I think that it depends on the context and the way you say it.

Moreover, there are different kinds within the "fanboy" species: from stupid fanboys to cultured, polite fanboys.

What do you say?

Well, considering this gaming and not off-topic, gaming fanboys are BAAAD.

Indeed, gaming fanboys.

I believe that there's a little fanboy inside (almost?) each of us, some people deny it, some people accept it and some people bellow it out aggressively.

I can't deny that I'm a bit PS fanboy... and I can't deny that's kind of stupid.

Shushhhh.

Here, fanboy is an insult and that's what matters.

So I can't say that you are a Heavy Rain fanboy?

twesterm said: Here, fanboy is an insult and that's what matters.

Let's see what Nintendo Fan Girl has to say.

IM PROUD TO BE CALLED "FANGIRL"

Et voilà!

It really depends on the context in some ways and on connotation in other ways.

The bottomline is that a "fanboy" is someone who really likes something... basically a synonym for fan.  This isn't bad.  I'm sure most posters here can name things that they really like such as games or developers or sports teams.  Once upon a time, this would have meant that you were fanboy/fangirl of those things.

However time has passed and, like all things, the nature of the word "fanboy" has changed.  Whereas it may have just been somewhat snarky before, many people have come to associate "fanboy" not as "someone who really likes something" but as "someone who likes a product and feels compelled to be hostile to competing products." 

The difference is obvious.  No longer is it about devotion to a product, it's now has a competitive element of "My XYZ is greater than your ABC." When you put the sports team "us versus them" mentality into anything, rivalries will develop and some will be good-natured while others will be fairly heated.  In the world of gaming, rivalries have existed for ages so this is nothing new however people began to use the term "fanboy" more and more which spread the connotation that "fanboys" are rude people that are not your friends.

These days, it's more positive and socially acceptable to say "I'm a Nintendo fan" versus "I'm a Nintendo fanboy" simply because the connotation of "fanboy" has become so negative over the years.  It's a somewhat sad development, but hopefully as time passes we will attempt to reclaim this word in a positive light... like porch monkies.