In every culture, however tightly or loosely it is defined, has at least one thing that will trigger an intense emotional antipathy. Of course, the broader the social unit (such as, say, on a national scale), said trigger needs to be massive (something on the scale of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 for a nation) to produce a massive response. However, on a smaller group, the trigger can be as simple as a word or a phrase. Case in point is video gamers. While video gamers are willing to shoot back any number of barbs (an unfortunately number surrounding homosexuality), there is one word that functions as a line in the sand, and is practically a declaration of war: fanboy.
On the face of it, it seems like an innocuous word, especially compared to any number of descriptions of actions taken with rent boys or various people’s mothers. All it does is state your gender and that you’re dedicated to something. On the surface, it doesn’t seem any different than saying “male geek” (or “female geek,” gender depending) – and I know plenty including myself that would use that term glowingly. It’s the expansion of the word fan to its root word, fanatic, that contains the insult. A fanboy (or, to be fair, fangirl) is someone so dedicated to their given obsession that they completely ignore the faults inherent to it. The uglier side, of course, is that the fanboys are more than willing to find faults in something just because it competes with their own obsession.
More often than not, this behavior is noted amongst system partisans. Even if they own multiple systems (and quite a few fanboys do, somehow believing that owning a Gamecube gathering dust makes them less of a Sony fanboy, for example), a fanboy is quick to point out why their system is the One True Way. I’ve heard the arguments that the Gamecube has the most accessible games and is best for groups, that the Playstation 2 has the best library and the best company support, and that the Xbox is graphically superior and has the most horsepower. If I forgot your personal favorite argument for system superiority, send it to me. But anyhow, the fact is that for a fanboy, any argument, however flimsy, will be championed until the system is proven to be a flop without a doubt (anyone who wants to rail against my obvious shot against the Dreamcast, again go right ahead).
Of course, there’s always a question of why – what makes the fanboy tick? It’s quite simple, really. Fanboys are the result of people who felt like outsiders for so long finally getting a modicum of acceptance. You see similar behavior in all sorts of milieu – from car snobs that will only touch one manufacturer or line, to cineastes who won’t touch a perfectly fine director (as opposed to everyone who wants to shoot Uwe Boll on sight), from Epicurean food critics who refuse to give good ratings to certain cuisine types, to sports fans who argue for the bloody poundings of their hated rivals. There’s a sense of alienation in each person that’s solved somewhat by finding something they like, and discovering there’s a community around it. Suddenly, it’s not just that they’re appreciated (as consumers), but there’s an entire group of people dedicated to the same object, person, idea, or what have you. In part thanks for the freedom from alienation and in part fear that said alienation will again begin one day, fanboys are almost violent in their devotion to a company.
Of course, the shameful part is that companies often manipulate these reactions to a fever pitch, and companies often wind up their fans to conduct proxy battles for the companies. These proxy battles don’t really affect anything beyond testing out for a company what works and what doesn’t in terms of advertising and product itself. Advertising, in fact, is often the driving impetus for fanboy impulses. How often do you see people in forums simply parrot lines from a company’s sloganeering? Or their ads lean heavily on the emotions elicited from past products to sell future ones, no matter the quality. In a world where people make fan pages for systems they haven’t even touched yet (as Microsoft bragged was done for the Xbox back in 2000), fanboys are more than customers for companies; they’re cheap marketing.
The problem with fanboys is quite widespread, because every gamer has the seeds of fanboy behavior in them. I actually refuse to review games from certain manufacturers or in certain genres for that reason alone. In fact, nearly all hardcore video gamers started as a fanboy of some sort (myself, I was a Nintendo fanboy for ages), and it’s all too easy to fall back into those habits. I wish, honestly, there was a way to combat the fanboy impulse within and without that could be easily conveyed. sadly, though, it all comes down to logic. Gamers need to demand proof before blind belief (for example, that any of the next generation of video game systems is a guaranteed must-own). We need to think rationally about what they deal with. And most of all, we need to always keep in mind that we’re ultimately dealing with subjective opinion. There will never be a One True Way, and for that reason alone it’s better to just be a fan of gaming and be rational about it. After all, despite what many people might seem to think, no game is worth a flame war.
