you won't be happy with me, but give me one more chance -- you won't be happy anyway
Gamers are funny. More specifically, the way they react to the "canon universe" of their favourite game is funny, and though I always took it for granted, it's starting to hit me way more now that I actually write game material for a popular (i.e. ferociously defended) game line. (Now, I know I said I wouldn't be reading review-type things, but I
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A lot of the annoyance stems from the way that an unwanted change to canon affects this model over the long run. If you're a Storyteller, you can easily ignore any canon changes you dislike in your game; if you're a player, you can petition your ST to ignore them for you. But if you're invested in playing Exalted (or whatever) many times, with many different groups and STs, it becomes a bigger challenge: now you need to find a way to "change" the thing that bugs you every time
(Arcane Fate is a great example because it was something that, at the time, bugged me a lot too. In my own long-running chronicle there isn't even a trace of it (which was enough that I actually forgot about it until your post reminded me) but if I was playing rather than STing now (and I still cared about AF specifically) it might annoy me -- every time I wanted to participate in a Sidereals game I'd either have to convince the ST to drop it or suck it up.)
Of course, the truth is that people need to open themselves up to this happening because it's the only way to get more material. Every supplement is always going to specify and set in stone things that were vague before, so in the long run you either need to grow accustomed to the idea....
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In other words, I know it matters, I just don't get why we care so much. I see that it's a lot of effort, but wouldn't it be less effort to just change it than to yell at the writers? Hmm ... actually maybe I do get it. People feel like they pay for a game that should agree with them, I guess, not "force" them to learn it and then change things.
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Some of these people are reasonable but still opinionated and so you'll see them complaining about something they don't like (but politely) on the Internet. (Back before he hooked up with White Wolf, Stephen Lea Sheppard got into a pretty interesting debate about Deathlord-spawned half-ghosts with Michael Goodwin on RPGnet that I'm thinking of here.) It's not much different from calling in to a sports show and complaining about play calls -- it's a way to interface more with the hobby outside of just playing.
And, of course, some people are just assholes. Every fan forum (though some more than others) has people who will bitch in an obnoxious way because they're oblivious and/or obnoxious. I'll bitch pretty freely about anything that irritates me in a creative work I otherwise enjoy, but I'm aware that real people are responsible for them and try to keep from anything personal or petty in public space. A lot of other people aren't aware (or are just not very nice as individuals) and so take it to places or levels where it's not really appropriate.
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