Ruined FOREVER (Darth Wiki)/Video Games/Specific Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.




  • When the new Ace Combat game called Ace Combat: Assault Horizon was announced that it would be the rebirth of the game title, a lot of the hardcore fans felt that it was Ruined FOREVER.
  • The announcement of the Rune-Keeper class in the MMORPG video game The Lord of the Rings Online, a class that is structured around the lore, built around the lore, and even spoken by the developers of the game to be lore-driven, but has invoked a fury from players claiming to be scholars of Tolkien's work that insist that the class is impossible, despite the video game company's resident and certified Tolkien scholar saying otherwise.
    • For the uninitiated, the Rune-Keeper is essentially a Wizard. In the LOTR universe, traditionally, there are very few literal, magic-using wizards (as they are literally demigods descended to earth.) The creators of the game admit that this is a stretch of the Tolkien universe's rules, but feel that an MMORPG just isn't quite complete without a wizard class. They still went through the trouble of clearing it with the Tolkien estate and doing as much as possible to make it make sense, even though it's essentially a Hand Wave.
      • Well, there are some who think LotRO in general is an instance of Ruined FOREVER. Because it's all approved by Tolkien Enterprises (who bought most of the rights to adaptations away from the professor in the 1970s) and not by the Tolkien Estate (which is run by JRR's son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien), it's all illegitimate creation in their mind. The Rune-Keeper was just seen as the last straw by quite a few people (regardless of the lightning-summoning, Ent-controlling, fireball-throwing class that the game already included).
      • That is not entirely true. The elves have some... inherent abilities, which are not quite Functional Magic, but surely supernatural. For example, Glorfindel, Luthien, or the King of Mirkwood.
    • Although the introduction of the Rune-keeper class with the launch of the expansion Mines of Moria brought the biggest Ruined FOREVER complaints, the plot line of Moria itself got a lot of heat as well - with some complaining that since Tolkien said that Moria was never retaken, having it in-game was blatantly against lore, and thus ruined the game forever.
    • More recently, the move to add a "Free-to-play" option has also gotten cries of Ruined FOREVER - starting at the exact moment this was announced - which came several months before any players had a chance to see it in action.
  • Fire Emblem. The classes and characters in every subsequent game are an insult to the ones in the past. Not to mention that when Nintendo finally decided to start releasing them outside of Japan, they immediately started to suck because now people besides importers were playing them.
  • Final Fantasy XIII getting released on a non-Sony console. Outrage ensues!
    • Not to mention the Fan Dumb reaction of PS3 owners boycotting the game now... despite the fact that all this will accomplish is proving Square Enix's point that PS3 exclusives can't be sufficiently profitable, and leading to more multi-console jumps.
    • To put this in perspective, many gamers thought that Final Fantasy was dead (RUINED FOREVER) when it was finally released on a non-Nintendo console... back in 1997.
      • Which is kinda hilarious considering the first game in the series was originally a multiplatform release. FF1 for MSX anyone?
    • Every single new Final Fantasy game is the one that ruined the franchise forever, and this is obvious the second they announce the title. Which means that the most virulent critics will line up to buy it on day one.
    • Every game after Final Fantasy VII (especially Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy XII, because they're based on medieval times) has been accused of not "looking like a Final Fantasy game" despite that fact that: a) each of the worlds that appear throughout the series have no continuity with each other and thus never look alike and b) Most (9 out of the current 13) FF games have been in a medieval setting (what fans are criticizing).
      • Their complaints seem Egregious when one considers that FFIX was meant to be a throwback to more 'old school' Final Fantasy (at least in terms of setting), and FFXII is take place in an updated version of the same setting used in the Final Fantasy Tactics series. The latter may have its detractors, but both IX and XII specifically resemble previous Final Fantasy games... in a series where resembling previous games isn't popular...
      • Don't forget that Final Fantasy is basically a medieval time game BEFORE VII came out. Therefore, VII and VIII doesn't follow the traditional Final Fantasy.
      • Basically, anything that has to do with Final Fantasy post VI will have the "fans" cry this while calling fans who don't whine emo-gays.
  • Samus Aran's non-Suit appearance in the Metroid Prime series. The first Metroid Prime game had Samus's first appearance in 3D, and they chose to use a more realistic and older appearance that had actually never been used in the series before. In Prime 2, her look drastically changed to her Zero Suit look based on Metroid Zero Mission that was more standard with her other appearances in the series. Fans cried that Samus looked like a plastic Barbie doll, clashed with the overall realism of the rest of the game, and was bastardized by "animu", therefore ruining Metroid FOREVER. Metroid Prime 3 still used the Zero Suit look, just better-rendered, so the complaints didn't end either. You can compare the different suitless Samus endings in this video.
    • Now some people are pissed off at her new look in Metroid: Other M. But after release, there are several other aspects causing these cries that it's best not to bring up here.
    • Before that, Metroid Prime being first-person.
    • Everyone went batshit over Metroid Prime 2 and Hunters having multiplayer. It turned out to be pretty damn harmless.
    • There's also the group that believes Samus is not a real female role model anymore because of Nintendo's depiction of her in her Zero Suit for Brawl. Never minding that even the original Metroid showed her in a skimpy bikini (Nintendo has actually added clothes to her since then).
    • When they're not complaining about that, they're saying that makes it a Halo ripoff, which is wrong because 1) it's not even the same genre, 2) Space Marines have been canon since Metroid II, 3) Metroid came out in 1986, and 4) tons of great games are ripoffs of a ripoff of a ripoff.
      • This is made even more ridiculous by the fact that Metroid Prime entered development before Halo even was in the FPS genre, instead of the strategy genre, at least according to The Other Wiki.
    • Don't forget that Metroid Fusion ruined Metroid forever by changing everything.
    • Samus' BSOD in Other M caused many fans to declare the series Ruined FOREVER!!!!!!!!!
  • "Pokémon was always better before (insert current generation here)". Usually either centered around complaints that new Pokemon are not as "cool" looking as older ones, or complaints that adding extra evolutions have ruined that Pokemon forever. (Never mind that giving a Pokemon an evolved form makes it stronger and more worthwhile to use.) Diamond/Pearl also had the usual complaints, plus claims that a dramatic re-balancing of all the moves (creating special and physical categories) ruined competitive battling forever.
    • The main reaction to HeartGold and SoulSilver seem to be "WHAT they replaced Kris with Lyra! Ruined FOREVER!"
    • WHAAA!? the grass looks slightly different! Ruined FOREVER!
    • The game has more detail?! It's RUINED 4EVER!!!
    • Whitney's Miltank is one level lower in HG/SS?!?! EPIC FAIL GAMEFREAK!
    • Perhaps a little conspiracy theory to go with it? "JUNICHI MASUDA IS BLACKMAILING THE TAJIRI-SAN TO TAKE OVER POKEMON! IT IS RUINED 4EVER!"
    • Lopunny, Gardevoir, et al led to cries of "FURRYMON" across the Internet. A Japanese video game with Cute Monster Girls? That's just crazy talk.
    • As soon as its silhouette was revealed, Zoroark was accused of being a Replacement Scrappy of Lucario. Seriously, WHAT?!
    • When people saw Pokemon from 3rd and 4th Gen: A few Pokemon look like robots instead of animals?! RUINED FOREVER!
      • It's even more hilarious when you consider that there were some robotic and unnatural-looking Pokemon in the first two generations too. Just look at Magnemite, Porygon, Voltorb, and Skarmory, among others.
    • The Tin Tower is now called Bell Tower. THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING!!
    • The titles of the new games are BLACK and WHITE?! Oh no the, series is now absolutely going emo/racist by the NAME ALONE!!! It has been RUINED FOREVER!!!
      • Hilariously enough, people said Ruby and Sapphire onward ruined Pokémon FOREVER because their names were gems instead of colors and Game Freak was "running out of ideas." (Nevermind that Gold and Silver are also precious metals and Crystal is... well, a gem). With Black and White, they went back to colors, and people are saying they're ruined FOREVER because they went back to colors, clearly indicating that they ran out of places to look for ideas.
      • The starters for Black and White have been revealed. People are, you guessed it, screaming 'RUINED FOREVER!'
      • The in-battle sprites are now animated. But the back-view sprites look low-res and blown-up! Nintendo doesn't care about Pokémon anymore!
      • The legendaries for Black and White were just revealed. What?! Black on white and white on black?! The black legendary slightly resembles Palkia?!! NO, NINTENDO, YOU SUCK YOU RUINED POKEMON!!
      • The English names are somewhat cornier than the last four gens! NINTENDO IS RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS!!!!one (Of course, the Nostalgia Filter prevents anyone from realizing that even Gen 2 had names like Feraligatr...)
    • Amusingly enough, as you may note from the above screams, most people don't really care that Game Freak is the one that actually makes the games. People just want to blame Nintendo for everything, it seems.
    • One particular troper got so annoyed with the whining that he wrote this.
      • The sad part? If one reads through the thread linked to above, some fans either agreed with it being RUINED FOREVER, or pointed out that the fan who ranted was wrong and it was only ruined around one of the more recent generations, both parties missing the blatant sarcasm.
    • Triple Battles have been confirmed from Black and White on serebii.net. Hilarity is bound to ensue.
    • The evil team for Pokemon Black and White was revealed on Oha Suta recently. The fan reaction? Cries of "The villains are named Team Plasma!? RUINED FOREVER!" or "They dress like KNIGHTS!? They don't look evil! Pokemon is RUINED FOREVER!" have rung out across the internet.
    • The most amusing part of this is that, while people are screaming "RUINED FOREVER!!!" at all moments, the amount of Pokemon fans doesn't lower at all. It seems that many of the people screaming about the Pokemon Apocalypse still play the new games anyway.
      • Apocalypse? You must mean Apokélypse. A fan made a trailer for a fake film parodying the trend of taking fundamentally silly material and making it Darker and Edgier, a la the recent Mortal Kombat film pitch? This just in from half of the Broken Base: FAN WORKS HAVE RUINED POKÉMON FOREVER!!!
    • The English names are normally whined about, but Pokémon Black and White has been hit especially hard thanks to a different company handling the translating and getting ripped into for every last name. "They changed Touya to Hilbert? TPCI IS DESTROYING THE GAME! THIS WILL BE THE WORST GAME EVER AND NOTHING LIKE THE JAPANESE VERSION EVEN IF ALL OF THE ACTUAL DIALOGUE TURNS OUT TO BE CLOSE TO THE JAPANESE VERSIONS!"
      • And now there are people complaining that Black and White tried too hard with its plot and that the series would be better off going back to a bare bones plot where all you do is collect badges and beat the Pokémon League. Keep in mind, these are the same people who complained that the series was getting stale and that the villain teams should be more fleshed out.
    • The "third versions" are called Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2? RUINED FOREVER!!!
      • The Black/White 2 legendaries are black and white versions of Kyurem? RUINED FOREVER!!! The region appears to be iced-over? RUINED FOREVER!! The new main characters? RUINED FOREVER!!!
    • There has also been major backlash because of the profanity filter, which stops you from naming your Pokemon anything sexual or rude. This also stopped you from trading certain Pokemon without a nickname because they have a rude word hidden in their name. (for example Probopass
  • The remake of Metal Gear Solid for the Game Cube. Fans cried Ruined FOREVER seeing that Naomi and Mei Ling lose their accents (even though keeping foreign accents is rare for people born and raised in the US), many of the cutscenes were modified, and how Snake can pull off superhuman bullet time moves during cut scenes.
    • Raiden. and him being the main character of MGS2 instead of Snake, caused a huge amount of this.
    • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots again, has been criticised for being too much like an action game, for numorous amounts of retcons, and for explaining every plot hole, twist and unanswered question with nanomachines.
    • The recently leaked trailer for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is getting criticism for being such a departure from the main series, despite it being a spin-off and therefore supposed to be different. The fact that it's canon status is unclear, Raiden's character traits having been thrown out the window might also have caused this. It's also been criticized for "drastically changing the tone of the series" and being "too cheesy".
  • If you register in the forums of No Mutants Allowed, never EVER say that Fallout 3 was a good Fallout game or even a good game at all. The game is in First Person View instead of periferic that doesn't cause camera screws that much? RUINED FOREVER! The game has bugs? Even though the first two games were buggy as all hell and they were 2d emm RUINED FOREVER! People outside of our niche now know about Fallout? RU... you know the rest, the worst part is that this ruined forever thing started as early as Fallout 2, The games has humor? RUIIIIIIIIINED! New Reno? What the fuck? I want things to be the same!
  • The City of Heroes community has a hobby of mocking this even while obeying it, as "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" This became especially popular just before the Inventions system was introduced. There is even a threat level system (DOOMCON) to judge the level of "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM".
    • Other types of mockery include claiming Accuracy was nerfed.
    • Alternatively, "I don't know what you're arguing about, but the devs should make Stamina an inherent."
    • Incidents that caused DOOMCON 1, by the way: the introduction of diminishing returns on enhancements, the universal nerfing of defensive powers, beneficial class changes, normalization of any kind, relatively small adjustments to singular powers...
    • The really amusing thing is there's a new one of these at least once a year when the new round of veteran's rewards are announce. Generally one of them will be some new bonus power/ability/in-game discount, and whether it's underpowered, overpowered, or carefully balanced, it will still ruin the entire game forever.
  • The so-called Sonic the Hedgehog fans are always doing this.
    • Seriously, this could fill up an entire page. The Sonic fanbase in general is probably the craziest and most unpleasable fanbase ever. Whether it's complaining about the introduction of a new character (who usually stays dead after that game anyway), or a new gameplay mechanic (the werehog in Sonic Unleashed), they always find something to complain about.
      • Probably the most notable was when they complained about his eyes being the wrong color.
    • Sometimes the fandom inverts this: A new game is announced, and the fanbase exclaims "LOOK GUYS! SONIC IS GOOD AGAIN!", and then the game actually comes out and it's still kind of lame. This has become known as the "Sonic Cycle", but it may have been broken as of Colors.
    • Parodied Trope by YouTube user 1stkirbyever while demonstrating a glitch in the Sonic Generations demo. Unfortunately, some people missed the joke, so he added a big fat "I AM NOT SERIOUS" disclaimer to the sequel... and some people still missed the joke!
  • World. Of. Warcraft. Any and every change to any gameplay mechanic, class, dungeon, mob, weapon, talent, or artstyle will be greeted by copious amounts of this trope, and at least 20 people declaring that they are cancelling their subscriptions, with 50 more breathing a sigh of relief.
    • Not mention whenever someone is killed by several people at once. Copious doesn't even begin to cover how much this trope applies to World of Warcraft.
    • Also the very fact of World Of Warcraft's existence was decried as "ruined forever" - some people preferred it when Blizzard made RTS games.
    • Special mention to Wrath of the Lich King, which featured tons of shifts in gameplay plus reusing a raid instance that very few people got to experience, a decision both praised and sneered at.
    • As a corollary, every. single. time. a new MMO is announced, the WoW forums become lousy with people who will loudly announce how much they're looking forward to it and talking about how this new game will be the one that'll finally kill of World of Warcraft once and for all. Every. Single. Time.
    • This got so bad on the forums, that at one point a Forum MVP made a list of everything that has "ruined" the game.
    • Mists of Pandaria, the recently announced new expansion pack. Pandaren are becoming playable race. BLIZZARD RUINED THE GAME!!11!!!ONE!
  • Mass Effect: When the first sequel was announced, several things were seen as possible causes for the franchise jumping the shark: A darker and edgier story, FPS style combat (this would stop the game from being a "true RPG"), different squadmates, etc.
    • Mass Effect 3 also suffered from this pre-release: The inclusion of multiplayer and the game appealing to a wider audience were supposed to be a sign of EA's greed affecting the franchise.
    • A leak of story elements from Mass Effect 3 also raised some alarms about the possibility of the plot not meeting the quality that everyone expected...
    • The inclusion of homosexual romances also caused this effect, some people thought that Bioware was forsaking the "straight male gamer" as they supposedly did with Dragon Age 2, though it's not clear if some of them were serious, or they just Trolls
    • The DLC "From Ashes" being released at day one was another controversial issue, especially because it is suspected that the new party member was just cut from the main game.
    • And yet again when the PC version was revealed to need Origin, EA's digital distribution and DRM system / supposed malware.
    • It got worse; after the game was released, every criticism that came before became utterly insignificant compared to the outcry over the ending. Bioware polls showed that very, very few of the people who played the game liked the ending, and a Child's Play charity drive intended to get Bioware's attention ended up earning over $80,000. Many articles were written (including some from Forbes). Bioware claimed that they won't alter their "artistic vision", which added oil to the flames, but they promised a 'Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut' intended to provide some closure and "clarification" to the ending. If it delivers or not remains to be seen.
    • Amazingly, there are even people complaining about the free DLC multiplayer expansions; apparently, Bioware is obsessing over their new feature and neglecting the rest of the game in their mad rush to win over Call of Duty fans.
  • Ace Combat 6 is on Xbox 360 instead of PS3? Big No!
  • When the fourth Ace Attorney game came out, starring a new protagonist and basically turning the old one into a hobo, most fans embraced the changes, but there are many who believe the series has now been Ruined FOREVER.
    • The irony being that, when you consider that most of his major cases are spaced months apart, and the clients never paying him, it's fairly obvious he spent most of his employed time living in sub-par conditions.
  • BioShock (series) 2 won't have Big Daddies in it? New enemies? A different conflict? Giant squid? What, this is far too original for a sequel, 2K has ruined BioShock (series) FOREVER! Of course, none of those rumors are actually true. BioShock (series) is actually ruined forever because of the sequel's mere existence.
    • A number of fans have also claimed that having a multiplayer option in BioShock 2 has, despite the fact that it is being developed by an outside developer and the fact that it is completely separate from the main story, destroyed the "single player"-ness of the game, and thus BioShock (series) is Ruined FOREVER.
      • For that matter, Bioshock supposedly ruined System Shock forever by containing a similar plot twist to System Shock 2, having less character customization options, and making permanent death impossible. Given that this is the sort of Ruined Forever that creates a best-selling, critically acclaimed game that increases awareness of the previously obscure original series, there are probably many developers hoping they can similarly "ruin" their own franchises.
    • Some of this isn't so much Ruined FOREVER as it is people not seeing a sequel as entirely necessary, given that the appeal of the first game's story would be hard to replicate.
      • And what kind of Insane Troll Logic is that? A sequel is not "necessary" because it might not be as good as the first game? That's like parents saying they shouldn't have a second child, because it might not be as "good" as the first one.
      • Ditto that for the System Shock to Bioshock crowd, though they should really be complaining about a PREQUEL if they even take place in the same timeline, shouldn't they?
    • And, on the other hand: Bioshock 3 won't be taking place in Rapture? It takes place in an American Sky-City?! It has really nothing to do with Bioshock 1 & 2? The main character speaks? You have to devise different strategies, as opposed to just making one combination of plasmids?! Bioshock is Ruined FOREVER!!!
  • The players can actually survive by trying to use their weapons instead of saving every bullet? Stuff happening in DAYTIME!? Resident Evil has been ruined FOREVER!
    • On an even bigger note, many fans believed that Capcom ultimately ruined the franchise forever with the supposedly "confirmed" death of Albert Wesker as many believed him to be the best developed character in the series and not to mention it's main villain as well. Then again, Your Mileage May Vary on whether he was a Jerkass that deserved to be Killed Off for Real.
  • A lot of PKers in RuneScape considered the game Ruined FOREVER after Jagex removed PvP, due to real-world trading. However, Jagex did introduce PvP worlds...
    • Every update introduced to stop real-world trading was met with this reaction, the 12/10/07 ones were just met with the most of it. Actually, scratch that, Every update EVER will have at least a few people complaining the game has been ruined forever, like the WoW example above. Sometimes, the complaint is just that it wasn't a specific update a person wanted, and that person or people will complain endlessly about every update that is NOT the update they want.
      • Dungeoneering: 'Jagex is trying to turn RuneScape into World of Warcraft! RUINED FOREVER!!!'
      • Non-members updates: 'Why should you make updates for peasants, Jagex? We PAY you! Updates should be for members only! RUINED FOREVER!!!'
      • Improved weapon designs and animations: 'Why do we need shinier weapons? These look retarded! Jagex, you're wasting time you could spend on new quests and skills! RUINED FOREVER!!!'
    • The original PvP Wilderness is back (restored on February 1, 2011) along with the original unlimited Free Trade restrictions? RUINED FOREVER!!!
  • Cyber Connect 2 has announced Tail Concerto Spiritual Successor Solatorobo! WOO-HOO!...What was that? The main character can turn into a human now? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
  • EVE Online has an Unpleasable Fanbase to begin with, but even so. Every time something is changed/balanced, be it the mechanics of a weapons system, putting breaks on 3/4 of kilometer-long battleships going 10+ kilometers per second, or making the game a bit easier to get into, Eve has inevitably been Ruined FOREVER. As EVE has roughly two expansions and numerous major and minor patches per year, it has been Ruined FOREVER scores of times since release.
  • After several years in Development Hell, when Team Fortress 2 was unveiled with cartoonish graphics and over-the-top characters, a huge change from the "100% realism" touted in its early development stages, many fans cried foul. Of course, even after the players actually got their hands on the game, many swore off the game because of the graphics.
    • Again when one of the Heavy's unlocks was revealed to be a sandwich for regaining health. The Sandvich went on to be the most-used secondary item for the Heavy.
    • The announcement of the random item drop and backpack system had many complaining that the game was starting to become like World of Warcraft. Though to be fair, it also came simultaneously with the Spy vs. Sniper Update, and at the time those two classes did not have the ability to earn their unlockable weapons through achievement milestones, meaning that players could only unlock those weapons randomly.
    • In the same vein as above, one of the Sniper unlocks was a jar of pee to be thrown at enemies, which got to the point where fans petitioned to have it removed. Much of the hate seems to stem from the fact that Jarate was first advertised as an April Fool's Day joke, and, as with the Sandvich, is the most frequently equipped secondary weapon for the Sniper.
    • And... you know what, let's just say that EVERY major update (and a few minor ones) has invoked cries of Ruined FOREVER.
    • And when Team Fortress 2 was announced for the Mac and a miscellaneous accessory that doesn't impact gameplay whatsoever announced for Mac players, guess what fans thought of it? Some servers even started automatically banning anybody even wearing the Earbuds...
    • The same happened with the halos meant to reward people for not idling to effortlessly gain items. People began refusing to help teammates depending on whether or not said teammate had the halo.
    • And again with the release of the Mann Co. Store, which allows you to buy items - and some of the new (still very rare) hats which give a set bonus with certain other weapons.
    • The newest round of Ruined Forever is the Australian Christmas Update. May as well be called the Mann Co. Update part 2, for new item sets with bonuses and all new items to buy. Approximately 3.45 seconds after the update was released, the steam forums were flooded with cries of "Valve Sold their souls!" and "The Mann Co. store was just the beginning!"
    • Whenever a promotional tie-in item for another game gets thrown in, expect such cries to be seen on many threads at Steam Forums.
    • It's now free to play. While others rejoice, oldbies are definitely moaning, most along the lines of "Oh no, the n00bz are coming! It's not fun anymore!"
      • Worse than that, some people are demanding refunds and calling this a huge slap in the face to anyone who paid for the game. To put this in perspective, this is like getting mad at Michael Bay because you bought Transformers on DVD or Blu-ray and then saw it airing on TV three years later.
  • "Lego Rock Band? OH NOES, not only has the series lowered down to Guitar Hero-level whoring, but it has become KIDDY and EASIER!"
    • Never mind that. Rock Band was already ruined when they announced Country and hip-hop DLC. What is this, Country Band? For the uninitiated, every week some songs are added to the RB "music store". You can buy the songs you want and not buy the songs you don't. Thus, these country songs don't appear in your game unless you buy them. Where was I? Oh yes. Ruined FOREVER!
    • Or the new revelation that in the third installation, there won't be an option to specifically assign band members to instruments, and the ability to use a ridiculously fast scrolling speed in Practice Mode is gone. Fans already reported pulling out of purchases and many facing severe disappointment and extreme RAGE.
    • Frequent fan responses to announced DLC give this impression. Not to mention just about every setlist since Guitar Hero 3.
    • And never mind the fact the Lego Adaptation Games are divisive on their own, with many of its detractors not even having played the games.
  • Purple is legendary?? RUINED FOREVER!!!
  • Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Some seemed so convinced that Rare killed the franchise with its Unexpected Gameplay Change that they wanted the developer to crash and burn for it. Also addressed in their letter page:

(After being asked about the possibility of B-K TV show) Never say never to a TV show -- VP [Viva Piñata] transferred pretty well -- but you must realise that if people thought chucking some cars and planes into the mix was akin to us taking a lead pipe to the Banjo franchise then stamping and urinating on the broken pieces, there would probably be some kind of localised internet apocalypse if Banjo and his fellow freaks started enunciating proper words in human voices.

  • "Left 4 Dead 2? Released a year after the first game and still no signs of a SDK? Oh no, Valve have sold their souls to the money-printing machines!"
    • Of course the SDK was in open beta at the time of the announcement and came out of open beta two weeks later, with cross-compatibility into Left 4 Dead 2 no less. The fact that this was an actual complaint only further underscores the general ignorance of the boycott movement.
    • The boycott with more than 40,000 users. Enough said.
    • Of course, when Left 4 Dead has sold, as of May 2009 (several months before the second game was launched), 2.5 million copies... 40,000 complainers doesn't really add up to much.
    • Complainers, by the way, who were complaining about not being able to download stuff with points they got by playing games and would instead have to spend actual money on a full game. Yeah, Valve is the greedy one, here.
    • Left 4 Dead has now been ruined forever by the latest announcement that Valve has killed off one of the original survivors for the soon to be released DLC, "The Passing".
      • Or how The Passing was now forever ruined because it doesn't have an 8 vs 8 mode or lets you play as the original survivors.
    • The Left 4 Dead 1 forums are screaming ruined forever now following the announcement of 'The Sacrifice' DLC, which includes content for both games; one of those being a full port of No Mercy (characters and all) from 1 to 2. One has to go to the forums to see the attitudes of these people. It makes the Left 4 Dead 2 forum pale in comparison. [1]
    • Adding to this, Valve disabling custom vocal binds (Left 4 Dead 2 only for some reason) to prevent people from spamming them in-game has also generated many ruined forever complaints.
  • Deus Ex Human Revolution will have regenerating health? That will ruin the game! It DESTROYS any strategical thinking the original had! Deus Ex is RUINED FOREVER!!!
    • Not anymore. With the release of the latest trailer, hardcore opinion has changed from Ruined FOREVER to "Could be a good, great even, game, but it doesn't seem to fit in with the universe."
    • Except in the original game, there was an upgrade that let you... oh, whatever.
      • The devlopers are quite aware of the health regen issue, and the majority of the hands-on previews and interviews go out of their way to mention that the health regen is nothing like a certain game series.
    • That, and much of the so-called strategical thinking took a back seat in the original game when you got a hold of the Dragon Tooth Sword in the middle of the game, or even the GEP at the very beginning of the game. Both allowed you to breach almost all locked doors and safes with ease, making lockpicks and multitools almost worthless.
    • When some clips of gameplay leaked out, the reaction by some fans were: The takedowns are nothing but an I win button! They're pandering to the casual audience!!! Third-Person cover system? This is what happens when you make games for the peasants!!! Cutscenes??? It is disrupting the flow of the game!!! Deus Ex is officially for the COMMON MASSES NOW!!
      • Story, atmosphere, sound and graphics design, exploration, puzzles, and general gameplay are all nothing next to the horror of being able to see your character climb a ladder IN THIRD PERSON.
    • None of these comes even close to the level of RUINED FOREVER that came with the release of the multipath trailer. Specifically, the bright yellow highlighting on EVERYTHING. Which can be switched on or off now.
    • Ads were added to the game. Specifically, for the loading screens. Fans complained that they ruined the aesthetic of the game--yes, in the loading screens--and even accused Eidos of deliberately lengthening loading screens so players will be "forced" to look at the ads. While the loading had been a common complaint on release, it had long since been reduced by a patch before the ads were introduced. Many of these players said that they had no problem with in-game billboards (as long as the ads were context-appropriate), but the loading screen ones destroyed the game for them.
  • As soon as it was revealed that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Up will have Raving Rabbids as Guest Fighters, fans were far from optimistic to this trope, believing that Ubisoft is wrecking the 25th anniversary of the Turtles with their favorite Spotlight-Stealing Squad who already drove Rayman off his own series. For them, it has hit The Problem with Licensed Games because of three cartoony hares that you don't even have to play as, never mind about the actual gameplay.
    • For others, it's The Unexpected fighters appearing in the game, such as the Fugitoid, Nightwatcher, and Utrominator; special mention for the Fan Dumb complaining there are no 80's characters in the game.
  • Valkyria Chronicles 2 is going on a handheld where it might actually turn a profit?! RUINED FOREVER! It must be on the Play Station 3!
  • Never mind how Dragon Quest IX offers Character Customization and averts Fight in The Nude. Never mind such tiny matters as gameplay, plot, presentation or actually being fun. No, Dragon Quest is surely RUINED FOREVER because the ninth game is being released on DS and happens to have a single save slot.
    • After several years in development, it was announced that Dragon Quest X would be an MMO. The ensuing RAGE was also driven by factors such as a planned release in 2012 (very late in the Wii's lifecycle), the number of Wii games with low quality online play, the number of other Square Enix games with delays and setbacks, and the uncertainty of whether the Wii or the Wii U version will be translated.
    • Another big factor is how poorly-received another recent MMO from Square Enix is right now. Fans now announce Square Enix Ruined FOREVER Up to Eleven.
  • Crash Bandicoot after they turned Tiny from a giant beast into a scrawny pacifist. Oh hell, everything after the PS 1 series (when Naughty Dog left the series to publisher Vivendi Universe), it just went downhill and started numerous cry's of Ruined FOREVER by purists.
  • No LAN support in StarCraft 2!? OH TEH NOES!!!1!1
    • And it's split up into three separate games, each with it's own gameplay mechanics! You can still make maps where all three sides are playable, but still, DOUBLE DOOMED!
    • And every other video game sequel ever. This trope might be why sequelphobics exist.
  • Fox has a GIRLFRIEND?!? NOOOOOO NOW HERE COME TUH FURRIEZ!!!.
    • Ironically if pressed, those who remember the Nintendo Power comics will state Fara is their fanon girlfriend for Fox and was much more worthy than Krystal...despite being just as terrible a pilot. Perhaps it's all down to Krystal's strange fur colouring, which kind of brands her as a sci-fi cliche (what with blue apparently being THE go-to default colour of sci-fi hacks everywhere.) Based upon their personalities, Krystal is indeed worse, but when the most vocal portion of your tribe tells Nintendo that's what they LOVE about her, don't expect any changes down the line. Yep, you got it, Star Fox will continue to be Ruined FOREVER for some time to come.
  • Square Enix is publishing Modern Warfare 2 in Japan!? Now the series is tainted by the gay emo girly men that are gay and have gay spiky hair! The series is DOOOOOOOMED!
    • This Deviant gives the best solution... [2]
    • Forget that, they don't know how publishing games outside of their home country works. The real example here is the lack of dedicated servers in the PC version. However, there's at least a more sensible explanation to the feelings of ruin as, compared to most other examples here being petty changes affecting only a single series, the PC gamers fear that this act, if it catches on with other developers, could effectively change all of online PC gaming. Hell, even the developers of the Battlefield series are shocked with that decision.
    • Speaking of Square Enix: Square Enix is publishing Supreme Commander 2? Oh well, we'll have to wait and-- YOU MANIACS YOU BLEW THE RESOURCE SYSTEM UP FORGET YOU PEOPLE! SCREW YOU ALL! EVERY ONE!
  • Bethesda can't release a game without this refrain. Fallout was Ruined FOREVER, and so was every The Elder Scrolls game since Arena.
    • Skyrim is getting hit hard by this. There hasn't been a single scrap of information that hasn't made the official forums explode. That's not a joke. Every scant plot point has been met with "they're making a generic fantasy plot!" and every gameplay element has scores of "they're taking the Elder Scrolls out of The Elder Scrolls!"
      • The way people insult the games are even worse. "Fallout was just Oblivion with guns!" That made some kind of sense, but now we have "Skyrim is just Fallout with swords!" So, Skyrim is Oblivion with more swords?
      • Note that saying "Fallout was just Oblivion with guns!" will get you skinned alive by the actual people who use that line. Because the line they use is "Fallout 3 was just Oblivion with guns!"
    • With the announcement of The Elder Scrolls Online, the fanbase has exploded into screams of "Online play in my Elder Scrolls? RUINED FOREVER!" Many people now swear that they will never play any future games in the series, multiplayer or not.
      • The full extent goes that with the announcement of an MMO, no matter who is saying what the series is dead. When the fans say "Bethesda shouldn't spend time and money on this, the single player series is never going to come back!" they are usually met with "it's a different studio and Pete Hines says it won't effect the Single Player games." The normal response to that is that Pete's lying and that they are setting out to kill TES and replace it with a WoW clone.
    • Bethesda ported Morrowind to consoles. Therefore every TES game after Daggerfall is a dumbed down action hack-and-slash that's beneath the tan-skinned, blond haired PC gaming master race's time, so therefore said master race must spend days and days bashing Skyrim on the Bethesda forums for being an action shooter with swords and insulting Bethesda itself for selling out on its "real fans" in exchange for those console monkeys, going so far as to call the whole company incompetent for taking a long time to give the fanbase a screenshot half the forum were enraged at getting (a Dunmer thief while the forum wanted an Argonian).
  • No more online play in Backyard Sports? THE SERIES IS OVER!
  • Hideo Kojima likes Twilight? He's not a game designer hero anymore, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will be doomed because it's a vampire game!
    • Speaking of Castlevania, there's the Symphony Of The Night redub, this has even gotten to the point of fans making parodies of the original dialog. A good example would be, "There words are as empty as their souls. Castlevania ill needs voice actors such as these.
  • Total War has several examples:
    • Rome: Oh no! The engine has been changed! RUINED FOREVER!
    • Medieval II: It's the Same, Now It Sucks
    • Empire: Naval Battles are broken! BAWWW! And there's less focus on close combat! Big No!
  • Hi there, are you a fan of Lufia II? Well, allow me to introduce you to the DS remake. Take as much time as you need getting all the complaints out of your system.
    • The very day that Natsume (not Square Enix) made an official statement that it would localize the DS version of Lufia II, there were RUINED FOREVER style comments on sites such as Siliconera.
  • Mega Man 10 has an easy mode, some people are rather pissed about this, because it's "ruining" the game, um, did anybody tell them it's completely optional?
  • New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Super Guide? RUINED FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • The Wing Commander movie is often accused of killing the franchise. Never mind, of course, that the entire genre of space sims was in a decline, in terms of sales, at the time for various reasons.
    • Likewise, Electronic Arts buying Origin Systems Inc was cited as the doom of WC (and other Origin titles), even though it was EA's money that made the switch to FMV possible, spawning three of the best selling individual titles in the entire series and boosting Origin out of the "niche provider" position they were holding (and not that strongly, fiscally speaking) prior to that point.
      • BUT FMV RUINED WING COMMANDER FOREVER!!!
  • Poor Mega Man Star Force fell victim to this trope; being Darker and Edgier apparently wasn't enough to keep the fans of the prequel series from crying foul, mostly due to the difference in gameplay and the perceived simplification of the old chip system. While the first game did well enough, 2 was absolutely hated, and despite a much-improved 3, the series seems to be finished, making it one of the shortest spin-off series of all time.
  • Not just Starforce, but Mega Man Battle Network also got lots of hate too due to it being completely different from other Mega Man games.
    • The inclusion of an obese version of Bad Box Megaman in the Playstation 3 version of Street Fighter X Tekken caused many Mega Man fans to say that Capcom officially hates the franchise and is trolling them - despite the fact that many were excited that BBA Mega Man was to be included in Mega Man Battle Network, and that BBA Mega Man was included at Keiji Inafune's request.
  • Some Street Fighter fans complained that Street Fighter IV was ruined because it was 3d. Other, better-informed fans pointed out that the hitboxes were still 2d, meaning the gameplay was effectively the same.
    • No SFIII style parries in SFIV? Ruined FOREVER!
    • No SF Alpha air block in SFIV? Ruined FOREVER!
    • SFIII doesn't play like SFII? Ruined FOREVER!
    • SF Alpha doesn't play like SFII? Ruined FOREVER!
    • The current gripe now is: Hakan, Turkish Oil Wrestler in SSFIV? Ruined FOREVER!!
    • The changes from Super Turbo to HD Remix seem to take the cake in this department.
      • HDR has compressed tiers? It's less interesting since its more balanced therefore its Ruined FOREVER!!
      • Move execution in HDR is easier than in Super Turbo (but still harder than in other Street Fighters)?Ruined FOREVER!!
  • Samurai Warriors 3 announced as a Wii-exclusive? No! It should be on 360/PS3, it's supposed to be Next-Gen like Dynasty Warriors 6! It Got Worse as the release date grew near with further announcements... Three characters (Musashi, Kojiro, Gracia) are cut, despite having six new characters and one returning character? Seven Characters (Ranmaru, Okuni, Yoshimoto, Katsuie, Toshiie, Kotarou, Nouhime)are without Musou (story) modes? NOOOO! This has gotten worse since reports came in that SW3 didn't sell well in Japan, with the fans blaming it on the Wii, either not realizing or just didn't care that it was likely because it was released within the same period as other games with a larger fanbase.
  • Activision announced that Infinity Ward has been fired from making any more Call of Duty games? BLEEEUUUUAARGH!
    • Wait, what's that? They also announced a new developer and that there's going to be more entries in the series that aren't first person shooters? RRRRAAAAARRRGH!!!
      • Bungie signed a decade-long publishing deal with them? Well, there goes all the Creator Worship from Halo fans.
        • You could save a lot of time here by just saying "Activision has done something? UUUAAAAARRARARRR!" Their attitude of pure evil has led to them ruining a lot of things in gamers' eyes.
  • Command & Conquer has seen this in spades recently.
    • Generals: "They have builders now? They're ripping off Warcraft! RUINED FOREVER"
    • Tiberium Wars: "A third faction? RUINED FOREVER"[1]
    • Red Alert 3: "Tanya is blonde? RUINED FOREVER"
    • Tiberian Twilight: "Basebuilding has been removed? RUINED FOREVER"
    • The worst part about all this is that every time a new game comes out, people look at whatever new innovations are included and bitch about them, occasionally even bringing back old examples (like Generals' builders, holy hell that's seen mileage thanks to CnC4) to talk about how it's done right.
  • The X-Com series was a Strategy game series with RPG Elements set in modern times and the future. The reboot, as announced by 2K, will be an FPS with set in the 60s--with appropriate cultural attitudes--and is an Action RPG more akin to Mass Effect. Both games feature government agencies which fight alien invasions by reverse-engineering their technology. Fans of the original series were quick to declare it an In Name Only cash-in...on a series that hasn't had a new entry since 1998, despite both games sharing the same fundamental premise. Not to mention the fact that this game will increase interest in the older games.
    There may be some bad memories of X-COM: Enforcer, but the knee-jerk complaints are drowning out legitimate criticism with incessant whining.
  • Gears of War 3 is being written by Karen Traviss?! RAAAAAAAAAGEEEEE!!!
  • No mention of Chrono Cross? Before and after it was released, most Trigger fans have been screaming that the Chrono series is ruined, because Chrono Cross has things like different main characters, different art style, the amount of party members that you can have... basically, everything. The only thing most Trigger fans will admit to is that it does have fantastic music, but some even refuse to admit that much.
  • "Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will adopt Tatsunoko vs. Capcom's controls scheme? The game is screwed! TvC is dumb! [and/or] They're gonna dumb things down for scrubs, and we cannot allow this!"

"Strider Hiryu is popular overseas as well, we took him out of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, because he didn't fit in with its concept."

"We didn't want you to be able to say, 'this guy is just another one of this guy but a little faster or with a different fireball'."

    • Here's some more fuel for the fire: three of the Four Gods (Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel) are back. Unlike Magneto and Storm, who are popular and have managed to avoid most of the scorn, Sentinel is being bashed into the ground because 1) his inclusion reeks of being added in by Niitsuma for no other reason than because of his OP status in the previous game, and 2) it's freaking Sentinel and he's so generic that if it wasn't for MvC2, none of his fans would have even given a crap about him in the first place.
    • Some of this has been remedied by the announcement of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Ghost Rider and Strider Hiryu are among the first reveals and leaks indicate that Phoenix Wright and Nemesis will be joining the fray as well. However, the fact that this title was announced little over five months after the release of vanilla MvC3, coupled with some boneheaded decisions by Capcom (namely regarding Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3), is causing yet another point of contention among the fans.
      • Unfortunately however, some simply do not comprehend the distinction between announcement and public release date.
    • The DLC costumes get "leaked"/revealed according to screencaps from the game's official strategy guide. While many people are happy with retro outfits or whole character swaps like Yellow Iris or Jean Grey, the one being singled out causing the most controversy is Zero's, who is none other than...X. After months of incessant, near tumor-inducing whining, he's finally in here. You'd think the whining would have quelled by now. It didn't.
      • It's also amusing that these same people won't feel like they're actually playing as X, ignoring the instances of X actually ended up playing just like Zero near the end of half of his games, right down to the very weapons themselves.
        • It's important to remember though that although X and Zero had very similar abilities up to X4, in X4 and beyond Zero's gameplay style was completely revamped in order to make him more distinct from X. Despite this, some people still incorrectly believe that they're interchangeable ability wise.
  • Sengoku Basara 3 has been receiving this within each new information revealed, mostly due to the large number of NPC characters (especially those who are new characters) compared to playable characters (due to the "one character per clan" rule), including regulating fan favorite characters (like Sasuke and Kojuurou) to NPC status.
  • It's been announced that Dragon Age is being adapted as an anime movie. Some of the fans not only know that it's going to suck (which admittedly has some precedent), but believe the entire franchise has now officially been tainted. A game with a poor movie adaptation can apparently never be enjoyed again.
    • And with the game's sequel released, plus the revelation of a few important gameplay changes, some fans are already starting to decree that BioWare has ruined the franchise. Which was proven correct as the various sites across the internet were quick to decry the series for a variety of flaws and scored quite poorly by reviews (Not Hyperdimension Neptunia level of bad though).
    • With the release of an unconfirmed rumor that Dragon Age might have a separate release that included multiplayer, BioWare's fans once again reacted with shrieks of Ruined FOREVER.
  • When screenshots of Death Smiles's localized dialogue were released, the Narminess actually caused some fans to cancel their preorders. Never mind that it's a Shmup and the between-stage dialogue has no bearing on gameplay.
  • Whenever Blizzard Entertainment releases a new game, patches a game, announces a game, announces a patch, does nothing for a while, has one of their customer reps post on a thread, a large and vocal portion of Blizzard's fanbase denounces the game and the whole of Blizzard as ruined forever, says that Blizzard has sold out to Activision, and threatens to Rage Quit on the forums to anyone who thought the game was good or even okay. Strangely enough, those same fans pop up on the forums and repeat the cycle every time something happens or doesn't happen with Blizzard.
    • Wait, Diablo 3 is going to have PVP ARENAS!?! IT'LL RUIN DIABLO LIKE IT RUINED WORLD OF WARCRAFT!!!
      • As a rule of thumb: If Blizzard announces anything to Diablo 3 that even remotely smells of World of Warcraft the Diablo franchise is OFFICIALLY DEAD!!! Even if it's one of the good ideas WoW had. The average dumb Diablo fan hates World of Warcraft with a passion (and usually without any reason except it being WoW), so anything that might in theory be thought of by someone who has worked a couple of hours on something related to WoW ruines Diablo FOREVER!
  • Both the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360/Playstation 3 fans are like this to the most recent NBA Jam game. For the Wii fanboys, they not only did it lose exclusivity, but it would have a Campaign mode, but no online play, while the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 would not only have to buy NBA Elite 11, but they also would have online play, but no Campaign mode. MAKE UP YOUR FREAKING MINDS ALREADY, EA!! Do you want the Wii to have everything around, or do you want the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 to have the stuff?
  • The trailer for the new DmC: Devil May Cry game, which is set to reboot the series, and particularly the character design for the new Dante, already has much of the fanbase declaring that the series has been Ruined FOREVER.
  • Any rejoicing for Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor's unveiling turned to this shortly after seeing squat VTs that looked less like giant robots and more like tanks on legs, a world with no more new microprocessors, and most of all, the touting of Kinect support. That's right-this game went from requiring an expensive peripheral loaded with buttons and switches to an expensive peripheral with NO buttons. This YouTube response to the trailer sums it up.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops seems to be getting this after the latest reveal that Quick-Scoping with Sleight of Hand is going to be gimped for sniper rifles, meaning that people can't tap Aim followed by Shoot and get a relatively easy kill while jumping in the air and spinning around. Although people who hated this tactic are rejoicing. Obviously. Your Mileage May Vary.
  • Tim Schafer accuses would be "fans" and reviewers of spewing "Ruined FOREVER" over Brutal Legend being a multiplayer focused Action/RTS and not a single player platformer, while those who actually tried the multiplayer saw it for what it was and enjoyed it the most, and that reviews not only reflect it, but remain high regardless.

Tim Schafer:: When we showed the game to EA, they were interested but wanted to test the concept. In focus tests, the stage battles rated high. What's interesting is the people in those groups aren't told anything about the game and have no expectations for it. One of the things you notice looking at Metacritic ratings is that the highest scores come from those who really enjoyed the stage battles, and when you get down to the critics who didn't like the stage battles those reviews often center around their expectations about what we were going to make, instead of looking at the stage battles for what they are in a fresh way.

  • The characters in the new Golden Eye Wii speak? Fuck no! FUCK NO! I want them mute and looking like a bad photoshop fuckit! Realism is stupid!
    • Daniel Craig is James Bond in the game's remake? Ruined FOREVER!
    • It's ported to XBOX. Nintendo is the only system it should belong to!!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...
  • Dos-gamers who used to play Gobliiins trilogy seems to be enraged by the fact that the recent new sequel was created in 3D.
  • While two main BioWare series have been mentioned, the company itself gets this for pretty well every move they make. The fact that people like BioWare despite all the changes have had some of the more extreme Fan Dumb claim that they are ROONIN MAH GAMES for pandering to the console kiddies and dumbing down their RPGs into "mindless shooters" or "mindless hack-and-slash." Then they buy the games anyway.
  • THE iDOLM@STER 2. Bishounen? In my girl idol sim game? FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--
  • When the first teaser trailer for DC vs Mortal Kombat was released, fans went ballistic about how DC was forcing Midway to remove fatalities and pretty much strip away everything that makes Mortal Kombat what it is. A few months later, Ed Boon did an interview to provide more details; and he thought it was hilarious how much hard fact was being attached to something that basically just said "We're making DC vs Mortal Kombat." They hadn't even talked about what kind of restrictions DC wanted on their characters at that time.
    • When Freddy announced as a guestfighter as DLC for Mortal Kombat 9 fans complained that he didn't fit in. Never mind the fact that as mentioned above in TMNT Smash Up you don't have to play as him and in Guitar Hero section you don't have to buy him
  • When Telltale Games first showed the art direction and later the gameplay style (which is fairly similar to their Tales of Monkey Island game) for their Back to The Future video game, a sizable portion of the movie's fanbase loudly cried out that the game was Ruined FOREVER because the art direction wasn't realistic, that the gameplay wasn't exactly like Grand Theft Auto and/or because none of the original movie cast aside from Christopher Lloyd (and now also Claudia Wells) would be returning to do voice work (never mind that some of the people clearly forgot that Michael J Fox has retired from acting due to his health). Some even went so far as to say the game was also ruined because the interior of the De Lorean didn't match up to the letter with the ones shown in the movies. Great Scott!
  • It happens in the Touhou fandom as well:
    • Mountain of Faith: No grazing? FORGET YOU ZUN
    • Undefined Fantastic Object: No Sakuya, but Sanae? TOUHOU IS RUINED FOREVARR
    • What? New characters? ZUN MUST BE RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS.
  • For The Legend of Zelda, let's see...Spaceworld demo shows the Gamecube graphics rendering a dark fight between Link and Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, later there's an announcement trailer for the next game...WHAT? WHY IS LINK CEL-SHADED? LITTLE KID LINK AGAIN? THEY'VE DUMBED DOWN ZELDA FOR LITTLE BRATS AND IT'S RUINED FOREVER!!! And then people played the game...and all was forgiven. Well, at least the art-style; the sailing is a whole different story.
    • Nintendo themselves, more speficlly the team that make Zelda responded to this outcry with a a HUGE Take That at the "fans" who complained. Word of God said that they after the the negativity they got from western audiences about the games "cartoony" nature they decided to add many things into The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker that were take thats at these very people. These include things such as Ganondorf getting stabbed throught HIS FREAKING FACE, many characters dieing as well as many other ones that players would easily miss unless they kept failing. For example, contantly failing in the Forsaken Fortress Swordless part, prompts Tetra into says this line (failing over 100 times):

"What's wrong with you?! Can't you do anything on your own?! Maybe your confused because it looks different here? Well fine, act like a BIG KID while we gritty adults do the call stuff? Well I'm sorry but that's not how it works! Kids can be heros too you know!"

      • Also, they had Link uses facial emotions alot in the game, a fact that many people hated. This is referenced in Phantom Hourtglass in a conversation that is a BLATANT take that to the complainers:

Linebeck: Hey kid, show me proper emotions! You know you don't have to be so serious and adult all the time, your a kid...I AM THE ADVENTURER HERE! You Link...was it?...ARE meant to be a kid!"

    • Zelda tends to get this alot. The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks got flack for having trains, which apparently is sending the series into too futuristic territories, and that by developing a new game for the DS, they weren't paying attention at all to the Wii one, which is what we deserve.
    • The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, despite having an initial piece of art-work that looked darker and grittier than The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess is also cel-shaded? Ruined FOREVER! Oh, and the problems with the game during Miyamoto's E3 presentation were CLEARLY not, despite his insistance, due to the interference of hundreds of wireless devices being in one room, but because they were preparing a horribly messed up project that wouldn't work because Nintendo is lazy! Oh...later playthroughs in the booths show that the tech does work...well, we'll find some new flaw soon!
    • Pretty well summed up here.
    • Don't forget that Skyward Sword also breaks from the series tradition of Link being left-handed, making him a righty by default, with no option to select left-handedness, despite the fact that it should have been extremely simple to add such a feature (as well as considerate to left-handed users of the wiimote). NERD RAGE!
    • Also Skyward Sword, the exposition fairy can be annoying to some people! This game is completely unplayable to anyone!
  • Hats in Portal 2? Well, let's just quote one comment:

FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU TF2 TEAM, YOU RUINED TF2 WITH THE HATS AND NOW YOUR NUINING PORTAL 2 WITH THEM! I HOPE YOU FEEL HAPPY ABOUT YOURSELVES!

    • Killing Floor was hit with a similar argument once - at least one fan was under the impression that the game was on the verge of being ruined simply because one of the new weapons for the 2011 Christmas update, a claymore sword, vaguely resembled Team Fortress 2's Eyelander.
  • Smackdown vs. Raw gets hit with this EVERY YEAR. Just about anything that gets changed is met with backlash. Yet, of course, the games still do well in sales every year.
  • SOCOM 4 got hit pretty hard with this trope by fans of the earlier games (notably SOCOM 2 fanboys). This covers their collected feelings perfectly. Zipper laying off 33 employees about a month after SOCOM 4's release only exacerbated their feelings, and they're far from sympathetic about it.
  • Minecraft, of all things, is now being this trope simply because it is being developed for the Xbox360 while the game had been a PC exclusive. That's right, it's ruined because other people get to play the game on a video game console.
    • A lot of PC series get this. Once it goes on console, clearly it's an inferior product that's been DUMBED DOWN FOR THOSE EVIL RETARD CONSOLE MONKEYS!
    • Forget that. Minecraft is RUINED FOREVER because of the new potion system, enchantments and an "ending", now Minecraft is a generic RPG despite the fact that a) They have no idea what an RPG is, b) the ending is a glorified "YOU ARE WINNER" text and finally the block building is STILL THERE.
    • Browsing on the official forum becomes almost depressing due to this. Any time any change to the game is announced, hordes of people go insane. No, seriously. It is that bad.
    • And don’t even get us started on 1.19.1. That update, which came out in 2022, added chat reporting as well as the ability to get banned from all servers just because of what you said on just one of them. Not to mention Mojang forcing servers to be “kid-friendly” and threatening to block a server just because it has pixelated guns.
  • The fact that there will be no decapitations in Ninja Gaiden 3, only one ninpo and one type of weapon, no shops or upgrades, no healing items, stealth kill mechanics, QTEs, humanized enemies and apparently a toned down difficulty (for Normal mode at least) is enough for some hardcore fans to have this reaction. Note that it will still be a brutal game, that the stealth kills are optional, the QTEs rare and minor, and that from the point of view of newcomers it's still pretty difficult; but some seem to think that these changes retroactively ruin the previous episodes.
    • This was also previously the case with the Play Station 3 port Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 that had NG2's dismemberments but with much less blood and dramatically reduced the number of ennemies compared to the Xbox 360 title, making it generally easier on lower difficulties (though one might argue what kind of difficulty was mostly reduced). Needless to say, even those who hadn't really played Sigma 2 quickly started to declare it was for wusses and that Itagaki's games were the only true worthy ones for hardcore gamers. Hell when you look at some comments, the mere fact that Tomonobu Itagaki is no more in charge of the series seems enough to make it Ruined FOREVER.
  • The cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 has not been doing Capcom any favors of late, especially considering the amount of hype raised for the project, a sequel to a Cult Classic Mega Man sub-series over a DECADE in the making. Capcom's unceremonious canning of the title makes many suspicious of the act being a cheap-shot done in response to Keiji Inafune's resignation from from Capcom. The rage-fueled flames don't look like they'll be subsiding any time soon.
  • Rayman: Raving Rabbids ended up becoming a mini-game collection instead of a platformer, and fans were not happy. Then pretty soon, the Raving Rabbids games started focusing way too much on the Rabbids and barely any Rayman, and then went to the point where they kicked him from the series all together so it was ONLY the Rabbids. Fans were even angrier at Ubisoft. So finally, after all the requests to bring Rayman back, Ubisoft announced Rayman Origins, a game showing Rayman's origins, how he came to be, and how he evolves from an uncivilized, immature idiot to the gaming hero he is today, so you'd think the fandom would rejoice, but..."WHAT!?!!!! RAYMAN USED HIS Helicopter Hair TO LOOK UP BETILLA'S DRESS!!! WHY DID YOU MAKE RAYMAN INTO A PERVERT, UBISOFT??? I HOPE YOU ALL DIE!!!!" And then "NOOOOOOOO! YOU MADE RAYMAN AND GLOBOX INTO COMPLETE RETARDS WHO SLAP EACH OTHER WHEN THEY FIRST MEET!!!! SCREW YOU UBISOFT!!!! SCREW YOU ALL!!!!"
  • Syndicate is finally getting a game after talks of a new game being in the works. This trailer makes it out to be a first person shooter in the vein of Call of Duty, unlike the other games which were RTS-based. Cue the rage and ire of older fans calling the sequel In Name Only.
  • Whenever a patch is released for League of Legends, any amount of change, regardless of how insignificant in nature it is, will be met with immediate crys of "RUINED FOREVER!!!!!! OMG ROIT, HO DARES YOU!!!!!!" on the forum, from what is potentially the most childish community in all of video gaming.
  • Halo's been no stranger to Ruined FOREVER cries, so much that one fan annoyed with the Unpleasable Fanbase wrote up a Halo version of the Transformers wiki Ruined FOREVER page.
  • You can't play as Zasalamel, Talim, Taki, Cassandra, or any of the Korean characters in Soul Calibur V? Pyrrha's timid and spends more time apologizing and crying than fighting, and Patroklos is an arrogant Jerkass? 90% of the characters don't appear in the story mode, which by the way, reads like a bad Brother-Sister Incest fanfic? "SCREW YOU, NAMCO!!!!!!!