12 hours ago, Schmoozies said:As to the same level as the founding Kami that was a player driven effort to cement the place of the Mantis as a Great Clan with status equal to the others and was a participation "reward" for storyline events. One of the reasons Mantis players got so defensive about Yoritomo was that the rest of the player base seemed to take pleasure in ragging on the character as everything that was wrong with the Mantis.
Because he was.
Having no weaknesses or vulnerabilities that actually mattered to him? Check.
A swaggering attitude he never got called on or, indeed, even forced to deal with as a negative? Check.
An appalling tendency to swan in, act like a complete and utter scumbag, and then get called a hero for it? Check.
Giving him more cookies was not a solution to the distaste.
12 hours ago, Schmoozies said:The hate for the character was so strong that the last AEG Gencon a $1,000 cash bounty was put out for the story line prize to be used to "rip" Yoritomo out of the heavens since he didn't "belong" with the other great clans founders. It was literally one player who didn't like Yoritomo undoing the work that a large segment of the Mantis player base had put into making sure that our clan was getting the same recognition as the other great clans.
And a Mantis player claimed that bounty, to the applause of thousands*. I still have a
"Yoritomo Descends"
playmat somewhere, and I don't use playmats.
*Or maybe hundreds, the game was in a bad way.
12 hours ago, Schmoozies said:And in fairness the single character focus wasn't a trait unique too only Mantis and Spider. In the early days of the game most of the factions were pretty focused on a single character (Kachiko, Toturi, Hitomi and Yakamo being the prime examples) and even in later stages of the game those characters were still considered fan favorites who ate up a lot of fan interest.
Yes, but their absence wasn't considered somehow deforming to the clan's identity. A closer parallel would be Togashi, and... well. Frankly, I'm not on the Dragon playerbase's side on that one either.