Every once in a while, I think how nice it would be to see arcades adopt consoles instead of competing with them: come in, bring your own controller and memory card, and always have someone to play against on big, beautiful screens with the hottest new games.

Then I see you guys.

Back when I worked in an arcade, it was Street Fighter II versus Mortal Kombat. Then SSFII versus MKII. Then Darkstalkers versus MK3. Whatever the series, it was the same fanboys lined up on opposite sides of the arcade. Meanwhile, I was the arcade employee that had to call the cops when these buffoons finally came to blows. Sure, I'll admit I was in the Street Fighter camp - when I was off-duty. I couldn't play the games on the clock anyway, so I was the one who had to sit there and listen to these morons go back and forth all day long: Street Fighter is best, Mortal Kombat is better, blah, blah, blah, ad nauseum.

Ah, yes, that's the reason I love my consoles so much: I can enjoy the pleasures of video gaming without having a bunch of biased fanboys arguing over which half of the market is "better."

News flash for you, guys: "better" is a subjective term. It is a statement of opinion, not fact, and will therefore be different for everyone. I like pasta more than pizza. It does not mean that pasta is better than pizza, it just means that I like it more. For me to stand outside Pizza Hut and tell people that they're idiots for liking pizza is absurd, isn't it? So why the hell do you guys spend so much time and effort telling people that their choice of consoles is stupid?

If you think Nintendo games are girly or childish, then don't buy 'em. If you think XBox360 games suck, then don't play 'em. If you think Sony is a giant, evil corporation that puts overpriced crap on the market so that their legions of rabid fanboys supports their ailing electronics departments, then don't buy Sony stuff. It's as simple as that.

So when you're on here, telling everyone that their choice sucks and that your choice is clearly "better," ask yourself: what is it that I want out of this conversation? Would the Nintendo camp be happy if all the Sony guys said, "Yeah, you're right, the Wii is outselling the PS3, so it must be a better system." How about you Sony guys? Would it just make your day if the Nintendo guys were to say, "All sales stats aside, the PS3 is by far a more powerful system, so I'll just go sell my Wii... and my car... and my little sister... and go get a PS3." Okay, seriously, neither of those is going to happen, and even if it did, it wouldn't change anything at all. The Nintendo guys will still get their Wii stuff, the Sony guys will still get Sony stuff.

Now, if you want just a little bit of friendly advice, I'll tell you this much: I used to be a Nintendo fanboy, too - way back when I got the chance to tell off Sega Master System fanboys. It was Mario versus Sonic, Link versus... well, Sega didn't have that much more... Anyway, the point is, I one day realized that my TV was host to a GameCube, an XBox, and a PS2 - all three of the competitors of the seventh-generation. I didn't have to miss out on exclusives, because I kept my options open. When a game I wanted played better on one system than the other, I bought it for that system. But I no longer wasted any time trying to convince anyone that their system "sucked," or that mine was "better."

Now that I have an XBox360, a PS3, and a Wii, I still get to choose the games I like the best - whether they're rated better, they sell better, or any other benchmark that you guys use to prove yours is "better." When I see you guys - or guys like you - beating each other up trying to prove that theirs is "better," I think back to those arcade days of Street Fighter versus Mortal Kombat. And you know what? In the end, they both became video game classics, two big chunks of gaming history. And the fanboys are forgotten, except for the headaches they gave me.

And I know you become attached to your stuff - I do, too. But even if the PS3 outsold every other video game system in history, even they sold more units than GM, Chrysler, and Ford combined, I wouldn't like Wii Sports any less, and I'd still be playing. If there was a Wii attached to every TV in the world, I'd still be willing to throw down on Gears of War. Even if every pocket in the world had a PSP in it... well, I still wouldn't play it, because that dinky thumbstick is just too small for an adult's hands. Whatever. The point is, you guys are letting fanboyism get in the way of something you all have in common: love of the games. If you like arguing over which is "better" even more than you like the games themselves, then sell all your systems, all your games, all your controllers and just stay on here arguing all day.

When it's all said and done, we hardcore video gamers are in the minority, no matter what system you like best. We're the ones that understand this whole phenomenon while the vast majority of the world just wonders why we stay inside on sunny days. PS3 fanboys - those "Wiitards" are your closest relatives. Wii fanboys - those rabid Sonykids are your brothers. Who cares if they have a different gaming rig than you do? At the end of the day, we all have sore thumbs, and that means we're all in the same camp. Go over your friend's house and play on his system for a while. Invite him over the next day to play on yours. Expand your horizons beyond this petty bickering, and remember that no matter what flavor you like best, the only thing that's "better" is seeing the entire industry thrive.

-Darque

My console is DEFINITELY better than yours. Even if you own the same one. Mine has a cooler faceplate/games/broken controller.

You suck, get out of here.

...

Just kidding. Welcome to the board. As much as you hate fanboyism, it's never going to go away. It's part of competing formats/products, just like Ford/Chevy/Dodge, BMW/Mercedes, etc.

But you're right. It's annoying as all hell and grates on you after awhile.

Hey why not, look at coffe shops and internet cafe's.
Then look at sega dreamworks in Seattle, very fun, even has a brewery in it(if you drink)
It is an interesting concept, It would mean a place for kids to hang out(stay out of trouble)or even have it cater to kids and adults alike. Like you said bring your memory/tournaments etc.

Thanks, rocketpig. As a "car guy," I know that particular brand of fanboyism, too. Maybe that's a little different because of the fact that you can take a Mustang and a Camaro out to the track and bracket-race to your heart's content to see which is really faster. Maybe computers are a better comparison - since I acquired a virus on my laptop and switched from Windows XP SP2 to Ubuntu, I've had a lot of exposure to the whole "Windows sucks" and "Yeah, well you can't play games" variety of fanboyism lately. There are different reasons to go with each, and in the end, what's "better" is the setup that works best for the individual user - and that might even include a computer that has both.

At least with cars, there's a much larger marketplace, and the majority of people don't go around bragging that theirs is better. Most folks just see cars as a way to get from point A to point B, and they could care less which brand they use.

What bothers me with the gaming fanboys, however, is the fact that outsiders - that "vast majority" that don't play any games at all - see this kind of stuff and it turns them off. They think, "If this is what video games do to people, then I'm right never to touch any one of them." What we should be doing is getting more people into the fold. Jeez, I even got my mother-in-law to get a Wii, and I bought my father a classic NES last Christmas so he could play Tetris to his heart's content. My brother-in-law hadn't touched a video game since Tecmo Bowl, but when I showed him Madden '05, he bought a PS2 and Madden that night - and hasn't stopped playing since.

You're right - the more competition, the more fanboys tend to crop up. On the same token, though, the more competition in the industry, the better the games are for everyone. Think of it this way - if everyone back in my glory days had decided to stick with either the NES or the SMS, we would all still be playing 8-bit games. (Nothing wrong with the 8-bit days, mind you, but the expansion of the industry legitimized everyone's love of video gaming and spawned a million advances since then.)

Yeah, I know, this isn't really likely to change anyone's mind, and it isn't likely to make any difference whatsoever in the industry - but wouldn't it be nice if we weren't all seen as a bunch of raging idiots when we tell people we love games?

-Darque

There's a place in my city that has 360's/PS3's/Wii's/PS2's and PC's all in there to play it's pretty cool. It's like 7 bucks a hour unless your a member then it's 5 but you can play a PC all day for 25 and you can reserve parties there.

Dpmnymkrprez - while I'd love to see what you thought of the rest of my post, I'll respond regarding that first paragraph.

I actually tried to set up a "video game cafe" some time ago, back when I had a little seed money and was interested in starting a business. Then I ran into the legal problems: Nintendo didn't want to have anything to do with it, Sony wouldn't play if there were other brand names in the same building, and Sega basically just laughed and said that my idea would die just like the rest of the arcades. I ended up taking that seed money and paying for law school - so now I get to argue for a living.

-Darque

Well i tell everyone, follow their dreams, don't loose sight of the GOAL!

And remember

"Goals are not often to be met, They just simply serve as something to aim for"-Bruce Lee

Alacrist - yeah, I've heard that there are a few such stores open around the country.  I wish I had pushed harder back then - I could be charging them all a franchise fee now.

Oh, and about the Chrome Wii - I just installed my chrome case two weeks ago.  Now I just have the PS3 to go, and every system I own (pretty much everything from the NES up) will be modified in some way, either internally or externally.  I suppose that's half of my video gaming habit: I void pretty much every warranty I get.  My NES plays GameBoy games, my GameCube plays DVDs, my XBox has a 250 gigabyte hard drive and plays everything from Amiga and Commodore64 games all the way up to PlayStation games.  Even my GameBoy Advance (original, with the black case) has an AfterBurner installed, so it has its own light the way the SP does - so I didn't feel bad about skipping the SP since it makes my hands hurt.  When you're six-feet-plus, trying to use baby-sized controllers just hurts.  I might be the only person on the planet that still prefers the original XBox controller.

But oh, that chrome case is sexy.  Of all my gaming experience, I've never had a system that I've wanted to polish just to get the fingerprints off.

-Darque

I miss arcades. Maybe because you actually worked in one, you don't miss it so much. I wouldn't miss my work. There were some arcade games where you can bring your own memory card, namely Neo Geo cabinets...I think it was Neo Geo. It didn't really catch on.

I never really heard those arguments in the arcade since people were just glued to the games they were playing. Maybe because all the people I played with played all of them. However, almost all thought SFII was superior.

Don't mean to nit pick, but there was no such game as Super Street Fighter, only Super Street Fighter II.

But for the most part, I agree with your post. Then again, if everyone agreed with everyone else, then this forum would be boring as hell.

I miss the community aspect of arcades. There were a group of maybe a dzone guys that I hung out with at the arcade. I actually a made few good friends their. While online play is nice, it just isn't the same. Especially for us fighting game fans, on-line play and fighting games just doesn't work out to well because of lag issues.