I've never been good with forum topic introductions, wierd eh? Just picture me in a safari outfit. This essay will be all the more funnier.
I've been reading these forums for quite awhile now, and there is one, and always will be one constant. Fanboys defending his or her own purchase. Now, this post is not a attack on you, but rather a insightful essay if you will; on fanboyism and how consoles do infact help eachother.
Its very basic economic knowledge that competition is the mother of innovation, take the cold war for example. Due to a competition between the soviet union and the united states. Humanity put a man on the MOON. Because of competition, humans learn to exceed their limits every 4 years in the olympics. Because of competition, we enjoy the gaming experiences we have today. This very principle is what drives sony, nintendo, microsoft to their limits. This very principle however when mixed with the internet has unfortantely bred a entity so powerful, it was thusly named. The fanboy.
Wikipedia states this about fanboys.
"Fanboy (sometimes spelled fanboi) is a term used to describe an individual who is devoted to a single subject in an emotional or fanatical manner, or to a single point of view within that subject, often to the point where it is considered an obsession."
This is a very accurate discription of fanboys. But, lets look at a few cases of the psyche behind on what drives fanboys;
1 - The number one logical and most common reason is the person obviously spent alot of money on a product, in this case console systems. Either this was a planned decision or it was a impulse buy. The person obviously wants this product they bought to succeed, since they have little or no experience in other consoles, they will view their console as the most superior. Thus creating a biased view, or as I like to call the biased fanboy.
2 - Another logical reason is consumer loyality. This is caused when a consumer has had SUCH a great experience with one company, that all other companies fail in comparison. This fanboy is not driven by a choice of money, but instead of how the company treated them, or how the product treated them. These fanboys may or may not have other consoles, but because of the company itself.The become fanboys. I like to call this one the loyalist!
3 - The final example I give to you is the anti-fanboy, as I have nicknamed them. Unlike the previous example, this one has extreme and often unrational HATE towards the competition. Even if they have tried out their other product, maybe it broke? Maybe Public relations was bad? Maybe customer service was terrible? Who knows why they hate it, they just do. Obviously the one product that has served them above others is the superior one.
Now, the whole logic of being a fanboy is flawed. Yes, you like your console, thats nice. I enjoy my wii, I enjoy my xbox 360, I havn't had much of a reason to buy a PS3. Maybe I will in the future? I've played PS3 several times, the graphics were beautiful. I enjoyed sixaxis, and metal gear solid 4 was a brilliant and beautiful game. I keep a open mind about this, thus I can enjoy it all the much more.
Fanboys however can't seem to grasp the concept of keeping a open mind. To them, this multiplat game is better, this system spec allows it to do this while yours can't. Yatta Yatta Yatta, it goes on and on. This ideal of closed-mindedness limits their gaming capacity, alot. Why would this be however?
If you refuse to accept a console for its differances from your favorite, and your fanboyism is so strong that you won't even play the consoles. Then your closing a piece of your gaming experience off. How will you know that a game was great or not if you never played it? Critics? Reviewers? They only give you a glimpse of THEIR experience. Not a experience YOU can make for yourself, something like that is priceless. You would trade that away for loyality to a company or console that cannot share its love back to you? Never will I...
I'm not saying its bad to have a favorite, my favorite is the wii. But I keep a open mind about what other consoles can bring to the table, which brings me to my next point.
I touched base slightly on it as my introduction. Competition, now. Competition is great, as stated before alot of the technology we have and take for granted every day would not be here if not for competition. In the console wars, every generation. Each company brings something new to the table? Why? Maybe they want to be fancy? Maybe they want to show off their passion? Those are just maybes. However, I will tell you EXACTLY why something new is brought to the table.
Competition! That magical word.
Because companies want to make money, because they want to beat their competition. They become innovative, and I'm not talking Nintendo-Wii motion sensor innovative. No, I'm talking all around innovative. Right down to the VISUAL LOOK of the graphics. Innovative. EVERY CONSOLE has improved gaming one way or another. EVERY GAME (minus E.T for the Atari) has improved gaming one way or another. Why? Because the wanted to compete.
Its simple economics, if there was a monopoly. Lets say, one company took 90, 95, 100% Market share. They would have NO reason to develop a stronger console, and if they did. It would only be minimalisticly better than the previous console. Just enough to give consumers a reason to buy it. Why? Because people would have no other choice, its game on our console or don't at all.
I bring this topic to you. Because I want to raise a bit of awareness of the subject. I often talk about this to my friends in real life, and a debate usually occurs between us. But the reason I group these two topics together, fanboyism and competition. Is because when you become a fanboy, you basicly eliminated the competition on a personal level. It doesn't matter anymore about innovation to you. You'll seek out the lamest and most bizzare excuses to defend your console and thus in your mind. New developments no longer matter, everything else is a fad. It'll die out, etc etc. Fanboys don't help our gaming world develop, they don't help at all. If you want to help? Send a e-mail to your "rival" companies about what you like and dislike about their console, even if you tried it once or twice. It may not seem like much, but if nintendo got ten thousand, one-hundred thousand, a million, 10 million; e-mails saying "We need more harddrive space." or "We liked this feature, but maybe next generation you could seek more development into that feature." You'll see some sway in what these companies do. Believe it or not, they do infact have a department to read those.
Anyway, near the end I sorta lost track of my original post. My apologizes.
- NightstrikerX
Why must JRPG female leads suck so bad?
