Before I get into this editorial/rant, let me set the record straight. I absolutely, positively do not hate Sony itself or the PlayStation brand. I do not blame Sony for the actions of the people who have chosen to stand behind them. I have nothing against the PlayStation brand and I honestly believe that Sony is doing great things with their stable of consoles and handhelds.
Their fanboys on the other hand? They are among the most illogical, irrational, arrogant and all around idiotic group of people I have ever come across. In the past five years of going to various forums and just being in tune with the internet in general as it relates to gaming, I’ve come across just about every type of fanboy you can think of. Microsoft fanboys, Nintendo fanboys, Apple fanboys, even Sega fanboys and none of them, without exception, can compare to Sony fanboys in terms of sheer annoyance.
In my experience, I’ve noticed that nothing is ever good enough for them. There have been many reported cases of Sony fanboys getting up in arms with various gaming websites and media outlets because the score they gave one of the exclusive titles on their platform was “too low”. Gametrailers was recently hit with allegations that the 9.3 score that they gave Uncharted 2 was far below what the game actually deserved in the eyes of many Sony fanboys. Seriously?
What these fanboys need to understand that they currently do not is that reviews and the scores attached to those reviews are entirely subjective. Yes, I understand full well that reviewers are supposed to approach games as objectively as possible but, at their core, reviews are inherently subjective constructs that will inevitably be influenced by the writer’s personal beliefs and values. Fun, value and quality in general are subjective concepts that are used to form the basis of what score a game will receive.
Now that I’ve established that, it’s important to realize that because reviews are inherently subjective, opinions on what score a particular game deserves will differ from person to person. Obviously, there is no one score that Uncharted 2 “deserves” above any other and what you believe it deserves is only in your opinion. You have to realize that, while you may believe a game deserves a 9.5 or a 10, your opinion is not meant to be universally accepted. The problem is Sony fanboys (and to a lesser extent, fanboys in general) don’t realize that. It’s perfectly fine to disagree with reviews; it is not fine to attack the reviewer or reviewers because of said disagreement. Not only are you committing a logical fallacy but you’re demonstrating remarkable immaturity.
Another problem they have is with the prospect of their beloved games going multiplatform. While there have been a number of games throughout the generation that Sony fanboys have been rather vocal about when it was announced that they would be making their way to the Xbox 360 (Devil May Cry 4, Tekken 6, etc.) , these all pale in comparison to one game and that game is, as you’ve likely guessed, Final Fantasy XIII. The very day the game was announced for the Xbox 360 at E3 2008, petitions sprang up across the net, created by bitter Final Fantasy fans who were positively enraged that the Xbox 360 would be receiving a port of the game.
I wish I was kidding.
The following is a direct, unedited quote from the most prolific of the petitions I found online.
“We, PS3 owners, are very angered at the fact that Microsoft stole one our most awaited exclusive. We are angered that the game Final Fantasy 13 goes multi-platform and immediatly demand to Square Enix that they change their decision and make the game an exclusive PS3 title.
There is no point for Final Fantasy 13 to be on the Xbox 360. Final Fantasy 13 should only be on the PS3. End of story!”
My reaction to these petitions
And trust me, it gets worse but I’m not going to print those here. If you want to see those petitions Google it.
Now I could understand their frustrations if the game was cancelled on the PS3 and moved over to the Xbox 360 exclusively but throwing a tantrum because Square has decided to port the game to another console? That is utterly ridiculous. What’s worse is that this petition accrued thousands of signatures. Clearly, the creator of the petition was far from alone in his or her line of thinking.
But what could bring about these kinds of thoughts in regards to games that were previously exclusive being released for the Xbox 360 as well? Well, I have a theory about that. I’ve noticed a number of attributes that Sony fanboys typically possess over the years but the one thing that stands out above all others is their unreasonable sense of entitlement. They believe that every game on their platform, no matter which company may have developed it and published on their platform is theirs and theirs alone. They look down upon fans of other consoles for not possessing these games and when those fans do get the chance to play those games, Sony Fanboys can’t take it.
Their sense of entitlement also contributes to their constant contention with reviews that disagree with their preconceived notions about games that they haven’t even played yet and would thus be ill-equipped to give an honest opinion on the game in question in the first place. They believe that the games that they have been following so long (but haven’t played) deserve incredibly high scores purely because they exist on whatever PlayStation console they may be supporting at that particular moment.
I know that a number of you must be thinking at this point “Well, everything you said can be applied to any fanboy group right?” and to that I say, yes but not to the same degree it can be said about Sony fanboys. I am not saying that Nintendo fanboys and Microsoft fanboys aren’t equally illogical at different times but in terms of sheer volume, Sony fanboys have them all beat by a country mile. I’d wager that it can be largely attributed to the fact that, last generation, the PlayStation 2 was the most prolific console of them all by quite a large margin.
So, what prompted me to write this editorial/rant now and why have I been waiting so long to do so? Honestly, as much as Sony Fanboys have annoyed me, I’ve hardly viewed this being worthy of writing at length about. Over time, I’ve been watching Sony Fanboys and the evidence to support my claims has been mounting against them and this has turned into a case of the straw that broke the camel’s back. The final straw was a combination of seeing some fanboys complaining about GameSpot’s 9.0 review score for God of War III and this crap.
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