Petition to Include SatAM in the Sonic game franchise

[Neon Black]

3/8/11 - View and sign the petition here:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/IncludeSonicSatAM

We, the undersigned, ask that Sega put its faith in the fans of Sonic the Hedgehog and incorporate the world of Mobius, as seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog “SatAM” cartoon series, complete with the Freedom Fighters (Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine, and Rotor) into the Sonic game franchise. The hopes, dreams, fears, capabilities, and chemistry of these characters allow the story to become much deeper and allow the audience to become much more invested in their struggles.

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Fellow Fans of Sonic SatAM,

I joined this site for this one purpose. I want to unite Sonic fans around the world to save a struggling franchise. Dedicated people are needed to accomplish this and it doesn’t get much more dedicated than a fan community that is still active over a decade after a show that runs for a mere 2 seasons. On this, the 20th anniversary year of the release of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, I would like to propose that we, the avid fans of Sonic, come together to force Sega and its affiliates to listen to our voice. Some of us have been around since Sonic's inception and we have seen multiple universes and stories. We’re the hardcore fans who became so through seeing one universe in particular.

What I want to do is start a grass-roots fan petition to Sega of America and ultimately Sega of Japan and Sonic Team. Our stated purpose will be to establish continuity with the struggling Sonic game franchise by formally requesting the incorporation of the characters, locations, etc from the classic Saturday morning cartoon and the Archie Comics series into future Sonic games and media. We're asking them to do this in hopes that a fan-based change in direction will revive the faltering game series and ultimately bring Sega's mascot back to the forefront of popular culture.

SatAM’s world and characters, in combination with other classic Sonic characters, have led that Archie comic series to break world records and survive for 18 years and counting. That sort of success doesn’t happen by accident. It can be done with the Sonic games too, since their recent efforts have been severely lacking and the inclusion of elements like human-hedgehog romances have been utterly absurd.
In the words of Joe Dirt: “it’s not what you want… it’s the consumer”. SatAM’s characters are as timeless as Sonic himself, and their inclusion can only mean good things for the franchise.

I am deadly serious about starting this petition, and I will work to have it land on the desks of Mike Hayes (CEO of Sega of America & Sega of Europe), Hajime Satomi (CEO of Sega of Japan), and Takashi Iizuka (head of Sonic Team). I’ve already started composing it, and I’ve already emailed Archie Comics requesting information on sales for statistical use, as well as asking for details regarding their professional relationship with Sega of America (it may be useful in finding out their disposition towards the SatAM universe of Sonic).

I have a BA political science from the University of Illinois and I am convinced that activism on the part of those who are invested in a cause can move the powers-at-be to do extraordinary things that they would otherwise not consider. In the age of social media, we have the ability to reach millions of people with relative ease and we may therefore easily further our ambitions, perhaps even more so than the well-connected personnel in the past who worked on Sonic SatAM or the games themselves.

I want to know who else is willing to help me with this petition. I ask that the older fans step up in to help compose the verbage of the petition itself and to help establish professional contacts within Sega, Archie, etc. since I feel that will be make us a legitimate front in dealing with these various corporate entities.

Younger fans, once we get this petition up and running, you’ll be responsible for scouring the internet with the older fans and raising awareness by finding Sonic youtube videos and making comments, making posts and groups on Tweeter & Facebook, and entering other forums to raise awareness about this petition. If Twitter can help start revolutions in Iran, it can help make Sega listen to us here in the West.

Those of you outside North America or with friends living in other countries, include your friends on this petition as well. Mike Hayes is the CEO of Sega West (officially Sega of America and Sega of Europe), so all nationalities are welcome. Translations of our finished product will be welcome (and we may eventually need it to penetrate Sega of Japan). We will present such things en masse, however, OUR English version MUST remain the sole petition of this type in existence. If we lose numbers to other groups or petitions asking for different things in the Sonic universe, this may never work.

That being said, what does everyone have to say?

[LaserX5]

I admire your courage to do something this big.

I hope you'll find some success where others have failed.

[GekiTheReviewer]

s***, I'm not going to let my distaste for the direction of the Comics get in the way of possibly playing as Bunnie Rabot in a game. You have full support of GekiTheReviewer!

[[USMC]OldSonicFan]

s***. I realized this probably would have been better to post in the general section. Anyway, first off, we need demands for this petition. I'd like to say include SatAM characters in general, but God, I'd be pissed out of my mind if Dulcy all of a sudden showed up in a game. She's a total buzzkill. Maybe its worth the risk. If no one has anything specific they want to include, I'll post a rough draft of the petition here within a week.

Also, anyone connected to other Sonic-affiliated groups that may be interested in this endeavor? If you just want to give me a name and have me do the work, that's fine, but it'd be nice to have multiple people invested in this thing.

[GekiTheReviewer]

Yes, because a Ice/Fire breathing dragon would be SUCH a buzzkill in the games. Anyway Ian himself has a forum he mods. Might be a good idea to check out http://bumbleking.com/forum/

[Elisto Dragonwings]

I realized this probably would have been better to post in the general section.

I'll move this to General Sonic Talk for you then.

[Miko]

Your best bet is asking for inspirations of said characters. Direct inclusions probably will not happen. The designs don't integrate well, and the backstories would probably have to be tweaked. And honestly? I'd probably wanna see more than just the SatAM characters. Actually probably is an understatement. I would.

[GekiTheReviewer]

Hey, as long as I can do aerial to ground combat as a half robotic southern bunny then I'm happy. I can give a f*** what they do to her backstory, it's not like the comics have cared to do anything with her.

[E-122 Psi]

It's a nice idea I dwell upon at times, it's just it's something I picture would have to be done 'just right'. I do picture the games easily screwing the Satam characters and concepts up, what's more their takes will likely become the 'definitive' versions, meaning if we get a deformed bland Sally or Rotor the comics and any other media that may use them in the future will likely be forced to change their versions accordingly (though granted Archie's treatment of them isn't brilliant right now anyway).

I fear what could happen to them considering how screwed up they are in the comics. Heck even the show itself didn't treat them brilliantly at times.

[LaserX5]

I fear what could happen to them considering how screwed up they are in the comics. Heck even the show itself didn't treat them brilliantly at times.

Yea, that is true unfortunately.

While Satam was the best Sonic show, it too at times was a letdown in terms of portraying the characters correctly.

[Hyram the Hedgehog]

I'd would love to hitch a ride on a Hovercraft or one of those tick transformers, or dinobot...

[Rozax]

I'd definitely sign this petition.

[[USMC]OldSonicFan]

Honestly, I feel that doing SOMETHING is better than doing nothing for the sake of worrying about Sega not following a rigid structure we've formulated in our heads. Character portrayals will always be a concern with any form of media, be it games, comics, or like you guys said, SatAM itself. However, I'd rather risk various changes in character design than simply reminisce about how great it would've been for SatAM to survive beyond the show and lead to more things than the hit-or-miss series the comics have been over the years.

Per our petition, I'm not willing to compromise on asking for re-imagined Sega versions of the SatAM characters. The wording will be vague enough for them to make tweaks and give some wiggle room, but I'm going to insist that certain characters stay the same. If anything changes, I'd imagine Bunnie's accent and southern style would disappear. It's very American in nature and even if the voice acting has that twang, it most certainly won't show in her personality. Keep in mind Sega and Sonic Team are dealing with European and Japanese markets as well. While the US may be the biggest market, Sega will keep their home country's interests at heart from the get go.

That being said, the petition is nearly complete, however, I anticipate the offices at Archie will take their sweet time in answering my inquiry, especially considering that it may involve some research, opposed to other letters they receive over customer service complaints and fan mail which don't take much effort.
I'd really like to have that sort of statisical support in showing how large of an audience they already have guaranteed.

At some point, we'll need to tap the comic fan base as well, perhaps through one of the Archie staff? It can't be too hard to get a point of contact within their company since one of the writers is an internet forum moderator. If anyone's ever talked to Ian at any length, they'd probably best for getting that proposal to him and thus to the Archie Comics office for publication. The headline of this thread and a simple hyperlink to the petition would suffice. After all, it would give Archie more stake and influence with Sega, since who else would they go to for more information on the characters we requested?

[Spectre907]

Hate to be "that guy", but I almost would rather not see it done, seeing as how the sonic games have been... poorly handled, for quite some time. I have this nagging feeling that if it happened, sega would find a way to halfarse/notbugtest/otherwise ensure the game is sub-par at best, 06 at worst. You know what I mean?

[GekiTheReviewer]

I'd imagine Bunnie's accent and southern style would disappear.

*girl-lish scream*.... I literally did that once I read that phrase. I don't even wanna think about that man.

Hate to be "that guy", but I almost would rather not see it done, seeing as how the sonic games have been... poorly handled, for quite some time. I have this nagging feeling that if it happened, sega would find a way to halfarse/notbugtest/otherwise ensure the game is sub-par at best, 06 at worst. You know what I mean?

Dude, that game came out 5 years ago. Just let it go. We've had a good amount of Sonic games since then that have a completely different game-play formula.