Being Tagged as a "Fanboy".

[Mechwar]

Well, at least the man has supplied some amusing drama to an else wise bland topic. If anybody really wants a definition of a fanboy, do a search for it on Encyclopedia Dramatica. Then again, so very much is being accomplished here in this internet scream fest that perhaps the original point has become moot.

 

[Deviltongue]

I friggin agree, and I call anyway who disagrees with you a retard!

 

[Knight Templar]

You could say say how absurd it is, and all that jive, but it won't change the fact that you're a cu- Nevermind.

A cunning fox?

Why, yes I am.

Thanks for the compliment.

God I want to strangle you. But in a, friendly way.

Question- Is a person a fanboy if they are civil, and don't swear?

 

[Talisker]

you can't really call a girl a fanboy, much like a female police officer is a policewoman not a policeman or a female news anchor is an anchorwoman and not an achorman

I could say how absurd that is; and how it's clearly a sign that women intend to take over the world and subjugate the male race. It seems from this thread, however, that you'd actually take me seriously if I did.

You could say say how absurd it is, and all that jive, but it won't change the fact that you're a cu- Nevermind.

Necroswanson... all I can say is your self control amazes me.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Question- Is a person a fanboy if they are civil, and don't swear?

By my lights, no. It's the intolerance and lack of social graces that marks the fanboi out as different from the fans, at least for me.

-- Steve

 

[Terramax]

I see this in two ways. I don't have anything against people who's fav games are mainstream, classic games of great quality (FFVII and Halo are great games, say what you like about the sequels).

HOWEVER, I think, some self indulge so much in mainstream games they, or you, could be missing out on many obscure games that could be giving greater enjoyment, and calling someone a fanboy MAY be some people's way of trying to get you to look a little deeper into gaming for your greater good (but going the wrong way about it, obviously).

For instance, I missed out on the shmup scene for years. One day, I bought the mainstream shmup Gradius V for the PS2 and it's engrossed me more than any PS2 title. Took me 6 weeks of serious gaming to complete.

I thought this was the cream of the crop for shmups... until I delved deeper on other systems and found my heaven with Under Defeat (amongst others). I just can't get enough of that game.

So many people haven't even heard of that game, and I wouldn't have if I didn't look around for more obscure shmups and didn't ask others for advice on more obscure stuff. Although I've nothing against FF7 being your fav RPG (defo in my top 5 JRPGs) I worry whether you've played ones just as important and unique like Grandia or Panzer Dragoon Saga?

Another reason why people may call you a fanboy is not because of you but other obsessed fanboys, and Final Fantasy fans are the epitome of obsessed gamers. When I think of a FF fan, I think of a 14 year old girl ripping FMVs from FF games and editing it together with some terrible song and posting it on youtube. Now that Square Enix know FF fans are just as much women as men, now all they do is self indulge in men who think they're women, as Yahtzee likes to say.

I would like to take this opportunity to say I have the traits of a Sega fanboy. What I mean is I have great resentment against Nintendo lol. Now I don't hate them for making bad games. They've made plenty of top quality titles (Smash Bros. Melee and Mario Sunshine) but I do have a go at people who claim the best game ever to be Mario 64 when there's clearly better games out there that don't get as much respect- like Mario Sunshine or Psychonauts.

I guess that makes me a fanboy, which I purely admit to. What I'm getting at is though, I can see both sides of the arguement, and I don't think of myself better for having fav games that are obscure, just that I want to see greater respect for games where they're due.

 

[Easykill]

I think that means you're not a fanboy.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

It's strange to read this thread because I come from the culture of fanGIRL, which appears to be different in that "fangirl" is a label cheerfully self-applied by the fangirls in question.

you know i could write a nice long diatribe on what is wrong with that whole post but i won't, cause i really don't want to flame and i couldn't figure out a nice way to say it without being overly harsh

so i'll just say this

the only difference between fanGIRL and fangirl is their ascii values. a fangirl and a fanboy are the samething, the only difference is one has an innie the other an outtie

you can't really call a girl a fanboy, much like a female police officer is a policewoman not a policeman or a female news anchor is an anchorwoman and not an achorman

Please, don't let consideration of my feelings stand in the way of a good diatribe. Have at me! I don't know if I'll respond or not, but I get the feeling you aren't particularly interested in my response, so no problem there.

I am curious though, what affiliation do you have with fangirls in general, that you can state with such certainty that fangirls and fanboys are no different? Are you a fangirl (or female fan, or whatever term you prefer) and disagree with my description? Or perhaps someone that hangs out with fangirls and thus has a basis for comparison between fanboys and fangirls? Even if you group them together on the basis of the contempt in which you hold them, that doesn't mean then behave in the same ways.

There's a certain irony in my post, given other threads in which I've minimized gender difference in various groups. Nevertheless, it is my experience that males and females differ in their fannish behavior to a significant degree, including whether or not they take offense at the fangirl/fanboy label.

Oh, and you are correct, there is no difference between fanGIRL and fangirl aside from my capitalization to emphasize the gender difference from the fanboys under discussion.

EDIT: added:

the thing is there are a ton of young girls, that think like she does. like if i had a dime for every girl i came across that said "i'm a good person i think happy thoughts and good things all the time", i could actually do something useful with that money to actually do some good in the world unlike their good thoughts.

I'm sorry but--WHAT?? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Oh, ow, hee, I think, ow, I think I might have cracked a rib laughing. If I have ever said or ever do say, "i'm a good person i think happy thoughts and good things all the time," and especially if I say it without capitalization or punctuation, then I want the nearest gunholder to put a hollow-point between my eyes and thoroughly ventilate my skull because I will have died and the person saying such things will be a badly designed and implemented body snatcher of some type.

I am on record as saying that fangirls are so much scarier and more batshit than fanboys, there is simply no comparison. Do fangirls get together and clasp virtual hands and squee and flail and have big fannish love-fests? Absolutely. Are they subject to repeated waves of mass hysteria, and massive 13,000+ (I wish I were exaggerating that number) post threads [http://www.metafilter.com/36455/My-post-iz-pastede-on-yay] including not only trolls and flamethrowers but also the extensive use of sockpuppets [http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Sockpuppet]. Seriously, there are reasons I have chosen to hang out with fanboys for the time being. The fact that I consider this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.55709] thread to be quite sane, civil, and well-behaved should tell you everything about my fangirl experience.

My observation was not that fangirls are better than fanboys, but that they are simply different in a number of key points, namely that the fanboy seems to be a bit of a lone wolf thing whereas fangirls congregate like mobs of meerkats. Meerkats in severe need of mood stabilizing drugs and possibly anti-psychotics.

Oh, and "think the way I do?" How do I think, exactly? I mean, aside from "with the assistance of considerable amounts of mood stabilizers." No anti-psychotics yet, but give me a bit more exposure to Doctor Who/Torchwood fangirl battles and I'm sure to end up with a prescription.

 

[Terramax]

My observation was not that fangirls are better than fanboys, but that they are simply different in a number of key points, namely that the fanboy seems to be a bit of a lone wolf thing whereas fangirls congregate like mobs of meerkats.

Can you tell me where? I'm quite fascinated as to what a fangirl is now.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

My observation was not that fangirls are better than fanboys, but that they are simply different in a number of key points, namely that the fanboy seems to be a bit of a lone wolf thing whereas fangirls congregate like mobs of meerkats.

Can you tell me where? I'm quite fascinated as to what a fangirl is now.

Fandom_Wank [http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/] is Mock Central for fangirl drama-watching. You can also go to LiveJournal, which was the origin point for Fandom_Wank until they kept getting TOS'ed for various official reasons, though I suspect that it had more to do with making the servers crap themselves by generating 130-13,000 responses to a single post on a regular basis. Do an interest search for fandom and you'll have about 374 starting points. A few legendarily batshit fandoms: Harry Potter, Lotrips, Smallville, Supernatural. Be prepared for lots of porn, most of it gay, most of it horrifying and/or horrifyingly bad, but occasionally pretty good, and if you are persistant, a rare few that may scorch your eyebrows off. If you are wondering just how dirty the female mind can get, well, hentai ain't got nothing on them.

EDIT: Oh! And? If you are looking for girls who game, look up the video game fandoms. They have to play'em if they are going to slash'em. You might want to search for "girl gamers." That will pop a couple of primarily female gaming comms. I'm not suggesting you start courting batshit meerkats, by the way. There are sane women in fandom and they are some of the funniest, smartest people I know. That's why I stay in fandom after everything I've said.

 

[Detriment]

Or, there is the possibility that a fanboy could mean a male fan of a form of media.
Y'know. If we're talking about real definitions and not ridiculous urbandictionary definitions.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Or, there is the possibility that a fanboy could mean a male fan of a form of media.
Y'know. If we're talking about real definitions and not ridiculous urbandictionary definitions.

I actually put a poll for my friends on my blog. I got 19 responses, 9 of which self-identified as fangirls, 3 fans rejected my gender-normative assumptions, 1 was a media enthusiast, 2 didn't know what the hell I was talking about, and 4 responded, "When was the last time you actually went outside? Seriously! When?"

So it sounds like, if you had taken the poll, you would have been a media enthusiast as well?

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Fanboys are fun.

Picture a world without Halo fanboyes, a world without Nvidia/Intel/(AMD) Fanboys...

Wouldn't Forums just be plain boring?

I'd have to say that I'm a fanboy of fanboys?

Hey, if you want to piss away-- *checks watch* --three hours of your life, fanboys are a great place to start.