Personally... If I say I love a character, it's because I like the character in design, gameplay, looks and story... not because I actually have intimate feelings for the character. I might admire the character and drool a bit over them (if they are male and hot, of course), but I am fully aware that it is a fictional character made of pixels or polygons in a digital world, and indeed NOT real. I merely enjoy and appreciate them as characters. I would never think that I would ever have a special connection to these characters or make delusions about me being specifically entitled to anything that has to do with the character.
I like to consider myself a fan, and not a fanboy which is someone who actually feels like they have certain entitlements and feel like they have a special connection to these characters. I find such people rather creepy, to be honest.
HOWEVER! I can understand if someone enjoys playing a character in a franchise and becomes a fan of that character, so if said character would be deluded from a future installment, they would choose not to get that game. Some people just enjoy playing a game with certain characters, so if you take away those characters, they won't get the game. That is their choice and I fully respect that. It just means they are fans of those characters and indeed NOT fans of the franchise as a whole.
For example, if someone only likes Ermac and won't play any MK game which doesn't have Ermac in it, then that someone is an Ermac fan, not a Mortal Kombat fan. That's how I see it anyways. And I think that's totally fine.
I consider myself as an MK fan, though I do indeed have my favourite characters. However, because those characters I am fan of aren't "regulars" in the franchise, I tend to get new faves which will be added to my list of favourites. For example, my top fave character is Jade. But Jade wasn't in MK4, so I found new faves in Reiko and Tanya. Neither of them were in MKDA, so I found yet a new fave in Nitara.
I was so sure that none of my favourites would be in MKX, so I was already ready to find a new fave and I do think I've found one in Takeda, but was then positively surprised to see Tanya be DLC. And because I had already come to terms that none of my faves wouldn't be in the game, a wave of joy and excitement washed over me as I saw her walk forward in the Kombat Pack trailer! But even if she wasn't in the game, I would still get MKX and I would still enjoy it.
People are different though and they prioritize things differently from eachother. Some prioritize graphics, others the gameplay, and there's also those who prioritize the roster and its characters. So if they want to miss out on a game because of the lack of a character, then that is their choice.
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