Fans vs. Fanboys

I have been a gamer long enough to recognize that many gamers have a certain proclivity for one particular platform, game series, or company. Indeed, I have come to recognize such behavior in myself. This is, I would say, a fine definition of a fan. However, I've noticed that taken to an extreme this behavior crosses from fandom into the realm of fanboyism. Fanboyism has come to be a dirty word around most message boards, as it carries the connotation of someone who is blindly devoted to a particular brand. This ill reputation has been made by experiences with individuals who make such intellectually weighty posts as "Teh Micro$oft is Teh D3VIL!!11," or "Sony ROXORS!" or what have you. Suffice to say, such behavior is highly annoying to most other posters on a message board.

However, one does not have to post like a leet-speaking  grade school delinquent to be a fanboy. In my experience on message boards and talking with friends, I've encountered forms of fanboyism that is more subtle. In relation to gaming, these are people who refuse to play games outside of their chosen platform. Now, those that know my gaming history, you might accuse me of being a Nintendo fanboy. In my defense, I would like to point out that I've always maintained I would like to own all platforms and play all the best games for each, but limits in money and especially time prevent me from doing so. Thus, I have normally chosen to focus on one platform (I go with Nintendo since I like their first party games best), and wait until prices for systems and software start dropping towards the end of a console generation to get a competing system.  That was the rationale for me getting a Dreamcast several years ago, and for me asking for an Xbox for Christmas this year.

In contrast, fanboys are more or less exclusively focused on just one platform to the exclusion of all else. A lot of them I've encountered are what might be termed "casual" gamers (that's a whole rant unto itself...), while others simply started with one platform and have absorbed any propaganda they subsequently encountered about it hook, line, and sinker (a little fishing metaphor, there). These fanboys are distinguished from the annoying type described above in that they don't usually denigrate other platforms. That's the whole point...they don't really think about other platforms at all. I've occasionally made attempts to help people past this, but trying to get someone who thinks Grand Theft Auto 3 is the best game ever made to play Donkey Konga or Pikmin 2 can be like pulling teeth.

In closing, here is a little anecdote that came from a discussion I was having with a classmate about The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. My point was that he shouldn't worry about the game looking "kiddie," as it was a fun and engrossing game. Clearly convinced that I was off the deep end, he asked me if I would play a Barbie game. I told him that I would, if someone made a Barbie game as entertaining and engrossing as Wind Waker was. I don't fault my friend for thinking that way, but I highlight this as an example of fanboyism and the kind of attitude that gamers need to fight if the industry is to mature.

By: Andy Rucker