I have been a huge supporter of finishing the Mega Man Legends series since the third game’s cancellation in 2011. I have been with the Facebook page “100,000 Strong For Bringing Back Mega Man Legends.” since they launched as well. Recently they have launched a new campaign named “Operation Legendary Resolve”. This campaign entails mailing or emailing the support page a letter explaining why this game series should be finished. So I took part in it writing a letter detailing why this series matters.
Saving Mega Man Legends
The letter detailed how much the gaming industry would love to support them in media coverage and bringing in new consumers to the series. I started thinking about all the way the games could be promoted by the journalists and communities. I detailed how and why the franchise was a strong pick for continuing on as well as the fact it had some of the few strong female role models for me at the time. It was written with the same passion and mesmerisation I felt every time I played through the Mega Man Legends series. All I could think about was just how amazing it would be if we finally got through to Capcom and about all the happiness it would bring to the community with just the announcement that it had resumed development again.
Changing the Game
It made me think after writing the letter about how many games like Mega Man Legends exist that simply aren’t made out of fear of loss. The gaming industry has done nothing but grow over the past few years so if anything wouldn’t they make more money? What is it that keeps companies like Capcom from putting out these titles? A lot of newer gamers will even pick up titles that are trending and popular like the Legends series, so why not create it?
Maybe the answer isn’t with the fans anymore, though. As most people have noticed, games change teams and directors rather frequently nowadays and with team changes always comes direction changes. What if what’s holding back games like Mega Man Legends is the fact that the game’s story has been lost in translation with the newer members and its refusal for completion is actually due to the fact that newer people coming into the industry are only trained on flashier games like Call of Duty? If you look at a lot of new game departments now, there is a huge gap in more traditional games like platformers, while a huge increase of games taking place in the First Person Shooter category.
So, maybe we should be looking at the teams that develop games more than we are looking at the companies. Even if we got a sequel at this point, would it make us feel satisfied with the ending? Or maybe we should stick with the spiritual successor from Inafune himself titled “Red Ash” for our story. If we put more energy into the project by the creator maybe we could feel more fulfilled in the gaming community?
Passing on The Legacy
But if we wanted to be a little crazy instead of running to the original directors, maybe we could do something with games like Mega Man Legends. We could encourage new teams that have come into the companies to make us reboots or even new IPs which improve off of the game and story mechanics found within incomplete game series. I know it seems as though a lot of relaunches have gone over poorly with old fans, but that negativity may hold us back from getting some amazing reboots if we hold on to it.
There’s, of course, two sides to convincing companies to risk relaunches; the first is the fan side. If we can convince other gamers to give things a chance, like reboots of their favorite series, I really believe it would have a positive impact on the output of games. Of course, this is where the company side has to come in. The companies need to get involved on media sites and really listen to their fans. If they can bridge the uncomfortable gap between demand and what’s being produced it’d make the market flourish.
The best way to do this, of course, would be to go to the actual communities based around games where they can interact with fans rather than angry people through Twitter or Facebook. This could even open up new job positions for people who are good at listening and recording what others say. By doing this they can understand what the people who already support and buy their games feel should be changed or stay the same. This would allow for a much better guarantee that the people on the dedicated site put time into the titles because they are fans, who better to help you make money than the people who give it to you?