A friend of Sonic is a friend of mine (unless he's a complete douche), and Aaron definitely is a friend of Sonic. Fun streams #sonictoaster #aarweebs
Personally, I think the problem with the "attack helicopter" meme is that, at face value, it may not even occur to someone that it was meant to demean a group of people. It only clicked for me personally when it was referred to as transphobic on Wikipedia's main page in 2020. Perhaps some of it was the environment of 2015-2016 culture, where some of the circles I was in had a reactionary response to what was seen as overzealous nonsense, of the sort of that let the events of 2016 and 2020 happen. May I see the original source for this claim? As for Aaron-era Sonic Twitter... I found it amusing, but I like the current iteration where it feels capable of having fun, yet able to take itself seriously enough. Releasing a visual novel for April Fools' Day is a plus.
I just kind of assumed it was the case, since the account DID go silent for a few days. I remember when it happened. Doing some research, Polygon asked him about it at the time, and he chose not to apologize. In fact he seemed to blame everyone else. So yeah, maybe he wasn't actually told off for it. That said, I don't like criticizing people for things they did or said 7 years ago. That's not activism, and that's not justice. I'd like to think that he's learned a thing or two since then. I think my biggest problem with Aaron's handling of the social media account, more than that one tasteless tweet or the unfunny jokes, were tweets like these: Spoiler Several times during 2015-2016, Aaron would mock Sonic's critics or take jabs at other franchises, like man...come on. At the time, it was like "OHHHHHH BURN" but looking back, good god it was cringe. It was some of the most unprofessional behavior I've ever seen from a brand account. I've seen brands mock each other, in planned and staged "twitter feuds", but THIS kind of shade isn't much better than a popular Youtuber telling their audience to go harass someone.
Ehhh… mocking developers is definitely shitty but mocking critics is fair game in my opinion, for exactly the same reason mocking the creators sucks. The incentive structure for game critics encourages hyperbolic, negative statements and a lack of nuance.
I really disliked Aaron Webber as the social media manager. Always have done. He was very skilled and turned the public opinion of the Sonic brand around so no doubt deserves credit for that. but I think in many ways he was a driving force which inspired the constantly self deprecating and self referential nature of the franchise. It would often result in pathetic self flagellation (with Egoraptor) or toxic fanboy internet culture (mocking other game developers and that awful attack helicopter joke). I think Katie probably isn't as charismatic as he is but she's far less annoying and I prefer her as manager.
This is Jim Sterling we're talking about - the same person who said anyone who complained about Sonic 4's physics was a "confirmed virgin" and called members of Sonic Team (who are literally crunching to meet unrealistic deadlines 24/7) something across the lines of "lazy hack fucks" because they didn't like Frontiers. Normally I wouldn't encourage taking a shot at a reviewer who didn't like a game but given the vitriol of Sterling's rhetoric I'd say it was fine. And plus, that was just Webber playing around - it's not like he was encouraging harassment. It was a cheeky reference to something that happened five years ago by that point and nothing more.
Yeah, even if I were opposed to the Twitter mocking critics, I'd make an exception for Jim. Don't know what that Tweet in particular was a reply to though. I never use Twitter so my only exposure to Webber's stuff on there was when people would share it here.
Sterling is such a weird case. I respect a lot of her journalistic efforts when it comes to exposing a lot of nasty shit in the games industry, but she acted like an actual child when it came to Frontiers. The breaking point was when people criticized the "lazy hack fucks" line and they responded with something like "I never called them lazy hacks, I just said that only a bunch of lazy hacks could have made a game like this". Which is, uh, a pretty weak defense.
My issue with Sterling is that while I find myself agreeing with a good chunk of what they say, they're so vitriolic that I stopped watching anyway. Her reviews at this point are just rants about how they hate the fans of the game and any talk about the actual quality of the game itself is a total afterthought.
Let me be clear that I'm not saying Sterling didn't deserve shots taken at them. But those shots don't need to come from the main Sonic brand account. It's tacky. If Aaron really wanted to do that, he should've done it on his alt. You never see Sonic twitter mocking Ken Penders, regardless of how much he deserves it. Even if there weren't possible legalities preventing that, Aaron wouldn't have done it anyway.
I like how in that same article, Sterling let Iizuka's comment that ceiling-running was a new addition to Sonic's 2D moveset just slide by. You'd think that'd be the kind of bullshit a journalist would call out.
he should've posted the rafaknight takedown on the official sonic account Anyway actual unpopular opinion: I think the Chao Garden is mid as hell
The Chao Garden kept my occupied for a while when I was 11 years old and playing SADX for the first time. But it wasn't long before I got really, really bored of it. The problem with the Chao Garden is how hands-off it is. The limit of your interaction with the thing is to drop animals in front of your Chao, and spam the pet button if you want to change their alignment. Other than that, it's a just literal hours of waiting basically nothing.
I don't have a lot of experience with the Chao Gardens myself, but I do think they really suffer from the Adventure games' insistence on using a single button for several different actions. The difference between "gently put your Chao down" and "lob your Chao halfway across the garden" is way too slight - I keep having to make absolutely sure I'm standing completely still before I press it.
That's not even a remotely unpopular opinion. I don't think anyone is going to say "I get a thrill from the action button roulette".
Six year old me would die for my Chao. Six year old me literally cried for my Chao!! Which is unfortunate because raising one without accidentally abusing the shit out of it was pretty much impossible in SA2DC where the attack action bizarrely WASN'T turned off. Compounded with dumbass child me only knowing how to hatch an egg by chucking it at the wall. All my Chao came out all disabled and instantly hating me and I remember the feelings of guilt legit stressing me out. On top of the fact that they don't reincarnate and die permanently if you keep rolling into them just meaning to fucking PET THEM. This is partly on dumbass child me for not even having the patience to just wait a minute to find out the eggs hatch themselves, nor the intuition to think to try shaking it. I think I considered it par for the course back then considering Eggman's got a Chao specific hitting animation and beating them affects their alignment even. Point is regardless of my sentimental feelings, the SA2DC experience is pretty much broken by the two-button philosophy roulette bullshit, if not actually designed by sadists. Was kinda pissed finally getting to really play the SA2B version once I got a Gamecube just with how it was actually relaxing and possible to raise your Chao right. SA1's Chao Garden always felt too shallow to care about but I think one seemingly shallow thing I actually prefer about the Dreamcast versions is not being able to directly see your Chao's stats and instead having to infer just from how it looks and interacts. I think my Chao Garden nostalgia really mostly comes from that sense of wonder and discovery. E.g. finally seeing a speed Chao turn green and grow quills for the first time, for reasons I wasn't even entirely sure of. The stat bars are super convenient and being able to name your Chao without VMU is nice, but it spoils the magic in a way. IDK maybe I just liked it so much because I was six. Wait this isn't the horrible Chao braindump thread
I kinda wanna see Sonia and Manic return, not as Sonic's siblings, but maybe like some weird Eggman experiments gone wrong Voiced by Jaleel White, of course, who could replace him?
