TK
05-09-2002, 03:46 AM
Okay, this is something I read at ign.com, and while normally I'm not that big a fan of this site, I have to say I really like some of the articles they write up. This one, though, caught my attention particularly because I could sympathize with it so greatly and I really wish more people would realize how true it is.
Fan is Short for Fanatic
Fanboy. It's a word that many have come to loathe in recent years, thanks mainly to the connotation that the person so labeled will argue the merits of his/her console with blind loyalty up until (and probably including) the moment they draw their final breath. Though, I find it odd that little distinction has ever been made between an ignorant fanboy and your regular, run-of-the-mill fanboy. In fact, thinking back to "the day," I don't recall ever hearing the word fanboy.
Sure, my friends and I would sit around lauding Sonic's wonderful use of "blast processing" (don't you just love marketing?) and we'd laugh at the constant jibes Nintendo and Sega would take at each other. After all, who can forget "Sega does what Nintendon't!" But at the end of the day we'd all go home and play a couple games of Mario Kart or Micro Machines: Turbo Tournament on the MegaDrive/Genesis. We'd make fun of each other's console, but we never actually took ourselves too seriously. We just wanted to have fun.
Not so anymore, choosing a console has become almost as important as joining a political party or following a specific religion. Granted, our wars may be petty in the eyes of the outside world, but I tell you this, put nuclear warheads in the hands of rival console fans and this section of the universe will be lit-up like a Christmas tree for the next few millennia. Fanboys are the foot soldiers of the Xbox, the PS2 and the GameCube, and many of them it would seem are more than willing to take up arms. Or potty-mouthed arguments as the case may be.
Just a few short years ago however, Sony turned the gaming world on its head. PlayStation brought gaming into the mainstream, and in doing so opened up a Pandora's Box of ignorance, favoritism, misinformation and perhaps even gasp fanboyism. It's quite possible that much of this went on during the heyday of the 16-bit era, but without the Internet to provide a forum for every "gamer" to voice their opinion, "console-hating" remained relatively subdued.
That however, is a topic for another time. The point of this article is to hopefully dispel the notion that a fanboy is automatically associated with blind obedience and ignorance, hence my earlier distinction between an ignorant fanboy and your average fanboy. An analogy I've become quite fond of is one that likens the current console war to sports. Everyone has their favorite team, and everyone naturally wants their team to do as best as it possibly can. Of course, you have the fans who can appreciate a great play regardless of whether or not their team actually pulled it off and you have the fans that absolutely detest the opposing team for no reason other than that they're, well... the opposing team. As you've no doubt guessed, fanboys are generally lumped into the last category; in fact, any proponent of a single system is often labeled as a fanboy, regardless of their arguments, opinions or facts. And it's this last assumption that I have a problem with.
Personally, I like to believe that I'm a fairly open-minded gamer. I've owned more (way more) than a dozen consoles in my lifetime and as I've mentioned previously, I currently own every single piece of next-generation hardware. However, the fact that I enjoy games across multiple platforms does not mean that I don't have a favorite... and that favorite, as you may have guessed, is the GameCube. More specifically, my favorite is Nintendo, but the GameCube is their latest baby, and thus it's mine as well. Going back to my earlier analogy, I'll watch any game of football and enjoy it, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to root for my team when they're playing.
The reason Nintendo fans take so much flak is because we possess an undying love for the company. And like pretty much everything in life, we're not about to sit back and watch something we love get insulted by outsiders. It's fine for us to complain and whine about the company, heck, we've earned that right, but God help any soul who dare say something disparaging about them. To anyone that never grew up with a Nintendo console in the house, this is something that becomes almost impossible to quantify (I can already hear the cries of "fanboy" from the peanut gallery) and probably smacks of all the qualities normally associated with the term "fanboy." Blind devotion is one thing, but an educated supporter is something else entirely.
Every gamer knows exactly what it feels like to be playing a game, while having this stupid-looking grin plastered across your face. These I like to call my "Wow! moments" and when a company such as Nintendo has consistently imprinted these sort of moments into your memory bank for the last 16 or so years of your life, it's pretty hard to not harbor strong feelings for the company,
Say what you will about them, but they had a significant hand in shaping the industry over the past two decades. The same can be said, at least in recent times, about Sony. By the same token, Microsoft could yet become a significant and permanent fixture of the industry. But as it stands, neither has yet done enough to earn my affection.
I'd like to believe that Nintendo fans, at least the long-serving ones, are generally more intelligent, nay, more informed, (at least as far as games and the industry are concerned) simply because we've been around for so many years. Many of us started playing games back in the early 80s (some even earlier) and I like to think that we have a deeper respect for all things gaming than say, someone who casually dabbles in our lifeblood (hobby is so not the right word). This is not a slight against Sony or Microsoft fans, as there are both, those who are informed and those who are not in all three camps. But the plain fact of the matter is that Nintendo has been in the business a lot longer than either company and the fans that have grown with it, are (or should be anyway) better informed.
Which of course brings me to my next point, the casual gamer. Now, before I go any further I feel I need to make something absolutely clear: The following is a generalization, it's not overly scientific and it's not cold, hard fact. What it is however is a personal observation that is years in the making, and has in my experience seldom been proven wrong. Now where was I? Oh yes. The casual gamer cares not for innovative gameplay, fresh ideas or *gasp* loveable characters. He (and occasionally she) prefers games based upon his favorite movies, sports and licenses -- things he can identify with and feels comfortable playing.
He's quite happy to ignore a title's inherent flaws as long as it caters to his tastes. Not that there's anything wrong with enjoying a particular title, but the simple fact is that a casual player is more than likely to overlook something like Mister Mosquito in lieu of the latest, hippest, coolest videogame that he can show off to his friends. Naturally, violence and nudity, two things that are overly prevalent in our society, become ideal and fashionable subjects, more so than a rotund plumber who wears overalls. I mean, come on, playing a "cute" game is tantamount to going to school in teddy bear pajamas, right? That would of course be wrong, but there's a lot to be said about perception.
Misinformation is most prevalent among the casual user base simply because games serve as little more than a passing interest. Instead of ensuring that one's facts are correct, tidbits of information are taken at little more than face value. Of course, none of us would even think about making a statement such as "Car X is better than Car Y because it's red, and I like red." It's nothing more than an uninformed opinion; an inane argument at best, and few people would be stupid enough to let those words escape from their lips. Of course, no one would bat an eyelid if someone was to argue "the Xbox is the best because it's more powerful," or "the GameCube has a better controller, so it's definitely more fun," or my personal favorite "the PS2 is the best because it's cooler." You just can't argue with that kind of logic, now can you? Believe it or not, these are actually things people have said to me. That said, these sorts of arguments take place on a daily basis. Why? I don't know, but I can only surmise that it's because few people have the time or simply could care less about learning everything they possibly could about their system, and the competitors.
The point to this excessive diatribe is this: ignorant fanboys are the ones perpetuating arguments like the above, giving those of us with better things to do constant and painful headaches. My head hurts just thinking about the lame arguments some people send to me. Normal fanboys, I like to believe, are the hardcore; the few and the proud; those who are well-informed simply because they absolutely love everything about gaming, yet the term has become synonymous with ignorance and favoritism. Some may say that "it's all about the games," and in a perfect world it would be. But that, sadly, is not the case and few people can claim to be completely platform-agnostic. And if you're going to crucify me as a Nintendo fanboy for sticking up for one of the last companies that I believe actually understands the essence of gaming, well then I suggest you give me a hand, 'cos this cross sure ain't getting any lighter.
-- Gavin Frankle
Fan is Short for Fanatic
Fanboy. It's a word that many have come to loathe in recent years, thanks mainly to the connotation that the person so labeled will argue the merits of his/her console with blind loyalty up until (and probably including) the moment they draw their final breath. Though, I find it odd that little distinction has ever been made between an ignorant fanboy and your regular, run-of-the-mill fanboy. In fact, thinking back to "the day," I don't recall ever hearing the word fanboy.
Sure, my friends and I would sit around lauding Sonic's wonderful use of "blast processing" (don't you just love marketing?) and we'd laugh at the constant jibes Nintendo and Sega would take at each other. After all, who can forget "Sega does what Nintendon't!" But at the end of the day we'd all go home and play a couple games of Mario Kart or Micro Machines: Turbo Tournament on the MegaDrive/Genesis. We'd make fun of each other's console, but we never actually took ourselves too seriously. We just wanted to have fun.
Not so anymore, choosing a console has become almost as important as joining a political party or following a specific religion. Granted, our wars may be petty in the eyes of the outside world, but I tell you this, put nuclear warheads in the hands of rival console fans and this section of the universe will be lit-up like a Christmas tree for the next few millennia. Fanboys are the foot soldiers of the Xbox, the PS2 and the GameCube, and many of them it would seem are more than willing to take up arms. Or potty-mouthed arguments as the case may be.
Just a few short years ago however, Sony turned the gaming world on its head. PlayStation brought gaming into the mainstream, and in doing so opened up a Pandora's Box of ignorance, favoritism, misinformation and perhaps even gasp fanboyism. It's quite possible that much of this went on during the heyday of the 16-bit era, but without the Internet to provide a forum for every "gamer" to voice their opinion, "console-hating" remained relatively subdued.
That however, is a topic for another time. The point of this article is to hopefully dispel the notion that a fanboy is automatically associated with blind obedience and ignorance, hence my earlier distinction between an ignorant fanboy and your average fanboy. An analogy I've become quite fond of is one that likens the current console war to sports. Everyone has their favorite team, and everyone naturally wants their team to do as best as it possibly can. Of course, you have the fans who can appreciate a great play regardless of whether or not their team actually pulled it off and you have the fans that absolutely detest the opposing team for no reason other than that they're, well... the opposing team. As you've no doubt guessed, fanboys are generally lumped into the last category; in fact, any proponent of a single system is often labeled as a fanboy, regardless of their arguments, opinions or facts. And it's this last assumption that I have a problem with.
Personally, I like to believe that I'm a fairly open-minded gamer. I've owned more (way more) than a dozen consoles in my lifetime and as I've mentioned previously, I currently own every single piece of next-generation hardware. However, the fact that I enjoy games across multiple platforms does not mean that I don't have a favorite... and that favorite, as you may have guessed, is the GameCube. More specifically, my favorite is Nintendo, but the GameCube is their latest baby, and thus it's mine as well. Going back to my earlier analogy, I'll watch any game of football and enjoy it, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to root for my team when they're playing.
The reason Nintendo fans take so much flak is because we possess an undying love for the company. And like pretty much everything in life, we're not about to sit back and watch something we love get insulted by outsiders. It's fine for us to complain and whine about the company, heck, we've earned that right, but God help any soul who dare say something disparaging about them. To anyone that never grew up with a Nintendo console in the house, this is something that becomes almost impossible to quantify (I can already hear the cries of "fanboy" from the peanut gallery) and probably smacks of all the qualities normally associated with the term "fanboy." Blind devotion is one thing, but an educated supporter is something else entirely.
Every gamer knows exactly what it feels like to be playing a game, while having this stupid-looking grin plastered across your face. These I like to call my "Wow! moments" and when a company such as Nintendo has consistently imprinted these sort of moments into your memory bank for the last 16 or so years of your life, it's pretty hard to not harbor strong feelings for the company,
Say what you will about them, but they had a significant hand in shaping the industry over the past two decades. The same can be said, at least in recent times, about Sony. By the same token, Microsoft could yet become a significant and permanent fixture of the industry. But as it stands, neither has yet done enough to earn my affection.
I'd like to believe that Nintendo fans, at least the long-serving ones, are generally more intelligent, nay, more informed, (at least as far as games and the industry are concerned) simply because we've been around for so many years. Many of us started playing games back in the early 80s (some even earlier) and I like to think that we have a deeper respect for all things gaming than say, someone who casually dabbles in our lifeblood (hobby is so not the right word). This is not a slight against Sony or Microsoft fans, as there are both, those who are informed and those who are not in all three camps. But the plain fact of the matter is that Nintendo has been in the business a lot longer than either company and the fans that have grown with it, are (or should be anyway) better informed.
Which of course brings me to my next point, the casual gamer. Now, before I go any further I feel I need to make something absolutely clear: The following is a generalization, it's not overly scientific and it's not cold, hard fact. What it is however is a personal observation that is years in the making, and has in my experience seldom been proven wrong. Now where was I? Oh yes. The casual gamer cares not for innovative gameplay, fresh ideas or *gasp* loveable characters. He (and occasionally she) prefers games based upon his favorite movies, sports and licenses -- things he can identify with and feels comfortable playing.
He's quite happy to ignore a title's inherent flaws as long as it caters to his tastes. Not that there's anything wrong with enjoying a particular title, but the simple fact is that a casual player is more than likely to overlook something like Mister Mosquito in lieu of the latest, hippest, coolest videogame that he can show off to his friends. Naturally, violence and nudity, two things that are overly prevalent in our society, become ideal and fashionable subjects, more so than a rotund plumber who wears overalls. I mean, come on, playing a "cute" game is tantamount to going to school in teddy bear pajamas, right? That would of course be wrong, but there's a lot to be said about perception.
Misinformation is most prevalent among the casual user base simply because games serve as little more than a passing interest. Instead of ensuring that one's facts are correct, tidbits of information are taken at little more than face value. Of course, none of us would even think about making a statement such as "Car X is better than Car Y because it's red, and I like red." It's nothing more than an uninformed opinion; an inane argument at best, and few people would be stupid enough to let those words escape from their lips. Of course, no one would bat an eyelid if someone was to argue "the Xbox is the best because it's more powerful," or "the GameCube has a better controller, so it's definitely more fun," or my personal favorite "the PS2 is the best because it's cooler." You just can't argue with that kind of logic, now can you? Believe it or not, these are actually things people have said to me. That said, these sorts of arguments take place on a daily basis. Why? I don't know, but I can only surmise that it's because few people have the time or simply could care less about learning everything they possibly could about their system, and the competitors.
The point to this excessive diatribe is this: ignorant fanboys are the ones perpetuating arguments like the above, giving those of us with better things to do constant and painful headaches. My head hurts just thinking about the lame arguments some people send to me. Normal fanboys, I like to believe, are the hardcore; the few and the proud; those who are well-informed simply because they absolutely love everything about gaming, yet the term has become synonymous with ignorance and favoritism. Some may say that "it's all about the games," and in a perfect world it would be. But that, sadly, is not the case and few people can claim to be completely platform-agnostic. And if you're going to crucify me as a Nintendo fanboy for sticking up for one of the last companies that I believe actually understands the essence of gaming, well then I suggest you give me a hand, 'cos this cross sure ain't getting any lighter.
-- Gavin Frankle