Gate Crasher

  It seems these days you cannot even have an orderly debate about video games without the word “Fanboy” being used. Not even the humble Screenplay blog is impervious to having it thrown back and forth. In most cases it is used as an insult, but what exactly is a fanboy? Believe it or not, the term originated back 1982 at comic conventions.

 I would never consider myself a fanboy personally, though occasionally myself and a few friends rib each other about the choice of a particular title or console, it is mainly just light mocking. Recently I have been on the receiving end of a few jeers from my Playstation companions as I encountered the RRoD with my Xbox 360. However the term is thrown around a lot more in online forums, and as sarcasm is a little harder to capture in online mediums, it intensifies the debate.

  A quick look at wikipedia tells us that “Fanboys” remain loyal to their particular obsession and the term used to describe an individual who is devoted to a single subject in a fanatical manner. However I would suggest that more often the term used to insult on person by another who is running out of ideas to amicably disagree on a subject. I would even go as far to say that it is a form of sledging comparable to football players trying to gain a mental edge or an advantage over a competitor.

 The term “Fanboys” in most cases is used to describe someone who is dedicated to a particular console rather then specific games. There are multiple websites to cater for these special gamers for every major gaming unit – Wii, Xbox, Playstion, PSP and DS. The cost of next gen consoles, often limit many gamers to an option of owning only one console – the obsession possibly forming to defend their decision. If that were true, surely they past experiences with other gaming platforms in the past would have an effect on their opinion.

 In the olden/golden old days of Sega Vs Nintendo, Fanboys were everywhere. The consoles were marketed against each other with such venom, if a modern company tried to do it today they would probably be slapped with a defamation lawsuit. Magazines frequently had competitions for who could draw the best disembowelment of the opposing company’s beloved Mascot. The mere suggestion that one day Sonic and Mario would be playing side by side was laughable, though in a sense whilst they are available on the same console, they still are competing against each other to this day. An explanation for this rivalry could be put down to the fact that at the time there were not many multi platform games and each console was competing for creative and innovative titles.

 Spikes of “Fanboyism” tend to rise in anticipation for new consoles and exclusive titles, such as MGS4, where a few review ratings have had Playstation users crying foul and others mocking them.

 So with consoles entering a longer life span now and less multiplatform titles would you expect to see the number of Fanboys decline? Are there any self confessed fanboys out there or other gamers who use the term loosely to insult others?