Does anyone else lament the death of fanboyism?

[Ruzbeh]

I remember reading gaming websites and forums in the early days of the X360 launch, Wii launch, and in those days, fanboyism was fucking rampant. In hindsight, I liked it. I loved it. The passion and emotions that erupted every once in a while ("BETRAYALTON!!!!!") were absolutely amazing and hugely entertaining.

Now you might be saying, fanboys dead? No mate they're alive and well. Oh, I agree. The thing is, in this day and age, everyone seems to know that, at least on NeoGAF, that shit gets you banned. The kind of investment-related emotional justifications that fanboys use to shit on each other and each other's consoles, games, whatever, that's still alive and well. But now that you easily get banned for it, it has become much more subtle. And much more boring. Instead of sony fans telling xbox fans to go suck it, a sony fan might quote an xbox fan and respond with an ambiguous and purposefully lower-cased "lol".

This shit ain't right.

I want the drama back. The precious, Nintendo-is-fucking-doomed-or-are-they drama that is so unique to internet forums. I don't fucking care if it's sad that I enjoy internet forums about videogames more than videogames themselves. I remember when Nintendo unveiled their Wii controller, the GAF reactions were simply glorious. And the best ones weren't from reasonable-minded Nintendo fans trying to make sense of it all. The best reactions came from Sony and Xbox fans. Especially Sony fans. I remember the first post in that thread went something like "lol. goodbye Nintendo." posted by someone we all knew was heavily invested in Sony's shit. In fact I remember this dude being so invested some of us thought he was a Sony viral marketer.
Those were the days.

I'm mostly talking about NeoGAF but some other forums display the same type of immature fanboyism that I have come to love. Overclock.net is a hilariously awful forum that displays the same type of shit. It makes you wonder what the dealio is with fanboys.

Fanboyism is about investment. It's investment-related.

That explains why the people at Overclock.net display fanboyism for AMD, Intel, and Nvidia. This ain't Mars or Snickers or some shits we're talking about. You buy AMD's shit or Intel's or Nvidia's, good luck, because you buy their shit with the intention to keep it for years, just like game consoles.
Unfortunately, also on overclock.net, they moderate fanboyism heavily. It's pretty much 'illegal'. As soon as passions run high and people come hilariously and tantalizingly close to resorting to name-calling, some shitbird moderator steps up in the name of civility (what?) and closes the fucking thread. What the fuck. Legalize it and regulate it, man.

This is a difficulty it seems for moderators and administrators of internet forums. They don't want to acknowledge that the active posters on their boards are a bunch of goddamn immature manchildren that rush to the defense or whatever it is they have invested in so they don't have to feel bad about their investment. Admins and mods would rather cast up for themselves an illusion than see that their wonderful little forum isn't always a place for debate and discussion. It can become a hell-hole of endless name-calling if shit, ever, were to get real.

As for the Bore, you people need to stop such feggits with your multiple console ownership. Also, PC faggotry? Not helping.

[Momo]

U INSALT MY KUNSOL FUK U RZHEZ!

We all know fanboyism is coming back with with a bang at the next round of consoles, the stakes are much lower now that everything has settled and the warriors are saving their energy for the big battle.

[SantaC]

the fanboyism has moved onto movies instead...

[Himu]

Nvidia 4lyfe

[Momo]

And Apple vs Samsung. Thats a good fun battle to watch from the sidelines

[Himu]

samsung 4 lyfe

[Huff]

Check out n4g if you want some over the top Sony fanboys

[Howard Alan Treesong]

If you weren't around for SNES vs. Genesis you don't know from fanboyism.

PS1 vs. Saturn vs. N64 was also a pretty good era.

PS3 vs. 360 vs. Wii has been pointless. Everyone gets the same games and the Wii sucks, so who ends up winning? Besides PC gamers, of course.

[Himu]

genesis vs snes was and is, the greatest fanboy war.

ds vs psp is the only recent good fanboy war.

[demi]

PSP vs DS was just an exercise in futility.

[Momo]

amd for lyf
apple 4 lyf
genesis 4 lyf

[GilloD]

No, thank fucking god. Arguing over which corporate overlord gets you better FPS or less screen tearing was one of the most exhausting parts of gamer culture. Now all we have to do is vault over the inherent misogyny and white male power fantasies and we might be a legitimate medium!

[MrAngryFace]

Just because I dont hang out at NeoGAF doesnt mean the place doesnt exist

[Takao]

neogeo pocket for lyfe fuck you game.com

That was actually a fanboy war btw. Game.com vs. NGP. I dunno.

[Positive Touch]

If you weren't around for SNES vs. Genesis you don't know from fanboyism.

PS1 vs. Saturn vs. N64 was also a pretty good era.

PS3 vs. 360 vs. Wii has been pointless. Everyone gets the same games and the Wii sucks, so who ends up winning? Besides PC gamers, of course.

2d vs 3d was better than ps1/n64, and still the best fanboy war.  watching as each longstanding series transitioned into 3d while the fanboys screamed and cried and threatened useless boycotts was truly a thing of beauty.

[Joe Molotov]

When the new consoles launch, shits gonna be cray. These kids that can barely even remember the last console launch are gonna be climbing the walls.

[pilonv1]

When the new consoles launch, shits gonna be cray. These kids that can barely even remember the last console launch are gonna be climbing the walls.

That's true, it's been 6 years since the last home console launched. It's going to be a bloodbath considering the features some of these new consoles will have.

[Human Snorenado]

When the new consoles launch, shits gonna be cray. These kids that can barely even remember the last console launch are gonna be climbing the walls.

Not really, I mean it comes down to which exclusive do you prefer- Halo or Uncharted?

[Human Snorenado]

Also, of course the autistic guy laments the lack of fanboyism.  HERP A DERP.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Fanboyism is alive and well

Since we're comparing console eras, here's some anecdotal shit.

I was a little kid when for the SNES vs. Genesis stuff.  At my school, there was classism involved: the SNES was for the well to do and the Genesis was for the poors.  Maybe SNES was more expensive or maybe the Genesis games didn't look as good as the SNES games?  I don't know but you were thought less of for owning a Genesis.  Although that shit all ended when Donkey Kong Country came out.  Rich and poor kids alike got a SNES for that (eat shit Vectorman!) and the Genesis just kind of died right then and there.  As a kid, I was a huge Nintard and in fact, I disliked playing any non-Nintendo video game.  I was 10 at this time and since there are a lot of thirtysomething Nintendo manchildren who have the same opinion, we can assume that the mental age of most Nintards is around 10.  The Game Boy, in spite of being marketed for us, was unheard of.  I remember seeing the back of the box for cereal like Apple Jacks with Super Mario Land 2 tips.  That was about my extent of knowledge for GB.

The PS1 vs. N64 era (sorry, the Saturn didn't exist to us) was interesting.  Most people glommed onto the Mario, Mario Kart, and Goldeneye.  Most of us didn't want a PlayStation and I remember one girl who said she cried because her parents got her a PS1 instead of an N64.  It was only in 1998 when I went on the internet that I found out that PlayStation was considered more popular than the N64 and by quite a margin too.  Most of us were baffled.  A lot of friends kept playing Goldeneye up until the Xbox hit $199 where they got that plus Halo.

The PS2 vs. XB vs. GC was boring.  The PS2 had such a heavy handed dominance that you'd get the occasional Nintard flare up but after 2003, they more or less gave up.  Megaton on GAF was hilarious and is my first real memory of that place, in spite of browsing there a couple years earlier.  Most of my friends got Halo and then quit when Halo 2 wasn't as good.  This was the end of gaming for a lot of friends.

The PS3 vs. 360 vs. Wii was interesting because everyone expected the PS3 to mop the floor with the competition.  Instead the PS3 struggled and the Wii to almost everyone's dismay did gangbusters for a while.  The 360 fanboys were a lot more stable overall, probably because the 360 sales were steady and while it didn't pull Wii numbers, it had a strong online community and a high attach rate that ensured that most PS3 exclusives landed on the machine.

[Great Rumbler]

Fanboyism hasn't gone anywhere, you've just gotten older.

[MrAngryFace]

I was thinking today how I used to care about the SF4 roster, like- there were people I wanted on it and was pissed they weren't- and now im like wtf who cares?

[Momo]

My tardism died with SEGA really, had a master system, genesis, saturn, sega cd,  dreamcast, game gear and had all of the cool games. Despite also owning other consoles I would regulalry bad mouth and troll fans of said other consoles on newsgroups, irc and later on forums. Fun times.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I still remember reading on the Prodigy videogaming message forum that the Genesis was superior to the SNES because it was both aerodynamic and black, thus making an ideal weapon for stopping nighttime intruders.

[originalz]

There seemed to have been a bit about Vita vs. 3DS, but it didn't have the staying power that most blind console warriors have.  I guess the Monster Hunter announcement had pretty good reactions.

[Phoenix Dark]

I remember reading gaming websites and forums in the early days of the X360 launch, Wii launch, and in those days, fanboyism was fucking rampant. In hindsight, I liked it. I loved it. The passion and emotions that erupted every once in a while ("BETRAYALTON!!!!!") were absolutely amazing and hugely entertaining.

Now you might be saying, fanboys dead? No mate they're alive and well. Oh, I agree. The thing is, in this day and age, everyone seems to know that, at least on NeoGAF, that shit gets you banned. The kind of investment-related emotional justifications that fanboys use to shit on each other and each other's consoles, games, whatever, that's still alive and well. But now that you easily get banned for it, it has become much more subtle. And much more boring. Instead of sony fans telling xbox fans to go suck it, a sony fan might quote an xbox fan and respond with an ambiguous and purposefully lower-cased "lol".

This shit ain't right.

I want the drama back. The precious, Nintendo-is-fucking-doomed-or-are-they drama that is so unique to internet forums. I don't fucking care if it's sad that I enjoy internet forums about videogames more than videogames themselves. I remember when Nintendo unveiled their Wii controller, the GAF reactions were simply glorious. And the best ones weren't from reasonable-minded Nintendo fans trying to make sense of it all. The best reactions came from Sony and Xbox fans. Especially Sony fans. I remember the first post in that thread went something like "lol. goodbye Nintendo." posted by someone we all knew was heavily invested in Sony's shit. In fact I remember this dude being so invested some of us thought he was a Sony viral marketer.
Those were the days.

I'm mostly talking about NeoGAF but some other forums display the same type of immature fanboyism that I have come to love. Overclock.net is a hilariously awful forum that displays the same type of shit. It makes you wonder what the dealio is with fanboys.

Fanboyism is about investment. It's investment-related.

That explains why the people at Overclock.net display fanboyism for AMD, Intel, and Nvidia. This ain't Mars or Snickers or some shits we're talking about. You buy AMD's shit or Intel's or Nvidia's, good luck, because you buy their shit with the intention to keep it for years, just like game consoles.
Unfortunately, also on overclock.net, they moderate fanboyism heavily. It's pretty much 'illegal'. As soon as passions run high and people come hilariously and tantalizingly close to resorting to name-calling, some shitbird moderator steps up in the name of civility (what?) and closes the fucking thread. What the fuck. Legalize it and regulate it, man.

This is a difficulty it seems for moderators and administrators of internet forums. They don't want to acknowledge that the active posters on their boards are a bunch of goddamn immature manchildren that rush to the defense or whatever it is they have invested in so they don't have to feel bad about their investment. Admins and mods would rather cast up for themselves an illusion than see that their wonderful little forum isn't always a place for debate and discussion. It can become a hell-hole of endless name-calling if shit, ever, were to get real.

As for the Bore, you people need to stop such feggits with your multiple console ownership. Also, PC faggotry? Not helping.

Fanboyism is alive and well

Since we're comparing console eras, here's some anecdotal shit.

I was a little kid when for the SNES vs. Genesis stuff.  At my school, there was classism involved: the SNES was for the well to do and the Genesis was for the poors.  Maybe SNES was more expensive or maybe the Genesis games didn't look as good as the SNES games?  I don't know but you were thought less of for owning a Genesis.  Although that shit all ended when Donkey Kong Country came out.  Rich and poor kids alike got a SNES for that (eat shit Vectorman!) and the Genesis just kind of died right then and there.  As a kid, I was a huge Nintard and in fact, I disliked playing any non-Nintendo video game.  I was 10 at this time and since there are a lot of thirtysomething Nintendo manchildren who have the same opinion, we can assume that the mental age of most Nintards is around 10.  The Game Boy, in spite of being marketed for us, was unheard of.  I remember seeing the back of the box for cereal like Apple Jacks with Super Mario Land 2 tips.  That was about my extent of knowledge for GB.

The PS1 vs. N64 era (sorry, the Saturn didn't exist to us) was interesting.  Most people glommed onto the Mario, Mario Kart, and Goldeneye.  Most of us didn't want a PlayStation and I remember one girl who said she cried because her parents got her a PS1 instead of an N64.  It was only in 1998 when I went on the internet that I found out that PlayStation was considered more popular than the N64 and by quite a margin too.  Most of us were baffled.  A lot of friends kept playing Goldeneye up until the Xbox hit $199 where they got that plus Halo.

The PS2 vs. XB vs. GC was boring.  The PS2 had such a heavy handed dominance that you'd get the occasional Nintard flare up but after 2003, they more or less gave up.  Megaton on GAF was hilarious and is my first real memory of that place, in spite of browsing there a couple years earlier.  Most of my friends got Halo and then quit when Halo 2 wasn't as good.  This was the end of gaming for a lot of friends.

The PS3 vs. 360 vs. Wii was interesting because everyone expected the PS3 to mop the floor with the competition.  Instead the PS3 struggled and the Wii to almost everyone's dismay did gangbusters for a while.  The 360 fanboys were a lot more stable overall, probably because the 360 sales were steady and while it didn't pull Wii numbers, it had a strong online community and a high attach rate that ensured that most PS3 exclusives landed on the machine.

[DCharlieJP]

The big problem is that the current crop of top Fanboys are such a dull lifeless bunch that it's a waste of time. Back in the day it was fun because there WERE characters of note.

Gahiggidy , Wollan, Kaching, Kittonwy etc

now the new breed are dull - so... i lament the death of "fun" fanboys.



Spectrum vs C64 - on the playgrounds - was pretty funny. Those poor Spectrum fanboys so sad

[Human Snorenado]

Yeah, trolling/flaming Gahiggidy was probably the most fun I ever had on GAF.

[DCharlieJP]

A friend was over recently and he mentioned he created the Little Big Bomba sales troll thread over on t'GAF. But i can't find it any where in history. (as he won't say what his username was for some reason lol)

Anyways, he had a "gang of three" list for each platform and he considered getting those top three fanboys running defense his goal for such troll threads....

I suspect i was sitting on one of his lists... :/

[Momo]

I think mark^o^ deserves a shot at the ninthing crown

[archie4208]

I'd like to nominate Joe Molotov and myself as the inevitable Steambox fanboys.

[frod]

sfags are the worst.

[tiesto]

I stopped giving a shit about console wars when SEGA bowed out.

[Robo]

I'm not reading this thread, but no.

[chronovore]

If you weren't around for SNES vs. Genesis you don't know from fanboyism.

PS1 vs. Saturn vs. N64 was also a pretty good era.

PS3 vs. 360 vs. Wii has been pointless. Everyone gets the same games and the Wii sucks, so who ends up winning? Besides PC gamers, of course.

What about the Usenet era of JPG-vs-GIF fanboism?

Ah, those were the days. And the GIF guys were almost universally wrong.

[Momo]

Hey, I always shared the finest BMP images a 33.3K line could carry!

[brob]

as a kid, I had a snes and my neighbor had a genesis. shit was great. we'd play mario all-stars at my place and sonic 2 at his. I'd love to be a sony fanboy, but they keep mistreating wipeout (which at this point might be the only sony franchise I care about) makes it really difficult.

[Momo]

Mistreating in what way? I had fun with HD + Fury. Not enough content or wrong platforms?

[brob]

HD was released as a "system seller" and had several requirements passed down by on high (1080p, for instance), 2048 was also pushed for launch for the vita, even though Sony Liverpool peeps said they weren't too happy with how they had to push out wipeout HD without much PS3 experience (due to time constraints they used the PSP games' engine and make several concessions with regards to scope/ideas). Sony also did the advertisements during loading nonsense with Wipeout HD - retrofitting this into the game for people who already owned it - as if that's acceptable. At first this even caused loads to take longer, an issue that was patched out. I am also assuming that the cross-play between HD/fury and 2048 is a Sony command since they went in and straight up changed the physics of HD/fury to accommodate 2048. wipeoutcentral (forum) was in flames for months. The game (hD/fury) also wasn't released on disc outside of Europe, and while I am in europe myself it would be nice to see some more support. this mimics their behavior for the PSP games though, where they also treated it as if Europe was the only area to care about wipeout, which is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in the long run. online is practically dead at this point except for a few heads from wipeout central.

They've also had severe issues getting patches out for known issues, there are still bugs that have been around since the first release that can completely fuck up online races, should any particular player want to. These things aren't patched.

[Purple Filth]

Its not dead so i'm not sure why you are lamenting 

look, i'm going to level with you, that whole thing was done for the sake of making a joke on dcharlie.  i wouldn't scrutinize it too much.

you want your crazy fantards, you need to look around.  they're still out there.  gaf just by and large doesn't tolerate "characters" anymore so you'll be hard-pressed to find them there.

they are still on GAF though but they have found a way to just "go near the line" since crossing it is gonna get them in shit

[naff]

HD was released as a "system seller" and had several requirements passed down by on high (1080p, for instance), 2048 was also pushed for launch for the vita, even though Sony Liverpool peeps said they weren't too happy with how they had to push out wipeout HD without much PS3 experience (due to time constraints they used the PSP games' engine and make several concessions with regards to scope/ideas). Sony also did the advertisements during loading nonsense with Wipeout HD - retrofitting this into the game for people who already owned it - as if that's acceptable. At first this even caused loads to take longer, an issue that was patched out. I am also assuming that the cross-play between HD/fury and 2048 is a Sony command since they went in and straight up changed the physics of HD/fury to accommodate 2048. wipeoutcentral (forum) was in flames for months. The game (hD/fury) also wasn't released on disc outside of Europe, and while I am in europe myself it would be nice to see some more support. this mimics their behavior for the PSP games though, where they also treated it as if Europe was the only area to care about wipeout, which is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in the long run. online is practically dead at this point except for a few heads from wipeout central.

They've also had severe issues getting patches out for known issues, there are still bugs that have been around since the first release that can completely fuck up online races, should any particular player want to. These things aren't patched.

Wow what? I didn't even know this, I already played the crap out of it before 2048 but I picked it up a week ago and thought it felt a little weird.

[brob]

yeah, they done fucked it up. I kept the previous update(s) on back-up, cus I'm nerdy as fuck so I don't really feel it, but it's kinda ass having to weigh posting leaderboards scores against having familiar (read: proper) physics.

[Momo]

I probably just caught Wipeout during a good patch cause I cant remember any of this bullshit