The Console Wars! - cheering for one product over another

[sales2099]

Jay520 said:

sales2099 said:

There is nothing wrong with console wars. Its just the gaming industry's mirror to professional sports. Corporations are the city/country, the console itself is the "team", and the fans are those who live in the city/country (play the favourite console). Fans like in sports, identify with their team and get patriotic because their city/country helps define them as a person. 

That said, nothing wrong with healthy competition and trash talking, its all part of the game. Funny how in sports the "soccer mom" just wants everyone to have fun and is looked down upon by the sports fans. Yet here the "soccer mom" reigns supreme and the real fans get labelled negatively as a fanboy when its the standard in every other competition you can think of. Gaming is very unique indeed. But I digress

Fans of gaming are nothing like fans of sports. The entire purpose of sports is to have one particular team be victorious. And in sports, a team's victory is entirely dependent upon another team's loss. It's not possible for two teams to win in the same competition. Therefore, it would be pretty difficult for a person to root for two different teams when competiting. If you identify yourself as an X fan, you're going to inherently want the Y team to fail as they could prevent X team from maximum success.

The opposite is true for gaming fans, at least most of us. It is quite possible for multiple companies in the gaming industries to be successful. There does not need to be a loser to allow for another company's success. The problem is your definition of success, which you believe is doing-better-than-the-other-company. Most people are not glued to one 'side' like you are, they just enjoy seeing success, in quality and sales, from all companies. In order for one console to succeed, the other console does not need to lose or fail. I think it's sad that you need to go around making other companies look bad in order for your own company to look good. You're creating some sort of false survival-of-the-fittest scenario.

Firstly, you are neutral, not taking any specific side. Therefore you have no business telling me what the mind of a real fan, someone who picks a side, thinks. You are out of your element in this thread and my sports analogy I might say fits the bill nicely. My line "Fans like in sports, identify with their team and get patriotic because their city/country helps define them as a person" I feel explains the mind of a fan quite well. 

You say sports has one team victorious and is dependant on the loser. Sounds like gaming industry to me. Having more then 2 teams is where the gaming industry differs but then again not so much: most gamers see this gen as a battle between the HD twins. 

You can be successful but sell less, make no mistake, but it is the overall objective to sell more that makes it a victory in the fans eyes, regardless if the "loser" is still considered a success in its own right. 

You just sound like a "soccer mom". The industry will go the way it does no matter what we say. Console wars is just throwing in some fan rivalry in the mix, as is custom in any competitive area. Anywhere else, you would be shunned for your "hippie neutrality". Gaming however Ill admit handles fans differently.