The Problem with Fanboys

First off, let me apologize for the lack of updates recently. It's been a busy month or so for me and Paul, especially with finals next week. Rest assured though, we plan on catching up on our writing over the winter break, so keep checking the site for updates. Now onward to the article!

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With the advent of competing technologies comes groups of zealous fans that openly declare their allegiance to one company while denouncing the competition and their supporters. Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of video games.

Since the beginning of the industry, we've had advertisements telling us to buy an Intellivision over an Atari 2600 if we wanted a baseball game that was "the closest thing to the real thing." During the era of 16-bit gaming, Sega won many fans by touting the so-called "blast processing" capabilities of their Genesis. Fans of the system quickly joined together under the infamous battle cry, "Genesis does what Nintendon't." Of course, advertising and competition are nothing new. If companies want to try and make their product successful they must show that their competitor's product is inferior to their own.

Instead, what I'd like to focus on is the brand loyalty that is so inherit in gaming culture and the consequences of such loyalty. I will refer to this behavior as "fanboyism."

Gamers are fanatical when it comes to their hobby. Simply implying that one console or one company is better than another is enough to start a giant flame war on most message boards. People are so unyielding in their opinions that they will spend hours telling others why Console X sucks, why Console Y is awesome, and why supporters of Console X are idiots and need to "STFU."

But, why are people so adamant about their gaming preferences? Is it just blind brand loyalty? Could it be the result of years of playing one company's systems? What if one person had a bad experience with another company's console, never finding any games that interested them? Whatever the reason, fanboys (and fangirls) are prevalent throughout the gaming community.

And they are hurting the growth of video games.

By pledging loyalty to one system, players become extremely close-minded. They worship their console of choice, declaring it perfect and failing to see that no console is infallible. In some rare cases, fans will refuse to even play games on other consoles, coming to the conclusion that if it's not on their system, then it isn't worth playing. This results in players who lack appreciation for gaming as a whole. They are so adamant about supporting their favorite system that they miss out on the innovations and creativity of other games and consoles. If gaming is to grow and mature as a medium, then gamers must experience all forms of gaming available.

One of the biggest examples of how fanboyismis detrimental to gaming is my very own childhood. Since I was born, I was a Nintendo fanboy. I have had almost every Nintendo system at one point in time. This is because the NES was the first system I ever remember playing. Essentially, I developed brand loyalty from the very beginning. On the playground, my friends and I would argue over what systems were the best, and I would always side with Nintendo.

It wasn't until the previous generation of gaming that I bought my first non-Nintendo console: an Xbox. The reason for this sudden purchase? When the Gamecube was released, I found myself disappointed in the lack of good games the console offered. A friend showed me some of the games he had on the Xbox, including the original Halo. It was these occasional Xbox sessions that convinced me to buy my own system.

As I got older, I continued to branch out to other systems and see what they had to offer. It was through this that I realized the error of my fanboy ways. It's true that I played some incredibly important and influential games on Nintendo consoles, but there were so many other games that I missed throughout the years. Last April I beat Metal Gear Solid for the first time. I was ecstatic at how revolutionary the game was, and at the same time I was kicking myself because it had taken me 10 years to play such an important game. Likewise, only after I've finished Half-Life 2 am I now going back and playing the original. I've also just recently been introduced to all the old Lucasarts adventure games, and to this day I still get ridiculed for never beating Final Fantasy VII. I even missed the Sega Dreamcast, a system that was way ahead of its time. The point is that, by being a Nintendo fanboy, I ignored other games and other systems that were just as important to the growth of gaming.

The fact that I am arguing against a group of people that I was once a part of reveals an interesting point. It shows that no one is safe from fanboyism. If that's the case, then does that mean there's no way to completely eradicate fanboyism? There's no denying the fact that no matter how hard people try to rid the world of console zealots, there will always be a few present. However, if the majority of gamers can get together and be open-minded about their experiences then the fanboys and fangirls will become a dying breed.

In an ideal world, I see gaming as a Socialist business*. Each of the big console creators would come together and make one super console, that all games would be playable on. Then there would be no fanboyism and everyone would be able to experience every important game ever made. Until then, gamers need to put aside at least some of their petty brand loyalty, so that they can be open to the many different experiences video games can offer.

*This statement is in no way supposed to be representative of my political and economic stances. It's just a metaphor people, don't read too deep into it! Oh, wait...

Gaming as Art...Literally

This summer, I had the opportunity to attend the opening night of the I Am 8-bit art gallery in LA. Being the gamer that I am, I was excited about attending. Here was an art show dedicated to exploring the cultural significance of video games. Sadly, the actual event was a complete intellectual disappointment.

Let me just say, that I was in no way disappointed with the actual aesthetic nature of most of the artwork. If I had $600 burning a hole in my pocket, I would've bought this Zelda painting immediately. My problem was with the messages the art was trying to convey. Specifically, it was the lack of messages the art was conveying that made the show unsatisfying.

I Am 8-bit was nothing more than a pop art show. That is not to say that pop art in general is some type of vile entity that should be avoided like the plague. But, was it too much to ask that the art says something more than, "Hey remember Earthworm Jim? Well check out this painting!"


The art seemed to say nothing about gaming culture at all. It would've been nice to have seen art that made the audience think about how we game, or challenge the way we think about video games. Instead, all it did was take the viewer on an expedition of nostalgia without ever exploring what made the games so memorable or thought provoking in the first place.

Perhaps the worst part of the gallery was how some art reeked of what I'd like to call, "we're mature now!" art. CAUTION: The next few pictures are slightly NSFW. Don't look at these at work if you like your job.
The only thing this piece says to me is, "Hey we're so mature we're going to make a painting of a topless Princess Peach with tattoos. That's what mature art is, right?" It just feels like the artists being displayed were trying too hard to show that gaming was another form of artistic expression. The problem was that most of the artists failed to capture what exactly made gaming such a unique medium in the first place.

I'm not even going to justify this one with a critique.

Of course there was at least one piece that did appear to say something about gaming:


It's a simple piece. A faceless woman with a game of Tetris being played inside her mind. Compared to most of the other artwork, this piece said a lot about how gaming relates to our everyday life. We constantly try to make meaning of life and organize our experiences much in the same way as we organize tetrominoes in Tetris. However, there's always a risk at overfilling our minds with too much information. Needless to say, at least this painting got me thinking.

There was also a DJ at the event doing live synthesizing with a game boy that I thought was a nice touch. I'll go over that whenever I decide to write about music and gaming.

Despite the fact that I came away from the event disenchanted, I don't regret attending. If anything, I think the I Am 8-bit exhibit is a decent starting point for presenting the importance of video games. However, in order for that to happen, the people who submit art to the exhibit need to focus more on what gaming means for them as opposed to nostalgic pop art. If we want gaming to be considered as a true art form, then the art that is derived from it needs to actually say something about gaming. There's just something wrong with an art exhibit when the free Mega Man 9 box art posters say more about gaming than the actual art on display.