I remember back in the summer of 2004 when Hot Topic became known to me. A friend of mine bought a "sick" T-shirt there and reccomended that I check it out. Now, I knew what Goth Kids were, and I was shocked and a little disgusted to find so many in one concentrated area (I am not a fan of goths, if that isn't painfully obvious). Now, this hatred of Hot Topic went on until 2006, when something odd occured. I was walking in front of Hot Topic when I saw the manager of Hot Topic berrating the emo sales clerk, and I noticed that he had no piercings, tatoos, dyed hair or any black clothing of any kind. He just wasn't goth, and it was obvious that he never had been. Then I was shot, like with a diamond bullet. And I realized that the higher-ups in the Hot Topic, INC, were obviously taking advantage of the culture that I despised, and I applaud them for that (with great offense to any goths reading this blog). Now, I can draw many parallels between this and the fanboy-ism that seems to be reviled by "normal" gamers.

Fanboys are harmless creatures. I don't know why anyone is bothered by them. If they invaded your forum, well, that's why Gamespot created a fanboy-specific system wars forum, and that's why forum threads have titles where you can say, "NO FANBOYS". And you can always just ignore them.

Now, this may shock and incite some serious backlash- But Fanboys and fangirls are actually beneficial to the economy of the videogaming industry. I'm not saying they're a necessary part, but they help. I dare say that the industry would not be nearly as successful without them. The benefits they confer are three-fold. Fanboys argue and bicker amongst themselves- Thus creating free publicity for the game. The more the fanboys argue in our midst, the more we think about the games they argue about. So, when we peruse the aisles of videogame stores, and we see the myriad games displayed upon them, the one that stands out- and ultimately, the one we buy- are the ones are on our minds, and the fanboys put them there in the first place. Or you could be indecisive and just leave, like a woman in a lingerie shop. Fanboys are also guaranteed to buy the system and game that they fight for, and there are plenty of fanboys out there. So, with those two things making money for the gaming industry to function, pulbishers and developers can turn a greater profit and produce powerful technology. For instance, if there weren't so many religious Half-Life fanboys, we probably wouldn't have gotten the Source engine until late 2007, and Unreal 3 would be a bad joke to Epic.

So, please, non-fanboys- Put down the keyboard and shield and calm yourselves. I know that they can be annoying, but fanboys, like in any business, help keep the game industry running.

And that is why the common fanboy deserves at least some degree of respect, even though they piss us off and pollute our forums.