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I'm running a poll about Sonic fandom

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Josh, Dec 31, 2018.

  1. Josh

    Josh

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    Here's the poll: https://www.strawpoll.me/17141313/

    And yeah, I'm aware that not everyone's going to agree with these delineations of eras, and that what I'm defining as "modern" is way too long. I guess I could have gone "pre-Generations" and "post-Generations," or something, but eh.

    The idea here is to see how much truth there is to the idea that most Sonic fans really just want what they grew up with, and how favored each era is among that group. Not that there's anything wrong with nostalgia, but it's something that gets bandied about a lot with Sonic, especially.

    I'm posting it here because Twitter and Reddit both skew pretty young, haha. I've only gotten three votes as of now from people who started with the classic era, and one of them was me! :P
     
  2. 360

    360

    Light Vision Overdrive Oldbie
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    Cool idea. Voted "Classic and it's my favourite". Looking at your results we're getting torpedoed by the Sonic Adventure massive - which at a guess is because Sonic skews young nowadays.

    By the way you make awesome videos! Excited to see your new material in the other Sonic retrospective thread. Especially the Sonic 06 one.
     
  3. Josh

    Josh

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    Yeah, it's kinda strange. My YouTube demographics tell me that a little over half of TGC viewers are around my own age, 30. But I ran an age poll on Twitter a few months back, and found that a majority of people who follow me there skew about a decade younger!

    I'm guessing that's more down to the demographics of the sites themselves, though. Just about everyone's on YouTube, but "newer" social media platforms like Twitter probably have more active members that skew a bit younger, whereas us oldbies are the ones keeping these antiquated message boards going, haha.
     
  4. ItsBrieDude

    ItsBrieDude

    my brain is the spinning seal gif Member
    I began with the modern era, and while I do think I'm probably more tolerant of the newer games questionable quality than most my heart is definitely with Sonic 3. I think a good follow up quiz would be "If you voted that your era wasn't your favorite, what was your favorite era?"
     
  5. TheKazeblade

    TheKazeblade

    "Our Life is More than a Side-Effect" Member
    I voted "Adventure but it's not my favorite." But it was really tough, because while the Adventure era was where I got into Sonic, I read the comics and played the PC ports of the Classics and the Saturn games before I actually owned a Dreamcast (even though I DID play Adventure at Dreamcast kiosks first). But ultimately I have to be able to separate how I view the Adventure titles and the great ideas that they strive for from the actual products. And the fact that only roughly 2 of the five titles of the era are solid by any stretch.
     
  6. FollOw

    FollOw

    The sun sets forever over Black Water Park Oldbie
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    I voted classic and its my favorite...I'm shocked its not in the lead...
     
  7. Skyler

    Skyler

    Neonネオン Cowgirlカウガール Site Staff
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    The next audtion
    Put this post in the video pls.
     
  8. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    Genesis 2 Sonic 2 bundle guy here, reporting for duty. It was a present for my older brother at the time, so I was the de facto "Yeah your totally playing!" Tails kid.
     
  9. MainMemory

    MainMemory

    Kate the Wolf Tech Member
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    I grew up with a Genesis with Sonic 1 and 2, but Sonic Adventure has to be my favorite.
     
  10. plushifoxed

    plushifoxed

    it's a DREAM PARADOX Oldbie
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    The first one I owned was Adventure (and the Smash Pack disc with Sonic 1 on it), but the first ones I actually ever got anywhere near beating were Adventure 2 Battle and Sonic and Knuckles Collection. So it's a toss-up, but I kind of consider Adventure my first anyway. My favorites are the classic era (mostly just CD, the 3 saga, and Mania), but Adventure, especially the modern polish-up done by people like MainMemory and PkR, is a very close second.
    Adventure 2 Battle used to be a big favorite of mine, but the PC/PS3 port let me re-examine it and caused me to have much more negative feelings about it. I realized I mostly just enjoyed the fun I had with friends playing Battle mode, and was upset about how badly SA2 trashed the series going forward.
    On that front I've mellowed out too, though; I can see how they actually did attempt to tie things together into the Sonic 3-through-Adventure mythos. It wasn't perfect, but it was the last, like, relatively consistent game in the series before it all fell off the rails. Nothing's come close in terms of story cohesion and the sense of a plot with a proper through-line between games since.
    Sorry for the sudden rant, but the topic got me thinking.
    Now HEROES on the other hand...Yikes.
     
  11. Zephyr

    Zephyr

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    With the "Classic era" obviously representing the antiquity of the series, and Modern being Modern, is it about time we recognize the "Adventure era" as Medieval Sonic?
     
  12. RDNexus

    RDNexus

    Member
    I started with 8-Bit Sonic before having the chance to play some 16-Bit Sonic like 1, 2 & S&K, at some friends' house.
    While the Classic Era marked my childhood quite a lot, the Adventures Games made me start to see Sonic as a series with a potential storyline, and also made me wanna delve deeper into the franchise.

    And @Josh, while I do have a Twitter account...I don't follow yours. Sorry.
    Only this past couple weeks did I see your reviews, and it was because you posted about them here.
     
  13. Aerosol

    Aerosol

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    Sonic (?): Coming summer of 2055...?
    I can't answer it. I don't have a favourite era. I like them all for different reasons.
     
  14. Very nifty idea at work here. Voted as Starting with Classic and still a major fan. It was tempting to vote for Adventure though, as that boosted by fandom to new heights. Ultimately though I started with Sonic 1 and loved the all the classics up to and including 3D Blast, and 3K has been my favorite ever since my initial playthrough as a kid.
     
  15. Laughingcow

    Laughingcow

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    I don't really have a favorite era but I loath the modern era. I started in the classics though.
     
  16. Ravenfreak

    Ravenfreak

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    No surprise seeing that "Started with the classics, and the classic era is my favorite" is currently number one on the poll, but that's what I started with and enjoy the most. I honestly haven't finished 99% of Sonic games that were released after '98 (aside from Forces for some reason) and I've completed the original Genesis games with all chaos emeralds in hand countless times. To be fair, all I had until 2003 was a PS1 and Sega Genesis, so I didn't have access to the Dreamcast titles when they were first released. (And 10 year old me didn't like Sonic Adventure for some odd reason...)
     
  17. Maybe this would've worked better if there were 2 separate questions:

    1- Which era did you start with?
    2- Which era is you favorite?

    This would give you more information than trying to cram permutations of the possible individual answers into a single answer.
     
  18. Adamis

    Adamis

    Gimme waffles! Oldbie
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    I like the three eras.
    I grew up with the classics, with the first game on the Master System in 1991, followed by the Megadrive.
    I love the Adventure era, fond memories of discovering Sonic Adventure !
    I like the Modern era, especially the Unleashed-Generations era.
     
  19. 360

    360

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    Ah here we go. Classic is now in the lead with Adventure a strong second. All is right in the world. Your poll is a major success Josh. It has a hell of a lot of votes and interest.
     
  20. Prototype

    Prototype

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    I can't remember whether I first played Sonic 2 or Sonic 3, but I recall not playing Sonic 1 until later. We owned Sonic 3 so that got the most playtime, so it holds a special place in my heart. I still go back to it and play it sometimes - although it can be a bit hard to adjust to the limits of the system after playing Mania. I will maintain though that Classic Sonic was my era and it'll always be my favourite. I've got a fondness for Advance though.