Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
This is gonna be kinda weird and cringe in the "angry cartoon review youtuber" way but I don't really care and feel the need to commit it to writing for some reason. Lately I've been thinking of the different extents that videogame/movie/book etc series can fail without outright dying and this thinking led to me coining my own categorization system.
DEFCON 5
The franchise released a kinda mediocre entry or two. Nothing serious, it happens to everyone.
Examples: Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, Ratchet 2016
DEFCON 4
The franchise has undergone a prolonged string of inconsistent quality releases, usually in the ballpark of years. Talks of marked, potentially permanent decline are setting in among longtime fans.
Examples: Current Pokemon/MCU
DEFCON 3
The franchise has released a distinctly terrible entry of such appallingly low quality that confidence has been immensely shaken even at the mass market level. Whether it be a buggy broken mess of a videogame or a tv show whose production pipeline is melting down, this is where long-term reputational damage begins to be dealt to even the sturdiest IPs, albeit at varying levels depending on the scale of the failure and the swiftness of recovery.
Examples: Sonic 06, Anime Resurrection 'F', Game of Thrones Season 8
DEFCON 2
For franchises that refuse to recover after a DEFCON 3-level incident. To enter this category it is not enough for the creators to be genuinely trying their best to correct course but failing due to lack of ideas, resources, budget or talent. Rather they must either have resigned themselves to the brand being washed up and tell fans to keep expectations low as a result or they actively believe in their highly corrosive vision despite pleas to the contrary.
Examples: Post-prime Simpsons, 2010s Paper Mario, Spider-man One More Day and the mainline (Earth 616) Spider-man comics after it
DEFCON 1
This (thankfully) exceedingly rare category is less a franchise failing and moreso a franchise utterly losing its mind. This is no longer simply bad media: These are entries that take their series in directions so alienating and legitimately upsetting that they leave readers/viewers/players questioning the personal integrity of those involved. To put in a less diplomatic, more to-the-point way: These are genuinely disgusting, morally reprehensible and completely inappropriate for the target audience or any audience for that matter. Paradoxically, sometimes entries in this category can be less damaging to the overall IP than DEFCON 2 or even 3 cases, mainly because they are so loathsome and infamous that everyone from the creators to the fans collectively agrees to pretend they never happened. Franchises that aren't so lucky, however, will find themselves with a nigh-uncleanable reputational stain that will haunt them even decades down the road.
Suggest placements for things you hate or something I dunno
DEFCON 5
The franchise released a kinda mediocre entry or two. Nothing serious, it happens to everyone.
Examples: Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, Ratchet 2016
DEFCON 4
The franchise has undergone a prolonged string of inconsistent quality releases, usually in the ballpark of years. Talks of marked, potentially permanent decline are setting in among longtime fans.
Examples: Current Pokemon/MCU
DEFCON 3
The franchise has released a distinctly terrible entry of such appallingly low quality that confidence has been immensely shaken even at the mass market level. Whether it be a buggy broken mess of a videogame or a tv show whose production pipeline is melting down, this is where long-term reputational damage begins to be dealt to even the sturdiest IPs, albeit at varying levels depending on the scale of the failure and the swiftness of recovery.
Examples: Sonic 06, Anime Resurrection 'F', Game of Thrones Season 8
DEFCON 2
For franchises that refuse to recover after a DEFCON 3-level incident. To enter this category it is not enough for the creators to be genuinely trying their best to correct course but failing due to lack of ideas, resources, budget or talent. Rather they must either have resigned themselves to the brand being washed up and tell fans to keep expectations low as a result or they actively believe in their highly corrosive vision despite pleas to the contrary.
Examples: Post-prime Simpsons, 2010s Paper Mario, Spider-man One More Day and the mainline (Earth 616) Spider-man comics after it
DEFCON 1
This (thankfully) exceedingly rare category is less a franchise failing and moreso a franchise utterly losing its mind. This is no longer simply bad media: These are entries that take their series in directions so alienating and legitimately upsetting that they leave readers/viewers/players questioning the personal integrity of those involved. To put in a less diplomatic, more to-the-point way: These are genuinely disgusting, morally reprehensible and completely inappropriate for the target audience or any audience for that matter. Paradoxically, sometimes entries in this category can be less damaging to the overall IP than DEFCON 2 or even 3 cases, mainly because they are so loathsome and infamous that everyone from the creators to the fans collectively agrees to pretend they never happened. Franchises that aren't so lucky, however, will find themselves with a nigh-uncleanable reputational stain that will haunt them even decades down the road.
Transformers Kiss Players, Usagi Drop Part 2
Suggest placements for things you hate or something I dunno
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