The Others: Anonymous Fanboy Nobodies
OXCGN seeks the answer to an unknown riddle – why!?
by DarkArmada
© 2009 Lee Edgerton
Fanboys - The scourge of the gaming industry
Gamers are a passionate bunch. However, just like moonlight to the proverbial cursed pirate, gamers’ action on that passion tends to wane once exposed to the elements. Comments and forum posts abound, we take aim and fire with no hesitation, while real life with all it’s fleshy realness tends to weaken our resolve and show what’s under those ragged clothes.
Fanboyists are one such extreme sect of gamers always feared and ever present.
At first this sad segment of our community lived in isolation, hidden within console specific forums and only showing their face when accompanied by others equally as disturbed as themselves.
See see, I told you there was a flaw - now givame my money back
It’s with a deep, hollow sadness that I have to come to you amidst the deafening roar of troll and flame to bring you news from the front. The fanboys are here. The battles that were once held in outlying districts have moved inches away from our very faces and are intensifying every day.
The above may sound like a dramatization or read from some long forgotten annul, but it IS happening today, this very second and we’re approaching their mating season.
I’ve always had to deal with “the others” as I’ll so eloquently put them. This generic (albeit blatantly stolen from an unnamed TV series) name seems appropriate due to the fact that they seem to be everywhere, yet rarely seen in reality. They are complex in nature, yet simplistic in execution and master infiltrators, always appearing where they shouldn’t in text as anonymous nobodies.
It’s reading the tripe that these others spill onto the empty text field in front of them that incites a rage in me I didn’t even know I had. Whether it’s talking about one console’s “absolute pwnage” of another or the superiority of a particular exclusive title based only on the 5 minute demo they were able to scrape off the floor of their local games retailer, logic and reason are not ideals that appeal to these others.
They winge and cry from ALL sides - but can they read . . no
The fear that these mindless soul-less slaves to their brand have enforced control over the industry at large is very real and the blatantly apparent abuse of what has traditionally been an excellent source of scores for the latest and greatest games is an atrocity. But let’s try and look past the “oh noes, they are breakin the Metacritix!!11!” mentality and look at this behaviour as if you were seeing it in first hand in the real world.
It’s really sad and pathetic that whole segments of the community are rushing to collectively lower the score of a game being released in competition to their own console’s game release, when in actuality the user score means next to nothing. Do they expect the developer to fold and the “opposing side” to run to the hills in retreat?
Do they jump for joy and enjoy the limelight as yet another biased article is praised on N4G and they can get on their soapboxes and preach? I’ve discovered it’s none of these.
Why do these others seem to be so unreasonable in their support for their chosen little box under their TV excluding all others?
Internet + Anonymity = Idiot
Fanboyists by definition are fanatical monotheists. They praise one console, one platform, one side and only that side above all and everything else. Even if their console is on fire, spewing shit from every port and failing every sixty seconds, they will preach that the fire is a sign from their gaming god, and that the shit is blessed and that “ZOMG at least the 60 seconds > RRoD!1!1one!~132~1!”.
It’s their blind faith and total devotion against all reason that infuriates reasonable gamers. It’s what causes the others to do all manner of completely illogical and irrational things and it’s what blinds them from what the rest of us see – beauty in diversity.
While they only get some experiences and waste gaming time on illogical arguments, open-minded gamers get a much richer variety and contented peace.
© 2009 Lee Edgerton
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Filed under: Console gaming, Editorial, Wii News, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News, Xbox Community Network Tagged: | newbie, nob, OXCGN, sony droid, Sony Fanboy, wii fanboy, xbot, xbox fanboy
DarkArmada,
If you are going to try to prove a point, such as Fanboyism, then state what BOTH sides are doing. Don’t half ass it. It makes you look like the one thing you are trying to prove wrong.
*sigh*
The thing is, even if I DID add in an example from the “other side” – I’d still be called a fanboy because I’d be generalising, making statements or unsubstatiated claims about topics and ideas that I have little knowledge about.
You know what? I hate ALL fanboys. I dislike people who think that the Xbox 360 is the only console around and I equally dislike people who think the PS3 is the only console around – same goes for those that think the same about the Wii. This should have been clearly evident in my writing EXCEPT – people think that the clearly sarcastic and cynical example(s) I included are my way of secretly advancing my agenda.
I guess I just have to leave it here – clearly some people just don’t get what this piece is about, or maybe it’s just a little too far above them…
I support your efforts mate, no matter what you do, you will not please everyone. Anyone that reads the article can clearly see you dislike BOTH sides of the fence. And anyone that follows OXCGN knows that we do not support or condone ANY form of fanboyism on this site. Any fanboy comments are deleted before publishing so no angst is caused for anyone. Be that a xbox fanboy supporting Xbox or the other way around.
We are NOT biased, one need only look through the articles to see that. Remember mate, no matter what you say or do, there’s always someone who seems to think you have an agenda, simply because you are on an Xbox site.
I guess it is, then again it’s posted on an Xbox 360 based website, no? To be honest, fanboys from both sides of the fence are just as bad as each other and this article isn’t fanboy – I just didn’t want to sit there and list example after example, 1 was enough.
the funny thing is that this article is fanboy. you only mentioned an attack on the 360 (RRoD) and nothing on the ps3 (there the ones who get mad at the 360 fanboys?). Believe me, I only own a ps3 but I like all the consoles, even my wii (just because its hacked and I get free wiiware and full games like madworld). I think that the xbox 360 actually did hinder the development of the ps3 and that the ps3 is probably a lot more powerful. But it doesn’t matter, because both systems games are awesome. I love gears 2 and fable 2, but the main things that convinced me to buy a ps3 were MGS 4 and the 2009 line up.