[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/Tljunior20]

Wait what?!😭

[u/Cyberbug7 → u/Tljunior20]

A year or so ago a bunch of data got leaked and one of them was the design document for Skyla.

She was apparently built from the ground up to be a sexy Hispanic with Jennifer Lopez being an inspiration. Her appearance even lists “slim with a large chest”

[u/Sum1nne → u/Cyberbug7]

TBH after Olivia's design, behaviour, and intro cutscene in Sun/Moon I can't believe anyone still thinks Game Freak isn't entirely deliberate in designing sexy PokeWaifus for their teen and older audiences. She was completely without pretence, they even had to tone her design down hard when the cartoon got around to the Alola region a little later.

[u/Low_Palpitation_3743 → u/Sum1nne]

Didn't the anime team said that they changed Misty with May, Dawn, etc, because they wanted new "eye candy" for the young male viewers? I'm 100% sure they are aware of it.