From zero to hero in seven days; I recently went from having no consoles as of this time last week, to now being the proud owner of an Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 3 (with a possible [color=sky blue]Nintendo Wii[/color] on the way). Now I am totally inundated with top-tier 'AAA' titles:
Now let me pause for a second... if you even remotely noticed that I placed all the PlayStation 3 titles before the [color=sky blue]Xbox 360[/color] titles, then you might suffer from what some would call a case of "Fanboy-ism." This is a horrible affliction to have in this day and age of videogaming, but has been around for quite a long time. Brand Loyalty has been around for ages; some people will to this day only buy a Ford or a Toyota despite the hundreds of cars available on the market. Some people believe that Whirlpool makes the best washing machine and that Bunn makes the best cup of coffee. The differentiating factor between Brand Loyalty and Fanboy-ism is that Brand Loyalty usually goes to a certain point and stops psychologically, where as Fanboy-ism seems to know no bounds.
When I told some internet peoples about my upcoming purchase of a [color=sky blue]Playstation 3[/color] (before I knew the Xbox 360 would be coming into my possession), I was remorselessly blasted for choosing that particular console.
I've come to the conclusion, as a lot have already, that this type of mentality is a result of justification of the acquisition of a product or service that is financially beyond their means, forcing them to choose only one particular product or service rather than have the entire gambit available to them. I'm old enough to remember the SEGA v. Nintendo wars from the 80's and 90's before Sony came into play. Later on, I owned (and loved... and miss) the [color=ff6600]Dreamcast[/color] and felt very betrayed by the industry as a whole when that platform went the way of the dodo (or Jaguar for those paying attention). When the finances are available to me, I always try and spread my system purchases out as to have access to the exclusive titles as well as the ability to play games on my controller of choice (I also have a very game-worthy PC). Back in the SEGA v. Nintendo days of the late 80's, early 90's, I often said that the [color=6633FF]Super Nintendo[/color] was the superior console because I had both and always found the graphics on the Genesis to be too pixilated, the sound tinny and the controller squishy. That did not mean the Genesis did not have some fantastic games, it completely did, but I thought mechanically and interface wise, the [color=6633FF]Super Nintendo[/color] was a superior machine.
Those differences were easy to spot back then... now not so much. I can honestly say, now owning both consoles, that there is little to no difference between graphics and sound quality between consoles. Every sound is being pushed out at 48khz and above, graphics are running (around) 1080p, texture compression is almost a moot point... the graphics are more determined by the amount of time a developer puts into the title and not by the system it's running on. With those being equal, I like the thumbstick placement of the 360 controller and the D-Pad/Buttons of the PS3. I don't own any Blu-Ray movies but see the advantage now that it's the standard format, and I did like the built in WiFi of the PS3 just to have to not spend the extra money on the 360's adapter. People do need to realize however that these are the major (read: only) differences between systems and bring themselves to a point where they can start judging the games based off the games and not the system it's on.
After reading articles like these [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99098-Final-Fantasy-Fans-Boo-Xbox-360-at-London-Event] it's staggering to me that people can still push their personal feelings into a product with negligible differences over its direct competition, especially in such mass. I realize it's fun to be part of a club, but I still hold hope that we as a gaming society can mature and grow into a group of people that start holding manufacturers and designers responsible for their shortcomings and push them to work harder, rather than blindly forgive them for their faults because we decided to purchase the blue box instead of the green one.
All that being said... I can honestly say that gaming experiences on both platforms totally rock and suggest that people buy the system that has the games they like. If it is on more than one, pick up and hold a controller, find out what network all your friends are playing it on (if it's a multiplayer game), do a little research and make an informed unbiased judgment call.
Hopefully this one post on this one single message board can put an end to "Fanboy-ism" in the world once and for all.
... yes I am that powerful.
-SP
- Final Fantasy XIII
Heavy Rain
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Fable II
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey
Now let me pause for a second... if you even remotely noticed that I placed all the PlayStation 3 titles before the [color=sky blue]Xbox 360[/color] titles, then you might suffer from what some would call a case of "Fanboy-ism." This is a horrible affliction to have in this day and age of videogaming, but has been around for quite a long time. Brand Loyalty has been around for ages; some people will to this day only buy a Ford or a Toyota despite the hundreds of cars available on the market. Some people believe that Whirlpool makes the best washing machine and that Bunn makes the best cup of coffee. The differentiating factor between Brand Loyalty and Fanboy-ism is that Brand Loyalty usually goes to a certain point and stops psychologically, where as Fanboy-ism seems to know no bounds.
When I told some internet peoples about my upcoming purchase of a [color=sky blue]Playstation 3[/color] (before I knew the Xbox 360 would be coming into my possession), I was remorselessly blasted for choosing that particular console.
- Them: "What the hell would you get a PS3 for?
Me: "I really want to play Heavy Rain."
Them: "Whatever, that games dumb..."
Me: "It's not even out yet, how can you say that?"
Them: "I can just tell; if they thought it was going to be good, they'd release it for 360 too."
Me: "It was published by Sony's in house team."
Them: "Yeah see? If it were good, they'd have gone with a 3rd-party publisher so they could release it cross-platform."
Me: "I really liked Shadow of the Colossus; that was published by SCE."
Them: "Whatever, that game looked boring."
Me: "So you never played it?
Them: "No, I had an Xbox."
Me: "Would you have played it if it came out on Xbox too?"
Them: "I think so, probably, I'd have given it a shot..."
Me: "But you just said it looked dumb?"
Them: "Yeah, but if they made it for Xbox, that means that more people wanted to play it, so it might have been good."
I've come to the conclusion, as a lot have already, that this type of mentality is a result of justification of the acquisition of a product or service that is financially beyond their means, forcing them to choose only one particular product or service rather than have the entire gambit available to them. I'm old enough to remember the SEGA v. Nintendo wars from the 80's and 90's before Sony came into play. Later on, I owned (and loved... and miss) the [color=ff6600]Dreamcast[/color] and felt very betrayed by the industry as a whole when that platform went the way of the dodo (or Jaguar for those paying attention). When the finances are available to me, I always try and spread my system purchases out as to have access to the exclusive titles as well as the ability to play games on my controller of choice (I also have a very game-worthy PC). Back in the SEGA v. Nintendo days of the late 80's, early 90's, I often said that the [color=6633FF]Super Nintendo[/color] was the superior console because I had both and always found the graphics on the Genesis to be too pixilated, the sound tinny and the controller squishy. That did not mean the Genesis did not have some fantastic games, it completely did, but I thought mechanically and interface wise, the [color=6633FF]Super Nintendo[/color] was a superior machine.
Those differences were easy to spot back then... now not so much. I can honestly say, now owning both consoles, that there is little to no difference between graphics and sound quality between consoles. Every sound is being pushed out at 48khz and above, graphics are running (around) 1080p, texture compression is almost a moot point... the graphics are more determined by the amount of time a developer puts into the title and not by the system it's running on. With those being equal, I like the thumbstick placement of the 360 controller and the D-Pad/Buttons of the PS3. I don't own any Blu-Ray movies but see the advantage now that it's the standard format, and I did like the built in WiFi of the PS3 just to have to not spend the extra money on the 360's adapter. People do need to realize however that these are the major (read: only) differences between systems and bring themselves to a point where they can start judging the games based off the games and not the system it's on.
After reading articles like these [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99098-Final-Fantasy-Fans-Boo-Xbox-360-at-London-Event] it's staggering to me that people can still push their personal feelings into a product with negligible differences over its direct competition, especially in such mass. I realize it's fun to be part of a club, but I still hold hope that we as a gaming society can mature and grow into a group of people that start holding manufacturers and designers responsible for their shortcomings and push them to work harder, rather than blindly forgive them for their faults because we decided to purchase the blue box instead of the green one.
All that being said... I can honestly say that gaming experiences on both platforms totally rock and suggest that people buy the system that has the games they like. If it is on more than one, pick up and hold a controller, find out what network all your friends are playing it on (if it's a multiplayer game), do a little research and make an informed unbiased judgment call.
Hopefully this one post on this one single message board can put an end to "Fanboy-ism" in the world once and for all.
... yes I am that powerful.
-SP
EDIT said:The Last Story [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97900-Nintendo-and-Mistwalker-Team-Up-for-The-Last-Story] was just annouced for the [color=sky blue]Nintendo Wii[/color], now I have to get one of those too... see how this works?