Have you ever been a fan girl/boy? I certainly used to be a Nintendo fangirl during the 16-bit era but steadily grew out of such blind loyalties as I aged and picked up other game consoles. I do remember casting the occasional disparaging remark at Sega and yet I also used to play a friend's Genesis on occasion and he was always wanting to rent RPGs for my SNES. Naturally I felt I had the superior system and recommended he trade in his Genesis for one, but Sega directed insults aside, I don't recall tearing into him personally for his choice. Is fandom viciousness worse today than it ever was in the past? Ben Dutka at PSX Extreme, in an article he posted last month, seems to think hating has steadily been on the rise and fans have been raging with greater than ever intensity. Such tribalistic behavior has been an interest to me for a while now, but rather than dive into this topic alone, I thought I'd invite the rest of the 61 FPS crew to come along for the ride.
Welcome to what I hope will be the first in an on running series of roundtable discussions, where I and my fellow bloggers will take turns presenting all manner of game related subjects, from the serious to the silly, and examine their whys and wherefores. Join us today for a look at the phenomenon of fandom and whether or not we think such favoritism is pulling fans down into the dark side of fanaticism.
Amber – I'll kick things off here. On the issue of fans putting down other systems and games, I don't think things have actually gotten worse. When I was a Nintenerd I could certainly spew out some insults towards Sega and later Sony if I was provoked. I'd say it's absolutely hardwired into human nature to be tribalistic: have Us VS Them tendencies. You pick the group you want to identify with and everyone not in that group is an Other, to be looked down upon or outright vilified. We've been doing it throughout history with everything from nationalism to religion to sports team loyalties and yes, even consumerism. It's a behavior people have to grow out of by working towards a broader mindset and realizing that type of loyalty really isn't remotely beneficial. All you're doing is creating artificial limitations. There's nothing wrong with having a game preference but what's the point of being hostile to all of the other choices out there?
Joe - I agree with you that things haven't gotten worse. I think the phenomenon this writer is describing is a combination of a few things that are going on these days. Not all of them are new.
First of all, the spewing of heinous rhetoric regarding consoles you don't own is of course not new to this generation--the last one had plenty of that, too. This piece looks all the way back to the 16-bit era to find a time when "things were different." And it's true that perhaps a lot of us didn't experience the same kind of bile back then that we sit through now.
There's two reasons for that. First of all, we weren't experiencing the totality of the dialog back then. Battles regarding the 16-bit systems were the sorts of things that were handled in schoolyards, where the people talking probably knew and grew up with everyone in the nearby vicinity. That group is quite a bit smaller than the one that talks about these things on the Internet these days, so now we all get to see every opinion--and the ones that are the most hateful are the ones that ring in our minds, so.
That hypothetical schoolyard group also has a different dynamic from Internet forums, though. I think that's what we're really seeing. It's pretty well acknowledged that the combination of the insecurities of youth and the exuberance that comes with anonymity results in a sea of angry profanity. And video games are, among other things, a young person's passion. More than that, video games as played on the one console your parents were willing to buy you when really, you wanted all of them--that's an experience exclusive to young people, and one that breeds this kind of feigned contempt.
That's what's new here. The emotion behind the argument is the same as its ever been and ever will be, until either the one-console future or a utopia where we're all grown-ups that make terrible decisions with our money.
Cole - Any time that people pour a lot of emotion and money into a hobby, they want to justify that investment by convincing themselves and others that it was worth their while. This phenomenon isn't limited to games. Anyone who went to a rural high school can probably remember a time when someone got beat up for bashing Ford or Chevy. Living in Pennsylvania, I remember fights breaking out during Steelers v. Eagles games. I also recall fisticuffs over Metallica vs Megadeth. It's about personal branding.
We all do it. People who have no personality often identify with corporate entities like Macintosh, Nike, or Rolex. It's an easy way to identify with a social group. It helps you feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself. It helps ward off existential despair. It helps you forget that you're going to grow old and die someday, alone and unloved.
Um, anyway.
When someone attacks your personal brand, it's like they're attacking you. When someone bashes Nintendo, and you've invested literally thousands of dollars and literally thousands of hours consuming Nintendo's products over the years, well hell, they may as well tell you that your mother's a whore. You begin to get that nagging feeling. Maybe I should have done something with my life. Maybe I really am a failure.
If fanboys are more rabid today (Jo did a good job illustrating why they probably aren't) I think it's only because today's internet provides people with a louder megaphone with which to proclaim their mouth-breathing rhetoric, and people feel like they have to be all the more caustic in order to be heard above the rest.
Continued in Part 2
Related Links:
The End of Time and the Beginning of Fan Drama
Ranty McRant Rant: Fan Boiz 'n Girlz
How Deep Are You Into Fandom?
