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Calling the Kettle Black
Posted on Wednesday, April 29 2009 @ 14:22:35 Eastern

Fanboys.

We all know them. We all hate them. Bane of Gaming, you might say. And bane of pretty much anything else pertaining to popular culture. Films, Movies, Music, Literature, etc. There are fanboys for everything. And they're often known to be annoying little ***** who won't shut up about why their idolized media of choice is better than anything else regardless of proper reasoning, and are also known to deny their being a fanboy if you accuse them of being such.

You all hate them, and you swear to yourself you'd never be one.

But what if I told you... you are one?

Like it or not, you're a fanboy for something. We all are. I am. You are. Your other gamer friends are.

We can't help it. Its only human nature to follow something we strongly agree with or have had in our lives for a long time.

I love Nintendo. The games they make, the series they hold, with their endearing characters. I used to be such a hardcore Nintendo fanboy that I would refuse to own any game system that wasn't Nintendo (Save for a PC of course). I would say the Xbox and PS2 sucked without hesitation, or reason for saying so. I'm a lot better now, though. I own an Xbox 360, and I'm perfectly okay with peoples' personal choice of consoles.

But if I said I'm not a fanboy anymore, I'd be telling a cold, cold lie. I branch out to other systems now, yeah, but I still love Nintendo, and in fact know more about the company and its history than any healthy person should.

I'm a fanboy. You're a fanboy too. What's your favorite game? Series? It's a safe bet that you are devoted to that game or series. Fanboy much? If you've ever dreamed of owning your favorite character's signature weapon or item, you're a fanboy too. I know I am (that $85 Master Sword replica at the mall will be mine!)

If you browse the web to discuss any of your favorite games with like-minded individuals and get frustrated when someone says they don't like that game... there's a hint of fanboyism too.

Now here's one you probably didn't even think about:

Are you an avid video gamer? Guess what? Fanboy.
Even if the rest of this post can be shot down, I can still tell you you're a fanboy for video games. Face it, you're on a website devoted to video games, video game reviews, video game news, and video game discussions. When someone puts the hate down on video games, you defend the industry with your life meter. If someone says video games are a waste of time and will lead you to prison or an early grave, you all get frustrated and go batshit crazy telling that person why they're wrong (with, or without proper reasoning).

Sound familiar?

Sounds like a fanboy to me.

There's nothing wrong. It's part of being human.

Just don't call someone a fanboy for loving something 'too much', when the truth is you're a fanboy yourself. Maybe not for the same thing, but you're a fanboy all the same.

That's the pot calling the kettle black. You fanboys.

Comments

wildmario
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: May 4th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
The word fanboy itself is losing meaning just like hardcore. You use fanboy to describe anyone for having any kind of liking to a game or whatever, strong or mild. Others use it to describe the extreme fans. There's no middle ground here.

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JCvgluvr
Joined: Feb 2009

Posted: May 4th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
99% of your blog is dead on, except that you lumped Religion in with a bunch of mere hobbies. There's no such thing as being a "Religion Fanboy." Religion actually holds meaning. Petty hobbies such as gaming, movies, reading, spelunking, ventriloquism, and what-have-you hold no such value. Saying otherwise is a small oversight that brings rather large (and incorrect) assumptions with it.

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Squiggy
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: May 4th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Ah, I understand. I think I'll cut that little bit out then. Just one little word cut won't hurt anything. Thanks for your input.

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OutlawCaptain
Joined: Aug 2007

Posted: May 4th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Bible fanboy spotted fanboying. Edit was unnecessary.

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JCvgluvr
Joined: Feb 2009

Posted: May 5th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Wow, Squiggy, I didn't expect you to be so understanding. It's great to see someone so humble on the internet, for once. *high five* BTW Outlaw, notice I didn't mention the Bible once in my first post. You see? The assumptions continue!

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oblivion437
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: May 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Squiggy, I'll prepare a response on my own blog and drop a link when it's finished. However, a comment by another poster commands response right now: "Petty hobbies such as (.)reading hold no such value." --JCygluvr I take exception to this statement without qualification. With the written word we can connect to things which are otherwise impossible to reach.

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oblivion437
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: May 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Here -

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Squiggy
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: May 5th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Link doesn't show up. Also, I decided to remove the mention of religion because I figured it could offend people in a way I don't intend to offend them with.

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voice-
Joined: Jul 2001

Posted: May 5th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
So you're telling me if I appreciate any media, system or title, I'm a fanboy? Hard to argue this without first defining the word. Here's how Wikipedia describes it: "Fanboy is a term used to describe any individual who is devoted to a single subject in an emotional or fanatical manner, or to a single point of view within that subject, often to the point where it is considered an obsession." Somehow I don't see thinking video games is an equal media to, say, films is fanboyism. Yelling it from rooftops, however. The more people you apply a term to, the weaker the term becomes, in the end it means nothing. Please stop watering down words.

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Squiggy
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: May 6th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Huh, apparently I wasn't as clear as I thought. What I intended to get across was that we're all fanboys for something, that there's always something that each of us has that we appreciate at a very high level, I didn't mean to say simply liking something makes you a fanboy of it. I meant there's most likely something you really, really like to the point that you feel cross when someone dislikes it. I like ramen noodles, I'm not a fanboy for them. If someone hates ramen, fine whatever. But if someone lashes out at a favorite game of mine (most likely a Zelda title of some sort), I'd feel much more ready to go "Hey no it doesn't and here's why."

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Squiggy
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: May 6th, 2009 at 7:31 am
. I'm actually not sure if that helped my case or not.

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UglykitteN
Joined: Mar 2006

Posted: May 6th, 2009 at 8:39 am
There is a huge difference between being a fan of something, and being a fanboy.
>
Being a fan of something means you like it. It means that you have decided that *THING* is the best choice for you. You have weighed all of its advantages and disadvantages (remember that word.it'll be important in my next paragraph) and feel that it comes out ahead for you.

A Fanboy is a fanatic. Whatever *THING* s/he gets, is clearly the best. There are no disadvantages to it. It is the supreme being of all things, and anyone who doesn't agree is a ***, or stupid, or gay, or fail, or whatever it is you kids are saying these days.

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