The Sonic Fanbase has a Problem. 

Sorry today's video is quite a negative one, but it needed to be said! Also this is the first video edited with DaVinci Resolve! Definitely may consider using it more in the future! Click to become a Speedster! -> RU-vid.com/SpeedstersUnited Click to join the Community Discord server! -> discord.gg/fBs3KHRwrH Support me on Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/speedstersunited Follow me on the Tweeter! -> www.Twitter.com/speedsterunited

While I don't agree with harassing Matt and many others, they could have worded it extremely different. They could have said "Hey, I'm not excited for this game. Gonna skip this until the next big Sonic game. Duces, y'all." But, I don't know why forces, a game so mediocre and harmless, assaulted people's mental state the way it did. Like, Forces isn't good, but to straight up accuse upcoming sonic games for being as bad as forces is just blatant absurdity.

The Sonic fandom is just 100% done with unfair criticisms and slander. It's not cuz he had an opinion, it's cuz he's being outright unfair. We're leaving 2010's RU-vid in the past, that era's over. Get with the times. We're actually ALLOWED to like Sonic now.

3:22 the DeniantArt side of the fandom also gives us normal fans a bad rep

Everything is worse on social media, it's a bottomless pit of negativity.

Deleting Twitter and all social media was the best thing I did for my mental health. I had enough of the overwhelming condescension, apathy, and toxicity that consumed any type of discussion. I go to my favorite franchises of films, games, shows, and books to escape and ENJOY. It's really not "The Sonic Fanbase has a problem", it's a systemic issue engrained in EVERY platform and community of social media. And Twitter by default, is not a platform designed around constructive conversation, I think the real killer to any point Matt attempted to make. If he had just said "I'm still concerned about the game" or had a well thought-out remark, instead of "game looks as trash as Forces" and then proceed to not stand on it initially, he wouldn't be getting the amount of disrespect he's receiving. At the end of the day, he chose to make a half-assed tweet, instead of a constructive video that actually could have benefitted thoughtful critique. He does not deserve threats or harassment, and I hope the whole ordeal makes him unplug from the bs, and become a better creator as a result. You made a GREAT video boss, keep up the good work!

I positively accept your opinion of wanting other opinions to be accepted without negativity! But seriously, all of this is the exact reason why I stopped using Twitter. The toxicity over there is some of the worst and most ignorant I've ever seen, and it makes me question how so many people can lack so much intelligence and respect, as if they haven't been taught any basic life skills. I don't mean to be too negative about that myself, but it's something that frustrates me to no end, haha. You made some very valid points though, and the new editing looks great, buddy!

While I'm not saying its an excuse, Sonic opinions have indirectly hurt people. Sonic games will try to be mature. People will grow up liking the mature games but the mainstream audience will yell about how Sonic shouldn't be mature. Sega listen and makes the games solely for children. The mainstream audience will then start bullying the people who liked the mature games for liking a series for children. Childhood trauma achieved! Its probably why Sonic fans get so defensive about opinions. Because if people don't like or dislike what they like, they're scared others will hurt them for it again.

Sonic fans being fine with opinions is like Jack Horner getting his T-Rex facts right

Nope nope nope nope I’m not doing this again I’ve seen the controversy with frontiers when it was launching. (PTSD Intensifies) I’m taking a back seat. I’m gonna buy the game and form my own opinions on it. I’m not gonna let this toxic positivity/ negativity ruin this for me. Better than THIS (Thank god I deleted twitter) Great video (haven’t watched but I have a feeling you make good points)

The core problem with the fanbase for me is 3 attributes that keep showing up EVERYWHERE and constantly ruin conversations, like a dark cloud that won't leave the sky and won't stop blocking the sun: Nostalgia, extremism and double standards. Nostalgia: Let's not beat around the bush, straight to the point. S2, S3&K, CD, SA, SA2, Heroes, Black Knight, they are not masterpieces, none of them. In fact, they are flawed but good experiences. I think nostalgia is healthy, I think it's a reflection of passion and positive emotions from one's past, it's a wholesome thing by default. It becomes a problem however when it manifests into delusion and unfortunately with this fanbase that's pretty much neverending. Yes, Big's gameplay kinda sucked. Yes, mech and treasure hunting in SA2 kinda sucked. Yes, Heroes is repetitive as hell and the levels drag. It's fine. I am incredibly nostalgic with a game called Ratchet & Clank, sure many of you know it. It IS NOT objectively peak my dudes, despite my nostalgia making my love for it reflect a 1000/10 rating. The checkpoints are dreadful, the bolt economy is bad, the gunplay is dated, the acting is hit or miss, I still love it to death but can criticize it through an objective lense and point out the negatives. My GOD you Sonic fans cannot do that for the life of you, I'm a new fan (joined y'all in 2021) and it's such an issue with y'all, especially with SA2 in particular. Double standards: This one gets on my nerves for real. This is mostly prevalent with Adventure Era fans (which isn't a jab statement, I'm an Adventure Era fan too). Cringe lines in SA, SA2 and Heroes are charming, cringe lines in Shadow the Hedgehog, Colors or Forces are a disgrace. Heroes being broken AF on casual playthroughs is excused and outright ignored by many, 06 being broken (this is me deliberately not including AF cause it's literally not that bad) is still brainlessly thrown around even 18 after release even though you barely encounter anything in casual playthroughs unless you go out of your way with knowledge of how to break it. Mistranslations in SA and SA2 are whatever, mistranslations in Shadow and Forces are embarrassing. Plot holes and conveniences in 06 ruin the entire thing, plot holes and conveniences in SA2 are never talked about (Team Sonic running into Team Dark in the future is too much to believe but I guess Knuckles going from Pumpkin Hill to Aquatic Mine and escaping through a random sewer RIGHT INTO Amy and Tails in the most random of locations is perfectly believable yeah OK y'all). Guns in SA and SA2 are barely talked about, guns in Shadow the Hedgehog birth riots. And so on and so forth, you get the idea. Sonic fans aren't consistent with their hate and simping, certain games get infinite favoritism and certain others get the infinite F you treatment, despite sharing the same issues or praise-worthy ingredients. Extremism: This I hate the most. No, SA2 isn't peak. No, Heroes isn't peak. No, Shadow the Hedgehog isn't trash. No, 06 isn't trash. No, Unleashed (my literal favorite Sonic game, pitchforks down) is not peak. No, Colors isn't trash. No, Sonic 4 isn't trash. No, Lost World isn't trash. No, Boom: RoL isn't trash. No, Forces isn't trash. There isn't a single mainline Sonic game that's anything above an 8/10 and not a single mainline game (aside maybe S4:EP1) that's below a 6/10. They all have dozens of positives and dozens of negatives. Sure, RoL has performance issues and (for some) boring combat. It also has the best animstions to this very day, good visual identity, phenomenal vocal performances, genuinely intriguing mechanics and ideas. Forces, ain't the best, it's OK at best right? Well, not the visuals, which are some of the best of all time. The OST slaps, the Avatar is fun AF, game's full of spectacle, the way it handles in-game dialogue is good. Lost World, pretty much everyone agrees it's the most forgettable and bastardized product. OK, still looks visually distinct and charming, the parkour is amazing (despite not being what I want from Sonic), polished AF, at least they tried to create some interesting character dynamics. 06. One of the best OSTs ever, some of the best level design we've ever seen, Mephiles (enough said), Soleanna is iconic AF, Silver is a great addition, the story is arguably the only time they've ever tried to tell an epic and well yeah, 06's plot does feel epic in the way it's told. We could go on, find good and outright great in all the games. Similarly we could go and find bad and outright 🐕💩 in all the games too. Problem is NOBODY IS DOING THIS. EVERY. SINGLE. PLACE. I SEE there's always the same talk, "Shadow the Hedgehog is just edgy 1/10", "06 is an unfinished mess 1/10", "Colors is cringe 1/10", "Lost World is bad 1/10", "Forces is boost to win everything sucks 1/10", "Rise of Lyric sucks 1/10", "Mania is just like S3&K 1/10", "SA2 is flawless 10/10", "Black Knight has the best Sonic 10/10", "Unleashed is peak 10/10" CAN YOU ALL JUST STOP?! Don't you know any other numbers aside 1 and 0?! Most of you are literally incapable of seeing both good and bad in games and judging accordingly, you only have 2 extremes, 2 polar opposites, it's either peak or trash. There is NO OTHER fanbase where this is so consistently and commonly prevalent. You can't think critically as a fanbase, you see everything in black and white, there is no having a conversation with the average Sonic fan, it's a matter of whether you'll encounter an x product hater or an x product simp with nothing in-between in that specific engagement. All these 3 attributes combined provide the obvious. A toxic, unpleasant, critically and creatively bankrupt, unfocused, undeserving, meanspirited, blinded and fundamentally troubled fanbase. It's why we get issues like the one you went over in your video (great video btw🎉).

It doesn't have a problem, it is the Problem

i think a problem with social media influencers is they feel the _need_ to make content when its clearly not time for it, because for them its their job and identity. So what ends up happening is a lot of half baked takes that usually dont age well. It's not just a Sonic problem, its with most things. They also make this content because they _know_ certain people take their opinion as gospel. Which is what bothers me a lot. Ive learned to not trust most influencers or fandom "news" channels/personalities.

"The Closer you get to Light the greater your Shadow Becomes" I find it Crazy that we would much rather be Toxic then be kind to one another. The Story behind the Hot Takes series is to have fun and to give Constructive criticism to others when it comes to Videos Thoughts about things ETC Similar to RU-vidrs like TheActMan I Love seeing others have different takes then I to hear them out and talk about stuff in Good Faith. Also I love the way you keep improving your content with using Davinchi i will say your Audio balancing is a bit off hearing more Music then you but overall i love what you have done with this channel keep up the great work

I think the real origin of this behavior was trickled down from the roots of early 2010s fans feeling like they had been all but ostracized due to the fact that, at the time, Sonics reputation was firmly in the shitter, since then, it has improved drastically, and in a way while most people have simply felt more comfortable, others actually have become paranoid, to the point where any relatively negative opinion can make people get defensive because NO ONE wants to go back to the 2010s where bringing up Sonic can get you laughed at. Its not an excuse, but it is a reason. That being said, the overly negative opinions are a result of current Modern Gaming in general, people have been burned by buggy releases and greedy distributors to the point that people actively look for a reason to dislike something if it isnt immediatly what they want, which for people like Matt who has voiced his distaste of Forces more than anyone really should, can make it easy to say anything that doesnt immediately catch your attention is boring, which makes it "bad" The main thing we need to do is understand that BOTH praise and criticism is what allows developers to improve their designs and ideas, if all you give is praise nothing wrong will be fixed, and if all you do is complain, devs may end up scrapping the entire idea, its all about Moderation.

People said i had skill issue since i disliked sonic unleashed

We're humans, sonic twitter need to remember that we're not A.I!

In all truth, the reason behind the fandom's issue with discourse is because half of the time, people don't word their opinions properly. Take for example this. "Dude, Sonic Heroes is Trash. Idk why anybody likes that garbage tbh" vs. "I'm not really a fan of Heroes personally. I get the appeal, but the controls really aren't for me, I found them infuriating." Which one sounds more agreeable? Not saying this is every case, but in most cases where I see someone get jumped on for an opinion, it's usually worded in the first example's fashion. Part of it is also the RU-vid Game Reviewer effect, where we had so many bad faith reviews that are all worded extremely similarly to the first example, that many have an oversensitive reaction to shit that sounds like it. Let me be clear though, this isn't every case, and the community still does dogpile on people for having genuine opinions, even when worded properly, don't get me wrong, but I see this sort of comment way too often. Respectful discourse has to come from both sides, and has to come from a good-faith perspective.

It’s literally impossible to share an opinion in this fandom without getting harassed even if it’s a positive opinion. Sonic fans will literally attack you or judge you for liking something that they don’t like. I know Matt has some controversial opinions that I don’t agree with but he’s still one of my favorite Sonictubers.

5:14 yeah I was going to say that, and I still will say it: this is not exclusively a Sonic problem. Like you said, Star Wars. As someone who likes Star Wars, I can definitely say that that community is extremely divided to what I think is beyond repair. And it’s also happening in the Spider-Man community, with the recent insomniac game that came out; opinions are very divided (I personally love the game) and it has caused a lot of discourse among people. Like you said it’s okay if you liked something that most would say is a bad product. For example regarding Star Wars, the Ahsoka series. A lot of people don’t really like it, but I enjoyed a good amount of it. It’s just my opinion. At the end of the day, I feel like this is something you mostly see online, and it’s people’s opinions. We just shouldn’t let it bother us too much. (I have no idea how I could’ve ended that thought with the correct wording and stuff) Good video.

I blame the sonic tubers for fueling the divide

It’s the internet dude. It’s pointless to complain about people getting hate for bad opinions every fanbase is like that

I personally couldn't care less that he doesn't like Shadow's stages. That's fine, he's allowed to not like them. But what he was was just untrue. That wasn't an opinion, that was just incorrect. It's incorrect to the point where I genuinely question if he's actually _played_ Forces, because if he did, he's clearly misremembering what Forces looked like.

My belief was that everyone was pumped for this game I mean its Sonic Generations with MORE content, what's not to like? People are wild sometimes

I've been a fan of the Sonic games since playing the original game on the Mega Drive as a child but i've never bothered with the fandom cos most fandoms are toxic AF.

from a decent community back to being what it was after forces. i feel like half of the community is badically a joke at this point

I feel Sonic Forces killed people's family because no one moves on

i wouldnt really have a call to attention be referred to as a negative video, someone had to say it!

crazy that twitter users (people who are at least 13 years or older) get genuinely pressed when someone criticises a literal children's game

You should be able to like any sonic game you want

Just because i love sa2b Gcn and SA on Dreamcast dose not mean you bully that guy if like sonic or mario or crash is your opinion can we Just get along and like what like

SpeedSuperSonic, The Sonic Show, and GamerGuyd7Aces all need to be gate-kept out of the Sonic Community since they're all guilty of your criticisms and are massive shills that make things worse for us real Sonic fans who want the quality of each game to be immaculate. They weigh us down and as a result, we get mediocre titles. Screw them honestly.