You know, as shocking as this may be to accept, most 'fanboys/girls' of popular game franchises really aren't as bad as people say they are. For the most part we aren't a bunch of drooling blood crazed internet terrorists who oppose the concept of free will and hence go around viciously flaming anyone with even the slightest implication of an opinion that differs to us.
For the most part, internet 'fanboys' are really just people who like a video game/franchise a whole lot and like to mention it and discuss it with friends. Most of the 'angry fanboy rants' I've seen are basically the end result of other people trolling them. Not them trolling other people.
Frankly I've seen some more aggressive attitude delivered from the people who hate on said fanbase then the fanbase themselves. I mean come on this whole thread is basically just a way to passive aggresively insult entire groups of people and label them under a stereotype to justify it.
I am a Halo fan, and believe it or not, while I claim to know a lot about the Halo lore and love playing the games, it also doesn't define me as a human being. I like to go to the movies, hang out with friends, read books (I'm currently reading the Ben Elton book 'Stark') and watch old movies and listen to old Jazz hits.
But because I'm a fan of Halo people will accuse me of being some kind of undereducated drunken sports jock like Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds. I might not claim to be a genius but I think I am a little higher than that, and literally the only reason people give is that I like Halo.
So? I play all kinds of other games too, Portal, Gears of War, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Otogi: Myth of demons, Saint's Row 2, Fallout 3, Psychonauts, Dead Space, Super Mario Brothers, Red Dead Redemption, Prototype, Batman Arkham Asylum.... just generally a lot of games.
But apparently I'm a 'Halo fanboy' so obviously I only ever play Halo and Madden and yell 'dude' a lot while drunkenly throwing up and belching, right?
I actually already made a post about this, give me a second to dig it up....
"Honestly, I hate the Anti-fans. You know, the people who leap at the opportunity to insult some popular thing and in so doing insult the people who like said popular thing all the while acting all smug and self superior about themselves for doing so.
Even when in their criticism of said franchise/character/movie/book/game/band they accidentally reveal that they know absolutely nothing about what they are talking about and continue to act smug about it anyway.
(I.E Moviebob anytime he mentions Halo)
I mean you see hundreds of these people on youtube comment streams, eagerly demanding that everyone know how much they hate this band or this movie or this character, in other words actively seeking out things that they hate just so that they can let total strangers know how much they hate them. Seriously, this is so much worse than any fanboy could ever hope to be.
Hell most, if not all, of the time a fanboy rage is only brought on thanks to the anti-fans and haters in the first place. Hey, there would be less people angrily defending Halo if there were less people flaming it and by extension insulting the fanbase, people.
This isn't rocket science, a fanboy is a snake that is poisonous and deadly but won't bother you if you don't bother it, an anti-fan is the person poking it with a stick and saying the bands it likes are dumb.
So yeah in conclusion, the kind of fan I hate the most are the people who are fans of hating on other fans.... you heard me."
So if you ask me, at the end of the day a Halo fan who can't spell, uses numbers instead of letters and declares that MASTR CH33F IZ DA BEZT CARACKTA EVAR!!!!1111!!!!!11!!! on a thread or forum dedicated to such discussion is still much more justifiable and defendable then some guy just waltzing into a Halo thread dedicated to discussion among the Halo community and proclaiming:
"I don't play Halo and I'm proud of myself for not wasting my time with a mediocre FPS and being surrounded by all you stupid philistines who love your one dimensional Masterchief instead of the epic Shakespearian legend that is the mute Gordon Freeman!"
Seriously, looking at those two people, I know who I'd rather slap in the face. It's not the guy who can't spell who is yelling about how much he loves a certain game who is an idiot, it's the person who has a personal problem with that.
/Rant
OT: Okay if I had to pick one it would probably have to be certain people in the Mass Effect fanbase. Just to be clear, I am among them and I even post regularly on the Bioware social network and have made quite a few friends there but the fact remains that there are some annoying people in the fanbase, not to mention the people that we count on youtube comment pages (if indeed we even bother to count them at all, that's one population I have no problem condemning as idiots).
I could go on about some silly arguments we've had in the past on the Bioware social network, and how nowadays the bitterness surrounding how people respond to certain aspects of the game(try being a fan of Ashley Williams and getting along in the Bioware forums, I dare you) and about how people there get worked up really heavily over stuff that doesn't matter.
No sir, what I don't like is how so many of the arguments are based on the love interests. There's like seperate nations, each dedicated to a different character. Some are even 'allied' now like it's an actual war.
People flame each other over it and get into huge fights. It's incredible to watch really, we end up turning this into a 'my fictional girlfriend is better than yours' kind of thing.
I dunno, while I still love the games and get along with a reasonable portion of the fanbase, some of the stuff that gets said in and around the games makes me an angry Vrex. Sorry if this description seems a bit dry but I think I blew away most of my steam with that huge rant.
But still yes, above all else some really creepy fan art (and even worse 'hate art' in some cases) certainly does make me a little creeped out by the fanbase that I myself am a part of.
EDIT: as a side note, my rant isn't exclusively about Halo, it's about all franchises really and for the record I ackowledge that there are dicks in our fanbase. No point denying that, I just don't think it's as bad as people would have you believe.
EDIT 2: Also I apologize if I came across as rude or issuing personal attacks to anyone reading this thread or anyone who posted in it, it wasn't my intention. I was speaking broadly without any specific targets in mind, so if anyone was offended in any way I apologize.
