Today saw the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account featured on prolific internet social media hub Buzzfeed.
For those who aren’t connected to the Twitterverse, you will have missed the rather spectacular recent awakening of the account, which gained a new level of sentience this year. In among it’s now self-awareness of the sizable collection of Sonic the Hedgehog internet memes, the account also called out several big name commentators and competitors this year, including Nintendo, and was temporarily taken over by Doctor Eggman for a day (although we’re sure we’ve heard that voice somewhere else before). Needless to say this has caused several internet-breaking moments, so much so it has caught the attention of many media outlets.
The account has even received an endorsement from Sonic the Hedgehog creator Naoto Oshima:
We at TSS salute the Sonic Twitter account and crafty creatures on the media team running it (including a certain Aaron Webber!), and we can’t wait for the next post!
Gotta go fatsr.
A printed sheet of paper in his hands doesn’t really count as his endorsement/support to me.
If he actually loved it he would have written and drawn something on that sheet with his own hands. Here they just printed something and told him to hold it and smile.
That’s the joke.
He wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t agree with it…
You have never heard of the words “money” and sellout if thats your conclusion.
Something something fan conspiracy theory something only reason why he would do this something something I don’t fin it funny something something conspiracy.
Haha, its not about fan conspiracy. Its about you saying that he would never do it otherwise. Almost like you know the person in question or about what actualy transpired. If you say its highly unlikely, it would be one thing and i would agree. But you say “never” not counting in that there are various reasons to why a person might do something he/she doesnt agree with.
Sigh and just to not cause misunderstandment. when i say “never” im talking about you saying it like there wouldnt be any other options.
“He wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t agree with it…”
Your entire sentence, which doesnt consider other options, thus why i said never.
I feel sorry for you, HogFather. Always having to deal with these weirdos in the comments sections who take everything too seriously. You deserve a break.
I love underhanded comments like this. You do realise that the one answering a comment to begin with was hogfather right?. maybe you should feel pity for the op of this comment instead since hogfather took his comment too seriously.
Geez, so much pessimism! Can’t we just enjoy the picture and move on? No matter what, I think it’s sweet.
Well, Hero. Posetivity normaly requires that something good has happened, or is a way to cheer the group up during hard times. It doesnt require people to blindly smile at everything.
But yes, a nice picture. nothing against it. Oshima smiling and holding up a picture is cute.
Yeah, but Hogfather wasn’t the one who started rambling on about money and selling out over an obvious joke picture.
The community management team at both SOA & SOE has been doing an outstanding job lately.
Yeahhhh, the page is pretty good and all, but…
It’s never going to be great until Big the Cat reveals his true power and takes over.
Be patient my child…he is simply waiting. Biding his time until his return to glory, simply biding his time until the moment is ready.
Like fishing….for frogs.
He is the Enlightened Shadow of his former self, awaiting the moment to take cat form again to save this dying world… He is the Hand of God. He is the Dark Messiah. He is the Fishing One.
In a valiant fashion, Big shall ride his way to Sonic social media, with his majestic frog buddy beside him.
No, he’ll ride on his majestic steed, giant Froggy.
Shiny and chrome.
TO FISHING VALHALLAAAA!! WITNESS ME!!
I have no clue why the twitter account is getting praise for becomming the “meme king”. It doesnt realy benefit the franchise in any way. But i forget that its about having “fun” ( which you can have anywhere realy ). But good to know that fans cheer as the official sonic twitter account joins the mad house.
While it is certainly getting praise for the memes, I think there’s a deeper reason as to why fans feel like this is great. For years, Sega has been kind of distant from the fans. Sure it did some cool stuff, but it seemed to shy away from the fanbase’s doings outside of controlled environments like conventions.
Then Webber came and that all changed. Now Sonic is interacting with fans, joking around, getting people involved and talking about Sonic. This humanizes Sega, in a time when people have been demonizing it. It gets people talking to Sonic fans who aren’t crazy when they may have otherwise avoided places of Sonic discussion, improving its reputation a bit. It gets people discussing Sonic when they otherwise would not have cared about the franchise. It even acknowledges some of Sonic’s mistakes, which is much appreciated by the gaming community. Its brilliant.
Why them being distant should matter to us is beyond me. I thought being a sonic fan meant liking the brand and its products. Not that we talk to the staff and treat them like celebritys. Admiring the work of developers in general is one thing and i encourage wanting to know stuff about whats going on when they make games. But Sega isnt family, nor is it our friend. Its the company that we “the gamers” buy products we like from.
And a little bit of fun is alright, but praising the fact that the twitter has become focused on joking about its own franchise and how badly they have done things is just weird.
Being a Sonic fan does literally mean that you like the brand and product, but it carries the implication that you like or at least want to like the people behind Sonic stuff too. I mention the distance factor because fans have wanted informal interaction with Sega and Sonic Team for awhile, as it is something that proves that they do care. Before, all interactions were generally formal. Sega would mostly watch Sonic fans have their fun. Now Sega is getting actively involved in the fun, and its great. I don’t think its wrong for corporations to be on friendly terms with its fans– if anything, being friends with fans encourages people to buy stuff by making them more open to supporting the company.
You’d be surprised. People have interpreted this as a sign that Sega knows its done wrong and is acknowledging its mistakes, which is a good omen for the future. Besides, it hasn’t all been self-criticism– the Eggman event wasn’t self-critical.
I dont know the people behind it. I respect their job and like what they are doing. I might even agree with their viewpoints when it comes to games. But it ends there. If you get too obsessed with the people behind the products you loose proper judgment of the products. Liking them or not, these people have a job to do. You dont worship people that are slacking of or are just goofing around. And again, having a bit of fun is ok. but there is a huge difference between showing a bit of personality and not treating your work with proper care.
You know what would show that they care? Them doing their jobs. Believe it or not but when a franchise is litterly in the toilet and the ones working on the franchise cant seem to take things seriously even for a bit. it shows me the exact opposite. That they dont care and just wants us to buy their stuff unconditionaly. This kind of behaviour would be more acceptable if their situation were reversed, cause then they have a right to be a little cocky.
Yeah, they know that they have made mistakes, but the constant jokes about how bad they are doesnt show me that they have any plans on fixing those mistakes.
What the heck is even going on with the first and second paragraphs? Sounds like a bunch of conspiracy theories… Have you considered that maybe Webber is doing his job, by engaging fans and encouraging people to interact with Sega employees? Sure he can’t control exactly how the games are made, but he can send in advice to Sega and Sonic Team to help them along. In fact, that’s how Runners got the spike wall removed. Might I add that his big thing is “Like what you want to like and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise”. He even once told a fan who said that he was going to buy the next game because of social media to judge the game by its own merits, not just by what some social media manager says.
Plus the social media page is helping Sonic get taken out of a rut, by providing something positive to the community and humanizing Sega’s employees, as well as the Sonic fanbase. Furthermore, while acknowledgement alone doesn’t necessarily indicate change, it strongly implies such. After all, Sega must acknowledge its flaws before its sets about fixing them. We’ll see with the next game what Sega intends to do, but for now, acknowledgement is a good sign.
You already said your viewpoints, I said mine. It was never about what webber actualy was doing ( since there isn no proof of either situation ) bur rather about perception of what he is doing. If my paragraphs sounds like conspiracy theories then yours sounds like blind following. Now either discuss like an adult or stop altogether.
The twitter account is supposed to promote the franchise, that is his job. How he is interacting with fans has nothing to do with it. And considering that a lot of memes are about just how bad the franchise is i would say no. he isnt doing his job. You can have your opinion on it since this is a subjective matter anyway.
I never once said that he could controll how the games will turn out and its good that he at least provides fan feedback. But in this case it had little to do with webber and more about people not playing the game anymore. since this app game is highly dependent on you continuing to play it and buy red rings, it has priority that they dont fuck it up. A finished game that you have already paid for wont see the same attention as we have seen in the past.
That thing bout him telling a fan what to do just shows that he is a good person, not anything else. I am not criticising his personality so i dont see why this is even a thing to mention.
Your view of posetivity greatly differs from mine. I dont find it posetive when the reason people are having fun and come together is because they are making fun of something. People talking and laughing about how bad the franchise is, is not something i would consider helpfull to the franchise either. Unless your goal is to have people buy games simply for liking webber or because they want to laugh at the next game.
As for acknowledging their flaws, their are plenty ways of doing that without degrading yourself. the jester telling jokes about how bad he is will only have people laugh “at” him, not “with” him.
How on earth anyone can say with a straight face or some kind of hidden agenda that the twitter management has been bad I don’t know… have you not seen all the positive reception it’s been getting lately?
Hogfather, im going to assume that you meant “with a straight face or without some kind of hidden agenda” and answer from there.
first of, this entire sentence is irrelevant. this is basicaly just you dismissing what im saying without any real backing to it.
“have you not seen all the positive reception it’s been getting lately?”
The only sentence of importance that can invite discussion. so to answer, yes i have seen it. All about how funny the twitter is and how awesome webber is. So the counter question is, have you not seen how many people that claim that they “hate” sonic likes the twitter? Have you not noticed how people agree on sonic being a bad franchise and the jokes on twitter that reflects that? Can you not see why some might not find this a good thing? Or is the fact that you have so much fun with twitter overruling every other opinion?
That’s a lot of words for what just boils down to “I can’t answer you and I have nothing to back up anything”
It’s really not hard to do. Just save or post something which shows its doing a bad job which isn’t ‘I don’t find the jokes funny.’
Someone who doesnt back up anything in turn shouldnt talk about backing stuff up.
A lot of what you are saying is just boiling down to this ” I find the jokes funny, I like the twitter. Anyone who might disagree with this notion are wrong and need proof of varify their opinions”
While you yourself cant prove anything in return. You only talk about the reception, never considering what the reception is actualy about. Good reception of something doesnt automaticaly make it a good thing.
Oh not this crap again.
Look kid. If you’re going around saying “I don’t think he’s doing a good job” in an article about how Buzzfeed says he’s doing a good job on top of all the places which also say he’s done a good job, GAF, TSS, Sega forums, SSMB, Retro to name a few, back it up with something to suggest what you’re saying hasn’t been pulled out of your arse instead of trolling up the comments or find another site to comment on.
In fact didn’t you get banned for doing this kind of crap recently?
Does anyone else find this astounding, you come into an article about a major website praising the account, yet when you’re challenged on why you think he’s doing a bad job, suddenly you demand everyone else to prove/backup their stance… despite the article in question having one huge source to back it up?
Something something something conspiracy theory something.
Didnt know buzzfeed decided which people were doing great jobs, i thought they expressed an “opinion”. And good to know that i cant have a differing opinion when the masses of the internet thinks otherwise, oh mighty general.
Considering i have never claimed anything ive said to be “fact”. i dont understand why i have to prove anything. The burden of proof is on the claimer after all. And i have gone into great detail to talk about this matter being subjective. You are the only one here to claim to be the all knowing entity here. So instead of claiming this as an automatic good thing without any backing. Why not actualy prove that the “great” reception of the twitter account wont harm the franchise in any way ( retorical suggestion, better to make that part clear since you have a habit of not getting when people are not actualy expecting you to do stuff )
I got banned because you are a sensetive induvidual who cant tolerate being questioned, nor accept a different view besides your own.
I never asked for proof until you asked me for proof, but i guess when i do it its not acceptable.
Something something, im a blind follower. this is easy to do. try actualy arguing for a change
I’m pretty sure you got banned because you admitted to trolling and you were constantly claiming stuff and offering absolutely nothing to back it up, much like you’re doing right now.
You constantly do this, take a line, or say something, then when people call you out on it, offer utterly nothing to back it up and instead go “Well you prove your stance first”
This game is old, you’ve already got one second chance, I suggest you don’t blow this one already.
@Hogfather
Name to me the source of where he “admitted to trolling”. Also, “constantly claiming stuff and offering absolutely nothing to back it up” cannot be a good reason to ban someone alone, nor to punish someone in general for. Bad arguments are determined by the moderators opinions. Therefore, we shouldn’t ban anyone merely because of their opinions unless if the commenter’s intent is to troll people, which is not the case here.
Also, were you the moderator that deleted all those comments? Because from what I can tell, there are a lot of missing comments that were supposed to belong to Pandolo Fox. If so, what was your reason besides “faulty arguments”?
Hoggy and PF had a discussion about this here: http://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/20271-how-any-form-of-banning-is-decided/
Every time a user is banned, his/her posts are wiped from the comments section. Its Sonic Stadium’s protocol for dealing with banned users. PF had been posting weird off-topic stuff for awhile and has insisted many times that we back ourselves up (even when we had) while refusing to back his own statements with any evidence. The straw that broke the camel’s back seems to be an offhand comment about how Aaron Webber was trying to appease Colors fans with memes… which would be pretty suspect on its own but was brought up in a conversation that had nothing to do with social media or Sonic Colors. The trolling thing came up in one of the deleted comments, but Hoggy quotes it in the link I posted above.
Sigh, when asked to back myself up. i have counter asked the very same thing. Absence of proof is not proof of absence after all. I honestly never expected them to provide proof at any given moment i asked for it since most of the cases have been subjective topics. There is a reason i added in the whole “retorical suggestion”. that is because these two gentlemen doesnt seem the to grasp the concept of it. Admittedly, when on the internet its harder to detect.
And my opinion, be it an unpopular one or not is still an opinion. I have not claimed it to be fact which Hogfather is strongly suggesting. And why i was banned honestly doesnt matter to me, every admin views things through their own way of thinking. Im sure that according to Hogfather i was banned for fair reasons. The only reason i even brought it up now was because Hogfather did.
And i have never claimed anything during arguments with these two, thus i have never backed up anything with “fact”. On the other hand, Hogfather have claimed a lot of things and even provided false sources to confirm those “facts”.
Im pretty sure we covered that part already in which i never admitted to such a thing. Its not like i can help that you put words in my mouth , make up stuff and in general let your imagenation run wild about stuff.
You have no idea what “claiming” seems to mean, or reading my sentences is just too hard a task for you. if you go back a few comments you will see me say stuff about it being “subjective”.
The only one here who claims stuff without any backing is you. But im sure that in your own mind, you have perfectly provided evidence to support that i am wrong for thinking that Webber isnt doing a good job. And im also sure that you think that i have said that its fact that he hasnt done a great job. Just like every other time we have been had a disagreement.
And if you want to go digging up the past, we can surely return to the day when you claimed that the sonic boom show had reached “new” territory when your own source never claimed that it had.
I take lines that doesnt make sense and question your intention with it. Cause a lot of it is unsupported garbage, or doesnt have anything to do with the point you are trying to make. Maybe if you did a better job at just stating facts and didnt try to undermine everyone around you, then i wouldnt question you. But when you write stuff, it screams ” im going to claim my agenda as fact”. Which you even have stated that it is without support from any sources.
Dude, if you cant even have a normal discussion without threatening me then you can just ban me. im not going to bend over because you have the authority to silence me.
I might not agree with your interpretation of the Sonic Twitter, but you certainly haven’t attempted to shut other people down the way they try to shut you down, It’s actually kind of amazing how everyone else here seems to have zero understanding of what an opinion is.
In any case, I see the point you’re trying to make about how the Sonic twitter isn’t exactly doing Sonic’s image any favors, but as you said as well; it’s already in the toilet anyway, it has nowhere to go but up, and the Sonic twitter being a more lighthearted way to still admit to all of the franchises failings is better than absolute silence in my book.
That’s my take on it anyway, although it should be mentioned that I’ve barely looked at the twitter.
Aaron Webber… Some laughed, some wept, some did a bit of both…
I personally like the guy. The memes are pretty good, and I think its actually benefitting the Sonic fanbase’s reputation as well, by attracting non-fans to interact with normal fans instead of just constantly seeing the crazy fans or hearing the stories about them. Is it perfect? Certainly not– I’d prefer the old Fanart Fridays back, and I do wish it would promote Boom and Runners more given how they’re the only big Sonic thing right now. Is it good though? Yes, yes, and yes.
This is the poster child of a right move at the right time. With such a free-form management, this has a surprisingly nullifying effect on negativity and even gets people who don’t like Sonic to check it out. This undoubtedly keeps the overall bad reputation, albeit still somewhat present, from resurfacing, and hell, when the time comes to start advertising the next big Sonic game, I’m sure even people will give the new games a shot simply because of how warm and funny the account is being run now. Considering we just came off the heels of Rise of Lyric, the backlash against the brand itself has shrunken significantly fast, although not against the games, and somehow convinces people to be more lax and somehow puts faith back in. Understandably, social marketing and game development have almost nothing to do with each other, but it does give a weird effect.
Being honest I think some of the jokes from the Sonic twitter and FB are lame, especially the Black Friday one, but then I love the classy jabs they trhow at Nintendo and other outside references, in the end I think the twitter and FB pages are doing their job, bringing some positivity and relevance to Sonic, like it or not they really need it right now since Sega didn’t release any major Sonic game this year, only Sonic Runners which got some bad reputation because of its limitations in some devices, the premium roulette and version 2.0
If Webber was at least funny…Instead he spams recycled internet memes and tries hard to be a funny guy.
It’s okay if he posted the internet meme once in a BIG while, but c’mon… Sanic is an old meme.
Oshima looks like forced to show up that printed paper, so yeah…
Spams recycled internet memes? Sure, he does that. By Sonic the Hedgehog is pretty much only known by the name of sanic these days. If Aaron can make fun of that on the Sonic Twitter, they’ve already done something right. They’ve interacted with the fans on something the fans have made.
And maybe Oshima did like what the Twitter was doing, and just went through a little bit of effort to prove he liked it. It may not have a payoff in the end, but showing that he likes it with the proof is just like when you write your username on paper next to something you’ve taken a picture of to prove it’s you.
One cannot measure how much BASED the guy behind this twitter is
I glad I became Aaron webbers first meme 🙂
Today was a very interesting day: When I negatively critiqued the new TMNT 2 trailer, I had an epiphany, a powerful change of perspective. When I was complaining about how the new movie (and the franchise in general) was too silly and pandering to the lowest common denominator, I realized then and there that I was doing the EXACT SAME THING which I have mocked most of you on this comment board for doing with Sonic: For being passionate enough to believe that such a premise such as shinobi terrapins and super fast hedgehogs can be MORE than just source of mockery and humor.
I thought that maybe I should change my ways. I thought to myself “you know what? I should stop being such a mean prick. I should stop treating these type of fans like they where a source of entertainment at best and a cancer at worst and try to communicate with them as actual human beings. We all have our faults, our biases and preferences. We all entered the Sonic fanbase through one point or another, and we’ve all seen it change into one form to the next, It’s not their faults that SEGA abandoned them for another audience. They are only angry because they’re just afraid that they no longer feel any connection to the series they so love without that one crucial element that made them fall in love”. This topic is all about spreading positivity and in the spirit of that wily social media magician, shouldn’t I stop being the resident asshole of these comment sections and follow Aaron’s example of how to treat Sonic fans with the dignity and respect they deserve?
Yeah, I should…But then Padamame or Panda Bear or whatever the fuck he’s called started going all agro regarding how the marketing and public relations department of the WESTERN branch of SEGA should hold responsibility over the perception of Sonic’s reputation and quality, when that responsibility lies with the EASTERN branch that actually makes those damn games and are responsible for elevating or derailing the perception of Sonic’s reputation and quality…and I just want to spit in that guy’s face and laugh at his ignorance.
Thanks to posters like him and Mr. Martyr, I’m certain that I’m on the right path: I’m FalconKick, I’m an asshole, and I’m on a mission: to heckle the ever living crap out of obnoxious Sonic fans that are oblivious to their distance from reality for my growing curiosity and my amusement.
“I’m FalconKick, I’m an asshole, and I’m on a mission.” should be the tagline for an action movie.
Yeah, Sonic fans can be really, really weird sometimes. I’m not against deeper narratives in Sonic, but I’m not going to exalt them just for being edgy, nor am I going to put down Sonic stuff just for being comedies. Acting like a series that takes place in a colorful world with a blue super speedy hedgehog fighting a morbidly obese hammy roboticist who is also super speedy was never comedic until 2010 is flat out ridiculous. And I get that its upsetting when a series loses its appeal with somebody– I was pretty upset when I ended up disliking Pokemon Black after loving the Gen. III and Gen. IV Pokemon games. But that’s not an excuse to act like the game that made you lose interest is bad– going along with my example, Pokemon Black is a good game that has had a positive impact on the franchise it belongs to, but it happens to be a game I don’t particularly enjoy along with the games that came after it. Same goes for stuff like, say, Sonic Colors. I guess my advice to fans is that its fine to dislike certain titles, but its not cool to act like an irrational idiot about it and try to shame fans of those titles just for liking them.
Poking fun at irrational idiots’ behavior is something I heartily endorse, provided you don’t take it too far, of course.
I don’t get why people are complaining so much about the Sonic Twitter… Are those people against PR guys having a bit of fun to promote a franchise? Why should PR guys be all serious and boring while doing nothing but showing us announcements and trailers? Sonic’s aimed at kids and adults who are in their early to mid 20s, the ones who grew up with it and the ones who also grew up around memes and general nerdy jokes, Sonics own PR guy doing it just makes us feel like he’s just one of us, a silly nerd who likes to have a bit of fun. That makes us, in turn, like a franchise/company that much more because we feel a certain sense of belonging and being involved with it even if we don’t belong and aren’t involved in any way. After all, I’ve never seen any Nintendo fans complain when Miyamoto, Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aimes do basically the same thing but usually on a grander scale. In fact, they love it just the same.