Playstation: The Chant

I am a PC Gamer first and foremost but I also own a PS3 and a Vita and enjoy all three of these devices. Alone they each satisfy a gaming need and together they give me a complete experience. Each of these experiences are very different however, my PC is a multi-monitor setup with high end components that is used for PC exclusives and all multiplats. My PS3 is an exclusive machine for the games that do not release on PC and my Vita is a whatever comes with PS Plus machine. Why have I told you all of this? Because I like to believe that this makes me relatively neutral when it comes to matters like the one I will be addressing in this blog.

The chant goes a little like this. GDDR5 is amazing, Sony is my God, Sony saved gaming, and I love them so very much… The scary thing is how close this chant has become to reality on this site. Companies that say anything that could be perceived as slightly negative towards Sony are not just dismissed they are added to a hit list and attacked whenever an article comes up about them. Their knowledge of their field is totally dismissed. We saw this with the Nvidia fiasco. However if a company says something that no sane person would believe such as “PS4 has no bottlenecks” this is taken as fact and nobody questions the validity of what was said because they are in the industry. They know best right? I guess if we are going by those rules people should take everything I say as fact as well as I myself create games as a hobby. I must know everything about the field right? People need to realize that the people making these comments are not only being paid by Sony but also it is normally the marketing / PR departments making these claims and if marketing finds out that playstation fanboys don’t care about the truth and they only want comments that stroke their egos then that is what we will see. I understand that everyone wants to hear good news about something they are looking forward to however disregarding everything but good news is not healthy.

The chant is past fact and truth and it has moved on to buzzwords. The worst of which seems to be the use of next gen to mean something other than next generation. Now the definition of the term is extremely cloudy. Its meaning has been twisted by the chant to “Something we believe is acceptable”. This means that the chant can rule out the false shepherds and cast the Wii U under a rug. Facts and logic do not apply anymore. The next big offender is the scaling of hardware. Low end, mid-range and high end have been used for years in the PC hardware market and it is a scale of price and naturally performance. If you take the parts in the PS4 and you check it against what the manufacturer’s class this as you will find that the parts will fit in the lower mid-range tier. With the high end including items like the GTX Titan and the hexa-core i7s each with a very hefty price tag. This however can’t be right, how can hardware that the chant is looking forward to be placed in such a range, it’s disgraceful. Thankfully Guerrilla Games came to the rescue and told us that the PS4 despite what is inside it is in fact high end. I hope you have picked up on my sarcasm by now. However again the marketing talk was picked up by the chant as if it was a weapon and I am sure it will be used many times in the coming months. People fail to realise that Sony is trying to build up hype and if they have facts such as launch games are not all running at 1080p / 60fps something that a real high end system could do without breaking a sweat.

All I ask is that people rely a little more on facts when arguing a point instead of following the marketing chant created for one reason. To sell as many units as possible on launch. As a PC / Sony gamer I know that I will take everything that is said before launch with a pile of salt. The proof is in the pudding. Try backing up your arguments with fact instead of just trying to one up each other with marketing nonsense. Everything I said here should also be analysed and validated. Please whatever you do think for yourself and try to have a healthy relationship with your electronics.

[Godmars290]

At this point the PS4's specs are all but meaningless. Its not going to be the hardware that proves the system - unless said hardware is actually crap - its going to be the games. The diversity of genres and variety of gameplay. If everything next gen is nothing but first person and realtime, harsh and gritty realtime, with anything "quirky" delegated to half thought out and produced casual tiles, the industry is pretty much done.

We need games that stir creative and emotion. That let us wonder through them, find and judge them on our own. Not ones that holds our hands and tells us what we should feel or that we're supposedly having fun when we're not.

[specialagent4532]

Well said

[NewMonday]

@Bladesfist
i'm now mainly playing on PC followed by PSV/PS3 right now same as you, but the set-up you have is not the most common, the very top of PC gaming is very nich, most high end PC's are one top card like the 7970/GTX680 and one screen.

and you have to admit the PS4 specs are great for a console. the CPU is not the fastest but has 8 cores, and the GPU is mid-range(not low com'on ;p) the 8G of GDDR5 is at the very top. all these things working together without a heavy OS do make the PS4 perform close to a regular set-up top gaming PC, not the Titan or crossfire but the normal 1 GPU set-up.

some PC will be more advanced but they are a very small market.

[InSpectre]

"Everything I said here should also be analysed(sic) and validated."

Trying to convince people to change the way they behave is a useless endeavor. I would recommend that you stop trying.

You can decide for yourself of course.

[smashcrashbash]

Can I point out something? You do realize that is how EVERYONE behaves right? I mean I never understand how it is someone can create a blog talking about one group of people when several others are doing the same thing.No one asked any validation about the people who were insisting the Wii U is the greatest console in the world without a thought about who they might be paying to sing praises to their console? Or did anyone ever stop to think about the millions Microsoft paid people to say Kinect is great or the fact that they could have easily been conning you buy a piece of crap endorsed by paid liars? It's how hype and publicity works and in no case any type of words aren't going to change what people think which is what the companies are going for. Why are you so concerned about people going with the PS4 hype? Everyone else is going along with the other systems hype just fine with virtually no one getting in their way to the point that Microsoft fanboys are convinced that Microsoft's silence means something big rather then them scrambling to get something viable.

Comeback with a blog referencing to everyone and you will sound less bias.Nintendo people are convinced that the Wii U pad is as good as tablet and anyone that tells them otherwise gets pelted with virtual tomatoes and called a Nintendo hater.How can you say PS4 supporters are not concerned about facts when no one else seems to want to hear any either.Why does it always fall to PlayStation fans to be the ones to dredge up and accept the doom and gloom while everyone else does the console streak up and down the game field ignoring all shouts to put their clothes back on? Reality will hit soon enough and we will know what is what so why are people so eager to start pointing out faults and inconsistencies that may or may not exist at all? Maybe the PS4 may be all we think it is and more or maybe it will have more problems then the PS3 did.Lets find out before you try to bring everything to a screeching halt.At what point has it become a sin to be excited about something?

[specialagent4532]

Is all coming down to the games along with pro gamer business practices. If the PS4 asks to create a new account, online passes and DRM then is going to be pretty awful. No DRM keep my PSN account and no online passes. Also it would be nice to have free to play games plus game discounts without ps plus requirement. Games that challenged the status quo and move gaming forward. Enough with marines saving humanity from alien invasion and bro games

[MeatAbstract]

N4G is a very pro-Sony community. Yes, fanboys are everywhere and each for a different product but N4G is full of Sony lovers and it does get annoying, mostly because they can't handle criticism.

Like the guy points out in his blog, he plays a PS3 and owns a Vita. But if you say anything remotely against Sony or you disagree with something, watch your disagrees build up and expect comments of being called a MS fanboy or someone throwing a list of exclusives in your face, even you use Sony products.

[bobtheimpaler]

lol. I was on this site several years ago following the unveiling and launch of the PS3. And to say that this site is a pro sony community is just ridiculous.

Everyone was ready to give Sony fellatio when they saw the tech demos and games for PS3. But when the $600 price was announced everyone did a complete 180. You had all these doom and gloom articles about how the PS3 isn't selling enough units, the games aren't worth it(Even as long as 2 years ago this was the case) how you don't need an HDTV and to get one for a PS3 wouldn't be worth it and comments in the articles would reflect this sentiment as well.

A few years into the console's life and as exclusives like MGS4, KZ2 and uncharted were coming out, you'd still get people trying to talk down the PS3. Hell. Over a year ago there was an article saying that the PS3 would be Sony's last and there were just as many fanboys from both sides bickering.

The fact is N4G is just a fickle place. And as smashcrashbash pointed out above, everybody behaves this way. Especially if it revolves around a hobby I suppose(I have a few hobbies outside of gaming where people behave in a similar way). The way people reacted to 2-7 years ago is not too dissimilar to how people react whenever EA is uttered in an article today.

Right now if anyone's excited for the PS4, it's based on facts that give people a good reason to look forward to it.

I'm all for objective criticism, but if you're saying that N4G has always been this way...could've fooled me.

Don't believe me? I have a high end PC I use for multiplats, a PS3 and a Vita too.

@Bladefist: GTX Titan? c'mon it isn't even aimed at gamers. It's supposed to be priced beyond its game performance, which compared to 680 is just nonsensical. It's main purpose is for application outside of gaming.

[MeatAbstract]

Yes, I was here with the backlash against the PS3. I saw all that and because of that, the Sony fanboys seem to think that 'this was a long time coming', that they can jump on any sort of negativity aimed at Sony, regardless of what has been said.

I never said it's ALWAYS been a pro-Sony community, but as of right now and the past couple of years, it has been. If people are excited about the PS4 then...awesome. That's great and that's not what bothers me. What bothers is fanboyism in the extreme where they can't see things in another perspective.

Who knows, MS new console could turn it into a pro-Microsoft site next gen, we just don't know but any kind of famboyism is frustrating to witness on here.

[bobtheimpaler]

So if N4G wasn't always a pro Sony site. Then your problem is people then. Not Sony fanboys, but people and human behaviour in general.

Unless you mean that you don't like the current opinions of N4Gs visitors because those opinions at the moment are pro sony.

[MeatAbstract]

You are correct. Because if you read what I typed 'any kind of fanboyism is frustrating to witness on here' you'll I said just fanboys in general. And the current worst offender on this site are the Sony fanboys.

Since when did people start defending fanboys? They're terrible.

[BitbyDeath]

You should visit Neogaf if you think this place is pro-sony. N4G doesn't have a stitch on them.

[NewMonday]

Sony are just doing things right at this time, most gamers are like swing voters who cheer the side that best serves them at the time, their will be silly comments in crowed but they don't represent the majority.

[DragonKnight]

*sigh* This is one of those "I own X so you can't call me a fanboy but this is why X is wrong" blogs. Just begging to attract the fanboys of the opposite side and start a flame war.

[coolbeans]

To be fair, it really is our fault for making the "I own X,Y,Z console" such a necessity when diving into any criticisms about any of them, depending on the site. It may be less frequent now (can't tell for sure), but the "you don't even own ______" used to be one of the easiest rebuttals made on here.

[DragonKnight]

I'm just of the opinion that that kind of statement is just excusatory. If you want to put down something, own up to it and just say it. A paragraph of what you own and thus you are somehow either entitled to an opinion, or should be considered neutral, sounds like an apology before you even begin. Either that, or it's a bout of steal trolling.

[coolbeans]

That's a fair point, I suppose. No one can technically be 'neutral' when it comes to PC/console preferences.

[Bladesfist]

I never said X was wrong, my first paragraph is there to explain that I prefer X but the real purpose of the blog seems to be overlooked. It is not about being a fan of a system. It is about letting that "fanboyism" rule over logic. It is about accepting everything that a marketing department uses and attacking anything that does not sound positive. Completely disregarding facts because you like a company and such. Even with the disclaimer at the top people have got a bit defensive and turned it into a is N4G a pro Sony site? The first paragraph is really just there to stop the usual "Hmmm maybe he has an agenda, Xbox fanboy!"

[DragonKnight]

If it was about fanboyism, you would have no need to single out X, Y, or Z and you could have made a blog about how fanboyism in general clouds judgement. Right?

[Bladesfist]

Yes indeed, however I wanted to use facts and recent events to back up my argument and that is why Nvidia and Playstation and PS4. When all of these involved Playstation I figured it was the worst offender at the moment. It is not an attck on Playstation , it is an attack on the pro Playstation chant I often see on this site. I guess there are not enough Nintendo and Xbox fanboys to manipulate the agree / disagree and bubble system however this can easily be read in general. I just wanted some examples. All fanboy groups are guilty of this to an extent.

Why does it matter what I picked as an example? I feel as if I am part of the playstation group so I care more about the groups problems. No one likes being part of a group that does not act very well.

[DragonKnight]

"Yes indeed, however I wanted to use facts and recent events to back up my argument and that is why Nvidia and Playstation and PS4. When all of these involved Playstation I figured it was the worst offender at the moment."

So because PS4 has rightly been a hot topic since February, there's some kind of fanboy offensive going on? The nVidia issue is nVidia's own doing and has nothing to do with Playstation fanboys. nVidia made themselves look like fools with their comments, especially when you look at their history with consoles. They always overcharged and underperformed. Their expertise is irrelevant because they are putting ALL consoles down in favour of the mobile platform and PC. Everyone and their grandmother knows that PC's will always have better tech, but nVidia doesn't have to try and cover up their mistakes by saying "oh you know, we just saw more money in mobile than in consoles so we decided not to go with Sony or MS." That's bullsh*t and everyone knows it.

Hell, even Microsoft fanboys were calling out nVidia on their B.S.

"I guess there are not enough Nintendo and Xbox fanboys to manipulate the agree / disagree and bubble system however this can easily be read in general. I just wanted some examples. All fanboy groups are guilty of this to an extent."

That makes you sound like a conspiracy theorist fanboy thus hurts your credibility and what you claim is the underlying message of your blog. You just made the statement that Sony fanboys manipulate the system and outnumber fanboys of any other platform with absolutely no proof. You can cite article examples but they would be flawed as A)Trolls are trolls and don't care about anything but trolling and B)There are examples of the opposite being true. Try going into a Forza thread and saying "I don't like Forza." See what happens. Try going into a PC thread and saying "PC's are overrated" and see what happens. There are no more or less of any kind of fanboy on the site, it's just confirmation bias.

"Why does it matter what I picked as an example? I feel as if I am part of the playstation group so I care more about the groups problems. No one likes being part of a group that does not act very well."

Because the way you go about it makes you look like a stealth fanboy. You are most definitely using a common stealth fanboy tactic. If your problem is with fanboys in general, speak out against fanboys. But making an example where you state you own the system or systems of a particular group of fanboys, then saying that they manipulate this site to their advantage and use common complaints of the fanboys of the opposite camp, it does nothing for your argument or you. It just makes it look like you don't want to be attacked for attacking a group.

[Bladesfist]

"So because PS4 has rightly been a hot topic since February, there's some kind of fanboy offensive going on"

I never said that. It seems there is no way to speak out against a problem without being a fanboy or troll. This is ridiculous.

"The nVidia issue is nVidia's own doing and has nothing to do with Playstation fanboys. nVidia made themselves look like fools with their comments, especially when you look at their history with consoles. They always overcharged and underperformed. Their expertise is irrelevant because they are putting ALL consoles down in favour of the mobile platform and PC. Everyone and their grandmother knows that PC's will always have better tech, but nVidia doesn't have to try and cover up their mistakes by saying "oh you know, we just saw more money in mobile than in consoles so we decided not to go with Sony or MS." That's bullsh*t and everyone knows it."

So because someone at nVidia made a comment you are saying their expertise is forfeit? How do you know that PC + Mobile is not better for them than consoles? This means that the hatred on nVidia attached to every article however unrelated since the comment is warranted? I think you are the one showing bias here.

"That makes you sound like a conspiracy theorist fanboy thus hurts your credibility and what you claim is the underlying message of your blog. You just made the statement that Sony fanboys manipulate the system and outnumber fanboys of any other platform with absolutely no proof. You can cite article examples but they would be flawed as A)Trolls are trolls and don't care about anything but trolling and B)There are examples of the opposite being true. Try going into a Forza thread and saying "I don't like Forza." See what happens. Try going into a PC thread and saying "PC's are overrated" and see what happens. There are no more or less of any kind of fanboy on the site, it's just confirmation bias."

I am not talking about fanboys in general. I am talking about people who are following the PS4 hype without questioning anything and disregarding any facts. As to those numbers do you really believe that? As I am not allowed to provide any evidence I guess you will have to look into that yourself. Going into a forza thread and saying I don't like forza is not what I am on about. A fair example would be going into a forza thread and stating what resolution the game runs at and being disagreed to hell.

"Because the way you go about it makes you look like a stealth fanboy. You are most definitely using a common stealth fanboy tactic. If your problem is with fanboys in general, speak out against fanboys. But making an example where you state you own the system or systems of a particular group of fanboys, then saying that they manipulate this site to their advantage and use common complaints of the fanboys of the opposite camp, it does nothing for your argument or you. It just makes it look like you don't want to be attacked for attacking a group."

If you mean the group of illogical non rational fanboys then I guess you are right. I don't understand why you are questioning my motives for writing such a blog. I guess it truly is impossible to criticize anything on this site without being interrogated yourself.

[DragonKnight]

-You're the one that used the news surrounding the PS4 to state there is a Playstation fanboy problem not me.

-Their experience is irrelevant because PC+Mobile being better for them or not is not the point. They put down every console because Microsoft and Sony want nothing to do with them. It was a typical damage control PR move from them to say "well we didn't want to be in the console business anyway" when that's a HUGE lie considering that MS and Sony have sold a combined total of approx. 160 million consoles. You're telling me that it makes business sense to completely remove 160 million nVidia chips from potentially being sold again? No, nVidia is full of it and everyone knows it and that's why nobody can take anything they say seriously. They are just going to tout their $1000 graphics card over everything else. It's about their arrogance, not their expertise.

-What is there to question? Everything about the PS4 has been confirmed. You're having a problem with people following confirmed facts, otherwise it's just confirmation bias again. This blog is clearly just to pick on a group of people because you don't like what they're saying, and in an effort to prevent people from disagreeing with you, you say "well I own a PS3 and a Vita so you can't say I'm an anti-Sony fanboy." No one said you can't provide evidence, but I have proof that you'd be wrong. I'll use 2 MS fanboys to prove it. DK286K is a known MS fanboy and has 1 bubble. He's pissed about this and cites Sony fanboyism overrunning the site. Well, why does another MS fanboy of a greater degree like EVILDEAD360 hover around 5 to 7 bubbles then? How is the site overrun then if he's allowed to make PR statements for Microsoft if the Sony fanboy problem is so bad? Being disagreed for stating the resolution of Forza isn't indicative of a Sony fanboy problem. Try using a better example.

-You're showing your motives with this blog and each successive comment. Don't you understand that? The title of your blog is Playstation: The Chant, suggesting a kind of cultist mentality around the fans of Playstation. In your comments, you repreatedly cite nonsense examples as somehow indicative of a rampant Playstation fanboy problem, in no way attempt to take a balanced approach, and use the common "I own the system so you can't say I'm an opposing fanboy" tactic. How is anyone supposed to take your critique seriously when it's laced, again, with confirmation bias, poor examples, and the same complaints that fanboys of the opposite camp use all the time? And if you didn't want to have an actual discussion about this, to be "interrogated" as you put it, why make a public blog?

[smashcrashbash]

You what I love the most on N4G? How every conversation can turn into how N4G is a Sony fanboy site.The site seem to be more full of people complaining about Sony fanbiys then Sony fanboys themselves. Look at DK286K statement. He immediately assumes that because someone says Kinect sucks that it's immediately 'Sony fanboys' when others could unanimously think Kinect sucks.Just like everyone on N4G immediately thinks every negative thing said about the next Xbox is 'Sony fanboys' plotting against it. So no one else could be against the next Xbox except Sony fanboys? No Microsoft Xbox fans could be pissed about the things that are rumored? You see how the ignorance comes from the complainers themselves the same way the people with one bubble claim they aren't doing anything and yet when you read their statements they are full of ranting raves that barely even pass as a conversation.One of the main things the other fanboys do is throw virtual tomatoes at anyone who says anything bad about their console but complain if we do the same with their favorite console. Just start any conversation about how the Wii U's controller isn't any better then a tablet or that the next Xbox might not be all it's cracked up to be and see how many disagrees you get. The people who get disagrees and trolling are usually not rational people who do nothing but say unhelpful, non constructive things things that do nothing but start arguments and cause chaos and then get mad because people vote them down.

[FGHFGHFGH]

I noticed that too. I must be a sony fanboy because I think kinect sucks. Kinect games are just terrible.

[Deadpool616]

I can't speak for N4G, but I can say most gaming sites are just hectic during generation shifts. Everyone is either excited, arguing over consoles, or trying to piece it all together.

Each time it happens, I just wait it out and see the results of it all. Keep up to date on all the new information that comes in. Complain about EA, get more disappointed with Capcom,(Originally, I use to be hyped for these companies during the Ps2 era) and continue playing my current games until it's all stable.

I do enjoy reading some well constructed arguments though. Helps my vocabulary.

[Parapraxis]

Yup, around E3 N4G and other sites are going to be just insane!
It'll be great to grab a few beers and watch and partake in the madness.
I don't take this stuff too seriously, but boy do I enjoy seeing people lose their shit over trivial stuff like which console(s) have better Netflix apps and who is doomed due to unconfirmed rumours and info.

[Z501]

THIS! "Look at DK286K statement. He immediately assumes that because someone says Kinect sucks that it's immediately 'Sony fanboys' when others could unanimously think Kinect sucks.Just like everyone on N4G immediately thinks every negative thing said about the next Xbox is 'Sony fanboys' plotting against it. So no one else could be against the next Xbox except Sony fanboys? No Microsoft Xbox fans could be pissed about the things that are rumored? You see how the ignorance comes from the complainers themselves"

[Ingram]

I don't know bladefist, if it's about defensiveness, a lot can be said too about the likes of you.

No one said PS4 is the second coming, but a mighty fine looking console, at least compared to its preceding generation, obviously.

a couple of paragraphs in this blog are right out sore and unnecesary. "sony is my god" blah blah is the kind of dumb and cultist mentality you're adscribing to anyone defending the PS4 hardware.
That's unfair; a straw man designed to provoke sensitive people so you can later point your finger at them and say "AHA, told you they're crazy".

You try to make an apologetic and conciliatory argument at the end, "in favor of reason and realism". I definitely recommend you to learn from your own words and stop provoking fanboy bee nests in order to highlight yourself as the voice of reason. You can do better.