Though it might galvanize some people to buy it, to prove that the haters won’t win, that kind of thing.
Also lots of people are talking about the game because of this, it’s been trending again on Twitter… and you know “no such thing as bad publicity”, etc.
I’ve noticed that the latest and strongest critiques to RtMI seem to focus on character design and expression, which was never the strong point of pixel art. In pixel art, characters are not very expressive (the eyes are one pixel, and so on). So these critics are probably not pixel art nostalgics. Who are they? CMI fans?
People like myself, who don’t personally care for Rex Crowe’s artistic style or Spine animations. The game not being pixel art was never the criticism being made.
They are just people who dislike the art style for what it is, not necessarily for how it compares to previous games.
Added: but comparing the art style to previous games is also a phenomenon. I’ve seen many comparisons with “Curse”, for example.
Anyway, your poll indicates that the likeness of the new art style is just above average:
Yes, but that poll was made for us, just to chat about it and have fun. That data is not representative of what’s happening elsewhere and it can’t be used to reach sound conclusions.
I mean, does it really matter what other people think of the art style? If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, you don’t. Surely it’s only your own opinion which ultimately matters when it comes to your experience of playing the game. It occurs to me that attempting to measure the metrics for an overall consensus on the art style is an attempt to validate one’s own opinion. If the majority agree with your opinion, it ought not vindicate how you feel and equally, if the majority disagree with your opinion, it ought not invalidate how you feel.
EDIT: This comment is not a dig @LowLevel. Just an observation on the nature of polls and the validity of subjectivity.
I agree nonetheless with what you wrote, including the part about how valid/illusory subjectivity can be.
I’m simply sad for the developers and for a project that has both emotional end economic goals. In some phenomena, I perceive a threat to those goals and I feel sorry for them.
Right. To the extreme, if Ron was abducted by the retro fascists, that’s the best thing that could happen to the game, it would be in all headlines and be a huge success.
Yes, would sell at least 10 more copies
You should ask Harvey Weinstein what he thinks about the notion of “no bad publicity”. Just forward a letter to Wende Correctional Facility.
Is it wrong that I kinda want to see a game about this?
Yeah, I’ve always thought it was a bit of an odd saying…
“Good news, our new model of cars is in all the newspapers because they’ve been exploding by accident!”
This is valid for products, but not arts. 
In Germany we have a tabloid newspaper that had criticized(*) several TV shows in the past - with the result that everybody watched these shows (and these shows were a huge success).
(*) And I mean heavily criticized.
On of the things which I learned in college was that effective marketing is more about brand awareness, than it is an individual product. That is to say that the key to advertising is often to simply get people to recognise your brand name at a subconscious level, so that the next time they go shopping and are looking at the shelves to buy, say, a bar of soap, they spy that brand they once saw on an advert on TV and a mental link is made that this must be a good bar of soap because they recognise the brand.
Therefore, I can certainly understand the meaning behind the phrase “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” because it’s playing into that concept; that any kind of brand awareness within the public subconscious is a positive thing in the long term. However, as you correctly point out; the phrase doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny at an absolutist level. There is definitely such a thing as bad publicity.
Again; not nessercerily. For example, following his scandal, Kevin Spacey was replaced by Christopher Plummer within Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World, despite the film already being in the can and it costing a lot of money (somewhat ironically) for the studio to do so. That was not good publicity for Kevin Spacey and judging by the box office sales, it ultimately wasn’t good for the movie either.
Equally, there’s now a couple of subsequent films with Kevin Spacey starring in them that the production companies are unable to secure a release for, despite them being fully completed, because no distribution company wants to be associated with Spacey. Again; I wouldn’t say that was good publicity for those films.
Videogames, though, are a strange chimera.
The “piece of art / product” duality requires serious consideration by developers. They are free as they want to create the game that they want to make, but they also need to be aware that consumers will not purchase any product and that bad publicity does exist.
Syberia 3 was a nightmare. It was a sequel of an iconic franchise that has many fans but people classified it as “unplayable”, due to buggy controls.
The only way to sell the game was to adopt a “continuously and heavily discounted” tactic. Its price drops to -80/90% every few weeks or so:
With all due respect, may I suggest you to consult a good urologist?
Wow. I’m just jealous nobody has ever said something like this to me.
Moving to more joyful topics: does anyone have any idea about why DEAD FISH plays a big role in this game? 
It’s even in flags!
Some characters also wear fishing hooks!
I’m not sure but clearly the ‘fish-with-a-key-in-the-middle’ is going to be an important item within the game.
