Would you say that Zelda has a good fanbase?

I'm going to have to say no: the Zelda series does not have a good fanbase. In fact, I think that for the most part, the Zelda fanbase is pretty awful.

Now, for the record, I don't have a problem with most of the average Zelda fans, like the forum goers and the people who just generally like the series - you guys are all okay. My beef is with some of the more prominent members of the fanbase, like the webmasters and the guys who write articles for certain websites, who tend to get waaaaay above themselves, and some of them are just trolls.

In my opinion, the biggest troll in the fanbase is TSA: the guy who created Gannon-Banned. Admittedly, it was a pretty funny site at first, but as time went on it just became a place where he could present his oft-controversial opinions as facts, with the intent to provoke annoyed response from the fanbase. That's trolling. That's trolling on a massive scale. Seriously, the guy's a douchebag.

Other douchebags include the people who write articles for ZeldaInformer, which is pretty much the tabloid press of Zelda news websites, except even more opinionated. Their writing staff: "The Bombers", are a complete joke, whose articles are full of fanboyish whining and are hillariously unprofessional. There are a bunch of other Zelda fansites that do the same thing, but ZeldaInformer is the biggy.

Other people who annoy me include the so-called "timeline experts", who actually know as little about the timeline as the rest of us - a fact that became painfully clear back in 2007 when the "United Wise Men" had their timeline shot down, which was nice.

It's a shame that one of the best videogame franchises ever has one of the worst fanbases I've ever happened upon. What do you think of the Zelda fanbase?

It happens to all long running series, People develop MASSIVE egos, combined with the Internet and E-Penis syndrome, People tend to get inflated views of self importance on a game and just attack everyone to further that. The Resident evil Fanbase has pretty much self destructed, Final Fantasy has been in a state of cival war for years, you are right of course, but it happens to every long running series and only furthers to destablise the game itself, Looking to DnD and the 4th edition where the fanbase pretty much went super nova.

I agree with everything you said. If you want everything that has become predominant in the games taken from them, you are not a fan. You just don't like the games and want some excuse to still call yourself a Zelda fan. Seriously.

"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need to get rid of Ganon."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but the Triforce needs to go."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need to replace the sword with a gun."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need new main characters. I'm sick of Link and Zelda."

^WHAT?
That makes no sense. People who go on and on about this are obviously tired of the series but don't want to admit it to themselves. They give a really bad name to the fanbase and they are anything but loyal.

Another thing that bothers me is all the new 12-year-old Zelda fans you see on GameFAQs who think Ocarina of Time is "extremely hard" and aren't even aware that there are Zelda games before Ocarina of Time. I was seven when I beat that game, without a player's guide. These new fans are just stupid.

Originally Posted by Meeps

I'm going to have to say no: the Zelda series does not have a good fanbase. In fact, I think that for the most part, the Zelda fanbase is pretty awful.

I wouldn't say awful.
I'd say incredibly fickle and very vocal with their fickleness.

They're extremely protective of the fracnshie and its quality.
If it wasn't for the fan reaction to Wind Waker (originally) then there would be no Twilight Princess to cater to the fandom for example.

Now, for the record, I don't have a problem with most of the average Zelda fans, like the forum goers and the people who just generally like the series - you guys are all okay. My beef is with some of the more prominent members of the fanbase, like the webmasters and the guys who write articles for certain websites, who tend to get waaaaay above themselves, and some of them are just trolls.

You should probably find out what a real troll is.

In my opinion, the biggest troll in the fanbase is TSA: the guy who created Gannon-Banned. Admittedly, it was a pretty funny site at first, but as time went on it just became a place where he could present his oft-controversial opinions as facts, with the intent to provoke annoyed response from the fanbase. That's trolling. That's trolling on a massive scale. Seriously, the guy's a douchebag.

TSA is indeed a great douchebag that needs slapping down a few notches, agreed.
Again, not trolling. Just douche-baggery.

Other douchebags include the people who write articles for ZeldaInformer, which is pretty much the tabloid press of Zelda news websites, except even more opinionated. Their writing staff: "The Bombers", are a complete joke, whose articles are full of fanboyish whining and are hillariously unprofessional. There are a bunch of other Zelda fansites that do the same thing, but ZeldaInformer is the biggy.

Psssst. The Bombers started life on ZU and consisted of practically the same members with the same style of writing.
Al reviews are fanon based. As such, the subjectivity you're complaining about is thus unjustified.
If you want a completely unbiased, strictly factual review, then don't look too a group that publish articles based on their opinion that are backed up by sources ingame to simply qualify their opinions.
Keyword: Opinion. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Oh - and just so you know, likewise, a lot of ZI members came from Zelda universe.
Pretty much counters your "ZU is fine" statement earlier on.

Other people who annoy me include the so-called "timeline experts", who actually know as little about the timeline as the rest of us - a fact that became painfully clear back in 2007 when the "United Wise Men" had their timeline shot down, which was nice.

Agreed.
Timeline "experts" are amount the most pretentious, egotistical pieces of ♥♥♥♥ ever to disgrace the Zelda community.
Again, good example with the United Wise Men, who were all so far up their own asses they couldn't differentiate between their own pomposity and the truth and logic...well, as much as can exist with the timeline.
It brought a huge satisfaction to myself and many, many, many others to see their reaction when it was revealed the timeline was split, and then saw their reaction.
Many, like the "leader" LOZ Historian even claimed they were actually more accurate than Nintendo, which is laughable in itself, before (again, the same individual" began posting huge posts and threads about how Nintendo has betrayed him, how much he hates Nintendo and will stick to his own timeline - a post of course, accompanied by self-drawn (badly) images and pictures and music to fuel his journey of self-adoration, despite having his ass thoroughly handed to him.

It's a shame that one of the best videogame franchises ever has one of the worst fanbases I've ever happened upon. What do you think of the Zelda fanbase?

Again, I'd argue if the fanbase wasn't as thorough or vocal as the Zelda community, then the quality of the games could drop and the franchise would lose interest.
I'd say the Zelda fanbase are the spiritual opposites of the Sonic fanbase wherein the lack of being vocal and critical for theseries led to it falling into disrepute and the shoddy games that get released as no-one seems to care.
If the Zelda fabase has one thing above most other fanbases, it's how much the people care, regardless of wither the comment made are positive or negative.

Originally Posted by SuperDecimal

I wouldn't say awful.
I'd say incredibly fickle and very vocal with their fickleness.

They're extremely protective of the fracnshie and its quality.
If it wasn't for the fan reaction to Wind Waker (originally) then there would be no Twilight Princess to cater to the fandom for example.

I don't think Twilight Princess was bad in theory, it was just rushed. You can blame the fanbase for freaking out about Nintendo delaying it so much. If they hadn't rushed Nintendo, Twilight Princess could have turned out to be epic.

Timeline "experts" are amount the most pretentious, egotistical pieces of ♥♥♥♥ ever to disgrace the Zelda community.

It's not just that, I don't think we are the ones who should speculate over the timeline--especially after Nintendo released an official one. People still argued over it and tried to ignore the official timeline. It made absolutely no sense and it was just stupid.

If the Zelda fabase has one thing above most other fanbases, it's how much the people care, regardless of wither the comment made are positive or negative.

You make a good point here.

Originally Posted by kreebby

I don't think Twilight Princess was bad in theory, it was just rushed. You can blame the fanbase for freaking out about Nintendo delaying it so much. If they hadn't rushed Nintendo, Twilight Princess could have turned out to be epic.

Nono - you misunderstand what I said.
I was saying that because the fans were so ruthless in criticising the graphical style of Wind Waker, Nintendo created Twilight Princess with a serious style as "a love letter to all fans of Ocarina of Time" (I believe is the quote they gave).

If there wasn't such a vocal backlash, Twilight Princess would likely never have been created and made in the way it ended up.

It's not just that, I don't think we are the ones who should speculate over the timeline--especially after Nintendo released an official one. People still argued over it and tried to ignore the official timeline. It made absolutely no sense and it was just stupid.

We have every right to debate all aspects of the franchise.
Just this holier-than-thou attitude, like that the United Wise Men took, is just unacceptable. Was just irony how the one thing they were "united against" turned out to be canon.

I'm an active user in several video game fanbases.....

....yes, of all of them, Zelda is by far the worst. when it comes to this. they are by far the whiniest, most pretentious, most immature, suck up dumbasses to enjoy a series I also enjoy.

The Halo fanbase isn't even this bad and they're terrible.

Depends on the site in the case of trying to understand it through the web.

That said, your descriptions of everything I've yet never heard (sans Ganon-banned, which I've never really paid much mind to in the first place) certainly make them sound pretty pitiful. Any excerpts by chance?

The simple fact that Ganon banned got popular in the first place in proof alone.

Originally Posted by kreebby

"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need to get rid of Ganon."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but the Triforce needs to go."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need to replace the sword with a gun."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need new main characters. I'm sick of Link and Zelda."
.

You'd be surprised about how many topics there are like these at ZU lol.

I would have to agree with you on some of your points. It is true that many self proclaimed "Proffesional Zelda Therorists" and "Preofeesional Time Line Therorists" are waaaaaay to full of themselves. They pretend to be experts in a field in which the only experts are those who work on the games and they often believe that they are better than the average zelda fan, in which many cases they take already known facts and use a theseareus and wikipedia to "buff up" their articles. Its pretty funny actually.

kreebby, congratulations. You guessed my two ultimate Zelda fan pet peeves.

Originally Posted by kreebby

"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need to get rid of Ganon."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but the Triforce needs to go."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need to replace the sword with a gun."
"I'm a huge fan of Zelda but they need new main characters. I'm sick of Link and Zelda."

^WHAT?
That makes no sense. People who go on and on about this are obviously tired of the series but don't want to admit it to themselves. They give a really bad name to the fanbase and they are anything but loyal.

This bugs me the most. A lot of people, not only here but on the internet in general, want "A Zelda game that is exactly like [insert popular franchise here] only with Link, wouldn't that be cooooll?!+1".

Still, I am a pretty open-minded kind of guy who would like some features from other games, in particular features from MMORPGs' such as synth, farming. Things that would fit within the existing Zelda style and universe.

There is a difference between wishing Zelda was a FPS with bazookas and wanting new, but fitting, features. There's the other side to the story, as a lot of fans forget this and just want their Ocarina of Time "sequals" with absolutely no change.

Originally Posted by kreebby

Another thing that bothers me is all the new 12-year-old Zelda fans you see on GameFAQs who think Ocarina of Time is "extremely hard" and aren't even aware that there are Zelda games before Ocarina of Time. I was seven when I beat that game, without a player's guide. These new fans are just stupid.

This bugged me a lot back in 04-05 when I was new here. Everyone seemed to refer to OoT as the "first Zelda" or "Zelda 1" and that really pissed me off. The previous four titles are awesome and deserve recognition, even if the new 3D adventures have stolen the spotlight.

I have cooled down a lot since then and the fans in general have become better at recognizing and actually playing the older adventures. I guess we should partly thank the Collector's Edition disc for GameCube and the Virtual Console downloads for the improvement.

This is a very good thread and the original poster is not hypocritical at all.

Also, Zelda has a good fanbase.

It's hands down the most immature and ignorant fanbase of any major video game franchise, with an obnoxiously distorted view on the gaming industry. I have absolutely no reservations about saying that. The fanbase is the reason why I made a deliberate effort to get out of writing primarily about Zelda and instead become active with the general video game community.


One disagreement, though; TSA ain't as bad as he lets on. I may have a biased viewpoint on that (and I do), but if you get to know him, he can be a pretty cool guy.

Originally posted SuperDecimal
Psssst. The Bombers started life on ZU and consisted of practically the same members with the same style of writing.

I didn't quite understand this sentence. Do you mean that the Bombers got their start here on ZU, or that they were the first for serious analysis and writing of the franchise on ZU?

Originally Posted by Jeff

I didn't quite understand this sentence. Do you mean that the Bombers got their start here on ZU, or that they were the first for serious analysis and writing of the franchise on ZU?

They started on ZU, then migrated to ZI. In fact, a lot (if not all) of the current writing staff are members of both sites.

Yeah, I know that. I've been around longer than most of (if not, all) of them.

I want to know what SD was implying with that sentence.

I think it's a little douchey to whine about other fans, especially when you're naming specific ones who might be offended if they come across your post. I mean, putting your opinions out there, even if they're controversial or extremely in-depth, is perfectly fine. In fact, part of why Zelda's fanbase is so awesome is the fact that the fans are passionate about the series. Whether or not you agree with the various opinions out there, I say you should still be happy that there are fans out there who actually give a damn about the series. But whining about certain people behind their backs? Lame.

The fanbase is awesome. There are arguments and debate. Sometimes people troll, sometimes people get along. Still, the fanbase is huge and very much involved in the series, and I think that's awesome. We just got new Zelda beanies and hats in at GameStop in our shipment recently, and when I saw them, I squealed like the fangirl that I am. A customer who witnessed the even got excited as well, and it sparked an extremely long conversation about the series. We agreed on some things and disagreed on others, but this complete stranger and I were bonding over a series that we both loves. Believe it or not, that kind of thing happens pretty often.

So yeah, the fanbase is great. There are many douches out there, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the fanbase is huge and very dedicated to the series. ♥

Originally Posted by Jeff

I want to know what SD was implying with that sentence.

Originally Posted by Triforce of the Gods

They started on ZU, then migrated to ZI. In fact, a lot (if not all) of the current writing staff are members of both sites.

What's not to get?
The Bombers were created and made their articles on ZU, created and written by ZU members.
Most of those members also joined ZI and carried on their articles there.

If it wasn't clear, I was saying it's kinda funny to see the finger getting pointed at ZI and their bombers when they're in fact ZU members.

It sounded more like you meant they initiated big activity on ZU, seeing as how the comment you quoted ripped them for their writing talent and professionalism.

Plus, "they started life" just sounds really cheesy.

Originally Posted by Jeff

It sounded more like you meant they initiated big activity on ZU, seeing as how the comment you quoted ripped them for their writing talent and professionalism.

Well they did.
They were a large thing on ZU, but simply moved over to ZI.
I'm not commenting on how professional or competency of their writing.
The point was that the poster was saying that the ZI community and the Bombers were the utter worst fans he encountered.

So I'm letting him know that they all originated on ZU, thus the community here is largely at fault.

Plus, "they started life" just sounds really cheesy.

Yeah, I know that. I've been around longer than most of (if not, all) of them.

And the self-importance of that was equally as prosaic.