A common problem with certain medium, particularly sequels, is change. Spicing things up is fine, and no one wants the same thing over and over again. Keep churning out the same product repeatedly, and eventually, you become pretty much every generic fps franchise ever. However, there are certain rules to applying change to franchise continuations.
1. Change for change's sake- Change can't come off as forced or shoehorned. One area I can see this applied to is in Justice League in the DC New 52. Why is Cyborg there? For shoehorned diversity at the expense of fan-favorites? Was it Johns' pulling strings behind the scenes? Either way, it was stupid and unnecessary. Everyone knows that the big 7 is Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. Now J'onn is stuck in a book with a gay version of Superman and Batman. Ugh.......
2. Don't change the formula TOO much- Look, change is necessary. It's expected to some degree, because otherwise things would get REALLY stale REALLY fast. However, changing things up too much usually results in pure disaster. If things are no longer recognizable, be it in plot, characters, structure, or all of the above. Not only does this alienate the existing fanbase, but the resulting controversy can alienate any newcomers, as they'll know that they aren't getting the "true" or "good" version of the character or series. Though there may be initial speculation and resulting increase in monetary gain, this will eventually dissipate and a failing franchise may end up worse off than it already was.
3. If you must make changes, make them worthwhile, and most importantly, MAKE THEM GOOD!- In the "New 52" DC reboot, DC ended the 15 year in-comic marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane as well as having the Kents die before Clark becomes Superman. My question is....WHY? Besides the dissipation of the marriage, literally NOTHING has changed in the main Superman book status quo-wise. Why was it necessary to end the marriage? With the arguing Lois and Clark have about the future of the Daily Planet in Superman #1 as well as the reminiscing they share in Superman #2, wouldn't it have been interesting to have seen these two as a married couple take the fighting back home, fight it out, and eventually resolve it? Stuff like that, as well as actually including Lois is the stories and sometimes the adventures, is what made the marriage work, especially in its early days. And for a virtuous character like Superman, it seemed like a logical next-step after a few years in-continuity of knowing each other and almost 60 years of set-up. This is now mirrored with less romantic scenes of Lois seemingly bed-hopping with an all-new character in Superman #1. Give me the "boring, old-fashioned, mandated, institutionalized" marriage over that any day.
4. For the love of God, don't combine these problems- One of these problems can kill certain products on sight. Combining them? Eek, no thank you. One notable offender is, sadly, Street Fighter III. Even as a huge Street Fighter fanboy, I hate this game. That's right, I'm bad mouthing SF3. Shocking, huh? The gameplay was off-putting to newbies and old-fans alike with its challenging(and quite frankly, stupid) parry system. Then, there's the cast. This games characters were, for the most part, god-awful. Many of them lacked the funny racial stereotypes included in the Street Fighter II and Alpha designs, and were simply bizarre, freaky, and just plain ugly. With the first entry in this trilogy sequel to Street Fighter II, Capcom initially planned to discard the entire cast of the popular Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha series'. Numerous enraged fans caused them to put series mainstays Ryu and Ken back in the game, but it wasn't until the other two entries, 2nd Impact: Giant Attack and 3rd Strike: Fight For the Future, were released that Akuma and Chun-Li returned. Other characters, like Remy, channeled move sets and play styles of old characters. In Remy's case, it was Guile, and in every case, it was simply an excuse on Capcom's part to not include any of the classic characters. Necro was another character from Street Fighter III who (thankfully) has yet to return in the series. He plays like a combination of the stretchy Dhaslim and the electricity-emitting Blanka, but like many other SF3 characters, he's simply a horribly designed excuse for those characters. Needless to say, Street Fighter III BOMBED in the home and arcade market. Even though they are still thriving in Asia, particularly Japan, arcades began dying around the time of SF3's release. However, SF3's failure was mostly due to the reasons stated. Street Fighter Alpha 3 was the last game in the Street Fighter Alpha series of prequels, and served to link Street Fighter Alpha with Street Fighter II. Released around the same time as SF3, Street Fighter Alpha 3 was hugely popular in the arcades. Ironically, this game featured every last character from the Street Fighter II and Alpha series and NONE from III. SF3's failure put the series in a long hiatus. The recent Street Fighter IV not only revived the long dormant Street Fighter series, but the fighting game genre in general. Of course, it featured only 3 Street Fighter III characters( some of the few well-designed ones) and a plethora of Street Fighter Alpha characters and every Street Fighter II character. Told ya. Change can kill
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