8 Exact Moments Video Games Split Their Fanbase In Two

Being a video game fan isn't all it's cut out to be.

Thanks to the ever-shifting parameters of the gaming industry itself - which seems to reward homogeneity over individualistic projects - now more than ever, publishers are clawing back development costs through loot boxes and microtransaction NFT stinkiness.

It's tough to stand up and proclaim your love for a franchise and not feel that tinge of sweat running down your spine at the thought of how it could all come crashing down with just one wrong move.

Yet, we're also a passionate lot, and our love and hate ebbs and flows like the tide itself, meaning we're constantly buying first-class preorder tickets for the hype train and then actively sabotaging the tracks of others in equal measure. Sometimes you can pinpoint exactly when the mood began to shift, when the family unit divided and some just shook their head at where the series was going and gave it the old "hard pass"

These are such moments, and while some of these franchises went on to bigger and arguably better things, it was clear they'd lost their original audience along the way.

When Sea of Thieves was announced, it was hard not to get excited at the prospect of swashing some buckles and making sure that poop deck was so damn clean and zesty lemon-fresh that it'd cure your scurvy, and indeed the trailers and promotional material for the title painted a picture filled with derring-do and adventuring on the high seas.

You'd travel to uncharted islands, battle undead minions as well as other foes, pillage loot from forgotten tombs, and best of all, come face to face with other rival ships and blast holes out of them in such a devastating manner you'd think your cannons fired nothing but parental divorces.

And yet.

When players finally (and I mean that quite literally seeing as the game was originally meant to come out in 2018) got their plastic hooks on the game it turned out that all that beautiful looking water was actually as shallow as a puddle, as aside from lumbering from island to iland and engaging in some pretty whiffy combat, some fans noted that there was basically nothing to do!

With the gameplay loop as transparent as some of the ghostly enemies you face in the game, it wasn't long before forums were awash with early adopters begging for more. Yet on the other side of the ocean, a band of perky pirates was having a great time, seeing the journey itself as the core entertainment, and managing a vessel as a crew as a key selling point for the title. For them it was about plotting a course, planning your angle of attack, and of course firing yourself out of a cannon onto the beach like a total badass.