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With the recent discussion of removing the Marauder from Eternal, I think there& #39;s a lesson to learn about being careful about listening too closely to your fans. As an example, I will use one of my favorite bad guys: Mr. X. (thread)
When RE2make dropped, everyone discovered that Mr. X wasn& #39;t always scripted like the original. They learned that he can roam about the police station - throwing a door open right at the most inopportune times. This made people *rage.*
But something weird happened - Mr. X became a huge meme. People were rushing to make & #39;X gon give it to ya& #39; compilations and replacing every enemy with Mr. X. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WutlOjp2JsI">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
He had more art drawn about him than any other enemy in RE2make, including the bosses. They modded him wearing friggen umbrella speedos. He was a phenomenon.
People loved this dang remake, man. Even today, 97% of recent reviews are positive. Our company has one game in that range - it& #39;s *hard* to make a game that so many people like.
Fast forward to now. RE3make just released earlier this month. A notable change is that Nemesis is a much more scripted character. He has one small section where he chases you ala Mr. X, but otherwise - he is primarily limited to boss fights and cutscenes.
It is very possible that Capcom listened to people complain about Mr. X& #39;s roaming sequences, and decided to limit Nemesis to only a few short sections.
Now, RE3make has more issues than just Nemesis. The user score drop represents other issues like cut content, overuse of cutscenes and overall gameplay length.
But if you go through the reviews - people are sad about his scripted nature and comparing him to Mr. X. Where is Nemesis& #39; memes and "every time Nemesis scared me" compilations? They don& #39;t exist, because Nemesis doesn& #39;t get to be in his own game like Mr. X was.
Here is @Ggdograa from his review lamenting the scripted nature of Nemesis and wishing he was more like Mr. X from RE2make.
Same complaint from @TheSphereHunter from her review - Nemesis feels underutilized when he should be the (sorry) "star."
The point of all of this is that devs need to be careful not to let their own fans ruin their games. The same thing is happening to Doom Eternal: the immediate pushback to a strong, distinguishable enemy, the memes about his difficulty, the fan art, and the calls of his removal.
But over time, as people replay the game and give it more space to breath, and those frustrations become fond memories of the excitement that a memorable foe can deliver, we learn that not every kneejerk reaction is good for the health of a game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmzAo7uM8Jo">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
Sometimes, we have to embrace that the best games are meant to emotionally stimulate us beyond just "agreeable." The most satisfying victories are often the ones that require the steepest climb.
There& #39;s a whole genre for games that pissed us the fuck off at first, and that we desperately wished wasn& #39;t so hard. If From Software listened to its fans, it would never have made something as titillating as the Souls series.
We love when games and their enemies are cheeky bastards to us. We kinda love being pushed around and teased by mischievous level design and enemies. It makes us feel human in a way no other mediums can do. 
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