Please excuse my incredibly scorching hot take, but it must be said. Fanboys are awful, especially when it comes to gaming systems. They are quick to defend their system of choice while bashing the other ones to no end, simply for being the system they do not own.
I’m not going to rank them in terms of awfulness, as they all suck, but instead, I will go into why exactly each system fanboy is so bad. Let’s get started.
Xbox Fanboys
I’ll be honest. Xbox fanboys haven’t had much reason to gloat this generation. The Xbox One had its infamous reveal in 2013, followed by slow sales and a well-documented lack of exclusive. With all of these problems, its no wonder Xbox is firmly in last place for this generation.
However, Xbox has done some great things for its brand, starting with adding backward compatibility in 2015. They also introduced Xbox Game Pass, which is absolutely worth the subscription price, and in 2017, they released the Xbox One X, which at the time of writing this, is the most powerful console on the market. Phil Spencer has been doing some good things over at Xbox, and he’s not done, what with the Xbox Series X on the horizon and a stable of newly-acquired first party studios to create games for Xbox.
What makes Xbox fanboys bad is that they are quick to point out all the good Xbox has done in recent years. They like to gloat about how great Game Pass is and how powerful the Xbox One X is. Bragging about how powerful your console is just makes you look like a PC fanboy, but we’ll get to them later.
PlayStation Fanboys
Sony absolutely crushed it this generation, and who could argue? With all the great exclusives the PS4 has, the much improved DualShock 4 controller, and the gargantuan sales numbers to back it up, the PS4 is the clear winner of this generation.
That being said, PlayStation fanboys often consider every PS4 exclusive a masterpiece, no matter how flawed a game may be. Take Days Gone for example. If you check its Metacritic page, its critic score is a 71, which by Metacritic’s standards is “mixed or average”. Its user score, however, sits at an 8.1/10, which is pretty good for a user score since most users on Metacritic give a game a 0/10 or a 10/10 anyway. I guarantee that if Days Gone was an Xbox exclusive or multiplatform, its user score would have been MUCH lower.
PlayStation fanboys also like to discuss sales numbers since the PS4 has sold so well. Go to any PS4 forum and there is a good chance you will see a discussion regarding the latest sales numbers. I’m not here for a shareholder’s meeting, I’m here to discuss video games.
Nintendo Fanboys
Nintendo rebounded nicely after the disaster that was the Wii U. After releasing the Switch in 2017, it as likely already overtaken the Xbox One in total sales, and has its own library of quality exclusives. Not to mention the fact that it can be played in both handheld and on a TV. That’s pretty amazing itself.
All I can really say about Nintendo fanboys is that they regularly demand every game under the sun be ported to the Switch, regardless of how feasible it may or may not be. That, and they tend to act as if Nintendo can do no wrong, but that isn’t unusual behavior for fanboys of any kind.
Maybe its because I don’t own a Switch and don’t pay much attention to Nintendo-related news, but I don’t have much else to say about Nintendo fanboys. Well, that gives me more time to discuss the next group…
PC Fanboys
If you own a gaming PC, chances are you are a gaming enthusiast. After all, a properly specced PC with the latest and greatest in hardware outclasses any other system on the market.
That being said, PC fanboys are well known for mentioning that to others in practically any discussion related to gaming. You could be watching a YouTube video about a console game and there’s a good chance some PC snob will leave a comment saying how much better PC is.
We also can’t forget that PC fanboys like to call themselves the “Master Race”, as if playing your games on a PC makes you a superior being to those who play games on console. I realize that the term originated as a jab at PC fanboys, but now those same fanboys use the term unironically, so that ship sailed a long time ago.
Here are some other reasons PC fanboys like to bring up as why PC is the “objectively superior” platform:
- Best graphics: Only if you have high-quality hardware compared to consoles, which, based on this Steam Hardware & Software Survey, most PC gamers do not, or at least not by much. Where are all those GeForce RTXs at?
- The most exclusives: Since Steam has next to no curation, the vast majority of those exclusives are garbage indie games and student projects, can’t say console gamers are missing out on much there.
- Don’t have to pay for online multiplayer: Can’t argue with that. Paying for online sucks.
- Keyboard and Mouse: I consider that based on the user’s preference if it is better than a controller. It is all dependent on what you are most comfortable with using.
- It’s cheaper to build a PC: Sure, if you remove the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and operating system from your purchase, because everyone has those lying around the house. Then you might have a PC that slightly outperforms a console, congrats. Though there is an argument to be made if you are talking about being cheaper in the long-term.
Much like Nintendo fanboys, PC fanboys often demand, nay, feel entitled to having each game ported to PC. Go into the comment section of any console-exclusive game and you will find countless people screaming for the game to be released for PC.
I don’t know what gave PC fanboys such a superiority complex, but if I had to pick a group of fanboys to be the worst of them all, it would be the PC fanboys.
I own a PS4 Pro, an Xbox One X, and a gaming laptop, so I don’t really have a horse in this race. I know that each system is great in its own way. I just like video games.
Plus, with cross-play becoming more and more commonplace in gaming, there is even less reason to be a fanboy of your system of choice.
This whole fanboy war is just silly. To me, it boils down to gamers justifying their purchase by arguing with each other over why the plastic box they bought is better than the other ones. When you think about it that way, I think you will agree with me.
The Analog Sticks 