Let's face it, anyone who's ever voiced their opinion on this website has had at least one encounter with a console/company fanboy. In fact, "fanboyism" has seemingly plagued the blogs, forums and user reviews as well as fueled many endless disputes. So it is obvious that this is a problem that needs to be dealt with or at least calmed to some extent. Now I'm not writing this claiming I'm a saint. I've been a fanboy a few years back myself. But, I learned to stop being one and have decided to enlighten the population about how to avoid being a fanboy. Of course, I also have many arguments to counter any reason someone would find to support the fanboy behavior. I also promise to be as unbiased as possible.

Let's start things with dramatized examples of many fanboy derived disputes that are commonly found on the Gamespot forums. These examples are followed by the reason why the person is either wrong or why the behavior is unacceptable. Since these cases are dramatizations, all users and names used are fictional and any resemblance to any person, user or post in any way is purely coincidental.

Case 1: My hardware is better then yours.

-Sony Fan_A: "The PS3 is a LOT better then that M$ trash. It has 8 cores, a bigger hard drive and the games are on blue-ray discs"

The problem here lies in the fact that the person seems to believe that the quality of a game is solely dependant on the performance of the console playing it as well as the capacity of the media containing the game. Though these points are important enough, they are by no means the only factors that decide the quality of a game. Strong proof of this can be found by looking at the Nintendo Wii: It's the "weakest" of the new-gen consoles in terms of spec-sheet performance and has the smallest game media of the 3 consoles, yet many games on that console have remarkable gameplay value and allow the console to be a fierce competitor despite its hardware disadvantages. The Xbox 360 also has many games that have incredible gameplay. This is not to say that Sony has nothing currently or upcoming. The problem is simply claiming that only the hardware makes a game or console worthwhile.

Case 2: Brand "fanboyism"

-MS Fan_A: "I'm never going to buy a PS3. That junk doesn't have any good games for it. The 360 has Gears and Halo 3. The PS3 doesn't have anything and will never have anything s good as (said games)."

This type of comment is also seriously flawed. The main and biggest flaw is when the person claims that console b does not have any good games right after having admitted that he/she will never buy said console. The reason this is flawed is because the person is passing judgment on games that he/she has never tried for themselves and probably never will for the simple reason that they either aren't on their console of choice, because the game isn't called (insert popular game name on Xbox 360 here) or because it didn't get as good of a rating as a similar game on their favorite console. It is severely flawed and incorrect to criticize a certain product without having tried it yourself. Even if the rating of a game on console b is not as high as another game on [console a] does not mean that you will not enjoy it more then the game on console a. Reviews are usually a good benchmark to rely on, but they are also very objective. One persons 8.5 might be another players 9.8. Also note, the PS3 itself also has its share of promising future games.

Case 3: My version is superior

-Sony Fan_B: "Forza 2 is a kids game. If you want to drive real cars, play GT4. It's better and has more cars"

In this situation, the user claims firstly that Forza 2 is too easy and that GT4 has a much better selection of cars. Thus, he claims with these arguments that GT4 is the superior game. Firstly, as i have mentioned above, quality is not always about quality. Many games have had less quantity then their competitors yet have generally been considered better games. Also, most people who commit this type of "fanboyism" have never actually played the game they are flaming. This means they have done nothing themselves to legitimately compare both games. Thus, they do not have any reason to claim that in their opinion a game is better then another.

Fanboys should now have retained a few key lessons from my article. For starters, you cannot claim that a certain console will deliver better games then another because it has better hardware. A Nintendo Wii might be a lot "weaker" then a PS3 but might deliver much better gameplay. Next, just because console A doesn't currently have any games as good as those on console B or that the line-up doesn't seem as promising, it doesn't mean that console A will never have good games. Some underdogs might turn out to be real winners. Finally, don't flame a game if you have never poured enough time playing it or even tried it at all. If you have never played a game, then you have nothing to back up your claims that it is better then its competitor. And using a rating from a website isn't enough proof, especially when you have never tried the game for yourself. For example, there is often a difference between the rating Gamespot gives to a game and the average user rating the same game gets. That doesn't mean that Gamespot is wrong, in fact they do an excellent job at reviewing games. it just means that a rating is very global and also very objective. It is an opinion and should be seen as one and nothing more. The only true way of knowing if a game is better then another, is to try it for yourself. It is also important that your favorite might not be another persons favorite, everyone has different opinions.

Before concluding this article, and before people start jumping to false conclusions or making false accusations. I own a PS2 and an original Xbox, i loved both consoles and both delivered excellent games. In case you are wondering, I have a personal preference for Forza 1 over GT4. But i own both games and have poured roughly 100 hours of "seat" time into both titles so i have my basis for my personal preference. As for the new-gen consoles, I am not biased towards them. I bought a 360 first because it was the one that delivered the games i wanted at the time i bought it and because it was cheaper then a PS3. I would however own a Wii because i have tried it myself and it is a very fun machine with excellent games. I would also like to own a PS3 in the future because it has many promising future titles, like Metal gear solid 4. So now you all know, i am not biased towards any single company, i see promise in all three systems. I try before i compare and look at gameplay and NOT brand name or hardware.

I hope anyone who reads this article, fanboy or not, has been able to learn from it and also benefit from it. And if anyone who reads this ever encounters a fanboy on the forums, you now have some useful arguments to use. Or you can simply link them to this article in the hopes that they learn from it. Gamers should be open to new horizons instead of concentrating on a single dimension of the gaming history. Fun an be had on any platform, so give them all a try and remember, gaming is about having fun, not determining which company is the best. Let the CEOs battle to answer that one.

-Upsh1ft