IF YOU'RE INTO THE SYSTEM WAR...READ!

[Sevengen]

twesterm said:

Sevengen said:

     The last great console war was fought during the fourth generation between Nintendo's Super Famicom and Sega's Genesis. Much like Microsoft and Sony in this gen, Sega beat Nintendo to the punch and released the Genesis well before Nintendo was ready to release their successor to the NES. When Nintendo finally did push their new machine out of door, they found themselves in the unfamiliar position of underdog; Sega had captured the publics attention and loyalty with a new mascot in Sonic and a powerful console that made the NES seem anitque. The Super Nintendo was certainly a more powerful system than the Genesis and owned the unquestionable dominance of both namebrand and character recogintion, by this time Mario had been around for over a decade and his likenes was equated with the best that video games had to offer, but it still took a concentrated effort from Nintendo's part, both in quality and shrude business practice, to retake the lead they'd relinquished to a relative upstart in the gaming comminuty.

    The current battle between Sony and Microsoft involves and uncanny number of parallels to the one fought between Nintendo and Sega over 14 years ago, with two major differences: this a battle for the hearts and minds, loyalty, dollars, euros and yen of second place. The race for the finish is effectively over,  the Wii is simply going and gone. People already know and accept that to the point where it's become and underlying current to any arguement regarding the seventh generation and who wins. The victor's already been decided, by such a large and unassailable margin that the real war has turned to 'who's next'. Nintendo had created such a monster that they're almost to point of being disregarded where competition is concerned. Think Tolkien's Lord of the Rings' versus any other fantasy series.

The other difference. Forums.

That's where you guys come in, well myself also i guess. I absolutely love all the arguements, name calling, predictions, unwarranted and wholly unreasonable attachments to one console, unsubstantiated sales figures and twisted reasoning that accompanies the blazingly rediculous posts you read here at VGChartz, or anywhere where the system wars topic is prevelant. Personally, I want the 360 to crush the PS3, not because i think it's an inferior machine... just the opposite, I think it's incredible, but becuase I believe you PS3 guys are the ones that really started this system war, that's really who I want to see lose... not Sony, just you. So, knowing and understanding the reason why I want the 360 to win, I'm friekin' dying to hear the reasons that others have for supporting 'their' console so blindy, PS3 or 360. Either way.

WHY do you want your sytem to win? WHY is it so important to YOU. Now, don't be bashful. Speak up. I've read a seemingly innumerable number of posts extolling the virtues of one system over another, but, that really doesn't answer the question... so please don't confuse them. I'm not asking which system you believ to be better, I'm asking why you want one to win over the other.

Lastly, if you're not too sure about how honest competition between similiar products affects the the end result, that being the benefit to us..the consumers, read Legend11's post here:

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=49147

 

The bolded part in red is where you might as well have stopped typing.  The people who constantly browse forums are a *very* small part of the gaming community.  I don't want to say we don't matter because we do, but we're nowhere near a majority of a deciding factor.

If forum-goers really meant anything, Zack & Wiki would sell fifty bajillion copies and LBP would already be nipping on its heels.

    I think forums have had a definite role in the current gen's sales figures, that's why I mentioned it as being a difference between this current system war and the one between Nintendo and Sega....Forums didn't exist back then as they do now, and word of mouth advertising is both free and necassary for any product. Without the immediate feedback of forums, I don't the RROD would have had as much an impact on Microsoft's sales as it has over the past few years, without forums, this war would still largely exist as it did back then, on the single media front created by each company, whereas now, the fans and consumers themselves get to take a much larger role in it, by voicing opinions, complaints.. really anything they want and having readily available for anyone in the world to read, instead of just telling their buddy next door.

I'll agree that forum posters are not, as you said, 'a majority of a deciding factor'.. but their weight and influence on what gets purchased and what doesn't, certainly can't be discounted. Microsoft's a very slick company where advertising is concerned and what they've created over at xbox.com, with basically a forum for anything you can think of, was done so for more than just the added benefit of it users. It's advertising, and it's certainly played it's part.

Does the PS3, or Sony, have anything like the forums at xbox.com. I would think so, I just don't know for sure.