My question is this.
What is it that turns normal game fans into rabid fanboys?
I have been thinking about this in the last few weeks. There are several factors that i have identified involved in fanboy generation.
1 The lack of money to own all games systems
This is the simplest to understand, if you can't get enough money together to own a PS3 Xbox360 and Wii then you will probably be under 15 years of age. You will get one of these systems from your parents for Christmas and that is all that is needed, instant fanboy. Imagine the scenario, little Johnny gets a PS3 and after a few months is spewing lies in every forum he can manage to log into about how Gear of war and Halo are rubbish. The simple truth is that Johnny looks at the videos for Xbox and Wii exclusives that look cool and is jealous. He then tries to feel good about it by denying that these games are worth playing. It is very easy understand the logic in this and I doubt many people will argue with this point. If PS3 fanboys are about to stop reading then reverse the analogy and say Johnny gets and Xbox and rants about Killzone2 and God of War looking last gen.
2 The need to identify with a club/gang/belonging
Imagine the scenario, Johnny buys an Xbox, he goes online playing Halo and has a good time with his team mates, one or two of them add them to his friends list, and they chat along whilst playing other games. They mention forums they go to. Johnny joins them as well. Johnny meets more and more like minded people and enjoys it. Now notice that I am not stereotyping Johnny as a nerdy no mates in real life. The sharing of interests has long been the building blocks of friendship in any area of life. Simply put Johnny finds friends through his gaming Hobby and feels a part of something.
3 The instinct to defend the underdog
Now I am looking mainly at the community surrounding the news aggregator N4G when I thought of this argument. I have been reading the news on N4G from before it was named that, when there used to be individual news sites for each console. Well I remember going to a news for 360 gamers site that N4G eventually became. Then the comments were added. It stopped being news only and became a battleground. Xbox fans would dig up anti-PS3 news and visa versa. The comments were full of open hostility. A bubble system and agree/disagree system were introduced to actively give fanboys weapons against each other. They could report and shut each other up.
As time passed the Xbox 360 was released and it's news ruled the roost with only previews and talk of hardware and pricing of the imminent PS3 release to fan the flamewars. PS3 fans pointed to games on the horizon and told the Xbox fans that their brief rule would soon be at an end when the PS3 arrived and blew everyone away.
Once the PS3 arrived it was full scale war on the comparison video articles for multi-platfrom games, both sides pull down the exclusive games of the other console. As the PS3 slowly catches the Xbox360 in sales and popularity PS3 fans smell the scent of victory and Xbox fans become more viscous. Now if you read between the lines in the comments section there seems to be a group of mainly PS3 fans who state on many an occasion that when the 360 was at it's peak before the PS3 release on N4G. Which is a lie as N4G in it's present form only existed around the PS3 launch. Never mind that though, these PS3 fans claim that there were more XBOX fanboys than PS3 fanboys and the comment sections were a biased mess in favour of the Xbox. The reason they say that is that today N4G is around 90% PS3 fanboys arguing with themselves about what they perceive XBOX fans will say about their consoles failings and victories. Look at it now, go on, almost any article. Sure there are some diehard Xbox fans still around poking the beehive for fun, but mostly it's just PS3 fans warding off the bogeymen with mantras of victory for a console and a company that doesn't need cheerleaders, it only needs them to part with the cash for said games.
Now how does this generate a fanboy? If you take the motive of revenge or defense of the underdog as the root of the fanboy phenomenon then it makes a little sense. Imagine you have one of the consoles through choice/loyalty or financial constraints. You come to N4G and see nothing but a front page full of attacks on your console, how does it make you feel. Angry, confused? After all you have a great time playing games on your console. What do you do about it? You might even be angry enough about the unjust and unfounded attacks by a group of people hiding behind their keyboards to respond to them. There it is, the start, you get angered by something you see that isn't true, because in these comment section fanboys lie to you.
They say that Gears of war 2 has broken multiplayer, that Killzone2 can't manage to get a co-op mode because the PSN is rubbish. At that moment you are not responding as a fanboy, it's all rational thought. You played Gears 2 horde mode just ten minutes ago and had a great time. PSN is for the most part lag free due to dedicated servers you think, because Warhawk always plays as smooth as butter. At that moment something is set in motion like a snowball rolling down a hill. You start looking for the comments to see what people are saying about game x and y. You start to argue back. Someone name calls you and you argue with them on a personal level. You start getting private messages from other same console fans expressing admiration for how you stuck it to the enemy. You add them on your friends list, and so it begins. Back to the second point of joining a club and belonging.
4 You have a genuine thing about only having one games console.
I have heard people talk about this many times. For reasons know only to the individual they will prefer a certain brand of electronics for instance. I think Sony encapsulate this trend more out of all the console manufacturers as they produce televisions phones etc as well as the console. People that I know have only Sony hardware because they feel they have a reputation for the best products and reliability. If they are shopping for something they will check to see if Sony make it and buy from them even if they can find the product at half the price from another manufacturer. The reason is simple that Sony have a good reputation for products that work well. Now I could argue that until the cows come home, but I would never change their mind It's something that person seems genetically predisposed to do, and good luck to them, nothing wrong in that inherently.
For similar reasons games fans gravitate to a console and it's perceived traditional games. There is a big Japanophile trend in gaming and many will go with Sony or Nintendo for that reason. Some people got a NES as a first console as a kid and stick with Nintendo religiously, staunchly ignoring with not even a hint of jealousy the exclusive games on other consoles.
An awful lot of casual gamers buy a console for one game, in the UK I know a lot of men who bought a PS2 for football games like Fifa and PES and buy nothing else, same can be said for girls who buy Singstar and nothing else. The old casual gamers that Nintendo is trying to catch and make sure they keep on buying different casual games.
5 Some people like the arguing debating and in some cases bullying that goes on in forums.
It can get ugly on N4G, people are cruel, spelling, grammar and debating skills all better be up to scratch. You have to be able to spin like a politician if you want your console to look good after reports of depressing sales numbers for the month. It's hard work being a fanboy, you have to have a good standard of education to avoid being owned out there, (how I hate that term "owned"). Some people seem to get off on that, they will stalk their prey, the one or two word commenters, the ones with poor spelling or the propensity to use swear words instead of language. They stalk them like lame animals through a jungle and pounce with their razor sharp wit. It is a form of bullying, the jock picking on the nerd if you will. Safe behind the anonymity and the keyboard where some feel powerful, and the pen can indeed be mightier than the sword. This adds to the list then, power tripping.
So we have
1). Can't afford more than one system
2). Belonging
3). Anger and defense at perceived injustice
4). Genuine unbiased brand preference for a system and it's games
5). Enjoy a debate
6). Like bullying people online
Now I really want to hear from people in response to this and ask the question is it any of the above that makes you a fanboy. If you have any other suggestions for the root cause of fanboyism then I would love to hear that also.
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