After discussing why gamers/consumers choose particular platforms over others yesterday (and the responses were great - keep them coming!), it was revealed that there are alot of reasons why some gamers choose to devote themselves to one particular platform over another. Some of the reasons were not as obvious as you might think. And for those of us who observe and write about these interesting aspects of game culture, we're intrigued as to why so many gamers become impassioned to the point of obsession over their chosen console. Another way to look at it (as pointed out by this brilliant clip from Scott Sharkey over at 1up) is perhaps it's not so much that we're inclined to like something as we are to hate something else. The clip goes on to other points such as identity and how it's human nature to want to feel a part of something, to belong and to share things in common with others. Another factor is choice. We're inundated with so many different ways to access games these days that when we finally do decide to shell out all our hard earned cash, we have to defend and justify our reasons for doing so. And before we know it, we're stuck in forums debating why we spent the 600 bucks on an Xbox 360 in the first place.
Do you think as a gamer that you're more inclined to dismiss or complain about another console or platform (Xbox 360 vs PC for instance) simply because your personal circumstances forced you to make a choice? Perhaps your budget restricted you from buying one particular console over another? Or as a few of our posters pointed out, the ability to use your console for more than just gaming was appealing enough to not even consider the alternatives. Does this classify you as a fanboy? Would you take part in an online discussion about how great/bad the PS3 is if someone else said that "it's a poor consumer choice because it's not a real gaming console?"
Unfortunately, for many of those who seem to fall into the category of 'fanboy' (or girl), what it comes down to is that the other consoles just suck. If you've never visited a gaming forum before you probably won't understand the obsessive nature of fanboyism. But it exists and it's very real, especially to those who feel victimised at the slightest hint of someone questioning their loyalty to their beloved platform. Some of these gamers don't even have justifiable reasons for liking one over another, they just know their console is better and everything else "sucks".
My personal view is probably one that will be seen as 'sitting on the fence' but to be honest, it's just how it is. As per my previous post, I love playing equal amounts on all my consoles. I'm not restricted by choice because I have access to all the next-gen consoles. So I am simply sitting 'in-limbo' while everyone else seems to float towards three contending territories. It's convenient for me to say "I love gaming" rather than to admit to preferring one console over another because the fact is, I just don't. I like them all equally. At the moment, I'm playing alot of MMOs on my PC but prior to that, my PC started collecting dust because I was in love with Battlefield 2 multiplayer on the Xbox 360.
Let me know your thoughts, especially if you've debated online in forums just like the ones I've mentioned. Like it or not, Fanboys and girls are here to stay and I totally agree with Scott Sharkey that the gaming world would be a whole lot less interesting without them.
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Was just on my way over to the other post to say I'm an unabashed fan of the big N. Been that way since SMB3 turned my world upside down. Now, I wouldn't go so far as to apply the full "fanboy" label to myself -- my faith took a serious hit during the Gamecube days, causing me to break ranks and get a PS2 -- but I still catch myself defending their crazy ideas (vitality sensor? seriously?) as "innovations" instead of "gimmicks."
Let me be the first to rehash that old story of how mom and dad only had the cash and/or impatience to buy me one console, thus putting me on a permanent path to brand loyalty in the face of youthful innocence against the very divided market that the advertisers created. Remember "Sega does what Ninten-don't"? But really, I had friends with Sega consoles, and we just played whatever was hooked up to the TV. I came up against my first case of true console warfare while talking to some older kids in a store who were convinced that the SNES was the superior console, and assured me that "Sega sucks" and "your friend sucks for owning a Sega." Didn't care for it, not one bit. From that and other formative encounters, I developed the sense that it didn't really matter what console you played as long as you were a gamer. This attitude has spared me a lot of trouble on the various internets since then -- although I regularly get accused of being too conciliatory for trying to take both sides of an argument and then give a reasonable middle-ground take. Diplomacy's a tough tattie.
The real trouble nowadays is that with the proliferation of Internet access and the outreach to the "casual market", the usual us-versus-them attitude that comes between the various gaming factions is spreading outward to the rest of the world. Where once we might have debated the finer points of consoles versus PCs, we now howl like rabid monkeys every time a scientist suggests there could be a link between violence and gaming, a blogger mom scowls at the vile flickering box which hypnotizes children, a film critic fires off a meaningless salvo in a made-up argument about art to garner pageviews, or an ex-lawyer shows up on a 24/7 news channel. We scoff at the forty-somethings who buy Wii Fit, roll our eyes at bombastic ad copy showing "groovy dudes" playing handhelds while riding motorcycles, and explode with self-righteous fury at the letters D-R-M. (I dare anyone with the appropriate last name to christen their first male child "David Robert.") It all seems so strange to me; I thought us gamers wanted to take over the world? But now that it's happening, now that we're so close at hand to a point where we can say we play video games and not immediately get laughed out of an office boardroom, we want to draw back and huddle in our insulated clans, clustered in our habits of "true" gaming against a reality where 50 Cent has not one, but two titles to his name. To me, that's where the real fanboys are: blustering on about their own importance, wasting away in the virtual world while the real one passes them by.
(Yes, I know, it's odd that I'm so impassioned about this subject when I work for a site called Fangamer. But in my defense, I didn't name the company.)
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Fangamer
Hey SimonBob - thanks for the awesome reply :) Nice to see another writer/fellow journo commenting here! It sounds like you've been exposed to the ugly (and sometimes VERY funny) side of 'fanboyism' for some time. It's ridiculous how intense debates can become in just a matter of minutes. One of my own experiences comes to mind when I think about a discussion I had with a good Xbox 360 gamer pal of mine who argued vehemently that PC gaming was dead and that the Xbox 360 ruled the console/platform universe hands-down. I laugh now at the fact that a couple years on, he barely plays on his 360, owns a kickass PC and swears black and blue that PC gamers "pwn all".
It's also true what you said about how gamers tend to be so full of fight one minute defending their honour to the world and then suddenly, bam! They're gone, hiding in their comfort zones, forums, basements whatever, coverting their brand new motion controllers and ignoring the world once more. We are indeed a complicated bunch of people but I wouldn't have it any other way :)
And yeah, I think I came a little late to the party because I started gaming on a PC and didn't really look elsewhere until I started writing about games. Then the 360 came along and admittedly, I was a little apprehensive about playing games on the 360 with this weird-looking controller thingy but eventually, it took over my life for a good year or so when Gears of War came out.
Totally agree that it doesn't really matter what console you choose. As gamers, some of us have probably had to pretend to be something else for so long that it's actually more important to identify with who we are rather than what it is that we do and how we do it.
Thanks for the comment, will check out your site :)