On Fanboyism and Reviewing

Gamesetwatch writes: We throw around lots of insults on message boards and comment threads, but there is perhaps none so common – and so virulent as fanboy.

What does that word even mean? Dictionary.com has no idea, but UrbanDictionary.com has several definitions. "A passionate fan of various elements of geek culture… but who lets his passion override social graces." "A person who is completely loyal to a game or company reguardless [sic] of if they suck or not… a pathetic insult." "An arrogant person… [who takes] the console war very seriously, as if it were a real war."

[BeaArthur]

I think we all know what a fanboy is at this point. The more relevant question is how do we get rid of them?

[TheWickedOne]

pesticide?

[ukilnme]

N4G would not survive now without fanboys. It has become overrun with them and is now on fanboy life support. Flames destroy a lot of things. Flame wars sustain life for N4G.

[OpiZA]

Bubbles

[kingme71]

The author is talking about reviewing games that are important to people for nostaligic reasons (ie they love SSBB because it is Nintendo characters). I would argue very few games released are based on characters gamers grew up with. Most games, even those that are sequels aren't built on lifelong characters we know from childhood.

[StarieMichie]

I buy any game with the word "Pokemon" in it, even if it is a crappy game. *coughmysterydungeoncough*

Although, I do agree with you that the ratio of games with old, loved characters to newer faces is tipped a bit to the later for us. But, for younger kids, Master Chief is going to be more dear to them than some of our older characters because that's what they're growing up with.

[Official General]

To be honest with you I never knew what fanboy was or what it meant until I started visiting this website a few months ago lol! I dont consider myself a fanboy, I prefer the PS3 to the 360 and I own only one console which is a PS3 so if that means I'm a fanboy then so be it. It is strange though to be seeing flame wars on here, guys need to realise these are just games but I do find it funny just seeing it all!

[BeaArthur]

Fanboys are hilarious, I can't count the number of times I have been called a fanboy because I didn't like a game. I thought that Resistance was very average and so I get called an "xbot" or when I talk about how Halo 3 isn't the greatest game ever and that Halo 2 had better game play I get called a Sony Fanboy. The bottom line is that all fanboys are complete losers and are good for nothing other than comic relief.