I would say this fanboy thing which has gotten so popular lately is equally annoying, no matter what company the person is advocating. It's never a good thing when being irrational and annoying are in style, and unfortunately I think it's so in style right now that little kids who would otherwise be significantly less of a hassle are currently flooding forums all around the internet.
However, as someone pretty new to the forums and game forums in general, I've noticed a few specific things that PS fans do differently from MS fans, and vice versa.
Amongst the PS fans are a large number of people who have the verbal aptitude of an eight year old. And the tantrums they throw! Sometimes it's hard to tell whether someone is doing a parody or actually is a perfect fanboy specimen. A lot of exchanges between PS and MS fans read like a couple of big brothers teasing their little brother until he can't take it any more. Whether these Playstation fans actually are eight years olds or are just reduced to pre-adolescence by the performance of their video game console in the world market, I leave to others to decide.
The MS fans are more of an enigma to me. There seem to be two predominant groups: the rational teenager-adults, and the people who think l33t speak, or the way you talk to someone after you frag them, is the highest form of debate.
Here's what I don't get about some MS fans, though: Why would anyone want the Playstation to die so much? (This goes for anyone wanting any console to die, by the way.) I can understand wanting games like GTA and Final Fantasy to be multiplatform, saves you a couple hundred bucks maybe, but what's with the passionately wanting one of the console choices to cease its existence? As a gamer for almost twenty years, my main observation about the current state of the video/computer game industry is this:
You don't get a better situation than 3 consoles, 2-3 handhelds, and a pretty good pc gaming market all at the same time. In fact, pretty much all of the impressive steps forward in this generation can be attributed someone competing with someone else.
Microsoft started live to distinguish themselves from Playstation. Everybody else had to catch up, and they did, in their own way. PS online is free and almost as good as live because of the same competition. I seriously doubt MS would have agreed to meet with JRPG developers, let alone courted them for their games, if not for the same competition.
I can't imagine how bad it would be for the game industry for Sony to decide against a Playstation 4. With no competition, Live would keep getting more tiered and more expensive every time MS added a new feature, like a landlord raising the rent when they fix a leak. Knowing that MS is the biggest monopolization offender of the past few decades isn't much comfort, either.
Besides that, being in third place has been good for the Playstation. The games being produced by Sony of the past year and those headed in next year seem stronger than any group of games they've ever produced before -- I'm more stoked for them than I am for Nintendo's games, and that's definitely never happened before. They seem to be putting a lot of money into game development, and furthermore picking the right developers even in the case of unknowns like Media Molecule and Guerilla Games. To me, that's money in the right place, and I hope it continues.
Hoping for the Playstation to fail isn't fanboyism I guess, it's just idiocy.
That's what confuses me about MS fans -- they often seem to be adults who are passionate about gaming. But if you like games, you couldn't do worse than help to destroy the PS, no matter how much MS, I am sure, appreciates your enthusiasm.
Alic
