Topic: CV fans outside the forums.

[Green Stranger]

I would guess the majority of the CV fans you know frequent here or any other active forums, but what about the fans you know face to face? Are there vast differences? Are they less/more informed than the fans you know on the forums? Are they happy with the current state of the franchise? Old school/newcomers? Are they friendlier? Do they sulk about LoS often? Are they hot?:p

[Phoenix7786]

The only CV fans I know of outside this forum are my best friend and my brother. They are both equal fans of the Classicvanias as well as Metroidvanias, with no clear lean one way or the other. Since they don't visit this forum (and the wealth of information available to it) they are less informed than the typical dungeonite. And they're not pleased with Castlevania drifting away from the roots of the classics and Metroidvanias.

EDIT: I am rather curious why I've been downvoted?

EDIT: Much thanks to rescuing me from my odd -2!

[GuyStarwind]

My brother got me into the series but he's only played LoI and CV 64 so not sure if you'd call him a fan. My sister is a fan but I think that's only because I'm a fan. I have some friends who have played a few CV games and really enjoyed them and like to crack CV jokes around me. However, once again I'm not sure if you would consider them "fans".

[Odile Kuronuma]

The only person that I know who is close to being a CV fan in my brother. He introduced me to Castlevania, and video games in general.But I wouldn't call him a fan. He enjoyed playing a few CV games, and SOTN in particular. But he doesn't care about the story, timeline etc.We never really discussed the series so I guess he just likes to play the games, that's all.

[Lelygax]

 I have some friends that like Castlevania, but only 2 or 3 are really fans. Ine of them only love Metroid  and when I shown SOTN to him he became a fan instantly, but since he doesnt have a PS2, PS3, 360 or a handheld he only played SOTN (Saturn version too, in fact I played the Saturn version because of him, since he owned a Saturn years ago) and some GBA games. He cant stand "bad graphics" and "limited control", so he never played the NES games, also he doesnt like too much the classic games that you only need to pass stage-by-stage without leveling. That same friend is the guy that I worked together in MMF1 ang The Games Factory to create some sonic fangames, but we never finished one of them because something ever gone wrong and demotivated him, nowadays he is a funky singer and doesnt have interest in trying to make games anymore, that is sad since now we have the needed knowledge to try something again.

 Another friend plays Castlevania even before I know him, he doesnt played LoS yet but seems very interested in this game, so I think that he likes it, since he is the one that acts as a "game master" in our RPG sessions, I think LoS is a natural thing in his eyes. He play classicvanias too and seems to have a great knowledge of the series, but sometimes he say things that doesnt even appears or happen in any game, so we could say that he knows a lot but sometimes he invent some stories lol

[uzo]

Hm. Not many really. One friend of mine likes SCVIV (who doesnt??) a lot, and remembers it form the SNES days clearly. That shows you how good it was, making an impression for so long. Other than that he doesn't play. However, interestingly enough, given that's his foundation for the series, he pretty much came to the same conclusion I did about Lords of Shadow, while visually impressive and overall interesting atmosphere and tone, the monster designs look stupidly generic, and jungle ruins don't fit at all. After being given the rundown of the story and watching the final scenes, he also concluded the story made little to no sense and was poorly written.

Another friend, who has played SotN and a couple of others on and off from the classic series, said LoS had a ridiculous story, which like the other said, made no sense and was terribly written. He thought that LoS was trying way too hard to be HARDCORE BRO, and looked too much like general fantasy, nothing unique. Again, questioned why jungles are in Castlevania.

Another friend actually played many Castlevanias, classic, and SotN+. He's not really a fan that follows up on the news or goes to get the games day one, but if given the chance to play them he will make the time to do so enthusiastically. He thought Lords of Shadow was interesting, at the time of announcement and trailers. I don't think he's played it yet though.

[X]

I am rather curious why I've been downvoted?

Might have been done by someone who doesn't have the balls to reveal his face, Here +1

No-one should have to suffer due to someones egotistical negligence.

[CastleV]

sorry,i dont understand what is this score ,I dont see why some post + and some post -.Please more detail .Now the post of Phoenix7786 +2 but early -2 . Who can vote ?

[Lelygax]

Everyone that have done 50+ posts if IIRC.

[CastleV]

oh well ,then I notice someone have trouble with Metroid defender ,their post get downvote by someone just like X said 

[Phoenix7786]

sorry,i dont understand what is this score ,I dont see why some post + and some post -.Please more detail .Now the post of Phoenix7786 +2 but early -2 . Who can vote ?

Right under your profile picture is a Respect rating that is either 0, or a negative/positive number. When you make enough posts you're allowed to vote or rate posts people make. These respect points tend to reflect the overall quality of your posts, either as a thoughtful, insightful, articulate poster or someone who comes in and just causes trouble by trolling or making some offensive comment. If I'm not mistaken, being downvoted too much can censor you from the forums.

[Kingshango]

Other than my brother (who introduced me to Castlevania in the first place), no one knows about it.

Oh and my uncle, the last Castlevania game he played was Simons Quest (he hated it) and he was surprised that they still make them.

[Lashen]

I subscribe to Konami's Castlevania FaceBook page, and it's riddled with comments from people I wouldn't care to hold a conversation with.

Obviously the most common of these people compare everything posted to SotN, or find another reason to force it into the subject matter. More often than not, it's the only game—or one of few—in the series that they've actually played, so I'm left pondering how they even found the page and why they feel so strongly about it revolutionizing the franchise to begin with. I've also come across enough people like this outside to consider it a "thing."

Now, I like SotN. (I wish I could make that point clearer.) There's no questioning its credability as an enjoyable, open-ended platformer, or the impact that it had on the series as a whole. What I don't like are conversations going nowhere with people that sound closer to parrots, rather than human beings with shared interests that actually happen to be involved.

Trent: "What's up? You're a gamer?"
Scott: "Oh, hello there. Yeah, I guess you could say that."
Trent: "What do you play?"
Scott: "I play a lot of two-dimensional games, mostly fighters but sometimes platform games like Castlevania."
Trent: "Castlevania is badass, man."
Scott: "Oh, yeah?"
Trent: "Symphony of the Night is my favorite; Alucard's boss."
Scott: "Yeah, it's pretty awesome. My favorite is Belmont's Revenge, you know, for the sake of personal nostalgia."
Trent: "It sucks that they'll never make one as epic as Symphony of the Night again, it revolutionized the entire series you know."
Scott: "...Yes."

It goes on. (I don't actually know someone named "Trent.")
Now, it took no stretch of my imagination to create this example. (In fact, I may have embellished on Trent's grammar/speech a bit.) It's obvious that Trent could have held this conversation with a cardboard cutout of me and leave the conversation just as satisfied. Trent has one goal, and that is image. He takes pride in himself as a "gamer," and is so eager to assert his desired role that he pays no mind to what I have to say or what I may already be aware of. He found an opening as soon as the conversation started, and moments where I am talking are spent focusing on how to best educate me because he cannot show ignorance (which he interprets as weakness).

From what you know of Trent and I so far, he is far more enthusiastic and opinionated, yet it's safe to assume that I have enjoyed this series longer and may have a greater understanding of it. Although, when the conversation is isolated, from a passerby perspective Trent appears to be both more confident and vocal—Trent's awareness of this is what drives all of his responses. Now we understand where he is coming from, and this conversation clearly has little to do with Castlevania, SotN or me at this point.

There were a hundred directions this conversation could have gone, and his responses bore the most cliche, drawn-out, self-serving opinions that any "fan" should be tired of hearing by now (whether or not they agree). I have no objections to an entire conversation revolving around just where Schmoo keeps that Ramen, or something else concerning SotN. If the internet would allow for it, I'd hold an entire conversation about Simon's Quest without mentioning a single fault, simply because I assume we've been aware of them for almost 24 years and a good portion of fans do enjoy it.

I play video games, I'm a long-time fan of Castlevania, I don't need to talk in a certain way or slap labels on myself to prove it like a car covered in political bumper stickers. I'm a firm believer that your true interests become a part of you and seemingly become mundane, not vice-versa. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who still sees video games as toys and tries to genuinely enjoy them without moonlighting as a boisterous gameplay critic.

The point I am driving this all to is that ever since video games have become accepted/mainstream, the fandom has also changed accordingly. You can be almost anything and like almost anything at the same time now without social repercussion. ("Nerd" is a status symbol today, and certainly doesn't still hold the same value/meaning that some people would have you believe in claim.) So in order to find what you might consider a fellow fan, you'll need to wade upstream through a river of people who sound like they care more than they really do. If you mention "Castlevania" outside of a gaming community, chances are you'll run into Trent or someone similar.



...@#$% you, Trent.

[beingthehero]

I have a friend who payed Aria way back in the day and totally dug it. That, and that GBA Metroid remake. I don't think he ever played the other games in the series, though.

I introduced another friend of mine to the series with the DS games. He liked them pretty well enough.

[Dominus]

I think that Aria was both my first CV game and my first proper GBA game. But that's off-topic. While I know other people who like CV in other forums, irl no one I know plays it