Has brand loyalty and the hatred towards other systems always been prevalent?

This generation is the first generation I've ever posted on gaming forums, and I've seen things that I never knew existed or went on. I've owned all the major platforms every generation since the 3rd generation, and I've never really had any strong feelings towards any of them, particularly strong preferences, likes or dislikes. First of all, I wouldn't buy any of them without first knowing that I was going to thoroughly enjoy the system, which I always have and will continue to do so.

I remember growing up and playing all the systems like NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1, N64, Saturn etc, and I never remember any of my friends or anyone else for that matter ever having strong opinions for or against any of them. It was always just like, "Oh cool, you have a 64, what games you do you have"? Or, "Oh sweet, a PS1, do you have that new Resident Evil"? I never once heard any negative talk about any of them, or anyone ever showing anything like brand loyalty. You know what I mean, like people who go out of their way to discredit a system and its games simply because it is not their platform of choice or because they don't have one. Back in the day, me, my friends and everyone else it seemed were just happy to play games and play whatever was available, regardless of the brand. Just having one of the new systems was cool in itself, and an excuse to get together and have hours and hours of fun.

Basically I'm just wondering, is this whole brand loyalty thing new to this generation? I worked at Gamestop back in 2003 to 2005, and during my time there, I saw a lot of different customers who did in fact have preferences for their consoles of choice, but they never took it to such extreme levels like the posters do here on the System Wars. People on here take it pretty far, and just sound like they flat out hate companies like Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo for the most ridiculous reasons. I dunno, it's just new to me and something that I've never really seen before and don't really understand.

Yes I think so, but probably a bit more now then before with 3 big companies in the ring as well as the advancements in media.

Yes it has. I remember back around 1997/1998 I used to buy most of my N64 games from this game store at a local mall and I'd always get heat from one of the employees there about how lame and inferior the N64 was to the PS1 and how I was just buying a bunch of crappy games for a "kiddy system." lol that's just my personal experience, but I know that it has existed for at least the past 20 years or so.

Yes it has. I remember back around 1997/1998 I used to buy most of my N64 games from this game store at a local mall and I'd always get heat from one of the employees there about how lame and inferior the N64 was to the PS1 and how I was just buying a bunch of crappy games for a "kiddy system." lol that's just my personal experience, but I know that it has existed for at least the past 20 years or so.

Shenmue_Jehuty

Oh man, I remember fighting with friends at school about the N64 being better graphically and they would say the PS1 was...morons :P.

Yup. This exist every where not just in the gaming world. People have loyalty to brands and condemn other brands and try to justify them as being inferior to there choice.

Everything from Ford vs Chevy, Coke vs Pepsi, etc

[QUOTE="Shenmue_Jehuty"]

Yes it has. I remember back around 1997/1998 I used to buy most of my N64 games from this game store at a local mall and I'd always get heat from one of the employees there about how lame and inferior the N64 was to the PS1 and how I was just buying a bunch of crappy games for a "kiddy system." lol that's just my personal experience, but I know that it has existed for at least the past 20 years or so.

NaveedLife

Oh man, I remember fighting with friends at school about the N64 being better graphically and they would say the PS1 was...morons :P.

I couldn't agree more lol. Luckily most of the people I knew at the time were pretty into N64, but I knew a lot of 20-somes that used to berate me for liking the N64, because according to them PS1 was god! Apparently getting older makes your brain smaller :p. . .oh crap lol.

Of course, it's always been around.

Yup. This exist every where not just in the gaming world. People have loyalty to brands and condemn other brands and try to justify them as being inferior to there choice.

Everything from Ford vs Chevy, Coke vs Pepsi, etc

CajunShooter

Coke is way better man, everyone knows that :P.

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

[QUOTE="Shenmue_Jehuty"]

Yes it has. I remember back around 1997/1998 I used to buy most of my N64 games from this game store at a local mall and I'd always get heat from one of the employees there about how lame and inferior the N64 was to the PS1 and how I was just buying a bunch of crappy games for a "kiddy system." lol that's just my personal experience, but I know that it has existed for at least the past 20 years or so.

Shenmue_Jehuty

Oh man, I remember fighting with friends at school about the N64 being better graphically and they would say the PS1 was...morons :P.

I couldn't agree more lol. Luckily most of the people I knew at the time were pretty into N64, but I knew a lot of 20-somes that used to berate me for liking the N64, because according to them PS1 was god! Apparently getting older makes your brain smaller :p. . .oh crap lol.

lol That would explain wny I picked up a playstation product this gen for the first time :o. Lol seriously though, I try to not be a fanboy at all and just buy whats great. Usually that is not Xbox :P.

I believe so. When it was my birthday years ago a friend of my brother's called me a baby for choosing Banjo Tooie over a PS2.

Fanboys always existed. I too remember back in middle school my friends were mostly Nintendo fanboys. Me, I mostly played sega stuff, but I had some Nintendo stuff as well. Anyway, they went ape when I told them I wasn't getting a N64, because at that time I was still playing on a SNES and a Genesis... I really wanted to try a PlayStation, and it honestly was a decision I haven't regretted. Think about it this way OP, you got some gamers who can only afford one console at a time or only have access to one at a time. As a result, that's all they know. Thus, a fanboy or fangirl is born, and brand loyalty is created.

[QUOTE="CajunShooter"]

Everything from Ford vs Chevy, Coke vs Pepsi, etc

NaveedLife

Coke is way better man, everyone knows that :P.

You don't need a smiley when you're stating facts.

I'm fairly certain there was, although people didn't rant about it on the web as much.

no its prevailence came about when the internet became more and more of a populated and used medium even 5 years ago you can literally see the growth and ferver of the fanboys and them expressing themselves on the internet.

no its prevailence came about when the internet became more and more of a populated and used medium even 5 years ago you can literally see the growth and ferver of the fanboys and them expressing themselves on the internet.

WilliamRLBaker

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

no its prevailence came about when the internet became more and more of a populated and used medium even 5 years ago you can literally see the growth and ferver of the fanboys and them expressing themselves on the internet.

savagetwinkie

that is ferver, and fanaticism completely different from brand loyalty and the hatred shown here most of the time. Or are you trying to say that most of the fanboys here are willing to murder and pillage the other fanboys? yeah I don't see it. By the way he said prevalent as accepted, wide spread..ect you cannot sit there and claim that the loyalty and fanboyism shown here today was the same we saw 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago concerning consoles. Because go back far enough and most people playing consoles were kids and teens they were just playing games they weren't going onto BBS's and constantly complaining about the other company or the other games they were just playing games.

To even believe that todays fanboyism and brand loyalty is in the same extreme or amount as yesterdays is fallacy.

Blame Sega's anti-SNES campaigns for that. They may have singlehandedly created SW with their trolling.

Yes but now more so due to the internet.

To a certain extent it has always been prevalent. I've had a Genesis, PS1, N64, PS2 and Xbox 360.

I can only comment from my experience. When you look at the 5th generation none of the consoles where generally on par with eachother, so the competition wasn't to the standard of recent. People I knew that had a N64 would argue how the N64 was a superior console to the PS1. It was a great battle of exclusive games between the two. When I switched from the PS1 to the N64 I considered it an upgrade.

I started to really notice the "system wars" in the 6th generation of consoles(ps2 ect.). Each console was of similiar standard in terms of system power and release dates.

Brand loyalty has grown a lot since online communities have grown. The 3 companies of today have established themselves and been around for 10+ years

Yes of course. Brand loyality has been around for ages

I remember brand loyalty being big since the SNES / Genesis days. Before that not so much.

I do think this generation is by far the worst though for serious blind zealot-ism, and hatred towards a rival system.

Fanboyism is nothing new, we already seen this behavior for ages in terms of nationalist sentiments, religious zealotry not to mention sports fanatics.

Blame Sega's anti-SNES campaigns for that. They may have singlehandedly created SW with their trolling.

ChrisSpartan117

I quite vividly remember some intense SNES vs. Genesis conversations when I was a kid. :P

You had all the platforms and you don't know about brand loyalty I call bs on that on. From back in the sega vs nintendo days fanboys been going at it. Sega even had marketing slaming nintendo in mags and on tv.

Blame Sega's anti-SNES campaigns for that. They may have singlehandedly created SW with their trolling.

ChrisSpartan117

The SEGA Genesis was released a full 2 years before the SNES was released in North America.

The Genesis was released in 1989 and the SNES was released in 1991. Both dates are for North America.

They later changed it after the SNES released but it was initially against the NES.