS GAME SUCKS!! I DON'T CARE IF IT HAS TOO MANY LICENSING ISSUES!! I WANT EARTHBOUND!"
- "Ugh, more shovelware? Another crappy week."
- "Pfft, I could get those games on a collection disc."
- "Five bucks for an NES game?! Bulltonk!"
- "Just get the ROM!"
- "Meh, Xbox Live has it and better."
- "I've never heard of this game, therefore it sucks."
- "Where's my Secret of Mana, N.O.E.? Don't screw me over, dood."
Some people complained that Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii lacks the NES games that the Game Cube version had, despite the above-mentioned Virtual Console allowing people to buy NES games.
The Fire Emblem fandom tends to be a Your Mileage May Vary series in itself, but one of the most glaring examples of unpleasable fanbase happened between Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. A large number of the fans complained that Path of Radiance was ridiculously easy (it doesn't help that the series is infamous for its violent arguments over Character Tiers). So when the sequel was made more difficult, just as many fans came back and complained it was too hard.
For that matter, remake any video game and you're guaranteed to have people complain that the game doesn't stay true to the original while other people love the said remake. Hell, remake any level or port a level over (such as in Mario Kart Wii or Super Smash Bros Brawl) and you'll get people who hate the levels themselves or liked it in the past and now claim it sucks.
Speaking of Super Smash Bros., ever since the Japanese release, various forums were inundated with complaints about the roster, mostly due to such complaints as many characters not being playable, Mewtwo not being in the game despite Lucario attempting to be a refinement of his movelist, and most vehemently, three characters from Star Fox with essentially the same special moves, including "identical" Final Smashes.
- And now people are now complaining that it's not different enough from Melee, the stages are too gimmicky (earlier there was a complaint to the effect that the stages all looked like they were going to be dull Battlefield retreads), etc.
  - Don't forget the people complaining that it's not Melee enough with the removal of Wavedashing and L-Cancelling, among other things. It's basically made the once strong Smash community a hugely Broken Base.
  - It only goes down from here. People have actually hacked the game and changed the physics to make it be like Melee again.
Pokémon has several examples of these in nearly every facet. In the anime, people complain about how characters are too dull or overshowcased, while some still complain about other characters being dumped or left out altogether. In the games, people complained that there were too many new Pokémon and were unable to enjoy their old favourites, now they introduced new evolutions and people greatly dislike them. Another example could be in Pokémon Colosseum. People wanted a Pokémon RPG on the console and they wanted it to be Darker and Edgier, they got it in Pokémon Colosseum, but fans complained that it wasn't like the original games. Case in point - many fans think double battles are pretty lame in general, so making a game featuring nothing but was a pretty bad move; others love doubles battles, because it forces players to think of a different paradigm for building teams, as some moves become more useful and some become much less so.
- To say nothing of the main games themselves. There was almost contsant outcry prior to the release of Diamond and Pearl in Japan about just about every piece of information found about the games. This ranged from "Pokemon X Sucks!" to "Physical/special move split?! Pokemon is Ruined FOREVER!" Nevermind that the physical/special split is arguably the best thing to happen to the series since G/S/C fixed all the issues in the original games. When the games came out, things quieted down. But you still get people complaining that Game Freak is running out of ideas for new Pokemon, the basis for such a claim boiling down to not liking the new Pokemon. If they really think the new Pokemon aren't very original, then they haven't looked back at the first generation recently...
The most common cry from gamers as a whole is to demand more creativity and originality, such as new IPs, and moan about the flood of sequels and never-ending franchises. However, whenever a company makes a shot at it (i.e. any non-franchise game on the Nintendo Wii), they will turn around and complain that Nintendo has stopped making video games for the "core". Don't ever expect a definition of "core" by the way - to these guys, even Metroid has to be a casual game for this argument to work. tl;dr: Nintendo releasing Metroid is "milking", while Nintendo releasing Wii Fit is "abandoning the core".
- With the announcement of a new Punch-Out!! and a Treasure-developed sequel to import darling Sin And Punishment, the doomsday prophecies have stopped...for now.
  - They're back in full-force: the same people who bitch and moan that gaming is more obsessed with good graphics than good gameplay have done nothing but bitch and moan that Sin And Punishment looks like a Dreamcast game.
  - And Punch-Out!! is getting heat for being too old-school; lacking options and features and being called "a $50 NES remake".
  - On top of that, people whined about the lack of multiplayer, but when it was announced to have local multiplayer only, everyone then whined about the lack of online play.
  - They tried to do this to Excite Bots, the sequel to Excite Truck, bemoaning the addition of minigames and a kiddy look... Then they realized that the 'minigames' are done AS one races and allows you to earn more trick stars, that the bot designs facilitate it, that it plays like Excite Truck but uses the Wii Wheel, that it's online, and that trick meter goes up at least 25 instead of 5. Now it's praised for taking everything loved about Excite Truck and cranking it Up To Eleven.
  - Not even The Conduit is safe. While most critics and some gamers are excited that the Wii is getting a decent first person shooter, most fans are snuffing the game as "just another generic FPS". Note that the fans (probably the same people) wanted some good FPS games on the Wii in the past.
Let's just face facts: Nintendo games in general suffer from unpleasable fanbases. Star Fox has fans who want more variety and fans who just want to fly in their Arwing. Donkey Kong has fans with the desire for a new 2D game but hated Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Metroid has fans who hate the Prime Subseries, but also hated Metroid Fusion. Even back when Nintendo was test marketing the original NES, everyone in the test group said they hated it. Needless to say, Nintendo tends to make their best and most profitable work when they flatout ignore the fanbase!
- And then the fanbase complains when they are completely ignored in favor of Nintendo oh, actually making money. Such as this here webcomic doing just that.
  - Not only that, but fans (and possibly a Troll or two) are divided up on whether or not Nintendo actually making a profit, compared to Sony and Microsoft losing money in console sales, is good or pure evil.
- In fact, Wii Music, the cornerstone of the E3 2006 Press Conference, went straight to X Pac Heat to some gamers on the internet.
The fanbase can't be even pleased with the way Nintendo treats third parties. Either Nintendo was too strict for putting up many arbitrary rules they had to follow or they're too loose for letting them make anything they want.
- Nintendo has been blamed multiple times for scaring developers away by "treating them poorly" during the Gamecube days, thoguh good luck getting an example or source backing that up. They are being blamed for "letting" too much crap games onto the Wii. Their standards haven't really changed at all.
  - Nintendo never scared any developers away from the Game Cube. In fact, they stopped being strict when games began to have ratings. Most of their strictness only comes into play when they are publishing a title, and they've only denied some first and second-party titles from release overseas only due to how big a bomb it was or overt sexual references that would not go well over here. Sony of America is in fact the strictest of any of the branches of any of the three console makers. Much of the so called shovelware on the Wii are actually ports of European and Japanese PS 2 games.
  - Speaking of Nintendo and 3rd parties, some people believe that bringing back the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" will end the shovelware the Wii has been getting. People seem to forget that the Seal of Quality does not have anything to do with the game's content, but was a measure taken by Nintendo to counteract the problems Atari faced with shoddy, unauthorized games flooding the market and killing their profits (a huge factor in the video game crash of 1983). The Seal of Quality simply tells the buyer that the game is a genuine Nintendo-certified product. If Superman 64 could get the Seal of Quality, what does that tell you?
Nintendo's Wii Motion + is getting tons of flack (it's an accessory that gives 1:1 motion controls or close to it). First people whined that it should have been in the controllers from day 1 (and they ignored Nintendo's comment that it would have made the controllers expensive at the get go) and when the price for the add on was announced for $20, now people are whining that it's too much money. When it comes to the virtual console or Nintendo's add ons, the fans decry Nintendo as being greedy for profits.
The Metroid Prime Trilogy has been announced; all three games in the trilogy, the first two with updated graphics and controls for the Wii, for only the price of a new game. Fans promptly started complaining about the rerelease they've been asking for screwing over "the fans", and how Nintendo doesn't care about their loyal fans, etc, just because the annoncement mentions that not every Wii owner owned a Gamecube. Also because of the rumoured—I repeat, rumoured—fourth game in the series not being announced yet. Yes, even rumours are Nintendo's fault now.
- The main problem is Nintendo fans (and many others) flip flop too much on what they want. They clamor for something and then don't want it anymore when they get what they want (just like with Punch Out on the Wii, something many people wanted and now hate for not living up to their wild expectations), which is why Nintendo promptly ignore their fans' pleas.
  - Things get worse at E3 2009. Nintendo announced a sequel to Super Mario Galaxy, something you'd think people would want after all the years of crying and lamenting about it being "forgotten" and ignored in favor of Wii Fit, but after seeing a 1 minute trailer, everyone now says Galaxy 2 will suck because it's just a rehash of the first. They also ignore the fact that you can use Yoshi this time and new things still have to be revealed down the road. People have been dying for a new Zelda game and when Zelda Spirit Tracks was announced, people bashed it just because it was on the DS and not on the Wii. Oh, and then there's Metroid: Other M, the long-demanded full-3D platformer iteration of the franchise being produced by Team Ninja and coming completely out of nowhere...and everyone's complaining that it has too much action and now they all want Prime back.
  - This is doubly ironic, because when Prime first came out, some fans of the original were complaining it was to FPS-y, and FPS fans were complaining about all the platforming. Not many of them, mind you.

Close Nintendo

Final Fantasy in general suffers from an unpleasable fanbase. As every game is set in a functionally different world, with different characters it is unsurprising that virtually everyone has a different opinion on which games are best, or worst, and which characters and plots are best and worst etc. And this was going on *before* Square decided to make direct sequels and spin-offs of individual title.
- And when they did start making direct sequels after years of begging for more games set in the individual game universes? The fans complained they were just milking the popularity.
Case in point on the topic of gamers clamoring about originality - for all the harping about Square Enix for continuing to make Final Fantasy games, there's an equal amount of fury every time they release a non-Final Fantasy title on the basis that they should be releasing more Final Fantasy games. This year sees them launching several new franchises, and what does everyone focus on instead? That Final Fantasy XIII isn't out yet.
Final Fantasy XI: Changes were made to two-handed weapons, which people complained about being inferior to one-handed weapons, only for a sizable portion of the fanbase to complain that they were too powerful, even some of those that wanted the change.
- Hey, the purported purpose was to make both 1 and 2 handed weaponry on par with each other. It took FOUR patches for them to get the damage calculations right; very few people complain about it now. The initial changes simply changed people from one 'onry' to another and prove that the players are the testers - no _practical_ pre release testing happens.
- Every time Square-Enix releases an patch, each item in the patch notes (no matter how minor or requested it was) will be complained about by at least one forum-goer.
  - Pre-Patch teasers that don't interest a particular group of forum-goers will usually result in at least two pages of bitching about them, followed by two pages of people bitching about people bitching (chocobo racing related teasers usually meet with this type of treatment on endgame forums).
- Less than a day has gone by, and people are already up in arms over the announcement of the Square Enix Security Token, which is to be used to keep accounts hacked by Real Money Trade groups. The complaint? It costs money. While it's understandable to be worried about the SE Tax, the security token is a physical object, and would obviously cost money to make and ship. World Of Warcraft has such a token, as well, and it isn't free, either.
Final Fantasy XII, which replaced the traditional turn-based random encounters with a seamless world map of visible enemies and an innovative AI-controlled party system and was immediately accused of being untrue to the spirit of the franchise. And this was after multiple reviews and fans complained upon FFX's release that using a turn-based system on a next-gen console was too dated.
- And there is the story: FFX was criticized for its linear plot, the over-abundance of cutscenes, the cheesy love story, the fact that the reveal was too obvious, the classical "evil cult" syndrome... so they made a game with a very complex set of opposing factions; lots of sidequests; made sure that most informations would come from the NPC and not from long expositions; the existance of Venat and its motivations came very late; the main female character was a widow and her relation with the "protagonist" never went beyond the war buddy level, while all the others potential "couples" were played subtly; the main religion was ruled by descent people who took care of war refugees... FFXII's story was the most criticized FF storyline since the eight installment.
While we're at it, let's look at Final Fantasy and its history, from VII to XII. Square released FFVIII, and people too accustomed to Materia hated the Junctions. Then FFIX returned to the preset Jobs, and people bitched again. Later, FFX used the infamous Sphere Grid, and it was "too hard to understand". Then X-2 was released, and fans... vomited at its girly look and "not having anything better to do at end-game than to max job levels".
- This editor remembers the criticisms of FFIX being more commonly about the cartoony look of the characters... which is, in true Unpleasable Fanbase style, in stark contrast to the complaints about VIII moving toward a more realistic design ethic.
Don't forget the original VI die-hards. Any game from that point on, when the series had the gall to become popular, is immediately declared to be utter filth that any True Fan should decry as blasphemy upon the glorious 2D age.
And howabout the GBA remakes, which were by the way begged for, for years upon end, so the unwashed masses could see what a "real" Final Fantasy should play like: "It is humanly undoable without Level Grinding", "There are too many missables" or "Half the characters are useless after getting the Infinity Plus One Sword or the Last Disc Magic".
- Plus the storylines! The recent remake of Final Fantasy IV had nostalgia gamers aiming slings at it for either changing too much or not enough. And yet if Square completely rewrote the story, you can bet they'd be the first in line to complain about the sullying of the original text to pander to casual gamers.
Final Fantasy storylines are always criticized either for being too Wangsty and serious, or too silly and light-hearted. Final Fantasy X is a textbook case - the original was criticized for being too dark and miserable, the sequel for being too upbeat and perky.
- The Tactics series has the same problem - either complaints of too much politics and not enough fantasy, or too little politics and too much fantasy.
  - In fact, most fans that started with Final Fantasy Tactics disregard Advance and A2, branding them as "too childish" for the storyline compared to the original Tactics.
  - Which is funny because those same people will turn around and call another JRPG (that's not made by Square Enix) the best game ever, despite it having the exact same story conventions that they were complaining about existing in Final Fantasy games, and yet another game that has everything they were complaining about has the better story.
Final Fantasy XIII will be multi-platform?! Multi-platform games can only suck! I paid $400 on a PS 3 for nothing! Never mind the fact that I own the only Blu-ray player worth having, and I still get to play the game—someone besides the tiny majority can play the game now! Is nothing sacred!? And God help you if you tell them that every FF from the first to eight plus FFXI is multy-plateform now... This has earned Square many accusations of "hating" Sony, despite the fact that they are one of few dedicated third-parties supporting the PSP as much or possibly even more than the DS.
- See also Devil May Cry 4 for this last complaint, in which Capcom had to publicly dismiss a petition put together by PS 3 fanboys demanding that they cancel the 360 release.
Even the art style has an unpleasable fanbase! Between Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII, the lead artist switched from Yoshitaka Amano to Tetsuya Nomura. They have two distinctly different art styles and Nomura's has become synonymous with the series entirely because of the popularity of Final Fantasy VII, which quickly riled the 2D nostalgia crowd. Furthermore, even though Nomura actually hasn't been the sole artist, his art is frequently accused of being filled with Rummage Sale Rejects from the Blue Bishonen Ghetto. Meanwhile, Amano was known for...drawing willowy, long haired, effeminate men in Rummage Sale Rejects. With black lipstick. Many fans criticized Kuja for being typical of Square Enix's "new" approach, when in fact that character was designed by Amano and looks very typical of the kinds of characters he draws. Final Fantasy XII took identical flak for "Nomura's" horrible designs when again, the art was handled by long-time Tactics series and Vagrant Story artist Akihido Yoshida.
- Just look at the artwork for Dissida, which had characters designed by both Amano and Nomura and an art style that was a mix between the two artists. That is to say, Nomura did the artwork for Dissidia in the style of Amano. The only difference was a lack of zippers and an excess of earrings and lipstick. Compare Amano's concept of Kuja◊ to Nomura's◊. Nomura actually made him more masculine.
The Dragon Quest fanbase teeters on this from time to time. They create a fan-site (the now dead SlimeKnights) for DQ games in the US, they release the niche Rocket Slime and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker titles in the US, and have even recently trademarked names that could only be the "missing" Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI DS games... and yet, they're still considered "The enemy" by the fanbase.
- There are some old wounds amongst Dragon Quest fans. There's some bitterness over the translations of Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Hearts and Dragon Quest V PS 2 being lost in the shuffle during the merger, as well as Dragon Quest IV DS coming out with a weak localization after having been released for several years in Japan with an English script as an option. The North American localization also featured the inexplicable removal of the Party Talk feature, and a truly botched attempt at the Accent Adaptation that had actually been done well in Dragon Quest VIII. However, the response to these slights by some parties is truly disproportionate compared to everything they've done right.
- Dragon Quest fans do have a lot to be bitter about over the number of games that still get left in Japan, as well as the incredibly lengthy waits for the games that do come over when compared to other Squeenix franchises that have a speedier turnaround. Of any of the groups in this section, they at least have years of actual ill treatment to nurture their bitterness on.
As time goes by, Kingdom Hearts is starting to reveal itself to have an unpleasable fanbase. The first one was the best! The second one was the best! One was so mindbowingly hard that its impossible to finish! Two was nothing but button mashing, you could close your eyes and beat the hardest boss! The games are too cute and fluffy! They made the second game too edgy! The card system in Chains of Memories sucked! They Nerfed the magic system! The intro in two was stupid! They should have made Roxas the main character! The Nobodies should have had more of a backstory! What the hell is with the Nobodies, make them go away! More Disney! Less Disney! On and on and on. Oh, and if you think we forgot something, just check the top of the page.
- Also of note is that before September 19, 2008, the people were pissed that Square was keeping KH2 Final Mix + to Japan. After that one date, a number of them are now angry that Re:ChainOfMemories will be released in America as a standalone title or that they spent their money on an import or that Square is too slow or yadda yadda yadda.
Of course despite the very vocal members of the fanbase, Final Fantasy has not lost an inch of popularity; people continue buying games in the millions of copies as if none of this has ever happened. In fact, it's often theorized that the majority of the fanbase, if the sales are any indication, are fine with the state of the franchise - they just feel no need to scream about it on the internet.
Chrono Trigger and its Contested Sequel Chrono Cross have a fandom that comes to blows quite easily. In one corner are the fans of Chrono Trigger that argue whether Cross was really a sequel at all, for reasons that are too numerous to discuss on this page but usually boil down to being completely different in mechanics and tone from Trigger and the Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome of pretty much everyone in Trigger. In the other corner are the Cross fans who point out its positive critical reception, its good sales, and what they felt to be a deeper and more satisfying storyline with an epic Gainax Ending. The easiest way to find examples of this is to head over to the well-meaning, and perhaps most active fansite, Chrono Compendium and say you like Chrono Trigger better, which you then will receive a dressing down from several posters for not appreciating the genius of Cross, followed by them being dressed down by several other posters for not appreciating the genius of Trigger, followed by a potential Flame War. Needless to say, both games are treated as classics as they both have received near perfect to perfect scores.
- It is never outright proven that the Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome effected everyone that mattered, which only makes things worse.
  - Whether that trope is actually canon or not can start some pretty nasty flame wars by itself, even among people who liked Chrono Cross.
- There's also flame wars about the role of Masato Kato in the franchise. Chrono Trigger was a collaboration of four people - Kato, Akira Toriyama, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and Yuji Horie. The entire scenario of Trigger was Horie's, with input from Sakaguchi, and then scripted by Kato. Chrono Cross only included Kato. Suggesting that the dissonance of the two games could be related to this will get you flamed to hell and back in some parts.
  - Some say he was the only good writer of the whole game, who deserved to write up Chrono Cross, while others would go on to compare Cross to a professionally written Fan Fic.
- And let's not even go into the DS remake that actually improved the horrible, horrible lag times the PSX remake had, vastly improved the dialogue so that different time periods not only "sounded" different and didn't feel like a teenager came up with it, and that finally had Item, Tech, and other names for things make a lot more sense than the original. Yet after years of people asking for this port, all anyone wanted to do was complain about it and wish it was still using the old Woolsey script they claimed they hated for all these years.
So, after a year of solid bitching that Final Fantasy IV The After was being unfairly condemned to never leave Japan, you'd think the fans would be grateful that the ESRB just rated it for the US, meaning we can actually play it. You must not have read this page. Now that we can actually play it, the fans are complaining that it's a pile of crap and should never have been released at all.
- Most of that is due to the game only being rated for the Wii, even though Retraux games tend to sell best on Wii Ware, considering how many has been announced so far.
- The release has been met with accusations of price-gouging and franchise-milking. There have also been complaints about the games presentation, completely ignoring the fact that the game was made for cellphones.
This is the only fanbase where people ask for the remake of a game and complain about it being milked at the same exact time.
- Case in point - before the announcement of Final Fantasy Gaiden: The Four Warriors Of Light, there was much speculation and complaining that it was going to be another remake. When the game was finally announced as a new, original title, there were complaints that it wasn't a port or remake of Final Fantsy V or Final Fantasy VI.

Close Square Enix

The Dominic Deegan fandom consists of three boards. Reportedly, they're set up to be "critics, flamers, and cheerleaders," but it's hard to to see anything universally or even generally positive posted about any of the author's work in the last four years.
- Then there's the Giant in the Playground threads, which spend each day nitpicking, strip slaying, and making pseudo-scientific theories (called Dominology) based on Mookie's day-to-day strips.
And hey, let's not leave Order of the Stick out of this either! If Rich posts a comic that focuses on one character, he alienates the fans of the other characters, and vice-versa. Though for this very reason, Rich never takes his script from the fans' ideas or requests.
- Not to mention the people who take him to task for any action shown in the comic that seems to violate the rules of D&D (or even failing to show the average statistical outcome of whatever they think the stats are for the characters). Not one strip goes by without a near-flamewar about whether such-and-such a character could possibly have survived said damage, or what spell would have been MORE effective than the one they cast—even if there's no evidence the character even knows the spell, much less prepared it that day.
Amber of Dan And Mabs Furry Adventures had this sort of problem with her comics falling somewhere between wacky gag-a-day strips and developing story, and fans unable to decide which they preferred. Amber's response was entertaining.

Close Webcomics

Ever since the Academy Awards added the Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Short Film categories, animation fans have been complaining that the award "ghettoizes" animation.
The Simpsons' fanbase. The Comic Book Guy exists largely so that the writers can comment on the phenomenon.
- In fact, the episode that introduced his catch phrase ("Worst. Episode. Ever.") took another shot at this trope by showing the creator of Itchy and Scratchy attempting to focus test the fans to figure out what they wanted to make the show better. The children in the focus group all have myriad, contradicting suggestions for improving the series that are utterly useless to the writing staff.
  - which didn't quite work as a problem for Itchy and Scratchy, since it's supposed to be a series of unconnected shorts, where various episodes could use some but not all of the ideas. Nobody ever complained about Bugs Bunny being in the Old West and then on the Moon after all.
The fanbase of the DCAU cannot seem to move on now that said DCAU has ended, and will automatically despise any new DC show that comes along as a result. This includes Teen Titans, Legion Of Superheroes, and (most infamously) The Batman~~. Probably gonna happen with~~, and Batman The Brave And The Bold.
The Daria fanbase gets quite violent about Shipping, even several years past the end of the show and the regular airing of reruns. Especially when the subject of Tom comes up.
- Not so much, anymore - especially with the fandom shifing more over towards the Daria Expanded Universe (which include fan-based works) and some of the better ships with fanon characters. Richard Rawlings, Michael Fulton - the day of the T(h)om-haters has passed.
Kim Possible. The main argumentat here is if Kim is the victim of Chickification or not.
Disney's upcoming The Princessand The Frog is their first movie to have a black Disney Princess. It's been plagued with controversy from its announcement, with some people decrying her original name "Maddy" (later changed to Tiana) as stereotypically a lower-class slave name, to her position as a chambermaid (several of the "Disney Princesses" were also of low station), to the original title of "The Frog Princess" apparently being racially insensitive, to people getting angry over the racially ambiguous prince being too white. You can still find a video on Youtube complaining about how Disney thinks all black girls "have" to have a little badonk-badonk. For context, publicity shots of Tiana were the only human character images released at the time. Other images show a diverse series of character types, including a black voodoo villain (also racist!), a black voodoo grandmother who helps the main characters (somehow left out of the cries of racism), and then the requisite animal characters.
- For a more recent example, read the DailyMail milking this for all its worth. Oh, the irony.
- To be fair, Disney does have a nasty track record of Unfortunate Implications in past attempts to appeal to minorities. Pocahontas was heavily criticised for resurrecting the stereotype of the Noble Savage or their supposed usage of Naomi Campbell when trying to come up with the image of an actual historical Native American woman. (She was actually based on her Native American Voice Actress) Fifty years ago they did some racially insensitive portrayals of black characters (See Song Of The South or Dumbo for just two such examples). The problem is more that the vast majority of cries about "racism" for this project are seriously overblown make it hard to take even the legitimate concerns seriously.
- The Livejournal Community for the movie has this discussion on this topic which has fans (many of them black) saying how they actually disagree with all of the "racism" cries. Read it and breathe a sigh of relief. It's hard to take someone seriously when they're decrying a Randy Newman jazz song as a "Negro Spiritual".
- Many have expressed outrage over Ray the firefly being a blatant black stereotype, even though he has spiky red hair and a pretty well done Cajun (read: white) accent. Now, it would be just as wrong to mock the Cajun people, but there've been funny accented Disney sidekicks before, and they usually outshine the leads in terms of personality and character development. Keep in mind all we've seen of the character so far is him smiling at the camera, saying two inoffensive lines and flying away.
For all of their complaints about the Animation Age Ghetto, 3D animation fans decry any 3D film not made by Pixar, regardless of its own merits. Somehow, they all have penguins.

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Controversial real-life example - deal with any religion in any medium, and no matter how respectful you are there's still going to be someone who'll kick up a fuss about some "blasphemy" or "ignorance" that you'll be somehow committing.
- Well, there's always going to be at least one of those guys. And then there's the ~~occasional~~ equally frequent commenter who rags on you for not being disrespectful enough.
The American news media. You have Conservatives claiming that the news media has a liberal bias. Then you have the the Liberals claiming that the media does not report enough! The media has it worse than Sega.
- For that matter, American politics in general. To quote Dave Barry, "It would be easier to get the entire population of Tokyo to wear matching outfits than to get any two randomly selected Americans to agree on pizza toppings."
Hardcore Gamers. I swear to God, most of us actually LOOK for something to whine and cry about. You will be very hard-pressed to find a self-professed hardcore gamer that actually spends more time playing video games as opposed to whining and crying about them.
Entertainment example: Orlando Bloom fans. Nothing he does is ever good enough for his fangirls anymore, and his actions are exaggerated to the point of parody. If he goes a while without a movie role, he's lazy. If he DOES accept a role, the movie sucks. If a set of candid photos shows up, he's whoring himself out to the paps. If he falls off the grid for while, it's because no one cares about him anymore. If he's spotted with a drink in his hand, he's a hopeless alcoholic who is self-medicating. If he appears to have any kind of visible injury, he's self-destructive. Heaven forbid he should spend any length of time in LA, because then he's a sellout. Any woman he dates is the devil and proof that he has lousy taste in women (unless it's Kate Bosworth). Trolls rarely show up to start trouble...they don't have to! Ironically, the tide seems to be slowly turning in his favor regarding the entertainment media, who tore him to shreds when he was popular.
Sports example: NHL fans about any rule change, ever. Change a rule that the fans complain about, they'll start bitching about the new rule, and how it ruined the game and it's disrespecting the traditions of the game, etc. Example: the crease rule. For years, fans complained that there was a goal review every time someone scored, and that half the goals were waved off because someone's skate lace was in the crease or something. So they abolish the crease rule, and now everyone complains about how no one's protecting the goaltenders. And let's not even start on the instigator rule...
Another sports example: MLB fans. They whine about how sick and tired of hearing about the Yankees/Red Sox/Cubs/Mets/Dodgers...then once all five of them are eliminated from contention, they whine about how "no one wants to watch (team that outlasted this group) play (other team that outlasted this group)!" If we're lucky, this whining doesn't start until the World Series. If we're unlucky, it starts earlier. Take this current (2008) World Series for example. They whine about how ratings are going to be bad before it even begins, then whine even more about the fact that no one's watching because Game 3 got delayed an hour and a half by rain. They also complain about the weather in Game 5, how it should've been stopped earlier (maybe true), how they shouldn't have even started (bullshit—it only just started sprinkling when the game began, and the weather forecast did say that the heavy rains weren't supposed to come until later). But if you suggest that maybe they should make every team get a dome, you're just begging to be Flamed—and the other ballpark in this Series is example number one as to why domed stadiums are an affront to the game. (Never mind the fact that there are "traditional" ballparks with design quirks much more game-altering than the Trop's catwalks—like foul territory with oddly angled walls and a garage door, a 37-foot-high wall with a slightly protruding scoreboard near the base and a not-so-slightly protruding ladder halfway up, and another set of odd angles in right center known as "The Triangle"—and this is my favorite team's home ballpark I'm talking about.) Also, the games themselves have been pretty close so far, with one exception, and to a baseball purist, this has all the makings of an all-time classic. Now all it needs is a dramatic Game 6 extra-inning walkoff homer and an equally dramatic Game 7, and it can contend for the title of greatest ever. Not bad for something that "sucks", huh?
Another one with an unpleasable fanbase in fans of American Open Racing. For 12 years two US championships for open wheel racing existed. CART (Championship Auto Racing team, which was formed in the 70's, then became Champ Car World Series in 2003) and IRL (Indy racing league, but the series is called Indycar Series) The difference between the two championships were that CART/CCWS ran both ovals and road/street circuits (p until 2006 when in 2007 it was just road/street circuits) while IRL ran just ovals (Up until a few years ago when it then started to add road and street circuits to their schedule.) When the two series merged in 2008 to have one series for the national championship people were still pissed. People were either pissed because of the cars the IRL used (Most people claim them as ugly which I've seen worse), a lower horsepower enginge (650HP for IRL compaired to the 900 some that CART ran int he mid 90's and 720 to 850 used by CCWS.) The unhappy fans go on and on about what can be done to fix it, and it's like dude Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is this. It will take time for AOW to be what it used to be and the merger was just the start.
- This could even be taken to a more general level with racing fans of any series (NASCAR, F1, etc). Some changes gets made and you have people on both sides who bitch about it(For a NASCAR example, the COT or Car of Tomorrow. Some people like it, some hate it.)
Any rating organization. If they have loose guidelines, they're accused of making the guidelines arbitrary and subjective. If they have precise guidelines, then they're laughed at for taking subjective matters too seriously.
Music example: Ricky Martin. When he sang in English, the Latino fangirls thought he sucked and watered down his material. Now that he sings in Spanish again, the anglo fangirls from the late 90s disavow his existence and he's a joke for the American music press, but his Latin career has never been better and remains fairly popular in Latin America. (Compare his Spanish material to the lower-quality English C Ds, and it becomes clear he brought it on himself, though.)
Many radio stations tend to fall victim to this. Whenever radio stations tweak their music format, there'll be the old fans who are unhappy with the change. Note that this isn't really about radio stations changing their format completely. It's about radio stations that are more subtle in tweaking the format, while acting as if they're the same radio stations that they always were.
Politics. Now let's all just walk away...
- Let's take one step further, America's Armed Forces deployments. Controversy in all 31 flavors. Invade a nation; American is labeled a bunch of imperialist cowards who hide behind big guns. Sit back and try to use tact and diplomacy instead; America gets labeled a bunch of soft dreamers who've lost their backbone and have failed the world by not using their superior firepower to uphold peace. And the best part is, this comes from.....Americans by and large. You just can't freakin' win.

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