High expectations

Based on many different experiences I've had during my year or so on the MB, I've gathered that many people here are pessimistic about SRB2 and Sonic in general and don't find much of the content of those things to be any good, especially custom content for SRB2. I'm not here to hate on people with these high expectations, but I have to ask: Why do you feel this way? Have you always seen these things as fundamentally or irreparably flawed? Did your expectations gradually get higher and higher over time? I'd be interested to know.

I'm quite sure that we all have our personal opinions about Srb2. I'm also sure that we all have likes and dislikes. Many of the older community members are certainly able to distinguish something good from something bad. From that comes different feelings for the fan game and such.

Honestly, in my case, I just don't quite care too much about Srb2 as much as I used to when I first joined. When I first joined I had limited knowledge of what made a game good and such, and so I enjoyed Srb2 like enjoying any other new game I managed to get my hands on. After some time I managed to get a hold of what made a game good and such. My view of Srb2 changed as time went by, and after constantly playing it I eventually became bored of it. A time came when I practically didn't even care about the game anymore, whether the next update was released or something else, I ceased to like the game as much as I did 3 years ago. Now I don't view Srb2 as something bad(even though some might argue that it clearly is and perhaps they're right), but it's just that after sometime certain things just get old and that's exactly what happened to this game in my eyes. Just another relic. Don't get me wrong though, I'd certainly love to try the new update when it comes out and I do continue to play the game, though not as much, it's just that it doesn't mean as much to me as it did when I was younger. When playing simple games brought pure enjoyment to me. It's like gaining new taste in foods as you grow older that you didn't eat as you were young and those old foods are either left but not forgotten or just completely forgotten. In a similar way this happened to me with Srb2. I just grew to liking other games more than Srb2.

As for Sonic, well... I'd rather not state an opinion on something that is far from being finished. The day when the Sonic Franchise is finally gone, then I'll make an assessment of how good or how bad things ended up. Because who knows, perhaps there may come a day when Sonic rises back up, or perhaps there may come a day when it just utterly and completely fails. I can only wait for the end of the franchise to create my opinion. Although now it seems that Sonic is heading for the garbage bin, and many people think the same thing, I'd rather wait and see.

I do hope this stayed on topic to what you were asking. I may have gone a bit off.

The reason for high expectations is simple: The maps warrant it. This community has produced enough excellent maps to allow us to be picky.

And, as with all things, 90% of everything sucks.

To build on what SpiritCrusher said, it's mainly because larger and more complex maps are slowly being considered normal due to the rate that they're being released. Several years ago in the OLDC (before 2.0 was released), maps like Chemical Facility from CoatRack would have received near-perfect ratings because of big it is. But today, because we're becoming used to such complex maps, the ratings were very polarized; it received mostly positive ratings, but it also got its fair share of negative votes and the overall consensus was that it was simply above average.

On the other side of the spectrum, Tree Ring Zone was released in 2005 and received perfect tens at the time. It was considered good enough that it was included with the vanilla game. If the map had been released today (with its object placement updated accordingly), I can guarantee that it would not receive the same scores. It would likely at best be considered an average level, maybe even below average. To use an older example, look at Nightmare Ring Zone by Mystic, released all the way back in 2003:

It looks terrible doesn't it? If this map was released today, I'm sure it would be universally panned by the community. But when it was released, it not only received a 7.75 in votes, it won the contest. Back then, this was considered good. Great even. But as more complex levels are being released and certain elements that were once rare become more commonplace, the standards rise until what was once considered great is simply average, and then in time, mediocre.

As for why people are pessimistic about Sonic in general, that's a whole other can of worms and is probably best saved for another thread.