BrandonMcAuslan
Special Olympics Medalist
- Nov 21, 2006
- 632
- 17
- Wii Online Code
- 1234-1234-1234-1234
The word “fanboy” is one that everyone is going to come across in these forums at some point. For some of us it has become the dominating theme within many (possibly all) arguments and debates. (i.e. “You’re just a P$3 fanboy graphics wh*re).
But forget that nobody can actually give a perfect universal definition on what a “fanboy” is - it doesn’t matter, because being a fanboy (or having fanboys around) needn’t be such a bad thing.
Sure the one-console, one-company for me, for life, mindset can be extremely annoying to deal with – and genuinely deconstructive to meaningful debate on the merits of various technology - and our ideas within the gaming industry. But there are always going to be these xenophobic people, who will attack and criticize something they are not familiar with – or do not themselves own, purely for those reasons. You can’t beat them, you can try, but they will never go away.
The thing about fanboys is that they really don’t bother me… It’s the people who use the term fanboy in a derogative way that get my back up.
We all need to learn to just accept and ignore the fanboys. We need to just ignore or laugh at the obviously dumb comments like “P$3 sucks A$$! – Wiii roxxx!” Why bother responding? Every time we do, the thread of conversation normally degenerates to a playground-shouting match.
When we are arguing/debating with someone, and we resort to throwing the word “fanboy” at the person we are talking to, we are basically resorting to name-calling. In every argument when a person resorts to name-calling they are resigning to defeat. It’s a last resort. When our argument has reached a dead-end, and we have nowhere else to go, what’s left is “Maybe so! But you have big ears!
” (or some such insult).
It’s childish, it doesn’t help anyone, and it really doesn’t help our cause (whatever it may be). Maybe the person we are arguing with is being childish. Maybe a person is being deliberately obtuse and ignorant in order to deconstruct the thread of argument - because its not going the way they wanted it to go. Or maybe the person we are speaking to actually “is” an immature 12 year-old (no-offence intended to mature 12 year olds). It doesn’t matter. Because if we start throwing insults around, this works to the detriment of whatever point we ourselves are trying to make. I’ve seen many good arguments and conversations tarred because the person making the good points degenerates to the schoolyard level after some mild verbal provocation. (Hell I’m probably guilty of this myself… I guess at times we all are).
It’s hard to respect someone’s arguments and opinion when they are throwing insults around.
I think we should try to slowly work the word fanboy out of our vocabulary when it comes to debating/arguing/discussing. Calling someone a fanboy doesn’t accomplish anything for us. And I’m sure we’ve all experienced the frustration of being on the receiving end of a “fanboy” accusation. If someone is being closed minded, irrational, or obtuse, that’s their own insecurities and problems shining through – lets not make it everyone else’s as well…
:thumbsup:
But forget that nobody can actually give a perfect universal definition on what a “fanboy” is - it doesn’t matter, because being a fanboy (or having fanboys around) needn’t be such a bad thing.
Sure the one-console, one-company for me, for life, mindset can be extremely annoying to deal with – and genuinely deconstructive to meaningful debate on the merits of various technology - and our ideas within the gaming industry. But there are always going to be these xenophobic people, who will attack and criticize something they are not familiar with – or do not themselves own, purely for those reasons. You can’t beat them, you can try, but they will never go away.
The thing about fanboys is that they really don’t bother me… It’s the people who use the term fanboy in a derogative way that get my back up.
We all need to learn to just accept and ignore the fanboys. We need to just ignore or laugh at the obviously dumb comments like “P$3 sucks A$$! – Wiii roxxx!” Why bother responding? Every time we do, the thread of conversation normally degenerates to a playground-shouting match.
When we are arguing/debating with someone, and we resort to throwing the word “fanboy” at the person we are talking to, we are basically resorting to name-calling. In every argument when a person resorts to name-calling they are resigning to defeat. It’s a last resort. When our argument has reached a dead-end, and we have nowhere else to go, what’s left is “Maybe so! But you have big ears!
” (or some such insult).It’s childish, it doesn’t help anyone, and it really doesn’t help our cause (whatever it may be). Maybe the person we are arguing with is being childish. Maybe a person is being deliberately obtuse and ignorant in order to deconstruct the thread of argument - because its not going the way they wanted it to go. Or maybe the person we are speaking to actually “is” an immature 12 year-old (no-offence intended to mature 12 year olds). It doesn’t matter. Because if we start throwing insults around, this works to the detriment of whatever point we ourselves are trying to make. I’ve seen many good arguments and conversations tarred because the person making the good points degenerates to the schoolyard level after some mild verbal provocation. (Hell I’m probably guilty of this myself… I guess at times we all are).
It’s hard to respect someone’s arguments and opinion when they are throwing insults around.
I think we should try to slowly work the word fanboy out of our vocabulary when it comes to debating/arguing/discussing. Calling someone a fanboy doesn’t accomplish anything for us. And I’m sure we’ve all experienced the frustration of being on the receiving end of a “fanboy” accusation. If someone is being closed minded, irrational, or obtuse, that’s their own insecurities and problems shining through – lets not make it everyone else’s as well…
:thumbsup:
