It's Popular, Now it Sucks - Television Tropes & Idioms

Sadly, this happens far too much. Sometimes, it's done out of jealousy. Just got a creation of yours noticed? Congratulations - you've either sold out to the masses of Pretentious wafflemakers, or have sold out to the Lowest Common Denominator. Thankfully it's not entirely hopeless...some people actually will congratulate you in getting something of yours on display so people can see it if this happens. But it may be hard to appreciate them with jealous artists saying, "Well I can do better" or "My stuff is too sophisticated for them."
If you get featured on the front page of Deviant ART, you better hope it's not a piece of Fan Art you drew once because you were bored...because if it is, then expect to get hatred towards Deviant ART for "not featuring an original work" and you for "copying" or "Selling out to the masses" and "only doing it to get more pageviews".

Anime ITSELF is becoming this to some people. That's right, disowning an entire country's animation output because it's popular. This then spreads out into hating Japan and Japanese culture and Japanese people. Which is completely rational, right?
- Something Awful is known for flaming and banning whoever likes anime if someone brings it up outside the anime subforum. Of course, banning people is Something Awful's main source of income...
- What do you mean "becoming this"? Anime has been popular for a very long time. And then narutards happened. Who wanted to be associated with THAT?
Death Note fans are not too thrilled about the dub, not so much out of fear of the dub's alterations (as there are very few) as fear that the series will be ruined by an influx of *shudder* people who watch Adult Swim .
- This is actually a complaint lodged by many, many anime fans who don't wait for a dub, as if anyone who watches dubs is a moron.
- There was a debate among fans of Super Dimension Fortress Macross along these same lines, that somehow dubbing the show and making it accessible to a larger number of potential fans would destroy its specialness.
- Dub argument aside, Death Note in general has fallen victim to this. Back when it was new, Death Note was the greatest series in years, all the cool kids liked it, and making references to Death Note was the best way to flaunt your otaku elitism. Then the anime came along and Death Note became super-popular, and so now the trendy thing among the otaku elite is, of course, bashing it and making fun of all the stupid Death Note fanspawn.
When the Naruto anime was licensed mass panic occured with some arguing that it would be Bowdlerized while others started a petition demanding that Viz unlicense Naruto. It could be justified by the fact that they didn't care that it was popular but now they would have to buy it.
- They would have to buy it? No, the reason was because they could no longer justify the fact they weren't buying it with the (incredibly incorrect) "It's not illegal if it hasn't been licensed in your region" excuse. It still didn't stop them from downloading fansubs.
- Well, guess what? Now it's available in Japanese with English subtitles online just a short time after the episode aired in Japan. Legally. Officially. FOR FREE. Besides living in an area where this isn't available, there are no excuses.
  - Except for this one: "It's not subbed by true fans of the series so the jutsu names and references are censored!"
It's likely that most of the hate Neon Genesis Evangelion gets from online anime fans comes from this trope. The hate that isn't Hype Backlash, anyway.
Some fans of the Suzumiya Haruhi light novels did not take it kindly when their semi-obscure books were gonna be adapted into an anime and bring in new fans who never even heard of the books. Some of those fans also got pissed when it became a surprise hit and a Cash Cow Franchise.
- Then you have those fans of the sub who disliked Bandai Entertainment bringing the series over and dubbing it...
Bleach.There was once a time when it was a niche shonen series, and was only known by people who read scanlations from a popular scanlation site. Back then, pretty much any and all feedback were about how frickin' awesome it was, and how it's a shame that it's so obscure and no-named. And then, it got big. Its amazing how many countless people (including the fans who liked it back when it was small) have changed their tone to "I hate Bleach, it sucks because it's popular."
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is starting to head this way, in this very wiki.
This wonderful fate befell Dragonball Z during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Arguably one of the things that got anime into the mainstream, within five years or so it was very popular to bash it horribly. Some would argue that Naruto is basically the same thing - massively popular until it overplayed its welcome, and then is met with a thousand firey hells.

Some Watchmen fans (and possibly Alan Moore himself) are now sneering at the thought of someone reading the comic because of the movie. And it happened as the trailer's apparently caused the comic to recently become a top-seller. Which is, say it with us now, a good thing.
- In Alan Moore's defense, the comic's continued popularity has long been a curse for him. All the rights to the Watchmen will revert to him only if the graphic novel is out of print for two years. Since its still a landmark graphic novel and is one of the few comic books to have fame outside of comic book geeks (even before the movie), this is likely to never happen. For once, an example of this trope that really does suck...but only for Alan Moore.
  - In addition, Hollywood adaptations tend to lack subtlety wheras Moore treats his readers as if they have brains. For example, V For Vendetta had a central message (happiness as a prison in an unjust society) replaced by Audible Sharpness and "karate gimmicks."
With The Dark Knight's explosive popularity, Batman has become a more popular cultural icon than ever. Many long-time Batman fans feel spited by the Bat's newfound mainstream status, resorting to the Its Popular Now It Sucks mantra.
- They must be extremely good at holding grudges for decades on end, since Batman has been a "mainstream" cultural icon since the 60s.
In Batman: Fortunate Son, one of the main characters was a famous musician who applied this trope to himself, feeling that his fame prevented him from keeping it 'real'. Since the comic was So Bad Its Horrible, this didn't turn out too well; in his typically savage review, Linkara had some choice things to say about this trope in general.

One Fritz Fraundorf's Fan Fic parodies this tendency in music, with a music store clerk who only likes unpopular bands. The instant one band he's been promoting is talked about on the radio in the store, he begins to trash them.

Certain parts of Transformers fandom, over the year or so before the release of the 2007 live-action movie, preemptively expressed the sentiment that "It's going to be popular! That sucks!" Everyone else was rather confused.
- Of course, this being Transformers fandom, a Broken Base if ever there was one, there's also a very vocal segment that runs counter to this trope, and cheered every time it topped charts. See the comments here for an example.
- It becomes very silly when people accuse Transformers, a franchise that was created specifically to sell toys, of selling out. Talk about Completely Missing The Point.
- This has become more extreme with the actual release of the live-action movies, possibly because they deviate so strongly from the original cartoon, and the fans think that the movies are what people will think of from now on when they think of "Transformers".
Some fans have accused Kevin Smith of being a sell out, a label he has no problem with.
The Dark Knight has suffered this recently. Considering it's the fourth highest grossing movie of all time, it seems that the higher the popularity, the higher the suck.
Austin Powers is this combined with a bit of Hype Backlash too, as surely you'd be annoyed that EVERYONE was reciting the catchphrases by the time the second movie came out.
A Christmas Story suffers this due to over-exposure by constant 24-hour marathons around Christmas time.
Donnie Darko, when it suddenly went from being a brilliant-but-weird movie that was buried in obscurity after 9/11, to a massive cult phenomenon that every teenager has seen, complete with merchandise at Hot Topic. Somewhat ironic, in that it mostly became popular via word-of-mouth and Vindicated By Cable.
This Onion News Network video pretty accurately reflects the attitude of a certain type of Star Trek fan towards the new movie.
- Despite the stereotype, surprisingly otherwise averted by the Trek fanbase, as discussions and polls on the TrekBBS consistently show that about 80 to 90% of the fans like or love the new movie.
Titanic actually got a decent amount of public and critical acclaim. The backlash set in both after it was clear it was going to make hundreds of millions and the loads of Oscar nominations it got.
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, which is seen as the "sell out" of the series, by some.
Star Trek. See the picture at the top of the page? 'Nuff said.

Happened to Harry Potter with the massive turnout for Order of the Phoenix - many "fans" assumed the author could get away with writing absolute crap from then on. However, they didn't so much drop the fandom as stick around to complain about everything, thus proving their worth as True Fans.
- Happened to a lesser extent with the influx of new fans the film brought, but the fact that most of them read the books anyway reassured the original fanbase somewhat.
As stated below, a lot of long-time The Lord of the Rings book fans were unhappy with the caliber of fans introduced to LotR by the movie trilogy. Many "old-school" fans consider the movie lovers shallow and frivolous, ~~even~~ especially if said movie lovers were subsequently turned on to the books by the movies.
- Fictional uber-geek Jason Fox in FoxTrot once worried about the good public reception of the Lord of the Rings movies. Although he is only concerned that enjoying Tolkien's trilogy will make it (gasp!) mainstream to be a nerd, therefore depriving people like himself of their "special" status.
Some - not all, of course and please stop listing them - people dislike the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer merely because of how insanely popular the books are between young girls... and much older ones as well. Squick. Naturally, this bunch tends to drown out people with more legitimate complaints about the books.
- Has a lot to do with fans of traditional horror yelling "Your Vampires Suck!" Since the series is essentially a love story featuring vampires, fans of "real" vampire stories see it as using filet mignon to make Sloppy Joes.
  - Would anyone seriously want a sparkling vampire as a boyfriend?
  - Would anyone seriously want a vampire to sparkle? Really intimidating.

There seems to be a substantial backlash of this sort to anything by Monty Python (especially, however, Monty Python And The Holy Grail). Some people might just be sick of the inevitable quotations, since so many people know the quotes and love them. Others have different objections.
This seems to be happening to The Mighty Boosh — many original fans have complained the latest series is too mainstream and lacking in invention. Whether there's been an actual drop in quality is debatable.
Doctor Who presents something of an interesting example of this; the classic series was for a long time very popular, becoming something of a national institution in its home country. By the time of its cancellation, however, it had for numerous reasons become something of a cult show, something which only intensified with the development of the largely fan-driven Expanded Universe media. When the new series came along and restored the show to its former popularity a certain subsection of these fans, having apparently forgotten that its period of being a cult was the exception rather than the intention, seemed to be convinced that the show's newfound popularity was a bad thing and that it should have remained the cult relic cherished only by a few fans and mocked by everyone else. Whilst the new series is significantly different in style and tone from the old series in many ways, thus generating plenty of legitimate criticism for numerous reasons, a significant portion of the critical response to the new version does seem to be comprised of people who are upset that it's not "theirs" anymore.
For many people, the decline of The X Files began with its move to Sundays from Fridays and its attempt to be more "accessible" to Fox viewers.
The success of the show Chaser's War On Everything practically relies on the cast remaining anonymous. Of course, as the show increased in popularity they have needed to do more of their farcical stunts overseas, where they are not so well known. As a result of this, many of their older fans are getting bored of them and jumping ship, so to speak.
- This hasn't stopped a good chunk of them complaining that the show is ending after its 3rd Season.
Disney Channel. Hannah Montana. Wizards Of Waverly Place. Jonas. Sonny With A Chance.

Happened to Pink Floyd after Dark Side of the Moon.
- You fail. Wish You Were Here was very well received. Maybe after that album.
- Maybe in the minds of some of their fans, who preferred their old psychedelic music over the new, harder and darker material.
- And also in the minds of the band themselves, particularly Roger Waters, who didn't like the larger, noisier audiences that their greater exposure attracted (leading to his infamous, sputum-powered Creator Backlash during the Animals tour).
- And need I mention poor old Syd Barrett, who passed his own fame-tolerance threshold back when they were plugging their first album, leading to him taking permanent refuge in drugs.
A lot of people found John Henry, They Might Be Giants's first album with a full band, to be selling out.
- God only knows what these people think of the band's three (so far) children's albums.
  - Probably that just because something's child-appropriate it sucks, which is not the case.
Goth bands are particular targets of this as a band cannot represent the demographic if they go mainstream.
- Some of the subculture's icons being looked down upon by elitists. Bauhaus, Christian Death, and Alien Sex Fiend may not be mainstream, but they certainly aren't underground anymore.
A relatively true example of "selling out", whatever you think of their music, would be The Goo Goo Dolls after their album A Boy Named Goo, when they drastically changed their sound from high-tempo rock/punk to the mellower soft rock they're famous for today after the success of their single Name. It's a good thing they didn't go with the original planned name for the band, The Sex Maggots.
- Word Of God says they were going to do this anyway, because they were tired of being labeled as ripoffs of The Replacements.
When Evanescence began to take off, fans were in denial that the band had hit the Lycos 50, even though their only album before Fallen was Origin, a glorified demo tape.
- The band actually wrote more songs before Fallen than were present in the album itself. Most people just don't know about them, which is a pity since many of those who do consider them superior, if less impressive from a technical point of view.
The hip-hop music genre as a whole has been going through this, mostly because the core fanbase (Blacks and Latinos) felt that the artists have been pandering to white suburban teens by constantly making pop-ish ringtone songs and club anthems. Not only that, but rappers caused an even further disconnection from their base by being solely money-oriented, or very capitalistic with their subject matter (making songs about cars and money rather than sociopolitical issues and the struggle of inner-city life), essentially going from being against the system and establishment to becoming the establishment. This, of course, is a highly contentious and bitterly divisive topic among hip-hop fans.
- Further complaints also stem from the perceived lack of creativity, but when there is creativity it can also lead to "crossing over", thus bringing us to this very trope...cruel irony.
- Actually, this trope really started in the '80s, when new jack swing and MC Hammer brought widespread awareness of the genre from nationwide to worldwide, to the ire of purists. Of course, good luck reminding ardent critics of this.
- Good luck trying to convince Nostalgia Filter proponents of the fact that not only did New jack Swing lasted all of just 3 or 4 years. But that it's a completly different genre all together.
Many fans feel that Rise Against's first few albums were closer to hardcore punk, faster, and generally less melodic than their previous two. It doesn't help, then, that these were their two real 'mainstream' albums (though they had some success prior to them). While the subjects of the songs are much the same, older fans often feel that the albums are intentionally more accessible to non-punk fans.
Metallica received an incredible amount of hate for their self titled album, which was the most mainstream of Metallica's album. It provided them a lot of success, but now they get criticized for selling out.
- And those who weren't alienated by the black album were pissed off when they went after Napster...
- Those who were still fans after St. Anger.
Like the previously mentioned Metallica, Megadeth received a lot of hatred because they too made their sound more mainstream in the early nineties with the Countdown to Extinction album. Megadeth has moved back to their traditional style, so they don't receive many accusations of selling out anymore.
KISS to some extent, though the real irony is that the band's entire reason for existence was to sell a look and style on the road and not so much their songs.
Some people believe that Kurt Cobain of Nirvana killed himself as a result of his fear of this trope.
Norwegian singer Lene Marlin had a huge success in Italy and Japan (of all places!) with her first album, Playing my game. Released with little fanfare, the album was not technically exquisite, but most fans loved it anyway and thought of it as simple yet made with passion - music for the sake of itself, rather than in the pursuit of the holy dollar. As a result it was a surprise hit, and good times were had by all. Then year 2003 came along, and with it the highly anticipated release of the second album, Another day. Cue many of the fans (the most outspoken ones, usually) lamenting sore disappointment that Lene had sold out, that while the quality of the music had improved that of the lyrics had plummeted, that the album had been written to cash in on the success of her name, Blah Blah Blah. The third album, Lost in a moment, was unsurprisingly met with even more bashing.
- Fourth album's now out, Twist the truth. An experimental album, it was unsurprisingly met with cries of "it's too different!" by the same people who used to complain that Lene's music was always the same.
Tool had something very loud(and quite a CMOA it was) to say about this phenomenon, and it came in the form of a song called Hooker With A Penis
And in between/Sips of coke/He told me that
He thought/We were sellin out,/Layin down,
Suckin up/To the man.
Well now Ive got some/A-dvice for you, little buddy.
Before you point the finger/You should know that
Im the man,/And if Im the man,
Then yois trope; the band's Liverpool fans felt very betrayed when the band hit it big and moved to London.
The Arctic Monkeys titled an EP "Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys" specifically in order to stop it falling victim to this trope by minimising its exposure on mainstream radio.
Australian band Regurgitator put out a song called "I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff" parodying fan reaction to their album 'Unit', which was seen by many as mainstreaming away a lot of the bands earlier originality.
My Chemical Romance. Depending on who you talk, to this happened either with Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge or The Black Parade, or at some point in between.
Dragon Force had a very strong power metal fanbase a few years ago. When "Through the Fire and Flames" was announced as a bonus track for Guitar Hero III, it would seem that this trope would have been averted. Then the game came out.
This complaint arises in the ABBA fan community every time there is a major surge in interest, the latest being the success of Mamma Mia!. Interestingly, each wave of popularity leads to a status increase for past newcomers, to the point where "Goldies" (newcomers after the release of the "ABBA Gold" album), who were ridiculed on their arrival, are now praised as being "true fans" by compa" people, they count as popular even if 99.9% of people have never heard of them. This leads to a sort of cycle: a band becomes "popular", at which point liking them becomes lame and so they become unpopular, at which point no-one likes them so liking them becomes "cool" again. Thanks to the internet, this can often happen over the course of a single month, even with no change whatsoever from the band themselves. Factor in that this happens on several levels (with individual artists, genres, and even with awareness of this very trope), and that bands often drastically change their sounds and attitudes (usually partially due to fan reaction and, again, awareness of this trope), and you get a consensus attitude that is very confusing and difficult to get a read on.
The video game series Guitar Hero has elicited this reaction from elitist music fans complaining that players who became fans of a certain band after hearing a song on Guitar Hero are shallow commercial junkies who don't really count as fans, and/or that the band has "sold out" by letting their songs be in the game at all, and that the song or songs being used in the game is just mainstream tripe that "real" fans know is trash compared to the band's still-unheard, great songs. It really doesn't matter which Guitar Hero-featured band you pick, anyone from Aerosmith to Yeah Yeah Yeahs seems to spark the exact same outrage among its fan base. As others have pointed out in the resulting flame wars, this only raises the question of exactly why a video game is any less legitimate a music venue than radio, television, online services, or CDs, and why finding out about a band via Guitar Hero is less "honorable" than any other way.
The Beatles are one of the few artists to be both massively popular and adored by critics. Yet even they are an example of this trope; the band's Liverpool fans felt very betrayed when the band hit it big and moved to London.
Rent also received this treatment with the movie version, as fans of the 3 hour stage musical (many of whom can sing it start to finish from memory) were annoyed that people were now allowed to experience the story in half the time. Never mind that it put the AIDS crisis back in the limelight for a while, after it had been relegated to "that disease that kills African people".

Pro wrestler CM Punk was a Smart Mark darling on the independent scene, with the fans hailing him as quite possibly the best wrestler in America (or at the very least, the best wrestler in Ring of Honor, which is kind of synonymous these days). Then he signed with WWE, and became the centerpiece of its ECW revival, and now all of a sudden you can't go into a wrestling forum without hearing about how Punk is overrated and a sloppy wrestler. Some of this might be spillover anger from the fact that the ECW revival has been the definition of So Bad Its Horrible, but Punk was one of the few bright spots of the show, and yet he seems to get the most criticism. And, now that he's moved away from ECW onto Raw and then Smackdown and become world champ, the criticisms have only gotten worse.
- Partially due to Hype Backlash - a lot of SmartMarks kept hearing how great Punk was from ROHbots when he was working long main event matches, against top level opponents, with free reign over his character and promos. Five minute extended squashes over Justin Credible didn't quite match up...
- History repeats itself with Evan Bourne, formerly known as Matt Sydal. Hell, just calling him by his WWE name is enough to set off indy wrestling purists in some communities.
Heck, this happens ALL THE TIME in wrestling. Especially in the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community). There were a lot more haters of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock when they turned face than when they originally found their footing as "bad guys." (Look at some of the reactions Rock got on rec.sport.pro-wrestling between 1999-2000, for instance!) Granted, the fan favorite versions of both, and others, tended to pick up a bit of "Austin Powers Syndrome" in that their characters became catchphrase machines.
- Heck, the IWC once LOVED John Cena at one point!
- ...and Triple H, probably before all the political stories came to light.
  - That is, if the dirtsheets are to be believed...
- And something happened to Kurt Angle between WWE and TNA, as he came there minus the IWC fans who called him one of the best workers in the world, instead ridiculing [[Small Name Big Ego his delusional radio interviewsical to begin with).
Rent also received this treatment with the movie version, as fans of the 3 hour stage musical (many of whom can sing it start to finish from memory) were annoyed that people were now allowed to experience the story in half the time. Never mind that it put the AIDS crisis back in the limelight for a while, after it had been relegated to "that disease that kills African people".

Pro wrestler CM Punk was a Smart Mark darling on the independent scene, with the fans hailing him as quite possibly the best wrestler in America (or at the very least, the best wrestler in Ring of Honor, which is kind of synonymous these days). Then he signed with WWE, and became the centerpiece of its ECW revival, and now all of a sudden you can't go into a wrestling forum without hearing about how Punk is overrated and a sloppy wrestler. Some of this might be spillover anger from the fact that the ECW revival has been the definition of So Bad Its Horrible, but Punk was one of the few bright spots of the show, and yet he seems to get the most criticism. And, now that he's moved away from ECW onto Raw and then Smackdown and become world champ, the criticisms have only gotten worse.
- Partially due to Hype Backlash - a lot of SmartMarks kept hearing how great Punk was from ROHbots when he was working long main event matches, against top level opponents, with free reign over his character and promos. Five minute extended squashes over Justin Credible didn't quite match up...
- History repeats itself with Evan Bourne, formerly known as Matt Sydal. Hell, just calling him by his WWE name is enough to set off indy wrestling purists in some communities.
Heck, this happens ALL THE TIME in wrestling. Especially in the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community). There were a lot more haters of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock when they turned face than when they originally found their footing as "bad guys." (Look at some of the reactions Rock got on rec.sport.pro-wrestling between 1999-2000, for instance!) Granted, the fan favorite versions of both, and others, tended to pick up a bit of "Austin Powers Syndrome" in that their characters became catchphrase machines.
- Heck, the IWC once LOVED John Cena at one point!
- ...and Triple H, probably before all the political stories came to light.
  - That is, if the dirtsheets are to be believed...
- And something happened to Kurt Angle between WWE and TNA, as he came there minus the IWC fans who called him one of the best workers in the world, instead ridiculing his delusional radio interviews and etc. and his past refusals to address supposed drug problems.

One World of Darkness supplement contained a biting parody of the then-current RPG industry. Part of their write-up of company Magicians of the Bay:

In truth, Mot B has also earned its success, having once published the sort of hopelessly and unsellably niche-market books that Industry pundits immediately label as brilliant, but of course, no one sees them that way anymore, because they've "sold out," which means "become profitable."

Video Games in general. Most notably, PC gamers consider "consolization" to be simultaneous with "complete destruction of the series" (just look at this list!), and complete and total assha- er, fans who proclaim themselves as "Hardcore Gamers" hate " Casual Gamers". For an in-depth view at the latter phenomenon, read this article.
Here's a little bit of homework....go onto a video game forum. Ask what the worst game they played in recent years or one of the most overrated game they ever played is. Now count how many will trash a game that's popular. Round your answer to the nearest dozen.
- "Worst game" fits, but it's pretty much a given that an "overrated" game is going to be popular.
Some argue that, with the additional installments to the story, the Final Fantasy VII franchise is starting to plummet. They argue that the fun factor of the game is relinquished for the sake of pleasing the fanboys and fangirls, sacrificing the deep integrated storyline that made the original RPG such an amazing game for the sake of indulging in characters such as Sephiroth and Zack.
- Ever since Final Fantasy VII came out, the Final Fantasy fanbase appears to have gone from being mildly cult to borderline psychotic, hanging around to bash each and every successive entry that wasn't the identical twin of their favorite game in the series.
- Final Fantasy VII itself tends to catch a lot of crap from older series fans due to it bringing the series into the mainstream.
  - Oddly enough, fans just don't seem to be able to grasp the concept that Final Fantasy VII was popular for two reasons: it was the first RPG to receive major advertising, and it was the first RPG to actively sell itself to the mainstream through said advertising. Neither of which makes it a bad game at all, but don't try to convince someone who hates it of that.
- Many RPG fans just plain hate Final Fantasy because their preferred series isn't selling as much. The stupidest argument being a Disgaea (which is by all means a good RPG series) fanboy talking about how much better Disgaea 3 (released this year) was than Final Fantasy Tactics (a game released a whopping 13 years ago).
This seems to have happened within The Elder Scrolls fanbase with the release of Oblivion.
- Possibly aided by spilled bile from a certain violently gun-shy fandom Bethesda reluctantly bought the attention of in a package deal.
  - It goes back further than that. Prior to Oblivion coming out, it was Morrowind that was the symbol of all the bad trends in the industry. And mostly for the same alleged reason: "dumbing down" for console players.
The Nintendo Wii went from internet darling to antichrist when it occurred to gamers that Nintendo was actually popular again. Conversely, the PS3 did the reverse when it quickly became the apparent underdog of the current generation.
- Most of the antagonism among Wii fans comes from fears about it being propped up solely by 1st/2nd-party titles and falling to the same fate as its predecessors. 3rd-party developers so far have ignored the system's capacity for innovation in lieu of simply flooding its library with minigame collections and gimmicky ports. Of course, people who mock it on this basis would do well to realize that Sturgeons Law applies equally to Wii and their own favorite horse in the race.
  - Not to mention that third parties weren't that important anyway until Sony started using them wisely to make the Play Station the number one.
  - Not even actual reality - Gamasutra already proved that first-party and third-party titles sell equally on the Wii, yet the Hatedom still whines that the Wii is supported solely by people buying only Nintendo titles. Which is truly ironic Fan Dumb considering how many people used to proudly proclaim their support of the Game Cube because of all the first-party titles it had. Naturally, now that other people play Zelda too, Nintendo should cancel all their franchises and cease all first-party software development because they're not making "real" games.
- But it truly fits this trope when the hate is the thought of all the "non-gamers" flooding in due to the Wii.
  - Except, of course, that NPD has stated that 70% of Wii owners owned a PS2. And said people only bought their P S2s to play Madden or Tekken or GTA and let them collect dust or sold them once they tired of those games, similar to the Wii early adopters who just played the pack-in games and maybe Wii Fit then blew the system off.
  - Note that "Non-gamers" were quoted because the exact same thing was said when Madden and Grand Theft Auto were going to ruin gaming by attracting a lot of "non-gamers" who will only play them because it's popular...it's a vicious cycle.
- The Nintendo DS has started catching flack for this, though not to the extent of the Wii and mostly from people who are upset that the PSP hasn't taken off the way the DS did.
Defying typical industry behavior, Macintosh game developer Bungie Software's next title after their hit PID was Marathon instead of a PID sequel, but after Marathon, they made Marathon 2. "Oh no, they've sold out!", said the fans. "No we haven't," said Bungie, later revealing work on the genre-founding RTT game Myth. Next, Marathon 2 was ported to become Bungie's first non-Mac release. "Oh no, they've sold out!", the fans said again. "No we haven't," said Bungie, "We're still doing our own thing making innovative work" pointing to pioneering Beat Em Up/shooter Oni and Sandbox guerilla warfare game Halo. After that, Microsoft bought them, and turned Halo into a Killer App for the original Xbox. "They've sold out!" screamed the fans, and Bungie responded "No, we haven't."
- They're not lying. While they did get Microsoft to publish Halo, that didn't make the game's quality suffer. Plus, they re-bought rights to future I Ps, splitting from Microsoft. They are DEDICATED to messing up any and all selling out related discussions (pro and con), it seems.
The System Shock series was beloved but never commercially successful. In 2007, Bio Shock, a Spiritual Successor, was released, and actually managed to become successful, becoming a commercial success even while competing with giants like Halo 3. Bio Shock was very much like System Shock 2, but with significantly improved graphics, better developed setting, stronger characterization, some actual literary merit, a revamped system of RPG Elements that is streamlined but arguably just as deep and, unfortunately, a very similar plot and a relatively clunky interface for the PC version. Guess what the System Shock 2 fans focused on.
- You forgot to mention that SS 2 is about the horror of being alone, while Bioshock is about the horror of having zombies climbing all over the place.
- SS2's other Spiritual Successor, Deus Ex, was lauded with universal acclaim. Its sequel had what was widely viewed as excessive consolization. Combined with the game's lessened scope, it created such a tidal wave of pure bile and hatred toward Warren Spector that he hasn't been seen since the next year's (much better received) Thief 3.
  - A sequel has been announced, involving none of the original team. Time to get out your asbestos keycaps.
- Some of this may stem from bitterness that there will never be a System Shock 3, or more recently, that there will be one that won't even try to live up to its predecessor.
Parodied in The World Ends With You's bonus chapter. "I'll be off listening to bands you kids have never even heard of! And then... when they go major... I'll be there to complain about how they sold out!"
Would you believe that Shin Megami Tensei is starting to show signs of this? Persona 3 was well-received, bringing in newcomers to the series and thus making the entire Persona franchise eclipse the popularity of the main series. Which of course leads to people complaining that Atlus has "sold out", leaning more towards making their games tailored to the mainstream. Of course, complaints like this are tinged with a hint of irony, as the whole reason the Persona spinoff series was created in the first place was to make a Mega Ten game that was tailored to the mainstream. These complaints are intensifying with the popularity of Persona 4 and the upcoming PSP remake is similarly getting trashed for proof that Atlus is "selling out."
- Nocturne is beginning to suffer from this, since it's the first main ''Shin Megami Tensei'' game to be released outside of Japan and hence more people have played this one than the original two. There is also a mix of Hype Backlash, as many Shin Megami Tensei fans have proclaimed this one of the best games ever while deriding the popularity of other games. The trolling can be a headache.
Now that the Mother 3 translation has finally been released and is receiving attention, there seem to be a lot of people who want to make clear to everyone that they always thought that the entire Mother series was overrated tripe. At the time of this edit, the translation was released yesterday. New record?
The Resident Evil series after the release of Resident Evil 4. The style change, while making the series more popular, has caused many fans of the series's original style to feel betrayed, cheated, and forgotten. The same fans that until Resident Evil 4 released were complaining that the series had grown repetitive and stagnant.
Any of Nintendo's' popular franchises like Pokémon, Super Mario Bros, The Legend Of Zelda, etc. are always bashed as being "overrated" with very little explanation as to why.
Pokémon before the Trading Card game. No, really.
- The Pokémon anime still gets a lot of hate, and a lot of it comes from fans of the game series.
  - But that's a totally different reason.
Some video game genres are being dubbed as full of suck due to gaining massive popularity. With Final Fantasy and other games like Morrowind making RPG-type games more popular and the popularity of FPS games increasing, people are now saying how those genres suck just because they got popular with the masses.
- And the same thing happened with Adventure games...and soon Sandbox games...
Among the many haters of World of Warcraft are people who say that because it as an MMORPG is so popular, that it sucks. (That is, the people who have actually seen more than the box art.)
- In any MMORPG this is a justified trope. If the great unwashed begins taking an interest in your game, you're going to have to deal with them in your Pu G.
  - You mean they actually have an effect on game design?! WOW!!! I didn't know they recruited random new players to make design choices!
  - Because it's entirely productive to simply insult them and Rage Quit instead of trying to tell them how to effectively play.

Mocked in the Red Vs Blue PSA about "Ten Things We've Never Seen Posted on an Internet Forum." The first being someone that liked a band before they were popular and being happy about it.
Sarge: Now they've gotten so popular, we get to see them in huge arenas all over the country, and their songs are on the radio all the time. It's great! I'm really happy for them, and for all their success.
Parodied in Homestar Runner on the Strong Bad E-Mail "geddup noise." Strong Sad was a fan of The Geddup Noise until it became a cultural sensation, after which he takes to wearing shirts that say "This Is Not A The Geddup Noise T-Shirt" and calling The Geddup Noise a sell-out.

Indie Pete of Diesel Sweeties is the extreme version of this trope - indeed, he goes so far as to that he only liked bands "before they released any music".
- Playing on this theme, Richard Stevens also released a t-shirt design using a Venn diagram. On the left: "Music I Like". On the right: "Music You Like". In the overlap: "Music I Used To Like."
Questionable Content discusses this as it relates to Indie bands, resulting in the Theory of Hipster Relativity.
- And as it relates to tattoos. At least Dora recognizes when she gets caught in it.
- Mentioned for a laugh in #653, concerning Coffee of Doom itself.
This xkcd strip places an interesting spin on the trope; apparently, there's more than one reason why Somewhere A Palaeontologist Is Crying.
- Arguably, xkcd itself is falling victim to this trope.
Dorm Dorks uses the trope here.
Mentioned in VG Cats #269 concerning the complete and total assha- er, "hardcore gamers".
Wondermark gets in on the act here.
Brax the Alien Rocker, here:
Manny: I like true indie music.
Brax: So, do you like Starflyer 59?
Manny: I did up until now.
Brax: What?! Someone's heard of them, so you don't like them now?
Manny: It's too late. You've ruined it.
In this Irregular Webcomic strip, this is how Shakespeare feels about Harry Potter.

This has been the reaction of some veteran members of Survival Of The Fittest following a surge of newcomers to the site.
Quite a bit of forums were usually better before those "noobs" and "newbies" came in and ruined it all. This also includes any *Chans.
You'll probably never hear anyone glad that their Roleplay chatroom hosts dozens of consistent members.
- Rarely, this may be a Justified Trope - but rarely; just because people might be upset by not being given an opportunity to join in a storyline without being told or players playing a private story out and not giving others who can contribute a chance to join in, as well as trying to get a story everyone is involved in going only for one person to suddenly go offline or afk and being forced to either wait for them or continuing without them.

Parodied on South Park: "If you work in the entertainment industry, and you make money, you're a sellout."
- South Park itself has some of this. Some fans say they liked the show better back during its early years when it was new and edgy, and most kids had to watch the show in secret since their parents had banned it from the house. Now that it is Comedy Central's highest rated show and widely popular, some people don't like it anymore.
Avatar The Last Airbender got this treatment.
Family Guy was always better when nobody heard of it.

The TV Tropes Wiki.
Recursive trope!
- The hate seems to stem from our terms popping up in other places more frequently.
- The phenomenon also applies to tropes: If a trope is so beloved that its list of examples grows huge, eventually some tropers will cry that the trope is Ruined Forever and vote to destroy it. A notable example of a victim of this is the lamented "I Am Not Making This Up".
Every widely known social networking site (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) ever.
- Specifically, for Facebook, the introduction of high school and regional networks was what ruined it FOREVER!
One of the recurring mottoes of The Dreaded 4chan, for a surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) long time. You can imagine their reaction when the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade incorporated a Rick Roll.
- Also, mentioning anything related to Project Chanology (the Scientology protests) on most chan boards will now get you flamed, banned, and, possibly, your IP address posted.
- The coins for Styx's ferryman are already on the Rickroll's eyes, and it now lies on the pyre. All that waits now is the torch. Good night, sweet prince...at least, according to 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica.
- This even applies to their memes; pretty much every article on ED about a given meme complains how it got popular and is now unfunny. Logically, the ones that didn't catch on wouldn't have an article at all.
Nearly any online community, forum, or game.
Almost any comedian who makes the transition from relative obscurity on the stand-up circuit to increased fame and public profile (most usually through the television) will lose part of her / his fanbase who will be quick to bemoan the fact that s/he is now a 'sell-out'. Apparently, some jokes become less funny the more people who are laughing at them.
Polish Demoscene. When the Polish videogame agazine, CD-Action, began publishing a series about the hitherto rather hermetic demoscene, many old sceners claimed that it ruined the demoscene forever, caused an influx of talentless newbies, and were angry that while they had to go to great lengths to learn about the community in the first place, all those new youngsters know everything by just reading a magazine.
This is the way Synchro Monsters are treated in Yu-Gi-Oh! online game Duel Monsters Unlimited; before Synchros were actually released, the cards existed and were playable on this game with translated effects from a particular news site. Now Synchros are considered overpowered (by people who play Dark-Armed Dragon and Light Sworns) or crap depending on who you talk to and every other idiot is running one.
A rare justified example: Beautiful secluded beaches. When only you and maybe a few friends know about the location of a secluded beach, its a wonderful thing but if the wrong people find out about it, before long the word spreads around and lots of people start visiting it which means that the formerly beautiful secluded beach turns into just another busy tourist trap.
- This is more to the fact that most beautiful, secluded beaches are fantastic surfing spots, mostly because you can get out onto some fantastic waves without having to worry about grommets and boogie boarders getting undearboard. Here in Australia, if you find yourself in a nice secluded spot with a decent swell, the unwritten rule is that you keep it between yourselves and the locals.
- At least along the Florida panhandle, there are quite a few spots owned by the state as "preserves" of sorts where nothing can be built except for the occasional public crapper. They're nearly always deserted, as the more obnoxious tourists tend to gravitate towards spots covered in souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants.
- As Yogi Berra put it: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
  - Dang it, that deserves to be a pull-quote at the top. I'm putting it there!
- Can also extend to camping locations.
Two words: Bruce Campbell. Fans want him to be successful and more than a B-movie star, but at the same time they want to keep him all to themselves and hope he never gets that A-listing he deserves, because then a lot of what makes him cool will simply vanish and he'd be just another Hollywood star.
Honda is sometimes hit with this. They used to make comparatively tiny that were practical, fuel efficient, and sporty, all at the same time. Now the Accord is a veritable land-yacht and the Civic is barely a compact car, and they're not particularly fun to drive. The fanboys cry that Honda has abandoned them, nevermind that Honda is a publicly traded company with a duty to maximize profits, and it's very hard to make a business case for targeting specifically a very small section of the market to the exclusion of the rest. The kicker is the Honda Fit, which is pretty much everything Honda used to stand for, all in a modern, safe package.
The game of baseball - not so much any rise in popularity in itself, but the reason why it does. When home run and scoring numbers skyrocket, more people flock to the ballpark - much to the chagrin of purists, who insist that "pitcher's duels" are the best type of games.
Some people have claimed that this has happened to Bionicle, despite the fact that the line is only marginally more successful than when it started. This stems from the belief that the repetitive design of their recent sets is because they're pandering to their, newer, younger audience, even though these claims come from people in their late teens, early twenties while the series is labeled as ages 7-16. You will constantly see topics like "Is Bionicle Selling Out?" on the forums for popular fansite BZPower.com, which are constantly getting squished out by the, thankfully, more intelligent majority.
Ubuntu has made Linux more user-friendly and easier for newbies. A few long-time users are annoyed that the newbies seem more interested in getting actual work done than hacking the kernel.
- Heck, Linux itself is becoming this trope for some so-called experts which only tell people to Google it, n00b. (One wonders if those are paid by Google or just want a job there)
Twenty20 cricket is far more popular than traditional test cricket or even One Day Internationals, and thus many purists refer to it as "hit-and-giggle".
When it comes to anything that is popular for a long time, haters brush it off as "a passing fad", yet the whole meaning behind the word fad is something that quickly grows popular and quickly dies down as fast, whereas something popular for a long time would not be considered a fad technically.
Deviant Art is claimed by serious artists to be "too much of a social forum to make good art". Considering that art is something that HAS to been seen by people outside of a tiny circle to be appreciated and eventually to be considered a masterpiece by any critic, even if it is on a heavily social art website, complaints still occur.
The Steam Punk subculture is beginning to be hit with this, even though it's only a few years old. There are purists who believe that the whole essence of Steampunk is to make everything yourself. If you so much as buy a pair of premade goggles, you're just a poser and it should never be allowed to enter the mainstream, as that would dilute it. There are others who believe that it needs to get popular or die. Also, when it enters the mainstream, all of the stuff, goggles, brass and the like will become cheaper, possibly lessing the "Steampunks are Goths with money" mentality that many have.
Although not exactly a fandom, many followers of various conspiracy theories seem to subscribe to this mindset; many seem to reject the official record not because they sincerely believe it's wrong and want to know the truth, but simply because it's the official record and has been widely accepted. These 'theorists' then cling to the alternative theories because accepting them makes them feel smarter than the 'sheeple' who accept the official record ("I'm smart enough to see The Truth and you're not!"). This can have interesting results in cases where the official 'lies' are actually more accurate and / or make more sense than the alternative theory, or the alternative theory is patently flawed and nonsensical. Although actual examples are numerous (and far too bitterly contested to be discussed in detial here), many of the alternative theories around 9/11 appear to have attracted these types.
When browsing through the comments areas of Behind the Name, every now and again, you'll come across some people commenting on how they used to like this name because nobody had it, but now they don't like it because more people have started using it.

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