Cultist Behaviour: Console Fanboys.

By Sam Coles:

As long as the human race has existed there has been conflict where they would pick a side and swear an allegiance to said side. What does this statement have to do with gaming? If you have been on the internet for a long period of time especially around the Youtube space you’ll find a slew of channels that are dedicated towards one console/brand and they will defend it no matter the flaws. Now I’m talking about people who have a preference of what system they want to play on they are fine they can think for themselves, I’m talking about the fanboys who criticise a game for instance that is not on their system even when it’s a good game.

When did this all start? Well you can trace this all the way back to the 90’s when Sega and Nintendo use to take shots at each other in their advertisements with examples of Sega with their slogan (in the US) Genesis does what Nintendon’t. This was healthy competition where these sorts of arguments were generally kept to the playground between kids way before the internet was common ground. I remember being a child where we use to talk about what games we played on our consoles and go around each other’s houses and play and share them, we never belittled anyone for sticking to one system because when you’re a kid you can’t have more than one console unless you’re lucky like me.

When did the cult like behaviour start with the consoles where you had corporate slaves defending a piece a plastic no matter the mistakes said company would make? I would say around the time when Youtube started to surface and when the Xbox 360 and PS3 came out where people were comparing how many exclusives they had on the systems rather than the quality of the games but it wasn’t too bad during this period as for the most part we just sat down and played games.

I didn’t get an Xbox 360 until March of 2009 for my 16^th birthday and they was some resentment about my choice but honestly I said I’m a Halo fan and that was my preference at the time. I was not interested in the PS3 until I picked one up in 2013 when they were plenty of games I wanted to play on the system, the main reason I picked up the PS3 is because I wanted to play the exclusives so I picked one up for cheap second hand as it was more or less obsolete due to the PS4 coming out. My point is during the 7^th generation that sort of behaviour started to surface I would constantly get asked what side I’m  on Xbox or PlayStation I would mere state “neither” as I can see both the pros and cons of the systems I’m not going to blindly follow one system that is anti-gamer and anti-consumer.

Now we come to the 8^th generation of gaming where we have these dedicated Youtube channels that use all their spare time championing their console whether it is Xbox One or PS4 with examples such as JayTechTV (who keeps invading my tweets) and CrapGamerReviews. These are some most  idiotic, moronic and toxic channels I have come across as all they do is talk down those who game on different systems or they shame the PC community for wanting games on their systems. 

Let’s start JayTech all he does is go through a list of games that are exclusive to PS4 and say it’s not coming to PC, or Xbox and that sums up his content. I merely said on Twitter once that Crash Bandicoot is more than likely coming to Xbox due to the fact that it is published by Activision and immediately he invaded my tweets saying the original trilogy was PlayStation exclusive. I retorted that it is published by Activision and not Sony so therefore it is no longer PS4 exclusive and you could almost hear the frustration in his tweets about my statement. He never backs up his arguments with evidence he seems to pull numbers out of the black void with no links in the description or in the video.

CrapGamer on the other hand is an Xbox fanboy who makes videos that are truly disingenuous as he praises the Xbox not matter what it does and calls out those as he dubs “neutrals” you know people who just like to play games. This is a man who cancelled his pre-order for Quantum Break because he found out that it was coming to PC and Phil Spencer the head of Xbox politely ridiculed him on Twitter basically saying he was pathetic.

I can somewhat understand this sort of behaviour from children although I still don’t agree with it, but when I see grown men act like this it is truly pathetic and they need to step out of their front door and get some fresh air. I don’t understand why you blindly follow these corporations because it is not as if you have stock invested in them and you don’t make money from them just settle down, play games and stop taking things so seriously.

Overall I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a preference that’s fine you’re the reasonable human being you’re open minded when it comes to games, but it is completely asinine to blindly defend a console and think it is perfect when it’s not. If you ever get flak for having one console over the other you’re not in the wrong you’re a gamer and you have a preference you like many others would love to play games on different systems but sometimes you can’t due money constraints etc. I know these sorts of people aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, but these types of people leave a permanent stain on the carpet that is the gaming community and we need to do more to remove said stain. I’m an impartial gamer and I see the good, the bad and the ugly with all systems and you should too.