Burst
El Dandy
*inarticulate squawking*
Posts: 8,583
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Post by Burst on Jan 30, 2016 11:01:26 GMT -5
As in, when you have a reasonably popular but small community for a given book, game, whatever, but for whatever reason it really never takes off in the mainstream and stays obscure/niche enough that people start leaving for greener pastures and are never replaced. This is pretty much expanded on from my comment in the Sonic thread.
There's a Canadian YA novel series, the Silverwing series, that had a brief, single-season cartoon adaptation around 2009 or so; I remember it had a small but active fandom with about two or three main forums, a decent amount of fanfics, that sort of thing, but slowly, once it became obvious Kenneth Oppel had effectively concluded the series and that no new material was probably ever forthcoming, it started dying out. It's really sort of depressing when the only activity on a forum is the same one or two people poking back in and asking if anyone is still around, or when you search for fanart on some place like deviantArt and there's nothing that isn't 5+ years old.
I saw a similar decline with Klonoa, the Namco platformer series. Any dedicated fandom is dead, even though there was a Wii remake of the first game in the series a few years ago (albeit one where Namco made nearly zero effort to market it, going back to the 'setting things up to fail' thought process). I think pretty much the only thing keeping him around in fanart or what have you is because he aesthetically fits right in with Sonic and crosses over easily.
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Post by sternrogers01 on Jan 30, 2016 12:40:51 GMT -5
There was a small fan community for The Dreamstone I was a part of, I even got to strike up a friendship with it's creator, but over the years the community dwindled. I finally got back in contact with Mike via Facebook.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2016 12:51:14 GMT -5
He-Man. From making Mattel $400mil one year to less than $10mil the next.
And yes, the movie came out in between.
From a kid's POV, we had toys and comics and exposure to MOTU, then the movie and some of its figures, and then........
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2016 14:20:29 GMT -5
Phantasy Star.
These days they are just Japanese MMO's that quite often don't see the outside world. I check the forum of Phantasy Star Cave every day and its getting rare that anyone even posts there.
Its sad as they were great games back in the day and I would love to play a new one.
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Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on Jan 30, 2016 14:45:46 GMT -5
I wasn't an active member or anything, but I know there was a vocal Avatar fandom shortly after the movie came out.
Go figure, most of it revolved around Neytiri (personally I thought she was the one interesting character, and Zoe Salanda had the best performance in the film, so I get it).
That might be a more mainstream example than you asked for, but it definitely flared up and then petered out fairly fast.
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Post by James Fabiano on Jan 30, 2016 14:46:44 GMT -5
I am seeing that now in Steven Universe, with people growing disillusioned by the wackos on message boards.
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Post by sternrogers01 on Jan 30, 2016 14:52:21 GMT -5
I sort of want to ask if anyone is still watching the Pokemon anime? The overall franchise itself is still a big deal, but I don't see anyone above the target demographic talk about that anymore, probably because they caught on that Ash is never going to be anything other than a mid-carder
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jan 30, 2016 15:00:52 GMT -5
I know the spinoffs and sequels lasted A LONG time, but in my school Power Rangers went from the coolest thing ever to lame as hell in the blink of an eye.
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Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
Posts: 6,847
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Post by Reflecto on Jan 30, 2016 15:10:34 GMT -5
I know the spinoffs and sequels lasted A LONG time, but in my school Power Rangers went from the coolest thing ever to lame as hell in the blink of an eye. Does that count, since that's closer to the three year rule that usually kills most kids' shows: Year 1: A show debuts. It's good or bad, kids can like it. Year 2: It has enough episodes to be aired 5 days a week/weekly. It becomes a major deal and a huge force, every kid is crazy about it. Year 3: The show's been on long enough so the kids' younger siblings start to become fans, which instantly makes the original fans no longer think the show is cool (and thus, it's no longer profitable to keep making episodes, since it'll keep running back what you already have for as long as there are siblings in the house.) It's been different with kids' shows that have a lot of older fans, but traditionally that's how it tends to end up.
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dav
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,030
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Post by dav on Jan 30, 2016 15:10:43 GMT -5
I sort of want to ask if anyone is still watching the Pokemon anime? The overall franchise itself is still a big deal, but I don't see anyone above the target demographic talk about that anymore, probably because they caught on that Ash is never going to be anything other than a mid-carder It still has its fans and the like. Most of the attention's taken up by the games though.
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Post by Cyno on Jan 30, 2016 15:15:24 GMT -5
Shadow Hearts: a niche RPG series for the PS2 that had a small, but fairly active fandom. And then Aruze dissolved the studio that made it and sent what was left of the franchise into Pachinko Hell.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jan 30, 2016 15:18:15 GMT -5
I know the spinoffs and sequels lasted A LONG time, but in my school Power Rangers went from the coolest thing ever to lame as hell in the blink of an eye. Does that count, since that's closer to the three year rule that usually kills most kids' shows: Year 1: A show debuts. It's good or bad, kids can like it. Year 2: It has enough episodes to be aired 5 days a week/weekly. It becomes a major deal and a huge force, every kid is crazy about it. Year 3: The show's been on long enough so the kids' younger siblings start to become fans, which instantly makes the original fans no longer think the show is cool (and thus, it's no longer profitable to keep making episodes, since it'll keep running back what you already have for as long as there are siblings in the house.) It's been different with kids' shows that have a lot of older fans, but traditionally that's how it tends to end up. Sounds about right.
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hassanchop
Grimlock
Who are you to doubt Belldandy?
Posts: 14,784
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Post by hassanchop on Jan 30, 2016 15:28:34 GMT -5
School Rumble. I think it was the ending that killed it for them, or maybe the latter chapters, some folks that got introduced to the show tell me that they didn't find it that good, or not that exciting as others would tell them.
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Post by wildojinx on Jan 30, 2016 16:48:54 GMT -5
There are several animes that used to have a huge following that pretty much flamed out overnight: FLCL Inu-Yasha Slayers Outlaw Star Tenchi Muyo Love Hina Ranma 1/2 Not saying these shows arent still popular, but you almost never see people bringing them up in "best anime" lists anymore
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Post by Milkman Norm on Jan 30, 2016 18:13:18 GMT -5
There once was this comic who did this hilarious bit about giving his kids cake for breakfast. He had all these fans. Now he doesn't.
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Post by Heeltown, USA on Jan 30, 2016 20:34:15 GMT -5
The FirePro community is all but extinct save for a literal handful of creators and the guys who use it for eFeds.
Between S and Returns' US release there was aton of boards and people creating.
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stealthamo
King Koopa
Something stupid
#AJAll
Posts: 11,247
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Post by stealthamo on Jan 30, 2016 20:41:01 GMT -5
I was big into the Guitar Hero fandom in like '08/'09. When the series flamed out in 2010, so did a ton of the fanbase. There is a bit of a revival with the release of Guitar Hero Live, but a lot of the people have moved on.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Jan 30, 2016 20:47:07 GMT -5
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hassanchop
Grimlock
Who are you to doubt Belldandy?
Posts: 14,784
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Post by hassanchop on Jan 30, 2016 22:40:46 GMT -5
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Urethra Franklin
King Koopa
When Toronto sports teams lose, Alison Brie is sad
Posts: 11,089
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Post by Urethra Franklin on Jan 30, 2016 22:49:18 GMT -5
I wasn't an active member or anything, but I know there was a vocal Avatar fandom shortly after the movie came out. Go figure, most of it revolved around Neytiri (personally I thought she was the one interesting character, and Zoe Salanda had the best performance in the film, so I get it). That might be a more mainstream example than you asked for, but it definitely flared up and then petered out fairly fast. I can't remember who tweeted it, but I saw this around the release of The Force Awakens. Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all-time - Name one character and quote a famous line. It's such a weird moment in time, rather than any kind of pop cultural phenomenon.
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