Problem solved!

J/K I agree with your sentiments. I think the "fun" part of gaming is being frowned upon for some strange reason in order so gaming can somehow be considred a legitimate....dare I say it....art form (hahahahaha). People are trying to make it look like what they are doing (making videogames of all things, writing about them, reviewing them) a serious endeavor, when upon reflection, it isn't.

As you state it, it reminds me much of the stock market with 'experts' that are wrong more often than not, people buying into the hype of this company or that and then wondering what happened when reality doesn't match the hype. Etc. At least no one here is losing money. At least, not real money.

People are taking it too seriously. It's not a war. It's a business. For the fans it's meant to be a fun distraction but many actually get aggravated their favorite game or company isn't doing as well as they think they should. That's understandable to a degree. I'd buy a Zack & Wiki 2 but it'll never come (Wiiware Capcom??). And with the billions Sony's lost (and still losing) you'd have to wonder what the future will hold, but so far they seemed determined to stay the course.

Nor can I blame Wii owners who are frustrated that 3rd parties haven't put the same effort into Wii games as HD titles. Glad to see Silent Hill, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Red Steel 2, Monster Hunter 3 all coming (or out) and all look solid but generally Wii gets a ton of crap for every serious effort.

But for myself, I have enough great games already to last me a long time and many more still on the way. And it's fun to see the fanboys react to everything. Myself included.

I am not much into Devil May Cry type games, that is why.  They don't interest me.  Things done over the top for their own sake, really don't appeal to me (in the case of Bayonetta, the use of sex appeal supposedly to generate interest).  And then you throw the "YOU MUST PLAY THIS GAME" hype people post, I get nearly instantly uninterested.  I tend to get more of an interest in more obscure stuff that doesn't get hyped up enough, and underappreciated games.  Anyhow, I did appreciate God of War and enjoyed it (up to the place where I had to move the boxes and kept dying) because of Kratos and the story, and less the gameplay.  I would want to see a God of War movie.

Its the kids who spent all day arguing in playgrounds over whether their Speccy or C64/Megadrive or SNES was better that have grown up and started the wars all over again to relive their youth.

On a serious note, the blogs wouldn't be an issue if fanbases didn't take all the crap they post as gospel. By and large I agree with all your points, including the fact you're biased (thats ok we all are). I didn't understand the whole people screaming Natal will be amazing, by and large any hyping of that technology I see on here is after someone trolls a thread claiming its Eyetoy 1.5.

I think you've actually put so much in your OP, the debate will be hard to keep on topic though as people will be diversifying a lot replying in here, good luck steering the conversation.

Well isn't this a nice post of showing others how one thinks he's above all others. Taking yourself a bit to serious and trying to make a random forum into something serious. Its the internet, its a random forum, its videogames... why on earth would one care. People like you really help the internet to become a better place. If it weren't for you, who would ever have had the guts to write down all those words telling off other people why they shouldn't speak their minds.

Fanboyism is not in any way Video-game related, it is a basic human behavior you can practically find anywhere.

i think it dates all the way back to the cavemen, when every day decisions still were about living another day.

there was probably the one clan who said, meat would keep best when its smoked over fire, the others said no, the meat has to be cured, and the third wanted to keep their meat in the snow, to stay fresh.
and they would keep arguing what method was the best, secretly wanting to try the others, but not admitting to it!

Of course, back then it was an important matter to do the right thing, make the right decision, so you would live another day or during a cold winter, and these old habits are hard to get rid of!

...oh, and there was a fourth clan that kept their meat in the latrine, but history has never heard from them again

I think the long write up you wrote is insightful, but also at the same time taking it too seriously.

Biases help to make things interesting, particularly in discussions.  Taking one's own biases as gospel, however, is a problem.

Anyhow, if this thread morphs all over, that is fine.  So long as one gets entertainment and insight, that is what matters.

Well, every person on this planet is at the center of his or her own little universe. It's natural for an individual to think s/he's more important than any other person.

Personally, I try to keep perspective. It's just a fact that my impact on the course of the market doesn't extend far beyond the dollars I spend, and that goes for almost everybody. Your dollar is your vote, and don't expect to get more votes than you have dollars.

So even though I'm actually quite content with third party Wii support (I love niche games), it's clear that between the internet forums and the market that I'm very much in the minority of Wii users, so I talk about how third parties are failing to attract buyers in the Wii market even though I have ~30 third party Wii games.

I swear I have to repeat myself every bloody couple of months. Different people have fun different ways and by different means. Also FUN is too simple a word to explain what games are about. Entertainment is a much better word. Quite often gaming is merely used to stave off _boredom_ which is far removed from playing games to have fun.

Point by point.

* Happens everywhere. You cannot even escape it. The gaming industry has matured and now has fanatics, dedicated journalists, lifelong developers, etc. Once gaming moves on from mere hobby to lifelong dedication to playing games, why does it surprise people that they _care_ enough to want to influence it, take part in the community, have their 0.02 cents heard? Bruce on Games for example is probably just a fanatic who is stuck in a rut for a certain company. An example that can be found everywhere in the world in every medium.

* Whats new? Most people don't rationally think things through. If they did most every prediction or discussion wouldn't even take place. We humans excel in utter nonsense.

* Yep. More fanatics who love their system of choice or control of choice or company of choice. I am not even immune to this. I have huge miss-givings about motion control, both Wii Motion(+)/Sony Gem and Natal, though I at least try to temper those miss-givings with rational thought during discussions.

* I've already written my 0.02 ISK on this, I won't delve deep into it. Suffice to say developers aren't lazy, they are just not interested. Making the same old game over and over again gets tiring. There's a reason we don't see 20 mario games a year, and its not because that would be alot of work. It'd be boring for the developers.

* Video games are still newish. Gaming may have finally been excepted, but people who have made it their drug of choice are hyper about it. Books btw are the greatest medium for storytelling EVER. Anyone who sais different I will stab in the face, mkay?

* Does this really bother you? I mean it does suck that people over hype a game that doesn't live up to expectations, but, again, such is life. LIFE itself almost never lives up to hyped expectations. Here are three ways (not necessarily all ways) to expect things. Expect little and you may be rewarded with more. Expect more and you may be rewarded with something more than you ever would have if you had expected little. Expect nothing. Why does it matter that some people are jazzed about a game they really want and they want to spread the jazz?

* Yeah well, I think its a dumb thing to post too.