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Analyses of the incident seem to agree upon the following:
Problems with idolm@ster 2
1. Depending on who you ask, Jupiter is not much of a problem. Complaints tend to come from both a feeling of being threatened by handsome men, and the possibility of having to see beloved characters in relationships. The smarter blog posts tend to accept that idols are going to fall in love with someone someday, but they still don't want it rubbed in their faces. (I kinda don't blame them.) Other people think the announcement of Jupiter is the destruction of the franchise. The most pleasing comments I have heard note that Jupiter is indeed able to do dance moves and be seen by camera shots that were not possible with girls, and say that Jupiter is an interesting development announced at a bad time. Many a comment has been made asking the fans to please not blame Koyasu for being Kuroi. (Koyasu does a marvelous Kuroi.)
2. The "AKB method," a gimmick to sell CDs based on AKB48's practices, is much disliked. Here's how it works. The next CD will have one ticket or voting bill in each copy. Fans are asked to use this ticket to vote on which set of three girls should be the focus of the next CD. (Or maybe it was one girl, which might really drive people nuts?) Voting is allowed more than once as long as you keep buying CDs, so those with enough money and stupidity to buy 5 CDs to vote 5 times and then throw out the unwanted CDs stand a better chance. Those who are unlucky enough to like more than one group of girls enough to vote for both are forced to buy more than one of the same product just to vote the way they want to.
3. Ritsuko, Iori, Ami, and Azusa are NPCs. They appear as a three-idol group produced by Ritsuko. It has been confirmed that they cannot be unlocked for subsequent playthroughs, and I forget what the official word is but they probably also can't be played in a non-Story Mode. Combined with the introduction of male characters, some feel that their beloved collection of girls has suddenly been reduced by cruel forces beyond their control.
4. Online competition for auditions has been eliminated. This is one of the more accepted changes that was just announced at a bad time. The theme in this game is 765's idols joining together and forming a team. It would be inappropriate to depict 765 idols competing against one another (and producers against producers), and that was every audition in older games. This change also gives Jupiter more weight, for without other users to fight the game needs to give the player another epic enemy. (Note that I am ever so slightly uncomfortable with that interpretation because it could also mean that Namco has no intention of ever making Jupiter into playable characters---we'll see.)
5. "Danketsu's" lyrics were changed to have Yukiho say she loves men. WHAT?! My Yukiho, the one who screams, faints, and digs holes when the Winchesters wander by? A line or two later she says she meant to say "tea" but fans went on to make ASCII art of her saying she loves cock and collages of Jupiter doing unspeakable things to her. Okay, guys. :| Ami or Mami's lyrics (I forgot which because I am a terrible person) say that she would like a boyfriend and to get famous, but she supposes can stand her producer. The other one predicts that she won't have much work to do because she has so many special fans who are into little sister types. Was that Ami? Miki makes a joke about being on top and, not surprisingly, fans are outraged that their resident moe-blob has any knowledge of sex that would bring her amusement.
6. This is not a change to idolm@ster, but it understandably caused some raeg. A developer, I never bothered to listen to his name, identified people on NicoNico video as causing a problem with their video protests against idolm@ster. This was seen as blaming all the bad things on the NicoNico idolm@ster community's reaction to the changes in idolm@ster 2. There was also a request not to blame the voice actors, which prompted everyone ever to say, "that's not even the fucking problem, you tone-deaf assholes!"
My theories
The XBOX simply lacks the space required to make an extension of previous idolm@ster games while keeping all the characters and adding new things. Furthermore, attracting more people to idolm@ster (women) is absolutely a very important goal in terms of making money, so Jupiter had to be present. The end result is the feeling that the game is incomplete. Improvements seem likely, though: here are some things that I have wished would happen.
1. idolm@ster 2 will later be broken up into two games. A Girl's Side version is frequently asked for, though if they did that I personally would require more than three playable male characters. A massively less popular option would be for idolm@ster 2 to continue the way it is, and for a companion game to be made for Ryuuguu Komachi and Jupiter...where they fall in love. Massively less popular. Sometimes I wonder if a separate game for only Ryuuguu Komachi will be made for the Wii.
2. idolm@ster 2 will later be ported to the PS3. In this version, the members of Ryuuguu Komachi and Ritsuko will be playable, as well as Jupiter. The graphics will also be better. I think this would be a big step and one that would upset people, but considering how Namco has behaved with Tales time and time again, it might be time to buckle down and ignore idolm@ster for a while.
3. (extremely unlikely paranoid fantasies) Namco will say, "miss all the good stuff? then fix it by telling us to move it to the PS3, because we like to give our fans control!" Chaos ensues, internet explodes, Japan becomes a closed country again. Namco makes untold amounts of money while losing the trust of everyone that ever knew it, AT THE SAME TIME.
This entry was made as a way of following the current mode of making long, long tl;dr thoughts on yaoi entries in blogs. I rather doubt I have the right to write this much, seeing as I am by no means a representative of the community or really a participant in anything. I just follow a lot of blogs and I haven't seen a very detailed breakdown yet. (Please link me so I can review just how inferior I am.)
Touma won points for winking, and I truly look forward to seeing him made into a good guy, but Hokuto is my favorite. エンジェル君って言ってたから。
EDIT: I totally think Alice or Guilty is gonna turn out to be about vampires. There, I said it.
Problems with idolm@ster 2
1. Depending on who you ask, Jupiter is not much of a problem. Complaints tend to come from both a feeling of being threatened by handsome men, and the possibility of having to see beloved characters in relationships. The smarter blog posts tend to accept that idols are going to fall in love with someone someday, but they still don't want it rubbed in their faces. (I kinda don't blame them.) Other people think the announcement of Jupiter is the destruction of the franchise. The most pleasing comments I have heard note that Jupiter is indeed able to do dance moves and be seen by camera shots that were not possible with girls, and say that Jupiter is an interesting development announced at a bad time. Many a comment has been made asking the fans to please not blame Koyasu for being Kuroi. (Koyasu does a marvelous Kuroi.)
2. The "AKB method," a gimmick to sell CDs based on AKB48's practices, is much disliked. Here's how it works. The next CD will have one ticket or voting bill in each copy. Fans are asked to use this ticket to vote on which set of three girls should be the focus of the next CD. (Or maybe it was one girl, which might really drive people nuts?) Voting is allowed more than once as long as you keep buying CDs, so those with enough money and stupidity to buy 5 CDs to vote 5 times and then throw out the unwanted CDs stand a better chance. Those who are unlucky enough to like more than one group of girls enough to vote for both are forced to buy more than one of the same product just to vote the way they want to.
3. Ritsuko, Iori, Ami, and Azusa are NPCs. They appear as a three-idol group produced by Ritsuko. It has been confirmed that they cannot be unlocked for subsequent playthroughs, and I forget what the official word is but they probably also can't be played in a non-Story Mode. Combined with the introduction of male characters, some feel that their beloved collection of girls has suddenly been reduced by cruel forces beyond their control.
4. Online competition for auditions has been eliminated. This is one of the more accepted changes that was just announced at a bad time. The theme in this game is 765's idols joining together and forming a team. It would be inappropriate to depict 765 idols competing against one another (and producers against producers), and that was every audition in older games. This change also gives Jupiter more weight, for without other users to fight the game needs to give the player another epic enemy. (Note that I am ever so slightly uncomfortable with that interpretation because it could also mean that Namco has no intention of ever making Jupiter into playable characters---we'll see.)
5. "Danketsu's" lyrics were changed to have Yukiho say she loves men. WHAT?! My Yukiho, the one who screams, faints, and digs holes when the Winchesters wander by? A line or two later she says she meant to say "tea" but fans went on to make ASCII art of her saying she loves cock and collages of Jupiter doing unspeakable things to her. Okay, guys. :| Ami or Mami's lyrics (I forgot which because I am a terrible person) say that she would like a boyfriend and to get famous, but she supposes can stand her producer. The other one predicts that she won't have much work to do because she has so many special fans who are into little sister types. Was that Ami? Miki makes a joke about being on top and, not surprisingly, fans are outraged that their resident moe-blob has any knowledge of sex that would bring her amusement.
6. This is not a change to idolm@ster, but it understandably caused some raeg. A developer, I never bothered to listen to his name, identified people on NicoNico video as causing a problem with their video protests against idolm@ster. This was seen as blaming all the bad things on the NicoNico idolm@ster community's reaction to the changes in idolm@ster 2. There was also a request not to blame the voice actors, which prompted everyone ever to say, "that's not even the fucking problem, you tone-deaf assholes!"
My theories
The XBOX simply lacks the space required to make an extension of previous idolm@ster games while keeping all the characters and adding new things. Furthermore, attracting more people to idolm@ster (women) is absolutely a very important goal in terms of making money, so Jupiter had to be present. The end result is the feeling that the game is incomplete. Improvements seem likely, though: here are some things that I have wished would happen.
1. idolm@ster 2 will later be broken up into two games. A Girl's Side version is frequently asked for, though if they did that I personally would require more than three playable male characters. A massively less popular option would be for idolm@ster 2 to continue the way it is, and for a companion game to be made for Ryuuguu Komachi and Jupiter...where they fall in love. Massively less popular. Sometimes I wonder if a separate game for only Ryuuguu Komachi will be made for the Wii.
2. idolm@ster 2 will later be ported to the PS3. In this version, the members of Ryuuguu Komachi and Ritsuko will be playable, as well as Jupiter. The graphics will also be better. I think this would be a big step and one that would upset people, but considering how Namco has behaved with Tales time and time again, it might be time to buckle down and ignore idolm@ster for a while.
3. (extremely unlikely paranoid fantasies) Namco will say, "miss all the good stuff? then fix it by telling us to move it to the PS3, because we like to give our fans control!" Chaos ensues, internet explodes, Japan becomes a closed country again. Namco makes untold amounts of money while losing the trust of everyone that ever knew it, AT THE SAME TIME.
This entry was made as a way of following the current mode of making long, long tl;dr thoughts on yaoi entries in blogs. I rather doubt I have the right to write this much, seeing as I am by no means a representative of the community or really a participant in anything. I just follow a lot of blogs and I haven't seen a very detailed breakdown yet. (Please link me so I can review just how inferior I am.)
Touma won points for winking, and I truly look forward to seeing him made into a good guy, but Hokuto is my favorite. エンジェル君って言ってたから。
EDIT: I totally think Alice or Guilty is gonna turn out to be about vampires. There, I said it.
