I think the 19th century story of The Strand Magazine almost being bankrupted by the 'death' of Sherlock Holmes and the subsequent outrage of their readers is a close approximation (http://sherlockholmes.stanford.edu/print_issue12.html). When people believe they have buy-in to an idea (even a virtual idea) they become very protective of that, which should be a good thing for a game developer but obviously it is a two edged sword.