[Interesting Trope] Attempts at fanservice/virality that failed not because they were hated, but because nobody noticed them or cared at all.

[u/mp3help]

1) Hoopy the Hoop, Portal (2007) When you defeat GLaDOS and her room is destroyed at the end of the game, debris rains down in the final cutscene, including a big metal hoop that bounces around a bit. Developer Erik Wolpaw said the team dubbed it "Hoopy the Hoop" and expected it to become the big meme of Portal. Of course, none of the fans paid much attention to the hoop since "The Cake is a Lie" became the biggest meme of the game, and overall one of the biggest video game memes of all time.

2) Burgh, Pokemon Black and White (2010) When designing Burgh, developer Yusuke Ohmura said Gamefreak had many of their female employees give input on his design to create their ideal handsome man. However, as someone who's been in the Pokemon fandom for almost 3 decades, in the 15+ years since Pokemon Black and White released, I have personally never seen any fans swoon over Burgh, or even mention him in general. If anything, characters like N and Colress are far more well-known within the fandom as the most handsome and beloved male characters of Pokemon Gen 5.

[u/piercebublejr]

Burgh was supposed to be attractive to women? He looks like a gay stereotype to me.

[u/Actual_Squid → u/piercebublejr]

He looks like he lives in Sebastopol CA and sells ritual ingredients to suburban wiccans

[u/Stretch5678 → u/Actual_Squid]

That is far too specific and far too accurate.

[u/MumblingDumpling → u/piercebublejr]

I thought he *was* a woman .__.

[u/Downtown_Cow1591 → u/piercebublejr]

Japanese women and american women have a diferent taste for men

[u/T1melessGuy → u/piercebublejr]

I'm a straight dude, but taking what the OP says about how the creator asked around about "what women like" that'd make them swoon over a guy and putting them into Burgh, it just seems like it ended up not as what every woman would be into but just more specifically those women.

Him being a flop makes complete sense because outside of simply not being able to predict this kind of thing effectively, gamers as a whole nearly always gravitate towards the most unhinged or flashy/memorable characters to carry them onwards to meme status.

Burgh seems completely generic and safe, and like what u/Actual_Squid says looks like he runs a cruelty free, vegan crystal-medicine shop for wiccans circa 1974 (its the stripy pants and belt for me).

[u/Tawnysloth → u/T1melessGuy]

I guarantee that "designers asked for the input of women" means something more like "Mei was dragged in from reception and asked which of three designs she preferred with the other two designs being a serial killer clown and a 10 year old boy".

[u/T1melessGuy → u/Tawnysloth]

Can't see the lie here.

Japan is known for many things, but a robust culture of user testing, feedback and iteration based on synthesised testing results undertaken under a supported Human Centred Design framework isnt one of them.