In Limbo [Fanboyism Must Die]
[In Limbo is a feature of this site where i will basically post articles that were "sent out to print" on Infendo, but never published. This one here is the 2nd article that got canned by the powers that be, and the 3rd i ever wrote for Infendo. It's a topic that's near and dear to my heart, so i'll post the original uncut, then probably make a follow-up later on. Might be a little on the soft side, but bon appetit.]
If someone were to ask me what i hate most in gaming, fanboys would win. These guys are biased beyond belief. Whatever you say about a system you own, if it aint theirs, you get called 14 different variations of the word "homosexual". If their console's marquee franchise gets 9.5s [instead of straight 10s] everywhere, they crash the reviewers' email servers with massive amounts of hate mail proclaiming superior knowledge and appreciation for art. You just can't talk to them.
Sure, i was a fanboy once upon a time, but at some point it became clear to me that i didn't have to feel down just cause the GameCube section in BlockBuster was so tiny, or cause every celebrity says they have every system and play every game then only name Xbox and PlayStation. I sat down and realized that i'm a fan of games before i'm a fan of Nintendo, not the other way around. Arguing with misinformed people in GameStop wasn't changing a thing, so i cooled off and decided to stop my occasional hate of MS or Sony games and hardware.
Ever since this happend i've had a growing hate for fanboys. Especially Nintendo fanboys. They give the rest of us a bad name. Currently the "points" they make in arguments are: Nintendo are the only ones that make profits, GameCube was a success, and PSP is a failure. A couple of those are subjective, but horribly spun. Sony and, to a far lesser extent MS, do make profits from software sales.But it's marketshare that needs to be gained before thinking about whether or not profits are made. I know you want to have something to brag about coming out of this generation, but you have to cut your losses and move on. Nintendo had a bad generation. They may not be competing with MS and Sony in the coming generation, but they sure were with the Cube. Get over it. And just cause DS is on an amazing 20 week winning streak on top of every other system in Japan doesn't make the PSP teh d00m3d11!. It destroyed the DS's UK launch record of 87,000 units in 2 days with more than twice that number in 3 days. It already is a status symbol and a household name in the US, beating DS sales monthly. Let's chill out and give credit where credit is due.
If i see another comment on Japanese hardware sales with a fanboy saying "the Xbox is stupid trash that once again fails to sell! Har har har! (*FIRST!!11*)" my taint will explode. I'm willing to bestow reason unto fanboys in hopes to solidify a basis to shed the extreme bias, but it's hard to get through to them. They're missing out on some great things by being loyal to only one party and denouncing the rest, encasing themselves in a bubble. How can you call yourself a gamer if you only play one of three systems? I could understand if you only play Nintendo cause you can only afford that and nothing else, but to exclude yourself from other great offerings is plain stupid. Don't play games to join a team. Play games because you like games.
[Written on October 18, 2005]
If someone were to ask me what i hate most in gaming, fanboys would win. These guys are biased beyond belief. Whatever you say about a system you own, if it aint theirs, you get called 14 different variations of the word "homosexual". If their console's marquee franchise gets 9.5s [instead of straight 10s] everywhere, they crash the reviewers' email servers with massive amounts of hate mail proclaiming superior knowledge and appreciation for art. You just can't talk to them.
Sure, i was a fanboy once upon a time, but at some point it became clear to me that i didn't have to feel down just cause the GameCube section in BlockBuster was so tiny, or cause every celebrity says they have every system and play every game then only name Xbox and PlayStation. I sat down and realized that i'm a fan of games before i'm a fan of Nintendo, not the other way around. Arguing with misinformed people in GameStop wasn't changing a thing, so i cooled off and decided to stop my occasional hate of MS or Sony games and hardware.
Ever since this happend i've had a growing hate for fanboys. Especially Nintendo fanboys. They give the rest of us a bad name. Currently the "points" they make in arguments are: Nintendo are the only ones that make profits, GameCube was a success, and PSP is a failure. A couple of those are subjective, but horribly spun. Sony and, to a far lesser extent MS, do make profits from software sales.But it's marketshare that needs to be gained before thinking about whether or not profits are made. I know you want to have something to brag about coming out of this generation, but you have to cut your losses and move on. Nintendo had a bad generation. They may not be competing with MS and Sony in the coming generation, but they sure were with the Cube. Get over it. And just cause DS is on an amazing 20 week winning streak on top of every other system in Japan doesn't make the PSP teh d00m3d11!. It destroyed the DS's UK launch record of 87,000 units in 2 days with more than twice that number in 3 days. It already is a status symbol and a household name in the US, beating DS sales monthly. Let's chill out and give credit where credit is due.
If i see another comment on Japanese hardware sales with a fanboy saying "the Xbox is stupid trash that once again fails to sell! Har har har! (*FIRST!!11*)" my taint will explode. I'm willing to bestow reason unto fanboys in hopes to solidify a basis to shed the extreme bias, but it's hard to get through to them. They're missing out on some great things by being loyal to only one party and denouncing the rest, encasing themselves in a bubble. How can you call yourself a gamer if you only play one of three systems? I could understand if you only play Nintendo cause you can only afford that and nothing else, but to exclude yourself from other great offerings is plain stupid. Don't play games to join a team. Play games because you like games.
[Written on October 18, 2005]
posted by Rollin @ 2:44:00 AM
3 Comments:
At 9:34 AM, January 04, 2006,
MuffinGal said…
Hey this was originally written on my birthday! Outside of that, I think you make some good points. Fanboys are the same as the people who say that they are more hardcore because they have all the systems and they played FFVII without materia.
At 12:46 PM, January 04, 2006,
InvisibleMan said…
Bravo, Rollin, Bravo.
I wish Infendo, and other sites that cater to specific consoles, would post your article as an alternative viewpoint.
I think console manufacturing companies promote fanboy sites precisely because they are biased towards their product and so, they stretch the facts a bit.
Sites that cater to fanboys are generally fun, but you have to read between the lines to see where the information is presented with bias.
(I still keep Infendo as one of my favorite RSS feeds, though...)
At 12:31 AM, January 05, 2006,
Rollin said…
You guys rule, man. ^_^ I appreciate it much. I really should write a follow-up though. This one is so untidy. Or edit it, maybe.
On a side note, i just wrote 2 more articles that are ready to ship, but i wanna give this one more time on stage. So if you wanna tell others (be selective!) about this, feel free. You guys are the perfect readership. :D
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