Shiftfallout
shiftfallout.com
HERES AN ARTICLE/BLOG FOUND ON GAMESPOT BY A USER THAT CLEARLY HAS A HEAD ON HIS SHOULDERS. I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD GIVE IT A READ.
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Fanboyism... what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!
The Summer is upon us which means the "dry season" of actual video game releases but it also means the time when we get nothing but trailers and teasers for games coming out during the holiday season. What this really means is that this is the time when fanboys have a field day.
For the first time since I joined Gamespot back in 03 I actually took some time to check out the "System Wars" forum. I wasn't there because I actually have any kind of opinion I went to see what was going on. The "System Wars" forums scares me to be honest. It seems like the meeting place of the simple minded individual who must own a ton of stock in whatever company makes the console that they're extolling the virtues of while crushing all others. What? You mean that those people who ramble on and on about how much MS sucks or how Sony blew the PS3 launch or how the WII is just for kids don't own stock? You mean they gain nothing from crushing products they don't have? What?
I have used my columns in the past to talk about the market and such and while I don't want to continue with that theme I will at least one more time. Let me put this as simply as possible... every fanboy out there who talks about how great ______ console is benefits from the consoles that they go on and on about how much they suck.
Competition from other companies is what drives the video game industry whether they want to admit it or not. If it wasn't for the current crop of companies making consoles and games the video game industry would be crap. You think that having your console "win" the console war (whatever the hell that is) that the industry will be better?
Lets take this to a smaller scale and show you an example. Back in the day the NFL used to allow multiple developers to produce football games. Lately, only EA has been allowed to produce an NFL game. How's that turned out? There has been a lack of evolution in Madden ever since it got the exclusive liscense. Back when 2k Games and EA were making games they were constantly battling for your dollar. They had to outdo the other company so that you as the comsumer would buy their game. Now and I'm not here to bash EA, it seems like they've gotten lazy with Madden. I don't know for a fact that they're sitting around just saying "screw everyone, we're going totally half-@$$ is this year" but without someone else out there there has been no real incentive to innovate the series.
With that being said lets look at the big picture. If MS, Sony, or Nintendo were the only company out there producing consoles how many people think that Xbox Live would be as great as it is? How many people think Nintendo would have totally thought outside the box when they came up with the WII's control scheme? How many people think Sony would have designed the hardcore technological marvel that is the PS3? The answer is none of them! Each of these things that makes each console so different or innovative was born out of the idea of doing something different from the other guys! Without competition we might still just be playing the Super Nintendo for all we know.
Back in the day when Nintendo was king the innovation came in the form of games and not technology. It was the software companies trying to diferentiate themselves from other companies and we got some great games. The thing is that the softare part of the gaming industry will always have competition because there is a huge need for games but the consoles are expensive to develop and produce, not to mention that the console makers totally take a bath on profits for the first year or so until the consoles themselves become profitable.
So everytime someone talks about how much they hate MS and only own a PS3 or WII or whatever the hell they babble on about just remind them that if it wasn't for the other companies that apparently suck so much the industry would completely be in the toilet. Fanboyism doesn't do anyone any good. It is just a way to get simple minded people all worked up over nothing. If they think their ramblings on the forums have any real effect on the market and the industry they are just flat wrong. In fact they might be hurting the industry.
Look at certain video game franchises that have their hardcore fanboys. Naruto, Dragonball Z, and others have games constantly churned out that are complete and absolute garbage because the developers know that their fanboys are so enraptured with the franchise that they'll shell out their money for substandard titles. If thats the case then what is out there to prevent the console makers from doing the same thing? What if they knew that they had this loyal fanboy fanbase that they could just churn out crap and it would get bought?
So in closing, the fanboys need to tone it down and take a second to think about what they're actually trying to accomplish by crushing the other console makers. And if you take the time to think about it and can't come up with answer allow me to answer the question for you: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fanboyism... what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!
The Summer is upon us which means the "dry season" of actual video game releases but it also means the time when we get nothing but trailers and teasers for games coming out during the holiday season. What this really means is that this is the time when fanboys have a field day.
For the first time since I joined Gamespot back in 03 I actually took some time to check out the "System Wars" forum. I wasn't there because I actually have any kind of opinion I went to see what was going on. The "System Wars" forums scares me to be honest. It seems like the meeting place of the simple minded individual who must own a ton of stock in whatever company makes the console that they're extolling the virtues of while crushing all others. What? You mean that those people who ramble on and on about how much MS sucks or how Sony blew the PS3 launch or how the WII is just for kids don't own stock? You mean they gain nothing from crushing products they don't have? What?
I have used my columns in the past to talk about the market and such and while I don't want to continue with that theme I will at least one more time. Let me put this as simply as possible... every fanboy out there who talks about how great ______ console is benefits from the consoles that they go on and on about how much they suck.
Competition from other companies is what drives the video game industry whether they want to admit it or not. If it wasn't for the current crop of companies making consoles and games the video game industry would be crap. You think that having your console "win" the console war (whatever the hell that is) that the industry will be better?
Lets take this to a smaller scale and show you an example. Back in the day the NFL used to allow multiple developers to produce football games. Lately, only EA has been allowed to produce an NFL game. How's that turned out? There has been a lack of evolution in Madden ever since it got the exclusive liscense. Back when 2k Games and EA were making games they were constantly battling for your dollar. They had to outdo the other company so that you as the comsumer would buy their game. Now and I'm not here to bash EA, it seems like they've gotten lazy with Madden. I don't know for a fact that they're sitting around just saying "screw everyone, we're going totally half-@$$ is this year" but without someone else out there there has been no real incentive to innovate the series.
With that being said lets look at the big picture. If MS, Sony, or Nintendo were the only company out there producing consoles how many people think that Xbox Live would be as great as it is? How many people think Nintendo would have totally thought outside the box when they came up with the WII's control scheme? How many people think Sony would have designed the hardcore technological marvel that is the PS3? The answer is none of them! Each of these things that makes each console so different or innovative was born out of the idea of doing something different from the other guys! Without competition we might still just be playing the Super Nintendo for all we know.
Back in the day when Nintendo was king the innovation came in the form of games and not technology. It was the software companies trying to diferentiate themselves from other companies and we got some great games. The thing is that the softare part of the gaming industry will always have competition because there is a huge need for games but the consoles are expensive to develop and produce, not to mention that the console makers totally take a bath on profits for the first year or so until the consoles themselves become profitable.
So everytime someone talks about how much they hate MS and only own a PS3 or WII or whatever the hell they babble on about just remind them that if it wasn't for the other companies that apparently suck so much the industry would completely be in the toilet. Fanboyism doesn't do anyone any good. It is just a way to get simple minded people all worked up over nothing. If they think their ramblings on the forums have any real effect on the market and the industry they are just flat wrong. In fact they might be hurting the industry.
Look at certain video game franchises that have their hardcore fanboys. Naruto, Dragonball Z, and others have games constantly churned out that are complete and absolute garbage because the developers know that their fanboys are so enraptured with the franchise that they'll shell out their money for substandard titles. If thats the case then what is out there to prevent the console makers from doing the same thing? What if they knew that they had this loyal fanboy fanbase that they could just churn out crap and it would get bought?
So in closing, the fanboys need to tone it down and take a second to think about what they're actually trying to accomplish by crushing the other console makers. And if you take the time to think about it and can't come up with answer allow me to answer the question for you: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
