In Another Castle: Fanboy-ism

[CustomMagnum]

and every game is an elf bowling remake"

What the hell is elf bowling? And why did it get a remake?

Now, if only you could stop PC Elitism.

Good job. But I hesitate to call MGS4 or Blue Dragon AAA titles.

I'll work on the PC elitism thing stat. I'd say Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is 'AAA', snip

Blue Dragon stuff snipped...
it's about as 'AAA' as Chrono Trigger was.

I edited my post. MGS4 is indeed AAA, just not to me.

Anyway...I've always been more of a Chrono Cross kinda guy. I didn't even get to the end of Trigger. I got to, I believe it was the first fight against Magus. If there are multiples, I never kept playing. This was on the PS1 port with the HORRID loading times, though. I bought the DS version, but never got around to playing it.

Yeah, the PS1 version of Trigger was crap, with the loading times. The DS version is much better.

Except for the new "Lost Sanctum" subquest. That sucks.

Even so...I still like Cross sooooooooo much better. So many more characters, better deeper combat, a really cool twist in the middle.

Oh, Cross is awesome. But so is Trigger.

Honestly, I'm of the same opinion as you are actually. Might possibly because I played Cross when it was new and Trigger was already old but even so I prefer Cross.

Fanboyism is retarded. But then, I don't quite see how rabidly preferring the 360 over the PS3 is all that different from preferring ManU over Chelsea (or the Red Sox over the Yankees, for my American friends).

As for me, I've owned both a Genesis and a SNES back in those heady days, so I never got into the idiocy which was already rampant back then; however, I've been fairly loyal to Sony ever since the PS came out. I am never going to knock either the 360 or its games; it's an awesome machine, and I am jealous of certain titles it calls exclusives. Hell, I might even buy one for Alan Wake.

The thing is, players are another story. Maybe I am biased, but on all internet boards which I frequent, most of the trolling and jackassery is caused by MS fanboys talking about how the PS3 is teh failzorz or some such rubbish, just as in all my months of playing games online on PS3, I have come across less racist epithets and the like as on one one hour session of watching a mate play Gears 2 at his place. I dunno, around my neck of the woods, the 360 has been stigmatised as something American frat boys and republicans like, so it's really not that popular.

Oh yeah, definitely need to agree with you on how the console wars aren't really much different than being a sports team fan. And with the players, although I play most of my games online on the 360 than PS3, that's due to having friends who actually own 360's more than anything else.

 

[SavingPrincess]

Fanboyism is retarded. But then, I don't quite see how rabidly preferring the 360 over the PS3 is all that different from preferring ManU over Chelsea (or the Red Sox over the Yankees, for my American friends).

As for me, I've owned both a Genesis and a SNES back in those heady days, so I never got into the idiocy which was already rampant back then; however, I've been fairly loyal to Sony ever since the PS came out. I am never going to knock either the 360 or its games; it's an awesome machine, and I am jealous of certain titles it calls exclusives. Hell, I might even buy one for Alan Wake.

The thing is, players are another story. Maybe I am biased, but on all internet boards which I frequent, most of the trolling and jackassery is caused by MS fanboys talking about how the PS3 is teh failzorz or some such rubbish, just as in all my months of playing games online on PS3, I have come across less racist epithets and the like as on one one hour session of watching a mate play Gears 2 at his place. I dunno, around my neck of the woods, the 360 has been stigmatised as something American frat boys and republicans like, so it's really not that popular.

The sports analogy is more "fan" than "fanboy" I'd wager. Consoles are not competing sports teams where winning is the goal. There's no "endgame" here.

When it comes to the republican frat-boy demographic, I used to play basketball and fighting games on the original Xbox Live when it was around, and in the type of game you think you'd find the most frat-boyish behavior (that being sports and fighting), I actually made a ton of friends. It's really a "shooter" thing that made people reduce themselves so. That being said, I don't play Xbox Live anymore, so this Yank doesn't have to deal with anyone else other than himself when it comes to the games he plays. Here's to hoping you get to play those exclusives someday.

 

[Mikkaddo]

For the deciding factor, ask Them what they thought of Uncharted 2. If they say it was stupid then there is no hope for them.

Or alternatively, ask them why Halo was only released on the Xbox. Chances are that they'll say something along the lines of "Xbox is better nyah!", but if they do, accept that as proof of idiocy.

I'd always seen the Halo comment coming. Frankly it's the same reason that Shadow was released only on PS2, because it was more or less IN HOUSE. However that doesn't stop Halo from being only marginally good. It was a bland standard FPS back THEN . . . but it revolutionized simplistic multi-player by Halo 2 with it's online facet. THAT is what made it so god damn powerful.

As for fanboyism . . . it's not something that will ever go away. I would think the idea of people refusing to use a particular bar of soap because of the brand name proves it.

It's been around as long as the arrogance of using a named label for the purpose of sales through "WE'RE BETTER THEN THEM! GO FOR THIS NAME!!!!!"

 

[D_987]

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:

• 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."

Um...what?

So according to you if you're interested in games enough, and perceptive enough, to notice the way you placed the games you may be a fanboy? That's a pretty idiotic comment to make - it's how you feel about that list, not that you noticed the list - it's a pretty patronizing start to the article, not helped by the line "let me pause for a second".

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...

I'm pretty sure everyone knows what brand loyalty and fanboy-ism are, there's no need to spell it out for the reader.

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.

Is this a real conversation or something you made up - I assume by the "them" it indicates a group of people and therefore this conversation is made up - but I've never seen anyone ever say anything like that - if they did they were probably trolling, sure fanboys are idiots, but this really gives a poor idea to the reader as to exactly the kind of fanboy you are talking about - it's idiotic to the point of useless.

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.

Again, this is true, but it's something that a large group of forum-goers will have known for some time; this whole paragraph, whilst obviously designed to set up the next point, is far to long for what it actually is - you go off on a mini-tangent a number of times and fill the reader with information they probably don't care to read (the line about the Dreamcast being an example)

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.

That point being this, but it's something that could have been said in less words, and a point that's ot going to get through to it's target audience - you think the fanboy in your conversation earlier is going to read this and suddenly change their ways?

After reading articles like...

Two more paragraphs that ultimately serve to give the reader nothing bar context, after all it just rehashes earlier points and reads more like filler, especially the whole "how to choose a console" section.

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.

A nice joke at the end, but I'm still at a loss as to what this article was actually about and who you were trying to engage with it. Fanboys? Well as stated earlier they aren't going to read this, everyone else? Well they aren't apart of this and will no doubt agree with what you're saying anyway. It just seems a bit unnecessary.

 

[Varanfan9]

You know what would be awesome? If Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony all teamed up and made a console together. Think how great that would be. It would be the Ultimate gaming machine and there would be no console war over it because it would be the only one. And yet fanboys would still complain that Sony did more work or Nintendo is going to make it too kid friendly. God I hate console fan boys.

 

[Therumancer]

Actually the cause of Fanboyism is when someone defines a good portion of their life and identity by what they do for escapism. Someone who gets REALLY 'into' something or a genere of games. They feel a need to defend it.

Also there is a matter of limited resources, not personally, but in general. Someone who likes shooters but does not like RPGs wants to see the big game companies develop more shooters for them. RPG fans are like that in reverse as well. There are similar situations with pretty much every game genere there is.

It's felt that the time and money spent in developing things a fanboy doesn't like reduces the chance of him seeing the things he DOES like, or at the very least resulting in him having to wait while a favorite game studio works on another project.

With multiple platforms there is always some frustration when you see something you like released for another platform, however I do not consider that fanboyism per se.

Then of course you have to account for elitism. Competitive shooter players, hard core RPG players, etc... all like to think they are something "special". Attacking other things becomes a way of validating their own accomplishments as being the most important and/or relevent.

In general though, I do not consider fanboyism to be a problem, in the end I think it actually has more positive effects (which are rarely considered) than negative ones. Fanboyism leads to strong communities formed even if they bicker with other communities, providing support for gaming and such. It also provides a noticible market when producers are looking to finance games. All the people screaming about their platform or favorite genere make it clear that there is interest in those things, and that it's a safe place to invest money. Things with less vocal support are more of a risk because you have to wonder if there are less fanboys, or simply nobody there to begin with.

Such are my rambling thoughts.

I also have both big consoles, and access to a Wii, though I didn't buy them all at once. Truthfully next generation I probably will have to limit myself to one platform (if I can afford one at all) though due to my forced retirement. :/

 

[SavingPrincess]

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 on the way). Now I am totally inundated with top-tier 'AAA' titles:

• 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."[/color]

Um...what?

So according to you if you're interested in games enough, and perceptive enough, to notice the way you placed the games you may be a fanboy? That's a pretty idiotic comment to make - it's how you feel about that list, not that you noticed the list - it's a pretty patronizing start to the article, not helped by the line "let me pause for a second".

Perhaps my tongue-in-cheek-ness was a bit too subtle. My apologies. I was really referring ot the "OMG U put the PS3 titles first! U Hate Xbox" type of mentality and poking on that, I hope the majority of people got it and didn't see it as a personal attack, I'm sorry that you did. Sorry if you felt I was patronizing you; it's the internet, you'll get over it I'm sure.

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...

I'm pretty sure everyone knows what brand loyalty and fanboy-ism are, there's no need to spell it out for the reader.

Again, I'm sorry I made you read too much. I generally do not like to assume, and I realize that some people that read what I write might be of a younger age (hence why I try not to swear) so while they may understand what a fanboy is, they might not be of a purchasing age, so they may not understand the concept of brand-loyalty in that sense. Again, I'm sorry for stuffing your eyes with useless words.

When I told some internet peoples about my upcoming purchase of a [color=sky blue]Playstation 3 (before I knew the Xbox 360 would be coming into my possession), I was remorselessly blasted for choosing that particular console. [/color]

Is this a real conversation or something you made up - I assume by the "them" it indicates a group of people and therefore this conversation is made up - but I've never seen anyone ever say anything like that - if they did they were probably trolling, sure fanboys are idiots, but this really gives a poor idea to the reader o exactly the kind of fanboy you are talking about - it's idiotic to the point of useless.

It's real, but I decided to leave name and gender out of the equation, which rules out him or her, and leaves... well... them. "They" just didn't look right. I'm sure there are a lot of people that have said things you've never seen before. It wasn't "trolling" as it was a conversation that was had in person without the use of keyboard or microphone. I'm sorry you feel I'm an idiot as it's the second time you've called something I brought up idiotic, and if you feel personal offense to something I write, please send me a PM so I can speak to it.

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.

Again, this is true, but it's something that a large group of forum-goers will have known for some time; this whole paragraph, whilst obviously designed to set up the next point, is far to long for what it actually is - you go off on a mini-tangent a number of times and fill the reader with information they probably don't care to read (the line about the Dreamcast being an example)

I'm flattered, if my school teachers back in the day gave this much constructive criticism then maybe I wouldn't tangentalize as much as I do and would have saved you the inundation of useless information!

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.

That point being this, but it's something that could have been said in less words, and a point that's ot going to get through to it's target audience - you think the fanboy in your conversation earlier is going to read this and suddenly change their ways?

Who knows? Maybe? Maybe this will be read by the people who are susceptible to this kind of behavior and cause them to be more conscious of it? I don't know... I promise I wrote this up for everyone but you, I'm sorry you had to read it!

After reading articles like...

Two more paragraphs that ultimately serve to give the reader nothing bar context, after all it just rehashes earlier points and reads more like filler, especially the whole "how to choose a console" section.

If you're looking for succinct, effective, targeted, concise and lean writing, maybe the internet isn't for you. I appreciate the criticism, but at this point the criticism is becoming very meta in that it's falling victim to the same problems it's criticizing (as in, becoming nothing more than filler).

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.

A nice joke at the end, but I'm still at a loss as to what this article was actually about and who you were trying to engage with it. Fanboys? Well as stated earlier they aren't going to read this, everyone else? Well they aren't apart of this and will no doubt agree with what you're saying anyway. It just seems a bit unnecessary.

Perhaps it is totally unnecessary? All it does is kill time at work for me and really isn't "targeted" at anyone; it falls more under than landmine thoery than the laser-guided ballistic missile one. Maybe the article (flattered for calling it that by the way, I usually just say "post" or "write up" as no one is paying me to write) is there for the sake of it's own existence. Why are any of us here? Why do we write if not for some sense of immortalization of our own ramblings by having them housed on the cloud servers of the world to be discovered by alien races long after the apocalpyse reigns down it's unforgiving fires on the land? Why do we learn languages or own recording devices if not for some sense of justification of our own state of being?

As much as I appreciate the critique, as I can tell you genuinely care, it IS just an internet forum. I'd be interested in reading anything you've done that you're proud of if you want to link it up or PM me.

Cheers!

 

[Aura Guardian]

The Last Story [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97900-Nintendo-and-Mistwalker-Team-Up-for-The-Last-Story] was just announced for the [color=sky blue]Nintendo Wii[/color], now I have to get one of those too... see how this works?

I cannot wait for that one.

Spoiler: Might I recommend these games for a future Nintendo Wii Owner

 

[yosophat]

One of my friends is an self admitted PS3 fan-boy I constantly make fun of him for it but the reason I don't own any counsels at the moment is because of the cost.

So Yeah I agree with mostly all of the opinions in the original post. I also think it's funny that the Wii somehow was pushed out of the fan-boy wars when I though Nintendo was done for and wouldn't be able to compete with the PS3 release.

 

[SavingPrincess]

The Last Story [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97900-Nintendo-and-Mistwalker-Team-Up-for-The-Last-Story] was just announced for the [color=sky blue]Nintendo Wii[/color], now I have to get one of those too... see how this works?

I cannot wait for that one.

Spoiler: Might I recommend these games for a future Nintendo Wii Owner

I cannot see video

Sorry, at work and can't see the videos! PM me with the titles will ya?

 

[CK76]

Consoles are merely a means to get me games. The console that has games I want is fine by me. I bear no ill will toward the 3DO or Jaguar, but had nothing I wanted.

Now, where are my current gen JRPGs? PS2 was phenomenal in that regard.

 

[SavingPrincess]

Consoles are merely a means to get me games. The console that has games I want is fine by me. I bear no ill will toward the 3DO or Jaguar, but had nothing I wanted.

Now, where are my current gen JRPGs? PS2 was phenomenal in that regard.

Star Ocean! That's my next purchase when I'm done with the current crop. Three of the titles in the OP were jRPG's... sure they're not as numerous as the PS2/PSX was, but they're there.

 

[CK76]

Star Ocean! That's my next purchase when I'm done with the current crop. Three of the titles in the OP were jRPG's... sure they're not as numerous as the PS2/PSX was, but they're there.

Maybe, I played Star Ocean on PS1 and it was okay, but the combat was often chaotic and I'm a firm lover of turn based or modified versions of it. Still, it appears to be a solid rental and possible purchase.

Onto those listed in OP

Final Fantasy XIII - I might get this, I know it's shocking, but since VI on SNES this series has never captured the legendary status for me. I tried really hard with X and X-2, but honestly I'm losing hope in the series. And Square-Enix has so many titles I'd love to see happen. Grandia, Chrono, Dragon Quest, SaGa, Mana, etc.

Lost Odyessy - I'd actually had probably tried this if I had a 360, it's not fanboyism, it's economics for me and I thought the PS3 (like PS1 and PS2) would be dominant home of JRPGs.

Blue Dragon - Another 360 game, but it looked solid, if a bit average. I could see trying it out.

Still, a bit lacking compared to last gen when I barely had time to play dozens of JRPGs that were out. I'm hoping Shin Megami Tensei world comes with some titles soon, as right now it seems PSP and DS are eating into this market that was so wide and diverse not long ago.

I'll keep looking and appreciate suggestions.