I've said this on at least one other forum thread, but I equate the 'unpopular" changes in Fable III to the overwhelming disappointment in Windows Vista when it was released. While some people might have absolutely LOVED everything about the play style and user interface in Fable II, not everyone did and people have a tendency to complain about things. Also, I'm sure Lionhead did some sort of survey based research on what people liked/didn't like about the previous two games possibly even combined with research data on what people have liked/not liked about other RPG's or popular games recently. When Microsoft developed Vista, they made all these changes that consumers "WANTED." Then once they had these wonderful features that were so important to them, everyone hated the changes. I believe the same type of thing happened in Fable III. Lionhead collected data suggesting the majority of players disliked the long menus and somewhat cumbersome expression wheel (in regards to the fact that the joystick did not always go to the expression you wanted on the first try, as there were mroe than simple up, down, left, right choices) or complaints that mobs of villagers gathered around when a hero was popular (sometimes making it difficult to target a single villager) and things like this. While I agree some changes may have taken streamlining too far, ultimately it is what it is and ranting/complaining might make people feel better, the likelihood of it affecting Fable III is unlikely. Unrest about features might influence Fable IV, but be careful what you wish for or we might end up with something hated even more than the current game. People also keep thinking that the changes they want would be "easy" to implement in a simple patch or DLC. Changing the ENTIRE expression systme for the WHOLE game is NOT going to be an "easy" patch/DLC type of thing. MAYBE when they re-code the game to work with Kinect (assuming they actually do) they might work in some changes to basic game components. Code is harder to write than people think, and appeasing the masses is never easy. Some people hated the play style of Fable II, and some hate Fable III. Lionhead is NEVER going to be able to make everyone happy all at once, so just try to be happy with the storyline and novelty of the game. If you are too disappointed in it, you can always return it and buy something else.
Just my two cents, sorry for the long, drawn out post.
