And that is kind of the issue, they made it counting on their established fan base but targeting it to “new/different” people, then they wonder why they are having such a backlash.
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I’m curious how fanbase outsiders will like it; the trailer highlighted a lot of legacy characters. I love knowing the game will include Carla, Otis, Wally, Stan, the Lookout, the Cook, and Cobb. But I already know who these guys are. I feel like they were shown off for people like me.
As long as they give Hernando a fair number of lines I’ll definitely buy the game, that’s all I’m saying.
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I don’t think that a binary classification (old/new) would be useful for me to describe a reality that has many shades of grey, nor to understand why people react in the way they do.
For example, for me the visual style of RtMI is “meh”, but I’ll buy the game nonetheless because in a game the visual style is not everything and because I hope to discover what the secret of Monkey Island is. 
So, I’m an old fan that is open to buy and play a game that uses an unexpected art style and this position defies the “old fan = new art style unacceptable” equivalence.
Me not investing time on the Internet to demonstrate that the developers did something allegedly wrong or incoherent also defies the other equivalence “non liking something = actively participating to the backlash”.
In my opinion, people reacting in a certain way has little to do with how much they like something and more to do with which human behaviors they find justified or acceptable.
So, you see, I wouldn’t fit in any of the two classes “old > backlash” / “new > maybe appreciative of the style”. To me, this kind of classification seems too rigid to assess a plurality of different opinions in a large group.
That’s likely. Trying to please older fans will be for sure an important aspect of their marketing strategy. I also think that it was inevitable to show in the trailer the key characters and some of the main locations.
You game me an idea…
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As someone who’s complained about the art a lot (but not harassed Ron’s blog or twitter), I kind if see the whole thing as a competition of fan desires. In recent times, people will point to Sonic the Hedgehog products stepping back and improving as thecresult of negative fandom - more recently it was the first film’s character model, but before that it was the ending of Sonic 4 and followup creation of the superior Sonic Mania.
For something like the Monkey Island series, I think of the various ways that Tales tried to learn from the aspects of Escape that were less enjoyed. Arguably they stepped back from the modern-toned silliness of Escape, and they used a storyline that stepped away from familiar characters and recent controversial revelations (eg Toothrot as Marley). They did this without needing a war, because there wasn’t a strong vibe of praise for most of the decisions Escspe made. There wasn’t any real danger that designers would think specific decisions were well received.
With Ron in the 1990s, he famously shipped out Secret and began working on Revenge immediately, without seeing overall response to the first game. For me, I dislike Rex Crowle art so strongly that I can’t make myself finish watching a playthrough of Knights and Bikes, and I’m going to struggle to look at Return if I want to enjoy the story/puzzles/music/voicework. If Ron were to have hypothetically started on a new Monkey Island sequel after Return released, using Rex Crowle’s art again, then it’s basically the path that pushes me out of the fandom.
Taken as just me and just my opinion, it’s a very selfish outlook. But when I see some poll where only 1/3 of people say they actively like the art? Then I feel like I’m not just representing myself. Hence the competition between fans who want more if this, and fans who don’t want more of it.
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It would be interesting to know why a lot of people dislike the graphics. Don’t they like the art/graphics style, would they like to have pixel graphics, …
Note that the poll clearly says more than half actively like the art.
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It’s just an anonymous reddit poll, but it has 32% like/love it, 37% neutral, and 31% dislike/hate it. You can read that as “only a third of fans dislike it in any way”, but you can also read it as “only a third of fans are willing to say they like it”. Beitral is the plurality.
It means a little something to me, because: I wager if you took polls on the music heard so far, or the voice acting choices, or the bits of story we have so far, then fans would vote overwhelmingly for the like/love option, with only a fraction split between the neutral and dislike/hate options.
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Yes, I’m aware of this - that’s why I wrote “a lot of people”. 
If we look at the Reddit poll, 31 % dislike the graphics - that’s nearly one third and thus not some few guys. I’m interested in why these people dislike or hate the graphics. Is it the graphics style and if so, why? The style isn’t unique or new, it is used in a lot of books for example.
/edit: Thanks @BaronGrackle for posting that Reddit thread. There are interesting comments. It seems that the vector graphic with the sharp and clean lines/surfaces seems to be a problem. Very interesting.
I think those who like it have little incentive to write that they like it. So those results could be very biased (adverse selection) . I hope.
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But this poll has similar results.
Nah, the poll in this thread has 4 and 5 over 50% when combined, and few votes on the bottom.
0 = 6
1 = 6
2 = 16
=> 28 percent below the average.
Ah. I was looking more at the top (love it) versus the neutrals in the middle. This poll has its majority in the top, unlike that reddit one.
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That’s true. 
I think that not liking the art style is a combination of factors. Some people don’t find it intrinsically original or appealing, but in my opinion a part of the reason is that it is compared (consciously or not) to the art style of the previous games.
Had it being used for a brand new game, without the burden of an iconic franchise that some people want to be “honored” or “respected” through adhering to more familiar aesthetics, the art style would have been accepted more, IMHO.
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And I think Ron and Rex should definitely explore this in new stories, regardless of whether MI6 is the bestselling product of all time, or anything else.
I would also add that comparing the art style used in already released games to the art style of an upcoming game is only a partial comparison.
According to the developers, the storybook style was chosen for a reason that will be clear only when the players will experience how the narrative works.
So, for now we can form partial opinions on how it looks but not on how well it serves a narrative approach that we have yet to discover.
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While I’m also having some lukewarm feelings about the trailer;
I’m just going to buy the game, play it and then decide if I liked it or not, in that order.
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the graphics style needs some getting used to… after watching a couple of times its not so bad. but the faces could look better at times for example. especially closeups of faces. it would be nice if they listen to the criticism of the graphics and discuss it within their team. maybe a little touch up here and there could improve the graphics a lot. worked for the sonic movie too! they improved sonic after a lot of criticism