Posted by Joel Taveras on September 22, 2009 

Fanboys Make The World Go Round

Posted by Joel Taveras | Categories: Editorials, Featured Articles | 4 responses

Recently an editorial on Destructiod written by Jim Sterling raised eyebrows, alarms, and anger levels in the minds of the Sony fanboy army. It was entitled “Fact: PS3 Fanboys are the worst” and was based on the very argument it states in the title. To sum up or paraphase what was said is basically that out of all of the fanboys of the 3 console manufacturers, Sony’s followers are at the very bottom of the bunch, probably one level up from shit. My favorite line was “perhaps they just have tiny penises” (his words, not mine).

Where he (and many like him) see them as the worst kind of fanboy scum, I have a different take all together. I consider them as the most passionate. This does not apply to only one group of brand loyalists; Nintendo and Microsoft fanboys are included as well. I know that most would agree with Sterling’s piece in the regard that not all fanboys are created equal (albeit some more ignorant than others) but one thing that you can’t take away is that these types of gamers have serious (sometime blinded) passion and loyalty to their console of choice no matter what.

This notion that “suits” in the corporate offices of the big 3 console makers could care less about fanboys I think is quite incorrect. Saying that exclusivity petitions are pointless and without merit is also false. Here’s quick example of this. Last year Sony fanboys (as patient as they were for a whole year before that) began to get very frustrated over the lack of features and functionality of the PSN. You don’t have to go too far back to recall a time when the XMB was inaccessible while in game, and the PSN lacked many simple functions (available to Xbox Live users for years) like an in-game chat option. These functions weren’t a part of Sony’s original feature set when the PS3 originally launched. It was after the Sony fanboy army (and critics alike) started demanding change that things began to turn around. The question is: do you think if it wasn’t demanded of them, would Sony have done anything? I don’t think so. Most corporations, in order to save money usually rely on the, “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, especially in times of economic downturn. Yet with this current generation of consoles being readily able to connect to the Internet and firmware/features updates possible it is because of these “ignorant” and “rabid” fanboys (doesn’t matter the brand) making demands that there is a sense of accountability on the behalf of the console manufacturers.

If marketers and advertisers alike were just one tenth as passionate and dedicated to what they represent like fanboys are, I couldn’t  begin to imagine how much of an even bigger audience and bigger markets that video games would be able to reach. As a gaming journalist, I hate it when I go to an event to check out or get hands on time with a title, and I’m getting an earful from a non-gaming-educated, uninterested, public relations robot. It makes me wish they would throw in a  crazy one-sided fanboy just to spark things up for a change.Those guys can convince anyone that a crappy game is anything but.

Gaming Sites , Blogs, and forums may be the vehicle, but it’s the fanboys (even with all their faults, and the Sony ones with their “small penises”)that are the fuel that helps to drive change in the industry we all share and love. Now that’s a fact.

http://dualshockers.com/2009/09/fanboys-make-the-world-go-round/

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lol......I found this article quite funny. The author is wrong in some ways......but right in many other ways!

Name ONE THING that you think Fanboys affect positively?

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I think fanboys really sometimes help a game do well by HYPING it to the max!

This guy's never dealt with (or chooses to ignore) Nintendo, if he thinks fanboys make a difference. Not to say that Nintendo doesn't care about its fans, but they quite clearly ignore the rantings of their supposed fanboys, or things would be quite different right now (Mother 3 probably close to the top of that list)

EDIT: Ah, of course, it is from a Sony-oriented site...

But of course, i think we tend to demonize the word fanboy by associating it with the negative side of fan-tactics: the shills, the flamers, etc. Many of us are quite proud, but mostly rational, individuals. I wear my Nintendo fanboy-dom on my sleeve (often reminding people that i've never owned a non-Nintendo console and never intend to, unless things radically change, to help clear the air when i express my opinions about other consoles), but i don't like to flame or really get involved in any of the bullshit.

I can agree that Fanboys are somewhat passionate about their system, but disagree on PS3 fanboys being the worse, during my life on the internet; I've come across some wild MS and Nintendo fanboys. some have actually emailed me or messaged me on my PS3 and 360.

but their are fanboys who do have a level-headed view on the system of their choice, those are the people the big 3 should listen to, because sometimes fanboys do/can make things happen.

I have to highly agree Sony fanboy's are the worst. I guess fanboy's do have an important part.

They can bring attention to new IPs. That's not always good since they can hype bad games (e.g HAZE), but at the same time, by giving so much hype and attention, those games would be put in the spotlight and scrutinized in the first place. And if the game is decent or good, then that means it didn't go under the rug.

Didn't Rockstar say that the reason why they made Agent a exclusive was because it was an new IP and needed some free attention?

I think thats completely wrong. Fanboy's would never bring attention to the fact that their console of choice is lacking in any department and would continue to ignore blatant flaws in their games and systems just to pretend the universe is perfect.

It's the gamers that bring change, its the person that has played all sides of the spectrum, sees what the other side has to offer and tries to better the experience of of his fellow gamer through developer support or petitions and so forth.

Fanboys haven't done shit in the console industry, except for making epic flame wars on forums.

IDK, take it like this. Lets say we have a PS3 game. If an 360 fanboy criticizes the game (especially an 360 exclusive one O.o which makes no sense as they won't be able to play the game), it'll probably be out of proportion. Now you'll also have PS3 fanboys also praising the game, and it'll also be out of proportion. However when those fanboys do make a criticism, you can damn well count on them.

I believe that Killzone 2's multiplayer maps are too small and that the 32 player limit should never be used anyway. I also believe that KZ2's story had so much untapped potential.

I believe that inFamous suffers if you do all the side missions as then the city is crime free and therefore you kind of lose purpose as a superhero (but until then the game is fucking AWESOME). I also felt that the story had untapped potential.

I believe that Yakuza 3 had a lot of soap opery parts with the kids.

I believe that PSN can really improve with the cross game chat thing (although it's not an requirement. It's good as it is).

While an 360 fanboy might say "OMG, Killzone 2 is so generic" and you may hear PS3 fans going "OMG, KZ2 has better graphics than Crysis (which I never actually heard... all I know is that infamous Youtube video made by an 360 fanboy comparing KZ1 shots wth Crysis...)", when the PS3 fanboy finally do make their criticisms, it's the most honest (and I'm assuming you won't hear the 360 fanboys won't make praise the game).

So 360 fanboys (which can be easily interchanged with Wii, PS3, etc) will only be able to make fanboy criticisms, about a game they can't play (since according to you, fanboys only own one console).

While PS3 fanboys will only be able to make fanboy praises, but deeply honest criticisms.

And as for "gamers", you define a gamer as being REQUIRED to being multiplat O.o that's just fucking unreasonable and ridiculous. So if you one own one console you're doomed to be an fanboy, or at least unable to become a gamer? O.o And what do fanboys do? Just post on VGChartz all day? XD... oh wait =(

I have no idea how you pulled that out of my post, I didn't even mention owning another console. Yes generally a fanboy is a single console owner but there are always exceptions. Secondly just because a fanboy criticizes an exclusive doesn't mean their criticisms hold more weight, that like saying since I'm a fan of the Patriots I could become a football analyst. If you take fanboy criticism of a rival console seriously then you clearly don't have a clear understanding of what a fanboy is. The fanboy is the guy screaming that Killzone made them orgasm and xbots should take a bath with a toaster. The gamer is the one enjoying killzone and having intelligent discussion on how to make the game better. 

Try to make your posts more coherent too, I had a hard time trying to figure out what you were saying.

Sorry about the coherency >.< Late at night for me. I'm gonna go to sleep now.

Oh great... this isn't going to end well...