When it Comes to Consoles: Be a Fan, Not a Fanboy - Article
by Paul Broussard , posted on 05 October 2018 / 5,409 Views
Consoles are a wonderful thing, enabling people to play video games with relative ease. Throughout the years, plenty of games have been released exclusively for consoles that have attracted hardcore fanbases across the internet. Which is great; it's genuinely amazing to watch people come together and discuss a similar passion. What is not so great, however, is that sometimes enjoyment of a product turns to devotion to a producer. Some people take that passion for having fun with a game and turn it into defending a console creator. In this current gaming climate, I fear that has given first party publishers far more leeway than they deserve. While being a fan of games is ultimately fine, and even the studios that produce them, we need to be careful to not overextend that into loyalty and fanboyism to corporations.
If it hasn’t been made abundantly clear by this past couple of generations alone, console manufacturers aren’t opposed to pushing incredibly anti-consumer policies if they think it can churn out more cash for them. From Nintendo’s attempts to monetize let’s plays, to Microsoft’s “stick with 360” response to the always online concerns when the Xbox One was announced, to Sony telling people to get two jobs if they couldn’t afford a PS3; each of the three main manufacturers has at least a few notorious incidents of blatantly shafting their customers in the pursuit of more money.
Some may argue, and perhaps reasonably so, that this is to be expected. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are all businesses, after all, and their jobs first and foremost are to turn a profit. Which is fine, their loyalty is ultimately to their shareholders. But that, in turn, brings up a question all of its own: If console manufacturers are loyal to their stakeholders before their customers, why should you be loyal to them? If the big three are more than willing to annoy, extort, and in some cases even outrage their consumer bases in an attempt to appease their stakeholders, why do they deserve undying loyalty from customers?
Simply put, I do not believe they do. People who go around endlessly extolling the values of Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony are doing so for corporations that have no qualms about taking every opportunity possible to squeeze more cash out of them. This isn’t to say that manufacturers are never deserving of praise (I’ll be the first to applaud Nintendo and Microsoft for pursuing crossplay for certain games, for example). But to those who describe themselves as PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo “fans,” I have to ask, why? Because they create or publish games that you enjoy? Is that really enough to overlook all of the anti-consumer practices that those companies have pushed in the past? Is Metroid Prime or A Link to the Past worth totally overlooking Nintendo refusing to offer any sort of refund on digital purchases, even for pre-orders pre-release? Is God of War or The Last of Us worth overlooking Sony blocking third party subscription services while claiming that they’re not good enough for PS players?
I would argue, no. While it’s more than acceptable to enjoy the games and the series that companies are responsible for, as a community, we should not let our appreciation for a corporation’s successes cause us to become numb to their failings. Ultimately, first party publishers are not your friends. They are more than willing to give you a bad deal or pursue questionable businesses tactics if it gets them more profit.
So what does this ultimately mean? I think it means that we should avoid becoming tied down to any one console/system of consoles. If it has the games or the value that you want, then by all means, I'd encourage you to purchase it. However, don’t feel compelled to buy a company’s console simply because they’ve made titles in the past that you enjoyed. Simultaneously, don’t feel compelled to defend a company just because you own its product. It's perfectly reasonable to enjoy what a publisher or developer does right while simultaneously critiquing what they do wrong. The gaming community has finally begun to do more of the latter by calling companies like EA and Activision out for their less than respectable tactics; perhaps it’s time we applied some of the same pressure to console manufacturers for how they sometimes treat consumers.
Ultimately, of course it's fine to enjoy and love the games that first party publishers give us, but we should not be willing to overlook their flaws and mindlessly defend them. In other words, it’s fine to be a fan, but not a fanboy. After all, if the producers have been less than loyal to you, the customer, why should you be devoted to them?
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Yes.
This article tries to talk about all three console manufacturers like they are on equal footing, when it comes to douchebaggery. Sorry, but they are not. Nothing compares to trying to put Orwellian DRM policies in games, the way Microsoft did before this gen even began.
"I’ll be the first to applaud Nintendo and Microsoft for pursuing crossplay for certain games, for example"
Lies create console wars. You are giving credit to Nintendo and Microsoft when the bare fact is that Sony had more crossplay to begin with. Not worth of praise because you want to feed us lies (or you actually believe the lie yourself). If the narratives require mental gymnastics and are forced down our throat in spite of reality, you have utterly NO RIGHT to complain about console fighting when you yourself are unwittingly an extension of a corporate PR program.
The lack of basic honesty and integrity of gaming journalist the world over are the reason why we have wars. Admit it. They need hits and so the attempt to trigger the worst inside of people. WE the consumer keep this industry going and we can like or not like whatever the hell we want. We are not the problem. Your gaming media, which survives off of contentious bickering and false one-upmanship drama pieces is the war.
Point the finger at yourself and write and article that address the real issue. Gaming websites spend more time attacking gamers than anyone else.
I couldn't agree more. Articles whining about no crossplay in Fortnite was a result of so many websites wanting to put up all the Fortnite news they could in order to get clicks. The result was making a twenty lb gorilla out of a ten lb monkey. And then you have the people that can afford a $300 console, but want to complain about $1.66 a month to play Nintendo games online.
I'll happily applaud any and all crossplay that Sony implements as well; my point was never to accuse them of exclusively being the anti-crossplay company, just to use a recent example that most people are probably familiar with. I'll also praise Sony for other things that they've done right in the past: Ignoring the DRM push that Microsoft was behind and putting out the PS4 at a reasonable price when it launched is worthy of applause. Including every single good/bad thing that all of the three manufacturers have done would have made the article absurdly long, and I felt like it was already pushing the word limit as is.
As for the rest, if you want to believe all of us writers are involved in some kind of internet wide conspiracy theory to feed you lies, then, well, I suppose there's not a lot I can do to stop you. I will say, though, that none of this was meant to "attack" the gaming community. I consider myself a gamer first and foremost before a journalist, so any attack I'd levy would be one against myself. My concern is simply that, many times, people tend to let their loyalties keep them from honestly assessing what their favorite companies do. That's all.
I like this comment. I will provide no explanation as to why, but rest assured that it isn't what CosmicSex wants me to like about it.
However, don’t feel compelled to buy a company’s console simply because they’ve made titles in the past that you enjoyed.
Wait what that's litteraly the only reason for me to buy a console instead of a PC to put under my tv. This is for many gamers the reason to prefer Nintendo over other consoles/pc because you know you get those sweet 1st party titles from Nintendo. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I can say that all of the big 3 are not nearly as consumer friendly as the console makers used to be. One reason that the NES is my favorite console is that this is when Nintendo (or any console maker) was the most consumer friendly. Consoles always came with two controllers, 1 or more games, and sometimes even a light gun. Nintendo was also offering Nintendo Power and a helpline, not to make money, but because these improved the customer's experience. (Nintendo Power started to suck after the internet came around, but it was great before then.)
Likewise the PS2 is probably my favorite Sony console. It was backwards compatible with the PS1 and also played both DVDs and CDs, and it was very reasonably priced in spite of all of this. Price drops also came a lot faster in the PS2 days even though the PS2 was by far the market leader. Sony was just so consumer friendly in those days.
All of the big 3 can get away with doing less now, because none of them are particularly consumer friendly. Really if one of them seriously steps up their game, then they have a good chance of taking the whole gaming market like the NES and PS2 did.
Ok so all three had done something to get angry against. So am I supposed to buy the N-Gage instead?
